CLICK is a design investigation into people living mobile and transient lifestyles. It was inspired by my own frustration with being unable to afford high quality designer furniture. By conducting design research through surveys and user interviews I discovered that users wanted to invest in high quality furniture but were prevented from doing so due to financial investment and the burden of moving furniture from place to place as frequently as they did. With this in mind, I have designed CLICK – an intuitive and affordable portable furniture system. The final physical outcome of this project is an innovative click together joinery technology, resolved through CH_01 - a multi-use chair. The use of injection moulded components, significantly reduces the cost to the end user and the innovative CLICK together joint offers a superior user experience to the norm we have come to expect in low quality and wasteful flatpack furniture. As a supporting element, the CLICK project explores a collection of furniture which uses this click together joint and is delivered to the end user in the form of a rental/lease system.

CLICK is an example of taking an idea and refining it, iteration through iteration, until arriving at the final solution. Extensive user research was conducted at the front end of the design process, utilising interviewing techniques and observation as well as user testing. This allowed me to gain important insights achieved through synthesis of user research data, from this a set of Design Criteria was established. These insights were then developed into three concept designs and evaluated alongside the design criteria. The highest performing aspects of each concept were selected for further development. The prototyping phase combined CAD modelling with full scale mock ups and joint prototypes. Iterations were quick and dirty at this stage as I moved between each technique. Each iteration was scored against the design criteria and iterations that succeeded were selected for small user testing groups. I consulted with an engineer to gain an understanding of the manufacturing processes required to manufacture the product and the features required to maintain structural stability. The end result is a beautiful and elegant injection moulded chair utilising an intuitive click together joint. The portable aspect of the chair caters towards the small apartment dweller that is conscious of creating a space they are proud of and who moves frequently. It affords the user the ability to easily transport the product from place to place, removing the burden furniture currently has. The joint allows the piece to be reassembled over and over again. The division of each part making up the frame were carefully selected, taking into account the weak points in the frames structure. This meant that each part supported the other adequately. It also meant that only one part would fail at one time. The injection moulded process allows for parts to be easily replaced and the use of recyclable materials means the parts can be recycled and made into new parts. The user experience was carefully developed to deliver one of high quality. Each detail was refined through the same process even down to the packaging. I really wanted to take care of the user throughout the whole process as I knew through my research how important the efficiency of the system needed to be. As I was finalising the joint technology I noticed the potential for this joint to be used in a collection of furniture pieces. I also saw the potential for this collection to be sold within a lease style system. This helps to take care of the product - preventing it from landfill, while delivering a high value service to the end user, completely reliving the user of any burden associated with furniture. This system is just a concept at present and needs to be tested and proved further however I believe it helps to illustrate the potential for this joint technology.