Our project revolved around the solving of a problem relating to the statement: "I have trouble sleeping". Sleepless nights lead to an unproductive day. We highlight a way to fix this issue with our product by creating a three series of products that indulge in different ways people can be unable to fall asleep. We will explain our prototyping process and the constraints in which our design was made.
The constraint of our assignment was to design a three-product series that worked together to solve the problem given with the design style of the chosen designer.
Our designer was: “Kazuyo Sejima”:
Kazuyo Sejima uses the style of contemporary architecture in her work. Either the use of curvature or geometric shapes and white or glass in all of her work. The idea is that the building isn’t linear and while it may be geometric it doesn't follow a pattern. One of her most famous buildings is the Rolex Learning Center–from all angles, this building follows contemporary design principles from the roofing to the arches of the side.
Before creating our series we created a research plan to map out a timeline of events to create questions to guide our prototyping decisions, our user tests, and further changes/iterations to prototypes.
Kazuyo Sejima follows a set of design concepts such as minimalism. This means she only adds what is valuable to her to the design and often it means there is a minimal approach to the aesthetics of the design and removes the rest of the clutter creating an open space. Often this is associated with the color white and many of her designs are in this color.
We created two mood boards to emphasize Sejima's architecture and then aesthetic of the product we which to design, we did this in hopes of merging these two styles together in our final design.
We created two mood boards to emphasize Sejima's architecture and then aesthetic of the product we which to design, we did this in hopes of merging these two styles together in our final design.
Our series of thumbnails demonstrates the different ideas we were processing at the beginning of the ideation process. We ended up realizing none of these products fit in with the direction our designer would take and ultimately would design and approach our project a different way.
We decided on a nightlight, white noise machine, and humidifier instead.
We decided on a nightlight, white noise machine, and humidifier instead.
When creating our prototypes we thought of how we could make parts of our prototypes semi-functional (to get the point across on what we want to make) at a reasonable cost-efficient price and a low-fidelity build. The first of the three prototypes in the three-series build was the nightlight and it was the use of cardboard stacked in the shape of Kazuyo Sejima's building New Museum of Contemporary Art which can be found in New York City. We cut out holes in the stacked boxes and hot glued them together with an LED light underneath to mimic a lighting system. The second of the three prototypes in the series was a white noise machine made out of foam–this had no function but followed the shape of a design she recently developed and is in the making of in the city of Pugyan, China. The third and final prototype was a humidifier made out of wood, foam, and orbies to symbolize water. Most of the supplies were in low fidelity therefore we would not reuse them for the detailed prototyping except for wood and the glue guns used.
The drawback of using these rough prototyping designs is that while they held the forms of our designs they did not function quite the way they were intended to be used due to the limit of materials, however, we got the general idea across visually and will functionally fix in the detailed prototype.
The drawback of using these rough prototyping designs is that while they held the forms of our designs they did not function quite the way they were intended to be used due to the limit of materials, however, we got the general idea across visually and will functionally fix in the detailed prototype.
The process behind our detailed prototype was adding to the functionality of our products. With the nightlight, we focused a lot on the architectural design of Kazuyo Sejima and designed the prototype as an architect would (well as best as we could) with wood. We then spray-painted it white to match her aesthetic and added textured plastic and LED Bluetooth lights that change color. The white noise machine does not emit sound however the critique on structure was fixed the base was 3D printed and holes were created to show a low-fidelity version of where the sound would come from–and to show Kazuyo Sejima’s design we added in her open prism form from her design concept. In the humidifier, while it does not function as one it is a fountain system and creates fog so aesthetically it looks like one. Laser-cut wood outlines the perimeter and glue seals the outside so water cannot leak through.
In the final analysis, the Twinkle Snuggle Series was designed to produce fun, unique, and calming products that are specifically designed to meet the needs of those who have trouble sleeping of all ages. We've created a series that easily fits into the bedroom environment while giving a fun calming experience and careful consideration of both form and function. We're dedicated to improving the Twinkle Snuggle Series going forward to satisfy our target demographic's changing wants.
