Contractile: Sustainable Soft Goods Strategy Project
("An adaptable solution to safe and efficient exercise in an urban environment")
In a fast-paced urban environment, allotting that extra hour for exercise into a busy schedule is often an inaccessible luxury to a full time worker or student. Time constraints and financial handicaps dictate a routine focused on need-based actions. Therefore, going to the gym is often at the bottom of a to-do list. This project, which evolved from research and strategy stages into to a soft-goods product, challenges the way we get from point A to point B. It steps back and looks for value opportunity in our day-to-day routines and transitions across space. We created a product that integrates into pre-existing lifestyles and allows users to get in shape regardless of their time constraints or busy routines.
We wanted to focus on transitional urban living, and more specifically, the idea that getting from point A to point B can be profitable in new ways.
We created our jacket based on hand made patterns designed on Illustrator.
The tension adjustment works intuitively with a cord pull at the end of each sleeve. The criss-cross looping allows the user to tighten or loosen the jacket's muscle enhancing capabilities. The inner jacket fabric is a combination of neoprene and non-stretch fabric wrapped around major upper body muscle groups.
The feedback system on the jacket sleeve demonstrates heartbeat, distance, and time.
Items like "shape-Ups", which already exist and are a similar idea to ours were placed in the inner "current" circle. Feasible concepts that we wanted to explore were in the second circle. The ideas that were unexpected and radical were placed in the outer most circle.
In order to unravel where we could find value in our project, we began asking specific questions about what our product, the jacket, would be able to do. We wanted to define why it was important and who it would be important for, and from that, we could define an argument for why this product should exist.
Our first Here>There model began with post-its placed on either side of the model, the "Here" side representing ideas that already exist in terms of exercise, such as going to the gym, or wearing ankle weights. Our "There" side focused on possibilities we wanted to examine further in our project.
Our final Here>There model outlined specifics. We defined why the existing products and activities were in the "Here" category, why those were unsuccessful, and how we could change them. We outlined our three biggest goals based on what we wanted to see in the "There" category, and this became the strategy arena.
Process--Defining Strategy
Possible Futures Model:
The Possible Futures model is used to organize ideas about the future into three different circles. The inner circle represents the current situation or the near foreseeable future. The second circle contains ideas that are plausible, but not necessarily expected. The third circle is for ideas that are radically different and would require a large amount of change. We wanted to be able to root our ideas in plausibility but still explore the "what if" kind of ideas and see if we could approach a middle ground.
Value Proposition Triangle:
The Value Proposition model is made up of four triangles. Each triangle asks a different specific about the strategy’s intent.The center triangle asks for the value proposition, which is made from a combination of the information filled in the other triangles. We determined that our strongest argument for value creation was with the concept of exercise as an integrative measure to a busy urban lifestyle, based on asking questions such as "who is this for?", "what is it for?", and "what does it do?".
Here>There Model:
Here > There models are used to highlight where a concept stands now and where it will be going. With this Here > There model, we defined what success would look like if our strategy were to take place. The Here>There model evolved from its skeleton stage to a final iteration as we began to define what success would mean for our soft goods project.
("An adaptable solution to safe and efficient exercise in an urban environment")
The Contractile Jacket, used to improve the experience of every day tasks in a fast-paced urban environment, allows its wearer to improve muscle mass through an adustable tension system wrapped around major upper-body muscle groups. This project came about as a response to to the question: "How can we improve getting from point A to point B?". Our vision was a method of exercising that could happen while performing ordinary, daily tasks such as opening doors, walking a dog, or running errands. We wanted our solution to be integrative--meaning that the user would not be required to change his or her routines. Thus, we designed our jacket to become an integrative fixture within pre-existing routines. This project was a team-based, human-centered research study that led into a soft-goods project.
The Result: Final Prototype
The feedback system on the jacket sleeve was the result of our user research. We found that there was a desire for a "progress report" when it came to exercise, meaning that people who work out are interested in knowing how they are doing. This system allows the user to keep track of the time, their heart rate, and their distance traveled.
The jacket is comprised of a combination of non stretch fabric and neoprene. We studied upper body muscle groups to help define the placement of the non-stretch fabric within the jacket sleeve and body.
Reflection
This project spanned over the course of a month--a short project. We presented our research and prototype at a design review as well as to the head of the school of design. The majority of the time and effort spent on the project was focused around defining what we wanted this jacket to accomplish and how we could create something of value to our users. The final prototype, which we sewed together in the last week of the project, accurately reflected our insights and research. However, had the timeline been extended, it would have been interesting to conduct user testing to determine how well the jacket met the goals we set for it in use. There were considerations that we could have explored further, such as versatility of the jacket between seasons, the possible social function of the feedback system, and the capability of an embedded audio system in the hood.