Enhancing the balcony experience
This case study was a part of the Design Thinking Project, as a part of a mentorship program, to comprehend what our users need.
Timeline
July - Aug 2022
Tools
Survey Monkey
Blender
Team
Individual
Type
Personal Project
Type
Personal Project
Link
OVERVIEW
Introduction
Groups were formed to work on this topic. Each of us were required to pick a trouble spot in the house and improve the user’s experience. For the project, my area was the Balcony, a space that I thought will be challenging and one of the only areas about which I had no preconceived notions in mind regarding the possible problems.
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My experience as a motion graphic artist has made me realize that a good video is one that speaks for itself while conveying the message in an innovative way.
STAGE 01
Empathising
This stage included understanding the perspective of the user by connecting with them one to one and asking questions which helped me in recognizing their pain points. One of the first things that we were taught was to never consider ourselves as the user. This was an important thing to unlearn and learn to change our mindset. So I went ahead and came up with a bunch of questions to interview 5 people from my group.
User insights:
STAGE 02
Defining
This was the most interesting phase where we had to identify the pain points from the insights that we had gathered from the interviews after sorting all data into likes, dislikes, and gaps.
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I was able to list down 12 problems and why each of these is important to the users if they get solved. Overall, almost all of them felt their balcony was less spacious with seating arrangement issues but some of them were as follows:
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Rainwater damages Soma’s bedroom flooring and walls — Water gets accumulated in her balcony which seeps into the flooring and walls during heavy rain causing damage. This will further require fixing or renovation every rainy season which will result in unnecessary costs.
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Not enough space in her living room balcony — She isn’t able to accommodate more guests in her balcony when they come over to her place due to less space and insufficient seating arrangement. Moreover, she wants to enjoy sitting there with her friends while chatting or drinking tea because her balcony is the only option to get fresh air while enjoying the view without having to meet somewhere else.
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Shreya cannot study on her terrace/balcony at night — Shreya loves to study on her terrace while enjoying the winds during her exams but cannot stay up there after sunset as there is no light connection of any kind which disturbs her study schedule and she is forced to go downstairs.
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Aruni's plants get destroyed due to dehydration — Due to direct sunlight throughout the day in the summers, her plants often get spoiled because of dehydration & too much direct heat and aruni has to take extra care of them and water them 2–3 times a day.
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Space management issues for Judah — In mussoorie, Judah doesn’t get enough sunlight as it is, which is why whenever sun comes out he and his colleagues love to bask in the sun but at the same time put their clothes for drying on the stand. There isn’t enough space to keep Cloth stand, flower pots and his chair at the same time which creates a difficult scenario.
STAGE 03
Ideation
Phewww! After understanding the problems thoroughly, finally, the time had come to put my creative side at work. This is the stage where I had to come up with solutions to the users’ problems.
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I used the ‘Crazy 8’ technique which was to time myself to brainstorm 8 ideas in 8 minutes for each unique problem. Some ideas were quite difficult to attain and some were the only obvious basic ones. I was able to pen down 37 unique solutions out of which I chose the best one for the next stage.
STAGE 04
Prototyping
For the prototyping stage, I chose the solution which was designed for Aruni’s problem. The idea was to provide a shade structure made of green netted cloth to protect the plants from too much direct sunlight which spoils them. Additionally, it has a self-watering system with a container at the top that will continuously drip small amounts of water all over it evenly to keep them hydrated.
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These were the initial sketches that I drew on paper as a reference for the actual model during the prototyping stage.
The water container will have small pores in it for a continuous self-watering system for plants with a green perforated cloth covering on all sides for protection from direct heat. I decided to redesign and model this in Blender.
The green perforated cloth can be rolled up as per the requirement to take care of the plants.
The container on the top is made of mud and clay, same as earthen pots to keep the water cool as it seeps into the small pores. Small pores help to maintain a continuous watering system at a slow pace, enough to keep the plants hydrated.
Additionally, the water container on top can be used as a bird drinking pot too during torrid summers to quench their thirst while keeping the user’s plants safe at the same time.
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This structure will not cost much and can be used for any kind of flower plant stands and doesn’t take any additional space.
STAGE 05
Testing
This phase is where i had to test out the design with my users. It was planned to present the concept and solicit feedback from all 5 of them during a group call on discord. The “TESTING” stage is crucial since it allows us to determine how much of a problem, if any, has been fixed.
The criticism I received was very constructive. The concept and 3d renders were well appreciated by all users. It gave a nice idea to them about how it would look in real from dimensions to the material which will be used. However, there were some modifications and changes which were suggested to me as follows:
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A collection tray can be put below the stand to store the extra water drops which are falling in the gaps. That water can be reused.
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Jute threads can be suspended from the pores and can be directly put into the flower pots to avoid water spillage.
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Plastic roll-down covers should be there to protect plants during heavy wind and rainstorms.
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The height of the container should be adjustable to accommodate tall plants.
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User insights:
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I incorporated three out of four changes in my design. The first one was to add a collection tray at the bottom. It is made of lightweight plastic which can slide in and out easily even from the front.
The second change was to add plastic sheets on top of the green cloth which can be rolled up and down according to the weather.
The last change was to give an adjustable height system to the whole structure which can be simply done by screwing the knob at particular levels.
This marks the conclusion of my design thinking journey. I got aware of how the various steps function together to aid us in the design process.
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Learnings from the project
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One of the most important lessons I believe I took away from this project is that I am not the user and that I should do everything in my power to set aside my own biases when interviewing the users. I’ve also come to the conclusion that I need to unlearn a lot of things.
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Another extremely significant lesson I discovered was that it’s crucial for a designer to frame the issue in terms of the user’s insights. A clearly defined problem demonstrates what matters and why.
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I realized how a straightforward method like Crazy 8 enables a designer to think creatively. Moreover, I gained knowledge about the value of feedback and how critical it is to the success of any design.
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The key idea is to always be receptive to learning.