Illuminating the role of closet lighting for homeowners
Our client wanted to innovate in the bedroom closet space, particularly through closet lighting.
- Role
- Designer
- Year
- 2018
Approach
Ethnographic Research was the course of action, with a focus on how people use their closets, what pain points they experience, and how lighting plays a role in their lives and in their closets.
Result
What makes this study interesting is that the concept was ultimately invalidated, with many research participants showing how seemingly unusable areas of the closet are still used to meet other needs, for example, long term storage. Lessons : Be adaptive and stay flexible when conducting research. You might have a great protocol that needs to be tossed in the trash once you are actually on site. This might be because of diminishing returns, or new business research questions that need to be addressed. Staying confined to a protocol comes off as robotic sometimes, and users can sense it. Additionally, this project was a good example of trying to solve a problem that did not actually exist. Communicating this effectively is a skill that is important to show the business empathy.