jenny2006 wrote:
Hello,

My name is jenny and I am currently in my last year at university
studying product design. For my final project I am trying to produce a
product that makes the gardening experience ultimately more enjoyable.

From research, I have noticed that preparation before, during and
after a gardening activity can take various length of time (By
preparation I mean finding the right tools, getting changed in to old
cloths, making cups of tea, having to take of dirty cloths before
entering the house e.t.c) which results in time being wasted and the
experience being frustrating.

I doubt if the person who told you that was a gardener. It sounds more
like the attitude of somebody who is forced reluctantly to look after a
garden just because it's there -- for some, it's just another kind of
housework. A leisure footballer doesn't find it frustrating to have to
change in and out of his kit: it's part of the experience.

Considering the above I have a few rough ideas on a product that keeps
all your tools and equipment together in one place and can be
transported in to the garden with ease so as everything is there when
you need it, as well allowing easy storage and organisation of tools
[...]

Do you know how much a keen gardener's set of tools actually _weighs_? I
have fewer than many people, and I couldn't shift all mine in one go
with the best wheelbarrow in the world. And, of course, I would never
want to anyway: you pick up the few tools you'll need for the job you're
about to do. It's not an inconvenience to pick up a hoe, or at most a
spade, a fork, and a rake. Some tools you may not need every year (pick,
mattock, sledgehammer, pruning saw, bow saw, etc), so it would be daft
to wheel them round the garden every time you wanted to prune a rose.

If you _do_ want to design a lightweight mobile tool cabinet for people
with only a few tools, note that more than one wheel is bad in a garden,
and that rakes and Dutch hoes are long. Consider also attractiveness to
thieves. At the prototype stages there is no substitute for working
several gardens for a year or two to get to appreciate what the problems
are and aren't: questionnaires just don't cut it, as you can't know what
questions to ask till you already have some idea what the answers will
be.

Sorry if I sound like a wet blanket.

--
Mike.