Desk Design Challenge - Part II

WHAT WE ARE DOING

WHY WE ARE DOING IT

Designing a seat for at least two people that promotes human interaction.

؜To foster creative exploration of social dynamics and cultivate empathy-driven design thinking.

Final Project Expectations

Time: Restricted timeline for prototype development

The prototype is designed for 2+ people and effectively encourages and facilitates human interaction.

Materials: Limited to using cardboard, paper, tape, and other low-fidelity materials.

+

You will design something to sit upon that can accommodate two or more people.

Think about the interactions between the people using your furniture: does it promote conversation, debate, play, collaboration?

THE CHALLENGE

THE PROCESS

Look at past examples to get inspired, pick one seating piece to analyze

Precedent Research

؜Working as a group to come up with a seating design

Brainstorming

Use carboard to design your sketch model

Model Making

A good example of signals are "the launch of chatGPT" or "the fall of the iconic tunnel tree redwood" and good examples of drivers would be "artificial intelligence" or "climate change"

Then, identify signals (glimpses of the future we already see today) and drivers (what made the signal possible)

1

2

3

15 min

؜15 min

~ 2 hrs

15 mins

Presentation

Take photos and present your work to your class

5

Concept Idea

؜20 min

؜Working as a class to brainstorm ideas

Translate your ideas through quick drawings

Sketching

4

~15 min

6

Make a 1:1 scale model to test out!

؜Big scale Model

~ 2 hrs

7

؜Optional

A precedent is a project done in the real world that can be used to help explain some of the ideas that will be covered in the studio or project.

Students should locate and critically evaluate precedents and demonstrate how the content of the relate to their projects.

Precedents generally fall into a number of categories:

CONCEPTUAL

ASPIRATIONAL

COMPARABLE

There are many ways to sit

Ex. low to the ground, high up, bean bags, stools, folding chair, etc.

Precedent Research

Individually:

Have a look at the Precedents (examples) found in the Toolbox tab and research your own compilation of inspirational images.

10 mins

~15 mins

1.

In groups:

Share your findings and note down what design details you find inspiring and want to bring into your project.

Think about how two or more people would use these pieces of furniture, and what dynamics and interactions would be created in its use.

1 - ENCOURAGE WILD IDEAS

2 - SUSPEND JUDGMENT

4 - BUILD ON IDEAS

5 - BE VISUAL

3 - GO FOR QUANTITY

Wild ideas can often give rise to creative leaps.

Don’t shoot down someone else’s idea.

Aim for as many ideas as possible.

Build and expand on the ideas of others.

Sketch your ideas.

Now, we're going to brainstorm ideas as a class. Use the list of interaction concepts on the following slide as a starting point.

Brainstorming

2.

~15 mins

Exercise/Health

Culinary

Games

Playfulness

Commerce/Trading

Artistic

Musical

Nature

Emotion/Well-being

Brainstorming

2.

Concept Idea

3.

20 mins

؜Form a group (of 3), and start discussing your ideas from brainstorming, and try to hone in on a concept that you all think is worth pursuing. You won't get into details of your design yet, but find common ground in terms of theme and direction. Write down you idea on a piece of paper, or you could do a slide on google slides or canva. This can include your written concept + an image for inspiration

Examples:

The group is interested in designing a seat that encourages written communication between strangers. There are some ideas about letter boxes, encoded words, or sound recordings to relay messages from one person seated to the other.
The group is interested in a "living" seating plan that has plants growing in it. There are different ideas about who would tend to the plants, whether they would be edible or not, and how the plants could encourage interaction.

Elevate the traditional park bench experience by integrating musical elements. Our benches feature touch-sensitive surfaces that produce musical notes when tapped or swiped. Imagine a public park where visitors can create impromptu musical compositions, turning a casual stroll into a harmonious urban adventure.

Seated Symphony

EXAMPLE CONCEPT THESIS

Sketching in design thinking is a quick and visual way to explore, communicate, and develop ideas. It helps designers think through problems, test concepts, and share their thoughts with others—without needing polished drawings. Sketches can be rough, but they’re powerful tools for brainstorming, prototyping, and collaboration.

Sketch how your sitting design will look, show how people will interact with the furniture piece.

Things to consider as you sketch:

Form (What shapes make up your design?)
Assembly (How is it put together?)
Materials used
Scale (How do human fit into this design - try to include scale figures in your sketches when possible)

Sketching Concept

4.

~15 mins

SKETCH MODELS

ITERATIVE PROTOTYPING

FULL-SCALE PROTOTYPING

1

2

3

STAGES OF PROTOTYPING

CARDBOARD TECHNIQUES: SHAPING

Bending

Scoring

Curving

Faceting

Layering

Hinging

CARDBOARD TECHNIQUES: JOINERY

Brads

Flanges

Brace

Skewer

Bend

Hinge

Slots

Butt Joint

CARDBOARD TECHNIQUES: Mechanism

Gears

Scissor lift

Grabbing

Waving

Tentacle

Curving

Claw

Fanning

ACTIVITY MATERIALS

Cardboard

Colored Acetate

Bristol Papers

Zip-ties

Straws

Metal Ruler

Pencil

Markers

Cutting Blade

Masking Tape

Hot Glue Gun

String

Brads

Popsicles and wooden skewers

Start thinking about what building mechanisms you will choose. Go to the "toolbox" Tab and start researching about different ways to use cardboard and ideas on how to construct your project. You can do your own research as well!

This will be a small scale model, meaning it is not a 1:1 model. A small scale model usually fits in a 50 by 50 cm box.

Cardboard and Construction

5.

~ 90 min

Creating the desired shape by cutting multiple layers of cardboard and gluing them one on top of the other.

Creating furniture by folding cardboard into desired shape (think origami), achieving structure by folding triangular shapes.

Combining both structural grid with a cardboard envelope.

Stacking:

Folding:

Hybrid:

( + ) Very easy to plan and works great with organic shapes

( - ) Uses lots of material therefore heavy and is time consuming

( + ) very appealing and one can achieve high level of sophistication in the design

( - ) May need larger sheets of cardboard

( + ) This method is very easy to plan and design, doesn't take too much material, and produces light pieces of furniture.

( - ) it works better for simple geometric shapes, but doesn't work that great for curved shapes

Desk Critiques

Group Feedback

Kinds of Feedback

There are three forms of feedback. Understanding these can help us understand the conversations we have with our teams and improve our own ability to react to and use feedback to strengthen our designs.

Reaction-Based

Feedback

Direction-Based

Feedback

Question-based Feedback

X

Feedback time!

Teachers are going to move around the class and give feedback to each group!

Make sure you have your research, sketches, and prototype.

The bulk of the sprint experience revolves around the iterative design process in which students develop a concept or solve a problem by continually exploring a multitude of options. It involves sketching, prototyping, testing, critique, analysis, and refinement of the idea based on feedback.

؜Using similar materials from your quick prototypes, build your human-scale prototype!

This time, be more thoughtful on your construction techniques with cutting and assembling. Before your start draw different angles of your design using estimated measurements. Include sketches of the different parts of the design that you will cut out from cardboard.

Human-Scale Prototyping

6.

(optional if you have time this will take 2 hours)

Remember: how people interact in your chair is the most important aspect of your concept!

Extra Challenge!

We will test your furniture by having your peers sit on them!

Human-Scale Prototyping

6.

(optional if you have time this will take 2 hours)

Collect all your sketches, quick prototype, and human-scale prototype for your peers to see.We will do a quick walk around to see what our peers have created.

There will be three rounds. Each round one person stays with their project while the other two walk around the space to observe and test other chairs.

Each student will have post-it notes to write their feedback and leave for the group to read.

Sharing & Testing

7.

15 mins

End of Challenge!

Desk Design Challenge - Part II

Final Presentation

Final Presentation

Final Presentation

Final Presentation

Final Presentation

User Interviews

Throne for Two

Final Presentation

Final Presentation

Final Presentation

Final Presentation

Final Presentation

User Interviews

Throne for Two

Or