Maker Library — designing for the workshop

Working local tool.

I wanted a useful way to browse a collection of designs for printing, cutting, and making. The first approach assumed too much about the computer that would be using it.

That became the turning point. Workshop computers were part of the problem, and the collection needed to travel. I changed the direction toward a portable tool that could browse the files where they already lived.

Maker Library lets me inspect and find designs without reorganizing the collection as a side effect. The success was making the tool fit the actual setting.

It is a small project with a useful consulting lesson: understanding where someone works can change the right solution more than another feature does.