Final Project: Initial Ideas Feedback

I decided to send out my designs to a number of people to receive feedback on how I can improve them and give me their opinion on which of the two designs they liked the most.

This will help me decide which design I will chose for my final product and how to further improve it.

This was my first design.

This was my second design.

Person #1:

I am fascinated by both of the designs, which is why I would like to see a combination of both. I really like that you can adjust the height which is why I prefer the first one in that aspect. However, I prefer the portrait orientation as I would like to store many books inside the shelves. Books can be about 30cm in height so I would really like it if each shelf has some distance between them.

Person #2:

My own apartment has only a small space available on the walls as most of it is occupied by other furniture or posters. Therefore, I definitely prefer the second design. Having it in a portrait mode can help as it would take up less horizontal space which might be beneficial in apartments that have small length walls.

Person #3:

Even though it is an advantage to have the piece of furniture be so simple it does come to a disadvantage as it may look too ugly and uninviting to the eye of the buyer. The straight lines and rectangular figure do make it a little boring and kind of reminds me of the electrical box at home, although I do prefer it than it having intricate shapes and designs and looking odd in the dorm room surrounded by the other pieces of furniture.

Person #4:

I like the first design more. For some reason, the second one is too bulky and it doesn't appeal to me. 

Person #5: 

I do agree that it look like an electrical box, especially when folded upwards. Maybe you can consider things to add at the side of the product to alter the image of the 'electrical box'. In terms of aesthetics, I do prefer the first one but in functionality I prefer the second one. Maybe when you develop it, you can look at a more square design of the object to see how that will look. 

The feedback provided was very valuable for the development stage of my product as everyone gave constructive criticism as well as suggestions on how to improve either of both designs. I will take into consideration everything said and try and improve it in my development stage. I will try out a more squared shape and think about creating different addons or extensions to avoid having it look like an electrical box. 

In my next blog post, I will be focusing on the research of a folding mechanisms. Once I conclude on the folding mechanism I will be able to decide on the the techniques, materials and components that I will use to build my final design.