Case study: Optimizing the space of Bedroom area
Being from IT background I’ve explored myself in many fields and finally found my interest leaning towards designing. As I explored myself more into this field and tried hands on designing I decided to go with this field and build my career in this. I’ve done some designing projects and recently joined Growth School.
At the starting we were assigned with this project so that we can understand more of design thinking process. We were divided into groups of 10 members and each member was free to choose a topic from house i.e. bedroom, living room, kitchen etc. My topic was Bedroom. We were asked to interview 5 of our teammates and consider them as our users.
What is Design Thinking?
Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that teams use to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test. Involving five phases — Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test
EMPATHIZE
The first stage of the Design Thinking process is to gain an empathic understanding of the problem we are trying to solve.
When we got our topic then next step was to know about the users who were going to use it. As bedroom is a private space of house and people use it for their personal use.
Most of the members were confused what problems they are facing in their bedroom as they were unaware of the issues. To resolve their problems designer need to go in depth and to do that I interviewed the users. Some of the questions I framed are-
1. How are you? Where are you from? Your Hobby? What is your sleeping schedule?
2. How much time do you spend in your bedroom? Apart from sleeping.
3. Tell me things you have in your bedroom area like what sort of bed you have? Like a fancy king size or regular wooden bed, Do you have attached cupboards or separate one?
4. How spacious is your room leaving the bed area? Do you face any space related issues? If yes then what?
5. Is your room properly ventilated or do you have proper intake of natural light?
6. What are the other things you prefer keeping in your bedroom? Like a dressing table or side table?
7. What are the other things you do in your bedroom like eating or working? If working then do you face any problem doing that?
8. What sort of lighting or colors do you have in your room right now? And how happy or satisfied are you with that?
9. Do you have proper separation in your cupboards? Or do you have enough sockets in your room?
10. How satisfied do you feel in your bedroom? If you want some changes, what would you prefer
I interviewed all of my users and got lot of points from which I can improvise user experience by solving their issues. Most of the users were facing space related issues.
DEFINE
During the Define stage, we put together the information we have created and gathered during the Empathize stage. This is where we will analyze our observations and synthesize them in order to define the core problems that we and our team have identified up to this point.
Every solution to every problem is simple. It’s the distance between the two where the mystery lies
Problems faced by most of the users were-
Space problem- A lot of members don’t have proper storage space and they find it difficult to keep things properly and separately.
Lighting and ventilation- Users usually face this problem as they don’t have proper intake of natural light and no cross ventilation in their rooms.
Sockets and switch boards- Due to wrong placement of sockets and switch boards user’s face problems in accessing their appliances of daily use.
Lack of entertainment- Users in general prefer having a music system or positioning of TV at proper distance in their room.
Infiltration of pests- Especially in the rainy season a lot of pests come inside the room and users find problems facing them.
IDEATE
During the third stage of the Design Thinking process, designers are ready to start generating ideas.
I came up with a few ideas after analyzing the problems that users were exactly facing.
Foldable beds can reduce space in the room and beds with side inbuilt drawers help them for storage. Beds can be folded if not needed and open when the user wants to use it.
Inbuilt cupboards on walls will also reduce a lot of space. Attach a side table with a bed which can be close or open according to the user.
For lighting and ventilation we can have windows on the roof. As it will not cover the space of the room and from top we can get a lot of light and air. And it can be covered also if the user doesn’t want light in the room.
We can set up a music system inbuilt on the ceiling. As it will not cover the space and users can enjoy the music system also.
Cupboards with One big shelf can be solved by dividing it into many shelves with wooden planks. This way we can get a lot of space in one place.
The Top three ideas which I finalized among all the others to go forward with.
Installing multipurpose bed- By this we can save a lot of space in the room. We can also make it for storage. It will help to keep a lot of things inside and save space which was kept in the room.
Placement of windows at proper place- It helps to make the room more ventilated and for lighting purposes too. If the placement of window will be correct then it will save a lot of space. We can use window for sitting purpose by placing sitting arrangement there.
Inbuilt multipurpose cupboards- It will help users to save things from dust and pests. Also in this they can get a dressing table so they don’t have to buy things separately. And things will be less visible.
PROTOTYPE
This is an experimental phase, and the aim is to identify the best possible solution for each of the problems identified during the first three stages. I chose first idea i.e. installing multipurpose bed as it will save lot of space of the room and it will cover multiple problem of users in single product.
Some of the Sketches I created to get some basic idea which fits best for the users requirement.
Functions-
It has storage space within the bed.
It is cost and space efficient.
It has an inbuilt entertainment system. Which can be folded inside the bed if the user doesn’t want to use it.
It has a sliding table attached to the bed itself so that the user can use it accordingly.
This bed can be folded. It can be like a sofa or diwan.
It has an inbuilt socket system.
It has storage space in the headrest area too.
TESTING
This is the final stage of the 5 stage-model, but in an iterative process, the results generated during the testing phase are often used to redefine one or more problems and inform the understanding of the users, the conditions of use, how people think, behave, and feel, and to empathize.
The next step was to get feedback from my users on the solution.
Iteration 1
User1-
Designing is very nice. Idea is innovative. And the way you have presented is very clear.
User2-
I loved the idea of this multi functional bed, idea behind this is great. Apart from all this I found bed little bulky. Maybe you can remove the headrest storage then it will look nice.
User3-
Its really cool, I won’t have to struggle now for sockets. I found this idea very innovative.
User4-
This is really good. The design look very elegant. But I don’t need music system near me maybe you can place that somewhere else.
User5-
It look fantastic. I loved idea.
Main Highlights of the Feedback
Music system can be place somewhere else.
Headrest storage not needed, because it is making bed bulky.
Storage can be run by using robotics.
Table and music system can be placed on one side.
Iteration 2
Since the user don’t want storage in their headrest and they prefer music system and table on the one side so that other side space can be save. And sockets can be place somewhere else. So, I have made a handmade sketch by following feedback.
I’ve made controllers of music system under the table and plugs on the other side. This will save their side space. I’ve also removed headrest storage so that bed doesn’t look bulky.
Future Scope
Designing of the bed can be improved by trying to make bed more comfortable. Install lighting in bed to look more good, and ambience of the room can be improved.
My learnings
The most important thing that I got to learn while designing and interviewing the user was listening. We should listen while interacting with the user so that we can clearly understand what the user wants and what all problems he/she is facing.
If we are able to figure out the idea which is going on in the user’s mind clearly. It would automatically end up with the desirable product that the user wants.
More than designing, understanding the users need was the most challenging part and fulfilling it properly was something I enjoyed doing. I can now figure out clearly ,how to take input from the user so that I can provide them with best results. This design thinking project really helped me in learning a lot of things as a designer as well as a user.
“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”