First, I brainstormed different project ideas and after considering around 50 different ideas, I settled on a high heel shoe that grows taller and shortens. As someone who has experienced foot pain from wearing high heels for too long, this idea excited me. I then had to figure out how to make the heel work.I decided to attach a gear to a servo motor and use either a pole with a spiral or a block with teeth to lengthen/shorten the heel. I had to consider weight support, hiding the gear and motor, and where the heel would go when it's supposed to be flat.(I also played with the idea of somehow using some sort of collapsible heel like one of those camping cups- but this brought up questions- how could I get it to stay locked once it extended to be able hold weight, how could I 3D print it, etc, I ultimately found this too complicated, but clearly the best solution for hiding the heel and if I were to go back to this project with the goal of making it work in real life I would revisit this idea.) I attempted to create a prototype but ran into difficulties, particularly with attaching the pole to the heel while still allowing it to rotate and move up and down. Idea Revision: After realizing that the original idea was not feasible, I revised my approach and eventually went back to the drawing board and reverted to the original idea of using a block with teeth rather than a spiral. I identified drawer slides as a potential solution to attach the heel to the shoe while still allowing it to grow and shrink. I conducted extensive research on different types of drawer slides, including ball-bearing slides, locking slides, and roller slides. I settled on wooden drawer slides.

The project resulted in a functional prototype of a lengthening heel shoe that could grow taller and shorter based on the user's preference.