IH01-SiuPanLam

From IEOR 170 Spring 2007

Bad Design: Oral-B CrossAction Power Toothbrush

• Brief background on toothbrush

Toothbrush is a multi-purpose cleaning utensil. Its main purpose is for brushing teeth. However, it is also common for people to use a toothbrush for cleaning small and hard-to-reach areas around their houses.

Oral-B CrossAction power toothbrush features crisscross bristles and a rotating brush head that allow deep cleaning of the teeth to loosen and lift out plaque. The whole set of the power toothbrush includes the toothbrush itself, a power charger, and a brush head opener. What qualifies this power toothbrush as a bad design is the power charging system – it has no feedback system on the toothbrush or the power charger to indicate whether the toothbrush is charging or not as well as whether the toothbrush is fully charged or not. I have been using the toothbrush for two months and the brush head has stopped spinning, most likely due to insufficient power (despite the fact that the toothbrush is placed on the power charger 24/7). In addition, the user manual did not specify any directions for troubleshooting this problem. One probable reason for why the design lacked a feedback system is space conservation. The power charger is very compact in size comparing to most other toothbrush charger. Another likely reason is to conserve electricity, as the feedback system would possibly require additional output of electricity.

• Improvement suggestions

It is crucial for the users to know whether the design product is doing what it is meant to do. Therefore, I feel that it is imperative for the designer to incorporate a feedback system into the power charger. In my sketch above, I have added two small windows onto the original design of the power charger. Red light indicates that the toothbrush is being charged, while a green light indicates that the toothbrush is fully charged. Also notice how the additions do not take up much extra space on the power charger, thus preserving its compact size.

Good Design: Colgate 360° Toothbrush

Colgate 360° toothbrush is more than a toothbrush! The back of the brush head has a tongue cleaner that can be used to remove odor-causing bacteria. This is a very good design of a toothbrush because an additional feature is incorporated without dramatic changes in both the appearance and size of a traditional manual toothbrush. In other words, the toothbrush remains lightweight – one advantage of manual toothbrush over power toothbrush. The addition of the tongue cleaner increases the utility of the toothbrush as users can now brush their teeth and clean their tongue with their toothbrush without using a separate tongue cleaner. This definitely makes it more convenient for the users to clean their mouth. Did I mention that the brushes and tongue cleaners come in different colors as well?