Ideation and Exploration

Brainstorming:
     Once I determined my design goals, I began brainstorming possible approaches to solving the problem. At this stage, my goal was to come up with as many different ideas as quickly as possible, without limiting myself with practical constraints.
     I considered various overall designs and then focused on more specific issues, such as leg configurations, foot shape, foot material, and fastening methods.

A quick sketch showing my first idea to Britt	A later elaboration of this idea	Log book - fasteners brainstorm
Physical exploration:      Exploring ideas by constructing physical prototypes is more time consuming than visualizing and sketching, but a lot can be learned from this process, so the time investment is often worthwhile. I created a series of eight wooden prototypes to find the ideal geometry of the foot and then I tested their ability to grip real rock ledges.
Log book - more fasteners	Log book - foot shapes	Preliminary wooden prototypes