My senior thesis focusing on how to alleviate the moving process. I developed a solution for a space-saving foldable hanger for those who move often.
SolidWorks, Keyshot, 3D Printer
After moving into my new apartment I found myself frustrated at the moving process, which made me wonder if others had similar grievances. Based on my research I found that the average American moves 11 times in their life. And about 43 million Americans relocate each year. Moving is generally a very stressful experience, from financial stress to physical stress.
I had the assumption that the most frustrating part about moving was loading and unloading, but from survey I found most participants felt packing and unpacking were the most frustrating part about moving.
Based on the responses there were 4 main areas of concern about packing: space efficiency, organization, fragility, and weight distribution.
After sketching a few concepts I decided that space efficiency solutions seemed to be the most feasible and relevant to the problem.
I sketched and made low-fidelity models for two concepts: a foldable hanger and a collapsible jewelry stand. I tackled these two products because of a few responses I got in the survey about hangers and jewelry holders. After testing the two ideas
After testing the two ideas the the hanger had the most space efficiency potential and solved problems beyond just moving.
I received positive feedback from users, one even felt the design could solve problems outside of moving.
"This would be helpful for our store in particular because we have to re-pack the hangers and ship them back to the warehouse. We usually just throw the hangers in a box after an item is sold, so we have to spend a long time sorting and packing them."
- Retail Worker
"I've always been annoyed at the space in between hangers when they're stacked. It's too irregular of a shape so nothing really fits in it and wastes a lot of space. By eliminating this space it'd be much easier to pack hangers with other objects"
- Has moved 11 times