Survey & Analysis
As discussed in my last blog post, I sent out a survey asking people what items they bring with them to the gym and work/school as well as what features they value each bag. I also included some optional short answer questions allowing participants to input any important items and features that I may have missed. Finally, I asked participants what type of bag they prefer for each place, how they commute and if they currently carry a separate bag for the gym and work/school. Below, I've included screenshots of some survey answers.
The most important parts of this survey were the questions about what items participants typically bring to the gym and what features they believe are important. To gather this information, I used Likert scale-style questions. Pictured below are partial snapshots of the survey questions about items brought in and features of gym bags. The same scales were used for the questions about work/school bags.
The analysis of the survey focused on the data from the questions pictured above for both types of bags. The charts below highlight key results of the survey. To understand the general sentiment of participants, I aggregated responses from participants that fell either generally on the positive or negative sides of the spectrum. This is represented on all of the charts in the darker pink colour. To provide additional context, the lighter pink colour represents only participants who answered the extreme (Always/Never, 1/5)
From the results of this part of the survey, my assumption that most people frequently brought a change of shoes to the gym was proved wrong. Although it was in the top 5 items brought, less than 50% of people said they always or usually bring them and less than 25% of people said that they always bring them.
Based on the existing product market I had assumed that second water bottle pockets were standard and therefore desired by most people. However, based on the survey results, this was the least desired feature on both gym and work/school bags with over 60% of people voting it not important and 75% of people voting it having an importance of 1 or 2.
I was also surprised to learn that separate shoe storage was not a highly desired feature of gym bags. About 30% of participants voted it being of only 1 or 2 importance and about 20% voted it being not important.
Areas for Improvement
With the conclusions above, I believe that the way I posed the question may have provided inaccurate data. Since I asked participants about the use of their bags exclusively for the gym or work/school a bag for both contexts may be used differently. These features may be more desired in this context. This is further supported by the fact that most participants carry separate bags for the gym and work/school, with only 20% of people saying that they did not.
From here, I decided to move forward with the shoe pocket, as I believe that based on the current product market, this is an important feature for gym/work bags. Additionally, giving the backpack an expandable bottom will allow for more storage space which was voted an important feature on both bags by participants and can be used as a spot for users to store other items such as dirty clothes or towels. I plan to revisit the survey when designing the other features of the bag later.
Material Research
To further understand how I could create an expandable bottom for the shoe pocket area of the bag, I then did further research into what materials are currently used for origami-inspired products. Specifically, I was looking for materials that can be folded and maintain their folded shape even after being unfolded. From my research, I found two examples using laser-cut polypropylene that seemed to meet this requirement, Growth by Studio Ayaskan and the Moondarra project by Luke Phillips. In the Moondara project, Luke also shows some attempts to integrate folding patterns into fabric.
On his page, Luke demonstrates 2 methods he experimented with to fold fabric. One was to use a 3D-printed press/mould to get the fabric to follow that shape. He does mention that the fabric becomes "tedious" once released from the mould and then went on to repeat the process with "fabric stiffener, PVA paste and silicone to give the fabric some rigidity" but does not elaborate on the results.
The other experiment he did with fabric was combining a fabric base with panels, on the flat areas, made from interfacing. Ultimately, he used a polypropylene sheet with fabric attached using spray adhesive for his final prototype. Although polypropylene seems to work well for these projects, I believe that constructing the bottom of a backpack from polypropylene would not hold up well to regular wear and tear. Additionally, since this project is focused on experimentation, I would like to learn by testing different methods and materials.
Cutting & Folding Patterns
Inspired by the patterns used in the projects above, I also wanted to fold some more complex tessellations. I used the paper cutter to pre-cut the Resch, Huffman waterbomb, Miura Ori and waterbomb patterns onto origami paper to make it easier to fold them.
Material Experimentation
For the expandable bottom area of the backpack, I think either the Resch tessellation or the Huffman Waterbomb would work well as the pattern creates a flat surface when folded. The images below explain some brainstorming I've been doing about how the Huffman waterbomb pattern could be applied to fabric using 3D-printed pieces and magnets. As a next step, I hope to create some prototypes based on this idea.
Sketching & Folding
Since storage space seemed to be an important feature of the bags, I decided to focus on how to enhance this using origami. Inspired by one of the previously mentioned Krea-generated sketches, I began to translate this into a functional feature.
Next Steps
As mentioned, my immediate next step is to prototype the Huffman waterbomb pattern with the 3D-printed parts, fabric, and magnets. Additionally, once I have some fabric to test with, I would like to try some of the patterns proposed for the expandability feature of the backpack and some methods to keep this area in its closed state such as zippers, buckles, elastic cord, or something else entirely. I would also like to continue to narrow down what specific features the rest of the backpack will have, I think that further analysis of the survey results could help with this.
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