Smärta couch

Everyone experiences common milestones throughout their lives. In these moments, an individual’s active needs change. The goal for this assignment is to interview individuals who are currently experiencing one of these milestone moments and design a positive solution to the common needs that are identified. My assigned life milestone was moving.

problem statement

Moving into a new place can be stressful and tiresome. How can we make the process less strenuous? How can we make the process faster? What are the worst aspects of this experience and how can we improve them?

solution

During my research, couches were identified as some of the worst pieces of furniture to have to move. The Smärta couch is furniture that moves with your move. The couch has two configurations for differing lengths and sizes based on your space and needs, and easy break-down to be transported in an average civilian vehicle. The couch is also easily moved by just one person.

define

I start all my projects the same way; with a hefty amount of research. I searched for statistics on moving, other products on the market, conducted surveys, and interviewed people on their experiences.

research: data

Based on the research shown here, the age group that moves the most are single and under 35 years of age. This age group makes up a large majority of residents in rental accommodation and trends show that more and more people are renting these days.

research: survey

Based off of this survey, people had the most difficulty moving furniture and in general didn’t have more than one or two people helping. Over half of those surveyed said they had to dismantle furniture to move it and then painfully reassemble it.

research: interviews

I conducted interviews with a few different people to gain a better understanding of the problems people faced while moving.

question samples

Walk me through the whole process of moving, from deciding you want to move all the way through actually buying a new place and moving in.
What were unexpected problems you ran into during the process of moving?
What advice would you give someone if they were moving to the same place as you?

research: insights

After compiling all my research, I started looking for patterns across the various avenues of research I pursued. I then grouped these recurring themes into categories to better analyze the problem. These categories were geographical, relationships, individuals, cultural, and logistical (respectively).

To save you some reading, I'll summarize the logistical (purple) insights because it contains some really interesting findings and was also the category of problems I chose to tackle moving forward with my design.

logistical

+ "had to give up on keeping a table we’ve had for generations because there was no room"
+ limited search radius for a home near work
+ wasn’t there to accept belongings, had to pay stranger $150 to accept the dropoff
+ hard to find roommates certain times of year
+ the ‘third bedroom’ is closet sized

+ hundreds of dollars for renting a truck to move items 3 miles across town

research: current market

As a general rule of thumb, don't reinvent the wheel unless you're sure you can do it better. I looked at products currently on the market for moving, which were mainly tools for moving heavy items and packing supplies.

research: industry trends

ideate

This next stage of the process is my favorite, but before I jump straight into sketching I like to organize my inspiration.

ideate: persona

First I created a persona that represents the end user. This serves as a general picture of who I'll be designing for.

motivations

Carly moves frequently and never stays in one place very long. A strong, independent, single woman who is constantly uprooting her life. She works hard and wants to be able to relax in a cozy dwelling after hours, and remove the stress of redecorating with new furniture every time she has to leave.

Carly Rich

pronouns: she/her

age: 27

occupation: sales representative

marital status: single

location: moves every 6 months/year when reassigned for work or until lease expires

It’s difficult to find friends loyal enough to assist and it’s too expensive to hire a company to help her transport her belongings so she packs and moves by herself, sometimes having to sell stuff she can’t fit! Fiercely independent, Carly will attempt to dismantle and transport as much furniture as possible with the risk of a lifelong back injury on her mind.

frustrations

ideate: mind map

I generated this mind map to help myself connect relevant concepts and generate new ideas.

ideate: mood board

Before I began sketching, I created a mood board to help inspire me and hone my vision for the project.

ideate: sketches

These are some of my ideation sketches for the project.

ideate: design objectives

I generated this mindmap to help myself connect relevant concepts and generate new ideas.

must have

fewer than (or equal to) 6 pieces
take less than five minutes to disassemble/assemble
able to be moved by one person (size/weight)
fit in the trunk of a regular-sized* sedan

should have

would be nice to have

comfortable
durable
stylish

removable seat covers for washing
handles?
wheels

prototype

Looking at my ideas and my research, I decided to design a couch that could be easily moved without the need for a moving truck.

prototype: sketch models

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prototype: feedback

Feedback was focused on refining the movement of the form, to produce an elegant and smooth transition from one configuration to another.

prototype: final model

The final model has two different configurations, with wheels for easy movement, and can be dismantled to fit in the trunk of a sedan.

evaluate

The most important part of every project is a post-mortem analysis, where you identify ways you could improve on/move forward with the project in the future.

evaluate: performance testing

The best part about this project was that it was self-testing. Just to move the final model from my apartment to the school's studio space for our presentation, I had to load the model into my car, unload it on campus and bring it into the building, make it up to the third floor, and down a long hallway. And I did it. In the middle of the night, all by myself. And then I did it all over again a few days later. Both times it took me less than 30 minutes.

The images below show the final model (6 pieces) fitting in my sedan.

While maybe not my most impressive project to date, this is arguably my most successful project because of how thoroughly I met the objectives I set for myself at the beginning.

evaluate: future improvement

If I had to do this project again, these are things I would explore further to improve the project overall:

Explore additional material options (lumber inflation would make manufacturing this unreasonable)
Streamline the frame using the simplest geometry to maximize strength and minimize weight
Make a 1/3 or 1/4 scale model first
Explore context (how are people buying this, do they have to construct on arrival, etc.)