Printed Urban Furniture Charette
Bringing Sustainability to the Home
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Project Description
Drawing from insights found using ethnographic style research, the assignment was to design and develop a sustainable housewares item that was to be produced and sold on campus. The design insight that led to our solution was to create a housewares product that encourages protection. Our product Latch is a portable door lock made from upcycled bike parts that locks doors that open inwards.
Project Information
Project Type: Academic
Project Duration: Full Semester
Instructor: Will Nickley
Date: Autumn 2021
Teammates: Annie Waugh & Sam Gaerke
Design Process
Research
Ideation
Moving on from the insights, we did a fast sketching exercise, where we sketched 60 quick ideas within one class period to collect ideas that sparked our interest to move forward with.
After many more iterations, we went forward with the iterations that focused on using traffic materials & creating safety in the home. These iterations made way for the concept of a portable door lock.
Prototyping
Because sustainability was an important part of the design constraints, we decided to limit our materials to used bike parts. Our next task was rapid prototyping using repurposed bike materials. The concept dealt with two main parts, a storage pouch made out of inner tubes, and two metal pieces that latched into each other in order to lock a door that opens inward.
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Scaled prototypes to learn ergonomics
Testing our prototype
Final Design Solution & Production
Design Solution
Using the design constraints, research on user observations & human factors, market analysis, and even more, our final design solution was a hand-sewn innertube pouch with laser-etched instructions on the back and a lock made from pieces of the front derailleur of a bicycle. The materials were sourced from a local bike shop that would've otherwise thrown away these parts. We aimed to create an aesthetically pleasing but functional portable door lock that used sustainability as a way to enhance the design rather than constrain it.
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Production & Sale
For the 3rd Annual Winter Market, we produced and sold all 10 copies of our product. We sold each for $25 and the proceeds went to IDSA (Industrial Design Society of America) and to the next class of Industrial Design majors for materials cost. For the display, we used an old bicycle handlebar to display the bags as well as a mini-door so that we could demonstrate the lock on location. On the inside of the mini-door, there was a information sheet that showed who potential users might be, as well as the story behind our lock.
