Aid for Planning Furniture Projects


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Creator/Artist: Sukanya Mudaliar

Category: Interaction Design

Document: P2 Project

Batch: 2013-2015

Source: India,   IDC IIT Bombay

Period:  2009-2018

Medium: Report pdf

Supervisor: Prof. Anirudha Joshi


Detailed Description

Although the need for customized furniture has always been there, the entire process of commissioning a carpenter has been described by many clients as an anxiety ridden one. This is an event that occurs once in many years for the client. The information on market conditions, material and making charges are not very easily available. Clients are always weary of being cheated in some way or the other. The project started with interviews of people who had recently commissioned a furniture project and carpenters who took up such projects. The interviews were open ended and helped in compiling the challenges faced by both the parties. Insights showed that there are differences in the way carpenters and clients visualize and communicate their expectations and ideas. Owing to their practice, carpenters had developed a strong spatial sense which may not necessarily be shared by their clients. This has led to many misunderstandings. Thus there was a need for a more concrete visual representation for both parties to come to a common understanding. Subsequently, personae of clients and carpenters were created to convey the ideas of problems faced by them. Simultaneously, a comparative study of products and service in this domain was conducted to find the need gap in the current scenario. The final concept of this project provides the client with relevant information at every step, facilitating them from the point of choosing their furniture and customising it as per their requirements to finding the right carpenter to do the job. Overall, it alleviates anxiety by bringing in transparency and concreteness to the actions carried out. The final concept is to provide an interface for individuals who may be interested in commissioning custom made furniture, to help them: a) Plan custom-made furniture that they may intend to commission a carpenter for making through a furniture planning wizard that helps the user make key decisions like size of furniture, its placement in the room, storage space and structure, materials, embellishments and budgeting. This is done displaying relevant information and available options wherever necessary. b) Record relevant details while designing furniture in a way that both the client and the carpenter may understand. This has been through a project summary sheet that records all the specifications of the project and can be used as a reference for discussion amongst clients and carpenters. c) Find a suitable carpenter for the job. A portal that connects prospective client to carpenters in and around their locality and also displays portfolios of their past work and feedback from their clients. The prototype was evaluated through think aloud exercise and user feedback was incorporated into the next iteration.