Video of the prototype demostrated at the tradeshow (by @nTangledMichael).
As part of the New Product Development course my team designed a foldable furniture product concept towards addressing problems faced by young, mobile people living in dense neighborhoods. The process involved extensive prototyping and storyboarding, while continuously interacting with users to guide our directions. My roles in were primarily related to user research and towards creating experience narratives.
To better understand the needs of users living in dense areas and to explore practices, I engaged in an qualitative interviews with students living in dorms, people living in single room apartments and people camping during concerts amongst others. Including extreme users helped us in learning about our assumptions, and to look for new opportunities for products.
We iteratively went through various experience prototypes on paper, and created experience narratives to compare various directions before we selected the one to pursue. Prototypes were built at various scales, and using a variety of materials while engaging with users and other stakeholders.
Michael Manoochehri
Andrea Riccardi
Andrew Hofmann