Designing a Wallet in 2 Hours
The Wallet Project
Background
Now without the crutch of calling myself a student, I sometimes call myself an aspiring designer or a designer at heart. In the past two years, I have slowly discovered the language of design as the red thread to weave together my various professional and personal interests in business, art, anthropology, and more. It led me to work with Human Side of Tech last summer, TA Designing Your Tufts last Fall, and take an industrial design course last semester, among other explorations. What I loved about the class was that it nudged me towards actively practicing through the entire design cycle, to place my interest in project-based learning, from aspiring designer in theory to “practicing” designer in action.
To keep exercising my design brain over the summer, I decided to follow a design sprint project from the Stanford d.school. Though designed as a one-hour spring, I took twice as long. The project takes one through the design thinking cycle from concept to execution of the wallet, and designed to be speedy and imperfect.
1. Design My Ideal Wallet
The first prompt of the project was to quickly design my ideal wallet in three minutes. It was surprisingly challenging because I love my wallet and had to think hard about what a better, ideal wallet would be. The first idea was to add a dividing, internal zipper, but it seemed like a “cool-to-have” and did not address a real need I face.
After thinking about the ways I use my wallet, I realized a common — albeit seemingly mild — frustration. Often I find myself pausing in front of the subway gates rather than breezing in because I am flipping through my cards to find my subway card. Ideally, there is a back pocket where I can hold my Charlie Card discretely, allowing me to tap in without even taking the card out. The current back pouch is too shallow for my liking and doesn’t cover enough of an otherwise ugly subway card.
2. Empathize: Interview and Dig Deeper
The project is to design an ideal wallet for someone else, so after a warm-up of thinking about my own needs, I turn my attention to interview someone else and empathize with their needs. While the worksheet asked for just 4 minutes to interview and 3 minutes to dig deeper, my interview lasted around 20 minutes.
To understand Avni’s needs for her ideal wallet, I first set off to understand how she uses her current wallet to meet her needs.
Avni bought this wallet six years ago at a Nepali or Tibetan souvenir shop during a trip with high school friends. While it is beginning to fall apart, it has served her well so far and carries some sentimental value from her travels and friends.
As I was about to ask about how she uses the wallet in her day-to-day, she revealed that she actually rarely uses her wallet in the U.S. Instead, she uses the pouch on the back of her phone to carry the essentials: a Charlie Card, debit card, and student ID. Sometimes, if she needs cash, she will fold a bill and slide it in along with the cards.
The last time she used her wallet was when she expected cash payment from someone. She brought her wallet on a recent trip to New York City, even though she didn’t use it. I asked why she did if she was still in the US and could get by with just her phone pouch as she does here in Boston. “It doesn’t make sense to travel without a wallet,” she said. Despite the practical sufficiency of the phone pouch in her day-to-day life, the wallet still holds significance as something more proper or substantial.
When she is not the U.S., in places where it is still cash-heavy, Avni uses her wallet more consistently. For example, when in Singapore, she carries cash— both the local currency and a larger US bill in case of emergencies — cards, coins, and miscellaneous items, like international SIM cards, receipts, the backs of earrings when they fall off, or a small note that she doesn’t have elsewhere to easily keep, anything that she needs to easily keep without losing on-the-go.
I asked her to share stand-out negative and positive experiences when using the wallet.
Three negative experiences stood out:
- Not being able to find where she put something in her wallet. While Avni appreciates the numerous pockets in her wallet, sometimes they prove to be too many.
- When her wallet doesn’t easily fit into her small bag. She has two cross-body bags that measure the size of a skinnier Moleskine notebook.
- When she has to rummage through her backpack to find her wallet.
Two positive experiences stood out:
- When she lands in a different country and can easily find and plug in her local SIM card without rummaging.
- When she easily finds her wallet because of its distinctive and identifiable colors.
At the end of the day, Avni is looking for a small and minimalist wallet where “less is better.” As she transitions from a student to a working professional, she doesn’t want to keep carrying her essential cards insecurely on the back of her phone, nor use a wallet that is falling apart. For her next wallet, she wants it to be “presentable.” Ideally, there is easy access to her debit card and Charlie Card, especially since she will be commuting daily. While small, she also wants a wallet that is not easy to lose. She also expressed a dislike for large zippers.
These three key characteristics were especially highlighted:
- The wallet should include a small zipper pouch for small items like SIM cards and backs of earrings.
- The wallet should be small enough to fit into her small bags, or better yet, a pocket.
- The wallet should be ideally made of fabric. She is not a fan of leather, plastic, or synthetic materials.
3. Empathize + Define: Capture Findings
For this step, I kept to the recommended time and quickly summarized the findings from the interview.
For her next wallet, Avni is trying to…
- Easily fit and access her wallet
- Easily access the contents of her wallet
- Look professional or “adult”
Since our interview was rather in-depth, I initially found it difficult to gather additional insights and inferences about her feelings and motivations. It seemed like she had touched on all the important factors. However, after some reflection, a few keywords and phrases stood out:
- Versatility
- Swiss Army Knife (similar to versatility but with an emphasis on the small size)
- “Forget about it” but not forgettable
- “Standout” — nostalgia and meaning as nice-to-haves rather than must-haves (a product of context and long-term use rather than an inherent quality)
4. Define: Take a Stand with a Point-of-View
The scope of the project was defined as: Avni needs a way to have a small wallet that fits in her little bag, but one that is not forgettable, accessible, and versatile in what it fits.
I found it a bit challenging to summarize and prioritize the key insights from our conversation. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t missing something important, but I needed to highlight the key ones for them to be practically actionable. Looking at the scope I defined, I’m not sure if I did an accurate or insightful job, and whether it is the most consistent with the key findings and inferences. However, this was supposed to be a sprint, so I quickly moved on.
5. Ideate: Sketch At Least 5 Radical Ways to Meet Your User’s Needs
Sketching took longer than I expected. Initially, I was caught on the word “radical.” What does it mean to draw “radical” designs? Did I need to think explicitly out-of-the-box? Create designs that I’ve never seen before? That led me to Design 0, which looks like a film canister. While one could fit curled cash and coins in the center, I quickly realized how impractical this is. You can’t curl cards!
Instead of having the word “radical” paralyze me in over-thinking, I decided to quickly sketch designs that would fit the scope of Avni’s needs. The sketches emphasized form and function rather than the material or color. They were enough to communicate my ideas, but some were not the clearest. Drawing bigger would have allowed me to better show details, especially when there are multiple compartments involved. Including dimensions or drawing a debit card beside or inside the wallets would have also helped with visualizing the designs in scale.
6. Test: Share Solutions & Capture Feedback
Design A
This design was rather uncontroversial. One key limitation was the small size of the coin pouch. Avni enjoyed the button closure to the wallet-fold.
Design B
While Avni is not the biggest fan of large zippers — that is, main access via zipper — she thinks this design can work quite well in practice. She suggested putting a partition inside the pouch that could separate the coins from the rest of the contents. She prefers that coins are zipped up, but is indifferent whether cash or cards are. The card slots on the back of the wallet will comfortably fit two cards, one in each direction; three or four may fit snuggly. This allows for easy access to the most-used cards, like a debit or subway card.
The hook on the side allows for her to attach a key chain to make the wallet more identifiable, or to hook it to the inside of a backpack so there is easy access without rummaging. However, Avni doesn’t immediately see herself using this function. She wouldn’t attach a keychain because that would make it bulkier, and her backpack does not have an internal hook like my own North Face backpack has, which inspired the design. However, she appreciates the thoughtfulness and does not mind the appendage even if she has no immediate use for it.
Design C
This design took a little more time to explain for the sketches were at times confusing. Avni couldn’t clearly tell which sketch showed the front versus the back, or how many partitions there are. Here, bigger sketches would have been helpful. However, with explanation, the design was well-received, for it had a mix of a zipper closure and snap-on closure.
Design D
This design was easily discarded as being interesting but not practical. The roundness was provoked by the need to be “radical,” but would take up more space and create unusable, internal space. Avni said she would likely have to rummage through the wallet to access the contents, which does not fit her needs.
Design E
This design took a lot more time to explain, including an on-the-spot paper prototype using Post-It notes. The extra wrap-around of the clasp was confusing and unnecessary. Apart from the confusion, the design was well-received.
7. Prototype: Reflect & Generate a New Solution
8. Prototype: Build Solution
To prototype, I used white printer paper and clear tape. For the first design, I had enough stripe washi tape to make the wallet sturdier and to better represent possible textile patterns. I did not know how to include zippers in the prototype, so they were communicated visually via the sketches, and verbally.
Below are photos of the prototype in use.
The second design took longer to build because it has more compartments and an extendible main interior, which is poorly pictured. In the first design, the bottom is extendible; in this design, the two sides are, too. To prototype the snap-on closure, I taped two orange circles. While I was able to communicate the form and function well with just white printer paper, I wish I had more washi tape to make this design feel even more believable.
Below are photos of the prototype in use.
9. Test: Feedback
The best feedback I received for the designs was: “I didn’t know I needed this.”
Avni enjoyed the first design because it’s small and finds the alternating card slot on the back novel and useful. The washi tape also makes the prototype feel more sturdy and real, especially as it’s a pattern she can see herself enjoying in a wallet textile.
She was surprised by the second design. She wanted to like the first design more — largely thanks to the washi tape and card slot detail — but decided that the second design actually better fits her needs.
Reflections
I had a lot of fun doing this project; it stimulated different parts of my brain and actually uncovered an unmet need. It was rewarding to design something with and for someone that she can see herself needing and using. As a speedy design sprint, the exercise dissuaded my tendency to overthink and encouraged a bias towards action and iteration.
Do you have any feedback on the designs and process? Looking forward to practicing and improving with more sprint projects.
Thank you so much for reading + sharing your thoughts. You can find more of me on Instagram and my website. Want my articles in your inbox? — subscribe here.
