Phase 1: Identify

Phase 1 consisted of identifying an opportunity for a new product. We examined social, economic and technological (SET) factors, conducted user research, identified stakeholders in order to establish our product opportunity gap.

From the information we gathered, we created 50 product opportunity statements that focused on outdoor enthusiasts and their experiences with safety in the wilderness. In order to arrive to our final statement, we grouped them into similar themes and then used a weighted matrix to further narrow it down.

This led to inform our final opportunity statement:

“Empowering recreational hikers to be prepared for non-life threatening wilderness injuries by creating a product that is customizable, easy to maintain and intuitive to use.”

Phase 2: Understand

The goal of phase 2 was to determine the opportunity’s characteristics and constraints. During this time, we conducted further 1:1 interviews, performed user observations and empathy research. We also performed walk-throughs using low fidelity prototypes. By asking users to walk through the last scenario in which they used their first aid kits, we were able to reconcile what people told us with what they actually did, and observe the potential pain points that they encountered. The insights gathered from this research was used to create user personas and a journey map.

From our research, we concluded that:

(1) many users don’t know the tools available to them in their first-aid kits

(2) users value long lasting materials and reliability in their first-aid kits

(3) users value the ability to customize the components of their kits to tailor them to the specific needs of the activity, and

(4) users like the ability to replace things in their first-aid kits after use.

These insights helped to guide our evaluation of competitors and our crafting of product requirements.

Next, we reviewed our competitors and created a Value Opportunity Analysis (VOA) where we defined various categories in which our product will add value to the user and specified our product requirements. Our main themes are: the ease of use, the durability and the customizability of the product.

We then found these requirements to be especially important:

• Concerning the ergonomics and the ease of use, the product MUST be easy to identify in a backpack and it MUST be easy to search through.

• Focusing on the durability, we think users MUST be able to replace individual components of the product easily and they MUST be able to tell when to replace components.

• Last but not least, customizability will also be one of the important categories, that’s why the product SHOULD provide space for users to add their own items and it MUST be adjustable according to the space remaining in the user's pack.

Phase 3: Conceptualize

In phase 3 we ideated and chose a final product and concept.

To generate a robust list of concepts, we did a combination of individual brainstorming and group brainstorming. We generated 10+ concepts on our own, as well as using the 3-6-5 concept generation method and two 15 min concept generation sprints. The goal of each sprint was to conceive of as many ideas as possible in a 15 min time limit - a total of ~17 more ideas were generated as a result.

The team ended with a total of ~75 concepts. We created individual sketches for each of these concepts, and uploaded them to a Miro whiteboard. We then used the Miro whiteboard to conduct our concept grouping, selection and evaluation. Some of these concepts were similar, and were more or less related. We combined many of these concepts as we filtered through them.

We used Dot-Voting a modified Borda-Count method to further narrow down our concepts by ranking the concepts in three ways: Feasibility, Consumer Confidence (that we perceive) and Excitement (for us to prototype). We selected 7 different concepts to prototype for further testing.

Phase 4: Prototype

In phase 4 we brought the product to life!

Here, I learned the importance of low-fidelity prototyping at an early stage. During the process of created many rapid prototypes, we learned gained valuable insights such as buildability, ease of finding items, ease of packing and unpacking. For example, I first made rough prototypes of one of our concepts called “roll up bag” simply with paper - and we began to learn about design details such as ease of rolling and pocket geometry. I also made a few prototypes with tape and ziplock bags which we used to do some user research with and discovered the importance of having see-through pockets and compartment openings that are easy to find.

During this process we concluded that the “Roll-Up Kit” and a similar version called the “Fold-Up kit” would be the final designs to further explore with a high fidelity prototype.

Images below showcasing the build, display and testing of our “Roll-Up Kit” featuring Henry!

Reflection

During the semester we discussed this definition for human-centered design:

An approach to developing and leveraging a deep understanding of potential users and stakeholders toward the creation of novel interventions of value to the stakeholder community

- Nancy et al., 2018 -

In this course I learned various methods for developing this deeper understanding of the users and stakeholders. We focused most of our class time on defining the product opportunity. This allowed us to create specific product requirements that truly add value to the user and also guided our prototyping and testing. This led us to create a successful product that addressed the whole user experience.