Slightly off topic to CRM. Anyway, here goes.

Achieving a good design is essential for all physical devices too. Apart from visual aesthetics, it is the usable design which makes a product successful. Recently I bought a plastic toilet soap trayr and replaced the old broken one in my bathroom. The soap tray hangs with the help of two nails on walls. By design the holder has space for two soaps.

After fixing that, I placed a soap on one side and the holder lifted on the opposite side. Oops. I pressed the tray firmly again and it seemed to fit in place. Then this morning, when I tried to pick the soap, it lifted again on the other side.I pressed it again. After a few minutes when I picked the soap, one end lifted off completely and the whole tray started hanging.


(a quick diagram to explain the problem and solution.)



On the careful observation, I noted the problem is with the design of nail travel gap. The height was just barely enough (1 cm appx) for a nail to slide on. So when weight was placed on one side, the other side lifts up slightly, and during quick handling the tray lifts up completely and dislocates.

I can think about two quick solutions to this design problem.

1. Increasing the height of nail gap. So that even the tray lifts up a little, it does not slip out completely.
2. Altering the design, so that instead of sliding the tray over two nails, it can be screwed to the wall using a screw with washer design.

So what do you think? any innovative ideas?