The Inevitability of Mistakes
Ever felt that frustration when a product just won't assemble correctly? That's what I call a design flaw, and it's a frustrating reality of manufacturing. As designers, we can't just create perfect models on a screen; we have to design with the understanding that human error is unavoidable.
When I was assembling speaker boxes and other parts at Crafter’s Lab, I experienced this firsthand. We'd be assembling footers, holes for speaker stands, and handles for boxes, and sometimes, due to tiny mistakes, a part would be slightly misaligned. This isn't just an aesthetic issue; it can cause major problems down the line. It's a mistake you have to go back and fix, which, as I’ve learned, is highly inefficient.
This is why, as a designer, the goal is to create a system that makes it as difficult as possible for human error to occur.
Designing with Jigs and "Stupid Sticks"
My time in the workshop taught me a lot about this. For one speaker box design, I made the clips for the lid serve a dual purpose: they were a working part but also a jig to help judge the distance at which they should be assembled. By designing the part to be a guide, I removed as much human error as possible from the equation.
Conversely, I also learned from my own design mistakes. For my desktop speaker, I tried to make the base out of three separate parts, which made assembly incredibly difficult. The parts were constantly sliding out of place. In hindsight, I could have just made the entire base out of one single part. This would have dramatically reduced the number of potential mistakes and simplified the assembly.
These small fixes in the workshop showed me that the true solution wasn't in the assembly process itself, but in the design that came before it. A good designer anticipates problems before they happen.
Another project, assembling a horn plate inside a speaker, emphasized this even more. We could never get it perfectly right, even with a jig, because the jig could be bumped or misaligned. It was there as a guide, but with a warning of "errr." Our solution was a "stupid stick"—a pre-measured length of wood we used to get the exact distance. This, combined with the jig, was a powerful way to eliminate guesswork.
Lessons from Other Projects
This principle also applies to other projects, like the concrete molds I worked on. The walls of the mold and the inner tubes were all manually assembled and aligned. Because of this, many of the casts were rejected due to a misaligned top or a tilted cast. To me, this was a clear sign of inefficiency. A better design would have used fewer parts to reduce the opportunities for human error.
It also extends to veneering. The seams where veneers meet are notoriously difficult to get right, which is why a lot of care is taken when laying them down. This step, and the potential for error, can be easily skipped entirely in the design phase. You can simply design the surface to be small enough to be covered by a single sheet of veneer, or use an obvious break in the surface or material to skip the problem entirely. This shows that designers can and should think ahead to solve assembly problems before they even start.
These projects all taught me the same fundamental lesson: the best solutions come from understanding and designing for the limitations of tools and humans.
The Designer's Responsibility
A designer's job isn't just about creating a beautiful product; it's about creating a product that can be reliably and efficiently made. By designing with human error in mind—by reducing the number of parts, creating self-aligning components, or providing simple tools like a "stupid stick"—we not only make the assembly process easier but also ensure a higher quality final product.
It's a small change in mindset that can make a huge difference in the outcome. What's a design flaw you've encountered that made you think, "They could have made this so much simpler"?
