evaluation
Summary
A vital part of design success is the market research and prototyping of the idea before the idea becomes too developed and defined in the designer’s mind. For this assignment, I chose to do my market survey on Google Forms, so I was not physically present for the questions asked. I got a wider variety of responses because of this, but I also had people who did not quite grasp the message I was trying to convey with my different product ideas. While this gave me a good idea of how my target market felt about my ideas, it was also very beneficial to research what is already on the market in the state of the art of my three ideas. I spent hours searching patents and google searching to find products that are similar to my ideas that consumers would likely buy in substitution to my ideas. After gathering the facts and obtaining some significant knowledge about the products on the market, I created a Pugh chart to compare the three ideas that I had and to narrow them down to one idea to pursue further.
Finally, after deciding on the final idea, I created a sketch model of the idea to bring the idea to life, so to speak. Haggman, in his article “The Influence of Timing in Exploratory Prototyping and Other Activities in Design Projects,” describes that “decisions made in the early stages of the design process have great bearing on the outcome of the design in terms of design success, cost of manufacturing, and time to market.” Through his studies, he found that the “correlation between prototyping early (building rough exploratory prototypes) and design success was highly statistically significant.”Because this is still relatively early in the design process, as I had only recently narrowed down my ideas to one, the materials used were cheap, and the prototype was “by nature rough throw-away.” Finally, I asked a user who had been involved in the process from the very beginning of the ideation process to critique my sketch model. It is important to “go back and talk to the end-user” after a choice is made for the final concept because it has been found that doing this is correlated with a better design outcome.
Market Survey
I narrowed down my ten ideas from the previous assignment to the following three ideas:
Idea 1 was chosen because it got a couple votes in the feasible, interesting category. It turns the idea that people store things like their phone and keys in their water bottle pocket into an actual product that can be detached and reattached.
Idea 2 was chosen because it had a couple votes in the feasible, interesting category, as well as the creative category.
Idea 3 was chosen because it had a couple votes in the feasible, interesting category.
A market survey was created and distributed to college students via social media and word of mouth. Since I wanted to collect the numbers as soon as possible, I only left the Google Forms from late one night until early the next morning. I was unable to gather as many people as I would like because of how short I left the Google Forms open for , but I was still able to get 25 responses during that window.
The questions asked were kept in the same order each time, and the order of which the people surveyed the product ideas were also kept the same each time, which could have created bias. The questions asked in the survey were:
· What do you think of this idea?
· Could you see yourself buying this? Why or why not?
· What could you see this being used for?
· How much money would you be willing to pay for this?
· What are some ways this idea could be improved or expanded upon?
From the responses, the first idea seems to be the best idea out of the three ideas. The other two ideas were difficult for me to convey in drawing, and I was not there to explain to them the ideas in person.
To summarize the responses for the first idea, people generally really liked it. Some ideas for how the bag would be used included snacks/lunch, school supplies, small essentials like keys, headphones, and a charger, travel and hiking, makeup, and cash. They liked the idea because it gives them the opportunity to carry items outside of the bag to prevent them from being “crushed by books” and to have extra space. People mentioned the fabric would need to be waterproof, especially because of Minnesota weather. Another issue that most people brought up was the security and safety of the bag, to make sure it can not be easily stolen or lost. A few of the people who said they would not buy it even cited their concern for safety and security as their reasons. People suggested to have it attached in multiple places to secure it to the bag, to use a sturdier fabric, or to fasten it to the bag with a secure clip.
To summarize the responses for the second idea, people generally had qualms about its complexity and their lack of use for it. Several people mentioned that because they do not travel or hike that much, so the bag is unpractical for their lifestyle. Some people did not like the idea of labeling, while others loved it. One person mentioned color coding as a suggestion. Someone actually mentioned that the organized bag looks very easy to pack and helpful to not forget things. This was encouraging because those were the two main things that these ideas sought to fix about packing. The the maximum and average willingness to pay for this bag were a lot more money than the other two ideas, but still the willingness to pay was a lot less money than other products currently on the market.
To summarize the responses for the third idea, people in general did not like it as much as the other two ideas. People complained about the awkward container shapes. People could not think of time in which they would want or need to use these and considered the containers to be excessive and confusing. They questioned the container’s ability to stand up straight in various bags and claimed that it would be too bulky and take up too much space. Some people offered that the containers should be attached to the bag, or even built into the bags.
Benchmarking 2x2s
Idea 1: External Bag Storage Organizers State of the Art
Idea 2: Modular Backpacks State of the Art
Idea 3: Internal Vertical Bag Storage State of the Art
Patent Search
Idea 1
It was difficult to find a patent for the first idea because of how general the idea was. The closest thing I could find was a convertible bag that is meant to strap on the outside of a baby stroller. The pack can be hand carried, shoulder carried, or back carried by an attending adult, or suspended for carry from an infant portable carrier.
Idea 2
This modular backpack has a harness, a container, and/or a cover, in which the container can detach from the harness and other containers can be attached. Removable compartments may attach and detach from various locations on the backpack to customize the backpack.
Idea 3
As the patent states, “The modular organizer may be arranged within a carrying bag and molded to fit within an open compartment of the carrying bag. The modular organizer system can easily transfer the pouches with all of the contents from one carrying bag to another carrying bag.” While this organizer has primarily vertical organizers similar to my idea, the organizer that is patented is made of soft material is open at the top.
Feasibility Concerns
My greatest concern with the first idea is how to make it secure, safe, and weather resistant. Because valuables are expected to be trusted in this bag, I want to ensure they will not get stolen, fall off, or ruined in the rain or cold.
My greatest concern with the second idea is how to make it at a quality that is much cheaper than the current products on the market. All of the modular bags on the market come with a hefty price tag. Although the original theme for this bag was travel, I now realize that people still want to be able to use their travel bags as everyday bags, otherwise it will not be worth it to those who do not travel as much or want to condense the items they own.
My greatest concern with the third idea is how to make it stand up on its own, how to make it less complicated for the user, and how to make it take up less space and actually help more than it would hurt in terms of organization.
Pugh Chart
I decided to make the vertical internal storage containers the datum based on trial and error, since I originally had the modular backpack as the datum and found that most of the other options were positives for most of the criteria compared to the modular backpack.
Based on the Pugh Chart, I have decided to continue with the First Idea, which is an external storage bag to attach to other bags.
Sketch Model + Feedback
The sketch model that I created was made out of a plastic bag, packing paper, scotch tape, a shoe lace, and a carabiner. The idea behind it was that the bag needs to be waterproof, hence the plastic bag, but the objects inside of it need to be protected from harm, hence the packing paper.
Here, the external storage bag is presented with essential items that people have stated that they would want this bag to help carry, including sunglasses, a phone charger, keys, lip balm, lotion, and a phone.
I brought my idea in a whole circle by asking one of the first people who I had interviewed to give me feedback on the final idea.
I explained to the user that the bag was made out of rough, cheap materials and described what the actual bag would function as and what features it would have. I suggested that this bag would be made of a very durable, waterproof and cut-proof material to be entirely safe from theft and the weather, and it would have an easy but secure carabiner to attach it to any bag. I proposed that it would be RFID blocking as well, and have an interior pocket to be able to separate some items, like chapstick or headphones and other essentials. I would also have a magnet embedded in the bag towards the very top, which would come with a magnet key fob so that the user can easily attach and detach his or her keys from inside of the bag.
The user started by saying, “Based on the presentation of the idea, I really like it.” She liked the size because it is not too big and bulky, and she is still able to have all of her essentials in one place. She mentioned that she liked having a go-to bag to keep essentials in, and she suggested that shoulder straps be included or attached to the bag, to be able to remove the small essential bag from whatever larger bag it was attached to and be able to easily carry it around from there, with all of the essentials right there. She liked the idea of having pockets in the inside of the bag, because she mentioned that a lot of smaller bags do not have any interior organization, and she tends to have to dig around for her things. She mentioned that she liked the idea of having something durable because she would “buy something and would use it until it was dead, which would hopefully be several years.” Lastly, she loved the idea of the key-magnet attachment, as she is someone who “loses keys on the bottom of bags and spends a lot of time having to dig for it.”
