The iPad: Trade Offs

This entry is about a change I made to the design of my iPad stand and the reason for that change. As the project evolved so too did the set of design requirements. Change is all too often typical in most projects. The only two requirements at first were based on position and footprint. I wanted the stand to position the iPad at a certain height and angle above a workbench close to where I am doing something, and because of that placement on a workbench, it must share space with whatever I am working on. So in that case I wanted the footprint to be relatively small.

I got far enough along in the project to assemble the post assembly to the table. I like what I saw but I began to realize that the design might have a center of gravity issue because the table angles forward placing more weight on the front two legs.

I am not under pressure to get this project done, so I am starting over with a design change that corrects the potential balance issue. The post and two back legs will stay the same, but the front legs are now splayed out from the post at a greater angle. This insures that the design maintains a better center of gravity, and the stand will be less prone to tipping forward.

The stand will now take up more workbench space but is better balanced. There is a trade off in accomplishing that, and it is not unusual for design requirements to conflict with one another. I think this trade off is minimized by increasing the angle on the front legs while keeping that of the back legs the same. This results in a design that still meets position and space requirements while better protecting the iPad it holds.