For the Fall 2024 and Winter 2025 quarters, I am working on my second year thesis project.


To discover the problem space, I explored peoples' collecting experiences through 13 interviews and extensive secondary research which served to illuminate the core of every collector's experience.


I sat with each collector and had conversations about their collecting habits, how they collect, why the collect, and what challenges they face within the collecting experience. Regardless of what items people collected, they all brought up two major reasons for engaging with their respective hobbies: community and interaction.


Almost everyone loved to talk about their collections


Explain initial explorative research and overall takeaways from conversations with collectors


Collectivity

Explain each insight and how that shaped the overarching how might we/problem statement


Explain brainstorming and concept feedback process. Highlight what resonated with collectors and what features were important


Explain how collectors want something to augment their collecting experience vs wholly replace it

Introduce concept and features

Explain features and how they tie back to insights and design reqs/collector priorities

Explain how AI and camera tech works

  • 3D scanning (uses black background)

  • Camera modules

Explain how it is different from exsisting systems (differentiation strat) and what it keeps familiar (commonality strat)


Explain business strategy -

price point

scalability

Explain hardware form, color, material

  • cubes

  • camera modules

  • light modules

  • modularity

Discuss overall project learnings as designer and researcher