Phone dock that has speakers and can charge? I started off my research on the speakers and phone docks that has already existed out there. What interest me was the ones that are more rounded and circular.

Based on my experience being part of a performance, I have always seen speaker being used during training. And I realized 3 things.

• Plug/socket needed
• Phones are connected to the speaker with a cable and placed on the floor
• Messy wires

 

Therefore, I have an idea of a portable speaker that is also a phone dock and can charge your phone. It can also work on its own without a power socket. You just need to charge it fully before using it.

 

Started off with some sketching of items around me, I learned the way to sketch fast and highlight the important area. I then proceed with sketching of my ideas for the phone dock speaker. Below are a few ideas I attempted.

I wanted to go with the idea of round and inflatable dock as I believe it represents more of the idea of music and sound. The idea of flexibility.

I then finalized the design I have chosen to work on. A pill/bullet shaped expandable speaker, phone dock. It is able to compress, to save up space in your bags and the function of expanding also improves the sound projection giving it a louder and more impactful sound system. I then note down the size and measurement I wanted it to be.

Below is the different perspective sketch of the product I’ve sketched out to further visualized my idea.

I started out with cutting a cylinder and shaping it out using a template so it is easier to cut off the excess foam.

Same goes for the 2 sides of the speaker. Where it was first a basic cylinder, I then slow trim off the edges and sand it using a self-made shape sanding tool to make it into a semi-circle.

As for the expandable part. I wanted to show how this thing would actually work, there I try to come out with an idea using paper, as it is a soft material. I searched for a tutorial on how to create paper springs or lantern that can expand and close. And I found this particular ‘Lizard tail’ Origami. Which depicts the exact motion of expanding, the way I want it to be.

 

And finally, the end product:) After getting all the components ready, I attached them to finally have the final product, an expandable phone dock speaker!

One of the things I could improve on is to make the prototype more high fidelity and continue working on it till its almost a 100% product form.

Thank you!