How to improve storage capacity in your bedroom: Case study

Design thinking aims at understanding the problems faced by the users and solving them.

11 min readJun 12, 2021

My journey with UX design started when I first enrolled myself into the Growth School UX Mastery course.

The main aim for this project is to understand the users through the design thinking approach. We were divided into a group of 6 and we were provided with with a particular room of the house. My topic was bedroom and the users were none other than our own teammates.

What is design thinking?

Design Thinking is an iterative process in which we seek to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding. At the same time, Design Thinking provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. It is a way of thinking and working as well as a collection of hands-on methods.

Design thinking has 5 stages:

EMPATHIZE STAGE

A bedroom is that room in the house where one sleeps and also spends his most of the leisure time.

Before interviewing my users I got prepared with a bunch of questions to know how they interact with their bedroom and what are the problems they are facing.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1. How much time do you spend in your bedroom? What are all the things that you do in your bedroom?
2. How many people do you share your bedroom with? What is your experience with them?
3. Is there enough storing space in your bedroom? If not, why do you find it less?
4. Is there a study table? What things do you keep in there? How organized do you keep it?
5. Do you have an attached bathroom? What is your experience with it?
6. What kind of bed do you prefer?
7. What kind of lighting is there in your room? And what do you prefer to have?
8. How many bedrooms do you have? If guests come, what kind of arrangements are made for them?
9. What kind of ventilation system is there in your room?
10. If there is no electricity in your house, what is the source of electricity for that time?

On my first interview I was not sure what I was I really searching for in the interviews but as I interviewed more users I got better and also I understood why we cannot think ourselves as the user. It is so because the solution working for me might not work for others.

User 1:

Adithiya spends 3–4 hours in his bedroom, excluding his sleeping time. He has all the amenities that should be in one’s bedroom.
He has a separate study room where he spends most of his time, studying and working. He goes to his bedroom for his leisure time.
He desires to have a switch near his bed. He usually uses extension cord but sometimes somebody else in his house is using it so that becomes a problem when he needs it.
He needs some private space in his room because everyone uses his bedroom, so he can’t be alone any time. Also he has neighbours whose noise comes in his bedroom too and if he talks his voice goes to them too so his privacy is breached there too.

User 2:

Naveen spends most of his time in his bedroom. He has all the amenities that a person desires in one’s bedroom, like TV, dressing table, study table, proper lighting facilities, proper ventilation system and one bed.
He desires to have a view from his windows to see some beautiful scenery, like a flowing river or sea, beach, or mountains.
He does not have enough storage space in his room. He desires to have a box where he can keep all the miscellaneous items and keep that box out of sight.

User 3:

Asit mostly uses his bedroom for sleeping. He spends most of his time in another room where his computer system is placed.
He shares his room with his mother and his brother. He has mostly all the basic amenities one needs in his room.
He has a small bedroom and desires to have a big spacious one.
He has one window in his room but he desires to have one more window in front of the other one so the ventilation is proper.
He does not get any direct sunlight in his room. He desires to have one if ever possible.
He also desires to have an automated house like having alexa and google home.
He has an attached bathroom. Sometimes a bad smell from the bathroom comes into his room. Also if there is any excess of water flow in the bathroom then that water may flow into his room.

User 4:

Nitish lives with his family in mumbai. He has only one room, an attached bathroom and an open kitchen in his house. He has a family of 5, his mother, father, younger brother, grandmother and him.
When it is the rainy season, rain water comes inside the room from the windows even when the windows are closed.
He has a window AC which is kind of a problem because the one sleeping in front of it gets its cool air but the one sleeping at last does not get any of that cool air, so it becomes hot for him. Also the one sleeping in front of the ac turns it off when he feels cold and the one sleeping in the end just feels hot. And mostly he is the one sleeping at last.
Sleeping at last he sleeps near the tv so at night he can’t watch tv while lying on his matrix since he becomes very near to the tv.
With this I come to the end of my empathize stage. My first user interview was not good, but my last interview was way better. I wanted to go back to the first user and interview him again, but this is what we had to learn in it. We cannot go back to our users again and again because it may cost our time and money.

DEFINE STAGE

This is the second stage of the design thinking process. Here we have to look back at the interviews and try to identify the problems faced by the users. People usually don't find problems with what they have, this is because they have become used to it. But, through empathize stage we get to understand the problems faced by the users.

In this stage we have to identify the problems faced by the users and understand why they are a problem.

Problems I have identified are:-

There is not enough storage space.
No switch near the bed.
View from the window is not good.
Bad smell from bathroom may enter the room
Excess water from the bathroom may flow into the room.
No proper ventilation
No direct sunlight
Wants an automated house.
Wants bigger and more spacious room.
When it’s the rainy season, rain water comes in through the window, even when it is closed.
Do not get privacy from parents and neighbours.

These are some of the problems that comes in the way of having a good experience in their bedrooms.

Understanding why they are a problem:

There is not enough storage space — Storing space is essential because if storage space is not enough people find it difficult to keep their things in a more organised manner.
No switch near the bed — switch near the bed makes it more comfortable to charge our electronic items and also use them by staying on the bed itself.
View from the window is not good — a good view from the window keeps minds calm and to stay focused.
Bad smell from bathroom may enter the room — it ruins the air of the room as bad smell enters from the bathroom.
Excess water from the bathroom may flow into the room — floor of the room becomes and there are chances for anyone to slip in the room because of a wet floor.
No proper ventilation — if there is no proper ventilation the room becomes suffocated.
No direct sunlight — sunlight falling directly into the room helps to kill germs in it also it freshens up the room.
Wants automated house — automated house becomes convenient for people living in the house as they can just give a voice command and that action is done by AI.
Wants more spacious room — it’s more comfortable if we have bigger rooms because we can have more stuff we like to have in our rooms.
When it’s the rainy season, rain water comes in through the window, even when it is closed — if water comes in through the window than the floor of the room gets wet, also till the rain doesn’t stop the water will keep flowing into the room and the water may get filled in the room and there are chances that anyone can slip in the room.
Do not get privacy from parents and neighbours — privacy is important because you cannot focus on your work if someone keeps disturbing you.

IDEATE STAGE

Ideate stage is the third stage of design thinking project. In this stage we have to come up with the ideas quickly that can help solving the above mentioned problems effectively and efficiently. The ideas need not to be unique, but can be obvious and simple.

There is not enough storage space

Bring in another cupboard.
Get more drawers in the table
Use wall shelves
Reuse small cartons to store stuff in it and keep your stuff organised
Buy a bet with storage
Use headboards that multi-tasks
Ikea bed slats hack

2. No switch near the bed

Use extension cord

3. Bad smell from the bathroom may enter the room

Bathroom fresheners like ODONIL, GODREJ AER POCKET, sprays
Toilet fresheners

4. Excess water from the bathroom may flow into the room

Tiles must be a little inclined to the drain so water doesn’t flow out of the bathroom
Door twin sealer, it prevents water from flowing the water to the other side of the door

5. No proper ventilation

Exhaust fan

6. When it’s the rainy season, rain water comes in through the window, even when it is closed

Window twin sealer, it prevents water from flowing to the other side of the window.

After we list all our ideas, we have to shortlist top 3 ideas.

My top three ideas were:

1. Door/ window twin sealer
Water flowing out of the bathroom or also rain water flowing in the room from doors and windows becomes a common problem for many.
2. Ikea bed slats hack
It does not involve any space on the floor, but it involves the empty space on the wall.
3. Bed with storage
It stores a lot of things thus having more storage space even for a small room.

PROTOTYPE STAGE

In this stage, we have to make a prototype of any one of the ideas out of the top three ideas I have selected.

Idea that I chose for my prototype was Ikea bed slats hack.

Ikea bed slats are the base of the bed on which the matrix rests. These type of beds are usually found in foreign countries. They can be used as a wall hanging rack on which we can hang stuff on it.

Is made out of wooden slats and attached together with velcro straps. But you can make it at home by yourself by using left out wooden sheets and a rope or ribbon or something stronger.

I chose this idea because I found out that most of my users do not have enough storage space and many things are just lying on the bed or on the table making it look untidy.

You can drill it directly into the wall or drill in the L-shaped hooks and hang these slats on it.

These bed slats are hung on a wall so it does not take up any of the floor spaces and so you also get more space to bring up stuff you like.
It uses empty walls.
You can use S-shaped hooks and baskets and small plastic boxes that have hooks to hang on the slats to store and organize your stuff.
You can hang miscellaneous stuff on it.
It can be used as a room décor thing.

TEST STAGE

This is the final stage of design thinking project. In this stage we have to present our prototype to our users and we will get a feedback from them. From that we will know if our prototype works or not.

Because, solving the problem is just not enough. It is important that it works!

My product was accepted by all of them, and the reasonable feedback I got was:

1. Didn’t like the velcro straps. Slats may fall down from that.
2. Do not want to drill in the nails, the paint on the walls may rip off.
3. Cannot keep things we can just hang things.

The changes that I made incorporating the feedback from my users was:

1. Instead of drilling into the wall, they can also use double sided tape that is meant to be used on walls. This tape is strong enough and it will not rip off. Also wouldn’t spoil the paint.
2. The velcro straps can be replaced by a rope, ribbon or something stronger.
3. We can hang some baskets or some boxes which have hooks to hang and keep things in that.

Here we come to an end with my design thinking project.

KEY LEARNINGS

We have to unlearn first to learn new things.
User interviews are not that easy.
We not only have to design a product but also we have to solve the problems of the users
Solutions have to be easy, and do not need to be very innovative.
We have to dig deep to get to know the problems.