My Work
Designing a Portable Study Space
Study Buddy
As a part of my Design Methodology class, I was asked to work with a team to design a portable study space that would satisfy the users' needs. On this page, I will explain the design process and my project outcomes.
Phase I
In the first phase of the design process, we identified the opportunities, the key stakeholders, the SET (social, economic, and technological) factors, the POGs (product opportunity gaps), and came up with an opportunity that we wanted to work with. This phase consisted of a lot of identifying and researching. As a group, every member was responsible for generating 5 POGs according to the user researches we have done, where we ended up with a total of 25 POG statements. To decide on the final POG statement we did 2 different weighted matrices; one to reduce our choices to 6 and one to determine our final POG statement. Our final statement was: How might we develop a comfortable portable workspace for children ages 5-10 as a flat surface accessory that can be used for homework, reading, and arts & crafts that promotes focus?
Phase II
In Phase II of our design process, we dived deeper into our research; we analyzed and gathered data about the competitors of our product and the stakeholders. We did 1 on 1 interviews, research studies, and competitor researches to help us better understand the context that we were working on and the currents solutions to our problem. The interviews with parents, guardians, teachers, and kids helped us determine our users' needs. We analyzed competitors across different price ranges ($20-$70) and categorized them into two: Inexpensive competitors (Mini tables, Lap Desks) and moderately expensive competitors (Portable Desk organizer, 2-in-1 Art Easel + Workspace). Moreover, the VOAs helped us define the characteristics of our competitors and define the specific goals we aimed our product to have. We aimed our product to be portable, customizable, organized, easy to clean, affordable, comfortable, durable, and aesthetically pleasing.
Phase III
In Phase III, we generated concepts and selected our final concept which was a foldable, swappable, portable study space. To generate concepts each member of our group generated 10 concepts; we ended up with 50 ideas consisting of sketches, material plans, and product details. To help us chose our final concept we used the brainwriting technique 2 team members presented 2 unique ideas each, then the team discussed and generated 6 additional ideas. We repeated this process unit every member presented their ideas. With the reduced number of concepts, we did a weighted matrix based on our VOAs.
Phase IV
In Phase 4, we did our prototyping and brought our ideas to life. We did our design road map and created a Behance page. The road map consisted of the key quotes we got from our interviews, the core needs we identified, and design insights we came up with according to these researches. Finally, we created a prototype, an animation that shows how the product will work and be used, and the product in a real-life environment.
Reflection
This project has introduced me to the world of design; design methodology and design research in specific. I learned how to approach design problems by doing small group presentations and our main group project. It was a great experience to work with a team and a common goal of improving our knowledge of design methods and the creation of a remarkable project. At every phase, we learned a different method that helped us advance our design research and our product. Every group member had added their own contributions and perspectives to the project with their unique backgrounds (academic majors, interests, etc.) and skills they had. By working with my team I learned new prototyping applications and design methods that will be helpful for my future classes and the business world. It has been a good practice to conduct 1 on 1 interviews to identify the users' needs, weighted matrices to help us select the concepts and POGs that we wanted to work with. During classes, I kept a design journal which consisted of the new concepts that I learned, sketches for our group project, and general notes that helped me keep track of different phases that we were learning about. I am fascinated by the final project we came up with, which started from a simple opportunity that we defined. As we learned every problem has a solution and every opportunity has a product.
The techniques that I learned will be practical in the future business world that I want to work in. Now I better understood the significance of design methods for the human-centered design processes. As I also learned in my Cognitive Science class it is key to do research and always interpret with the users, the tasks, and the environment that they work in to create a strong product. Users should be involved through design and development; until I took this course I haven't realized the significance of the users and user research. During the design process, I learned to iteratively think about the users and the users' experience that we wanted to create in every step.