Custom classroom furniture
BODYFURN SIDE STORAGE UNIT
Concept development
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
Market opportunity
- Will it meet a need?
- Will it improve things significantly?
Ergonomics
- Is it user friendly?
- Is it physically safe for the user?
- Is it friendly in the wider context, e.g. classroom?
Client engagement
- Focus groups, open discussions, directed discussions
- Listen, listen, listen, and listen again
- Prototype and test
Fitness for Purpose
- Does it solve a problem for the users?
- Does it meet their needs?
Efficiency/effectiveness
- Does it make life simpler?
Optimisation
- There will be trade-offs, so need to prioritise
In the move away from the box-style desk, Furnware needed to come up with an alternative personal storage options. The company did a number of trials of storage systems in classrooms using existing space and found that using two or three tote-trays at different points in the room worked well. They subsequently commissioned a study through Waikato University. The study found that using tote-trays this way saved 25% in the time required to access these materials.
"We felt well-supported in our observations, but consumer preference was for storage at the desk site," said Pat. "There was a mind-set that students had to stay at their desks, particularly in Year 4-8 classrooms. Some schools had book bags made for the junior students to hang over the chair – that worked for little kids but not the older ones."
Subsequent research on the ideal size of desktops led the company to increase their size, which gave an opportunity for a novel solution to the issue: "There was now an overlap – maybe we could put some storage down the side".
Pat set up focus groups of teachers and a development class – the Year 7/8s at Peterhead School in Flaxmere, a decile 1 school close to the Furnware factory – to test out some ideas. After introducing the side storage concept – and all agreed that it was a good idea – Pat asked the students about their existing systems to help refine the concept to accommodate things that were important to them. "An immediate issue was the security of pens and pencils – they nearly all kept them hidden on a ledge on the frame under the desk, something the teachers didn't realise."
Early MDF design prototypes
(Click to enlarge)
To find out what the students needed to store, Pat then took what they had in their tote trays and removed what they didn't need, which turned out to be about half. "We were looking to accommodate standardised stuff (the tallest item being a scrapbook) to fix the size of the unit. We ignored items that can be unpredictable sizes, such as library books, for which there had to be a separate way of managing in the classroom."
Over the ensuing year, Pat progressively presented the students a series of mock-ups. "We started off with a detachable cardboard box – the students liked that idea because they could to pick it up and move it around the room. After one day with it, they decided it was no good because there was nowhere to store pens and pencils. So I took the boxes away and we made cardboard dividers to divide off a portion of the box."
Pat moved on to MDF models and the students found that the position on the desk was critical: too close and it got in the way, and too far back it was difficult to reach. "So we made sliding units that you could pull towards you to get things, then push back out of the way."
"The final concept was developed like that – the design team weren't involved in this process yet. I was very keen to push it through as I could see two things about it – it would be a saleable product on its own, and it would facilitate the sale of desks and systems. And that's actually been happening."
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