Ergonomic Umbrella Grip

Context and Solution

Having lived on the west coast my entire life, Pittsburgh weather was a drastic change from what I was used to. In particular, I found the rain unpredictable and varying from day to day. Sometimes it was in my face; sometimes it was pouring straight down. The umbrella I had purchased from CVS was uncomfortable to hold no matter what direction you were pointing it. This inspired me to make a handle that was not only ergonomic no matter which angle you were holding it at, but also gives you a stronger grip overall.

Below is the model of the handle I created. It has an elongated, rounded, and slightly forward-curved handle that matches the natural curvature of your hand. There are scores to make it more comfortable to grip, both on the front face and also where the thumb goes.

Ideation and Sketching

Initially, I started by examining the current offering of umbrella handles and it generally broke down into two types: small/cylindrical or u-shaped.

To get a sense of what an ideal grip might look like, I also began to look at handles and shapes in analogous domains: cooking utensils, power tools, and household cleaning items. It gave me a sense of the shapes of curves I wanted to include, as well as any add-on features to improve the function of the grip. 

Using these pieces of inspiration, I took a gradual approach, starting with a 2D sketch of the silhouette that I wanted to achieve, moving to an orthographic sketch, and then finally doing a final product spec in marker. This exercise helped me get a feel for proportion and how elegant I wanted the final grip to be.

Prototyping

The trickiest part was getting up to speed on Fusion 360 and figuring out how to translate what I had drawn on paper into a 3D model.

Then I imported my model into Slicer, where I was able to cut out the components needed to make my clay model structurally sound.  The first effort was a failure, but the second one came out clean. It felt like quite an achievement!

With the foundation in place, I started to pack clay onto the model, finding industrial clay to be stiffer and  trickier to work with than I thought. It took a bit of packing and repacking to get the curve that I wanted on the handle.

The last and perhaps hardest part was scoring the handle, both for ergonomics and aesthetics. The two were very difficult to balance and I found myself smoothing out the scores and trying again with different types of tools. Ultimately, a comb I found in my medicine cabinet made the best uniform spacing and then I used the pick to draw the grooves. Lastly, I scraped away some of the excess clay to get a smooth finish on the grooves.

Reflection and Future Ideation

I found it harder in this project to get what was in my mind out into a physical object compared to the Cup of Tea project. I think the reason was because there was an extra layer of complexity added in that you needed to make the model in Fusion360 first, which will naturally distort what you had on paper (since I am new to the tool) and then, on top of that, you had to get clay packed onto the model as best to spec as possible.

That said, I appreciated that the clay allowed us to play with shapes and curves that we could not do in acrylic. Though it was rather fragile, I found the clay to be a very accommodating medium, where you could constantly do and redo the forms.

Next steps, I will likely take to prepare it for casting is to further smooth the handle down and work on making the scored grips more defined.

Appendix: Process Poster