Overview 

This was the capstone project for my New Product Development class at Simon Fraser University. In collaboration with Vancouver City Studio, the project was aimed to design marketable products using up-cycled wood to reduce landfill in Vancouver.

Each student in the class submitted an individual proposal and pitched it to the class for voting. My wood jewellery proposal was voted as one of the top ideas, and three classmates joined me to bring “Wear a Piece of Nature” to life. The final designs were sold and showcased at the Museum of Vancouver.

IDEATION

My ideation process started with asking three questions: Who, What and Why.

During my trip to the landfill, I was saddened to see the amount of wood waste dumped in a day. Most of them were old furniture, construction waste and fallen trees that were rotting. All of these came in various sizes and shapes so it would be challenging to make products that require consistent look and quality. Based on this observation, I jotted down some preliminary product concepts to work with: one-of-a-kind, customizable, small in size, practical, personal token.

I did some white board brainstorming and paper prototyping, the idea of Wood Jewelry came into sight. I went to fetch some branches from the woods nearby and made a pair of cufflink as my MVP. With the prototype, I went to interview students on campus, and shoppers at craft markets to get their initial reactions. More than half of my interviewees said they would consider purchasing or wear Wood Jewelry, especially if it helped to keep wood waste off the landfill. They were willing to pay up to $30 per piece and expressed excitement with customized designs. I consolidated insights from interview notes and created a concept pitch poster with Who, What and Why.

PROTOTYPE AND ITERATIONS

The most fun part of this project was prototyping. As a team, we picked up woodworking skills and went on many trips to local art supply stores. We experimented with different wood types, size and shapes, as well as top coat paints to find the most durable and aesthetic combination. I also experimented with different paint mediums to create arts on wood surfaces. After 2 months of trial and error, and tremendous support from our teacher and peers, we finally landed on a few necklace designs and mastered the wood drilling and engraving skills.

SHOWCASE

Our project was showcased at Museum of Vancouver as part of the initiative to reduce wood waste in the city. We received great amount of positive feedback and sold all of our samples on the demo day along with some customized orders.

Take-aways

This was one of the first times I experienced the process of  product development and I really enjoyed it. As an undergrad student project, more emphasis was placed at the ideation and prototype phase. Some of the user research and technical elements were not elaborated due to the limits of time and scope.

Thank you for reading!