Simplicity Is Key
Objective: To create a household product that can be mass produced, targeting customers of Vancouver Special
Co-designed with Nicholas Cunningham + Helena Parewyck
In collaboration with Vancouver Special
Concept Development
We visited the Vancouver Special store and had a chance to talk to the shop owner, Anne, to gain insights on her best selling products. We found out that her demographic are young adults, who live around the neighbourhood. This would mean that their housing situation would not have a lot of space, so she advised us to create something that is modular is compact. After that talk, we drew concepts that ranged from kitchen products to hallway organizers. From our first critique, our group decided to continue developing the hallway organizer that acted as both a coat hanger and key holder (exert taken from our concept video).
Iterations
Based off our feedback, we decided to focus solely on creating a key holder, instead of a hallway organizer that had multiple functions.
We went through many different iterations, trying to decide which would be the most appealing to our target users.
We also looked into creating acrylic key chains, however, found out that they would easily scratch, making them less appealing.
Final iteration
The prototype we decided to stick with was a simple ball that would easily slide into the groove. We found that the interaction between the user and the product was mundane when simply just hooking the keychain onto the base. We continued iterating with this design, testing different widths, to prevent snapping.
From user testing and feedback from Anne and our peers, this interaction was rather enjoyable.
For the keychain, we played around with different coloured wooden balls and different straps, in order to differentiate the keys of the household members. In the end we decided to allow the set to be customizable their set by allowing the customers to choose from either leather straps or cords with the natural wood finish of the balls.
Woodshop process
The final product was produced out of hemlock with each holder being 8 inches long. Using a table router with a ball bit to create our groove, we were able to use one long strip. Once we did that we went on the band saw to trim them down to 8 inches.
To attach to the wall, we decide on a french cleat, to be an easy installation for the user. The finish was a thin coating of semi-gloss wood finish because we did not want to alter the woods natural colour too much.
Final product
