Second Year | Semester 2

DMEM Steps

I found a way to get young people moving by harnessing energy from their steps to power a step counter.

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When our lecturer told us to “have fun with the project,” I decided to take a simple idea and make it deliberately silly. With only 58% of Scottish children reporting walking for at least 5 minutes every day, we wanted to make getting active more fun. I created a step counter powered by your own steps, then pushed the concept further by turning it into a Crocs Jibbitz. It can also be used on normal shoes… but that’s boring!

  • Sketch

    Explored the logistics of capturing wasted energy, testing different mechanical elements and mechanisms before developing the final concept.

  • Prototype

    3D printing and Tinkercad were used to prototype and test the effectiveness of different designs.

  • Testing

    Cheaper components were tested first to refine the design before selecting more sustainable, long-lasting alternatives, supported by market research.

  • Final

    The final product successfully fitted and transferred between different Crocs, with a simple interchangeable design and no issues during testing.

Final Design

The final design used durable, reliable components to convert the energy from each step into a useful output. Testing confirmed that the mechanism worked consistently and could be easily transferred between Crocs, making the product simple, reliable and practical.