Roll-up Groomer

This project started when I began to notice how many students at Purdue had service dogs. After some interviews, I learned that many people had trouble carrying the necessary grooming supplies for their service dogs. Every round of sketches was followed by an interview with a user so I could get feedback and refine the design. Through this process, I learned that not only were the supplies for the dog difficult to keep together, they were also difficult to access for people in wheelchairs (as they kept the supplies on the back of their chair), and that some users had difficulty holding the standard supplies. Instead of re-designing every grooming supply to fit into every hand, I chose to design a padded glove that could help a user hold existing tools. Not only did the padding extend the palm of the user, the rubber material created useful friction so the tools were less likely to be dropped. As an extra precaution, a velcro strap was added so users could secure tools to their hands. I added this glove to a roll-up design that was attached to carabiners. This allowed the user to strap the pack anywhere, such as a dogs’ vests, a backpack, or the back of a wheelchair.