The development of online media to support design prototyping with a laser cutter

Abstract

Online education has been growing and there has also been work done to support residential design education with online media. This thesis focuses on developing online media providing instruction on how to use the laser cutter, a tool that can be used in early-stage prototyping as part of the design process. User research was conducted to understand what information would be helpful for design students while using the laser cutter. The development of the site, targeting MIT Mechanical Engineering design students who are beginner level laser cutter users, is discussed. The resource explains the basics of using the laser cutter and provides additional content and resources that may be useful to design students. The webpage is meant to serve as a reminder of how to operate the tool following training by an authorized laser cutter user. The resource was tested with 7 design students with zero to limited experience using a laser cutter. The tests were successful and showed that the webpage was helpful in providing students with the information needed to create a simple laser cut part without overwhelming them with too many details. A list of revisions and additional media that should be added was developed. Future work should include the development of a webpage targeting intermediate to advanced laser cutter users.