Smarbinet – Customizable Smart Cabinet
Intro
Smarbinet is for my User Experience Certificate capstone course, students are asked to use everything we have learned to fabricate, to spark an idea and further develope it to the prototype stage. Whether it is to reconstruct the existing outdated website, create a website for a business that doesn’t have a website or an entirely new concept.
Created from scratch, inspired by a sleek designed cabinet with a tablet, coffee machine, and mini-fridge all in one package I have seen in someone’s apartment lounge area. Smarbinet aims to absolve all the troubles and expensive cost of finding a cabinet service or buying a cabinet and have to go through all the installation frustration.
Problem Statement
Often when we moved into a new place, a new home or simply just renovates an existing place, this question surfaces: what to buy and place where? Sure, one’s choice of the styles of furniture says about the person, but what to do when there’s that awkward spacing among all the furniture that you just can’t find a suitable piece to squeeze in and not making the entire space seems too crowded?
Furthermore, sometimes we get cabinets that are just too big and spacious and bulky that only takes up the space of a room, what to do then?
Introducing Smarbinet – the one and only cabinet that’s not only space-saving but also allowing you the maximum freedom to design your place to your heart contents! Smart Cabinet resembles giant LEGO pieces, using the interlocking system to securely connect one or more cabinets when stacking whichever way you want to without the use of nails and hammer! Forget about the mind-drowning installation, Smart Cabinet is easy to set up and guarantee to satisfy your need for any space.
Plans
The whole concept is to construct a prototype of the service on both the website and mobile app interface. I’ll prototype the website first as it serves as an introductory to the app.
Sitemap
Below shows a layout of Smarbinet mobile app. The website will also follow a similar structure except the AR Fitting will not be included.
Wireframe
Below shows very first drafts of low-fidelity wireframes for both website and mobile interfaces.
Personas
For this project, I have created 3 personas and for some refining work on the prototype, I chose Elizabeth to define the final touches.
Elizabeth, 25, who has a degree in Geology from Seattle University. She recently just moved into a new studio away from her home. She still has many things needs to be organized and in dire needs of some cabinets. She has thought of IKEA due to her budget but she also doesn’t want to spend too much time on just installing cabinets.
Michael, 36, a project manager at Amazon, lives in downtown Seattle luxury apartment. He is not satisfied with pre-existing setups, so he wants to buy a couple of furniture or cabinets to make it feel more like home. However, he has limited space so nothing too big for the little space he has.
Joe, 31, video game engineer, right now he lives with his fiancé Jennifer in her apartment. They are thinking to buy a house in the near future. Despite the fact they will have so much more space in the new home, they are used to living in a somewhat compact space so when they are buying new furniture, they are looking for something compact, not space-costing and easy to move around if necessary.
Scenario
Elizabeth is now shopping at IKEA with her friends for some new cabinets for her studio. The noisy background doesn’t really help her focus on the tasks on hand, so she pulls out her phone to surf the web and check social media.
As they walk down the cabinet aisle, Elizabeth’s friends start introducing one of the cabinets, it looks compact and an ideal addition to the studio but she wants to look for more options, so she Google’s “space-saving cabinet”, scroll down a few she saw an ad for Smart Cabinet.
Elizabeth clicks into this website and watches a short video introducing Smart Cabinet and how it can be a great selection for limited spacing and easy to install. She quickly bookmarks the website and clicks on “Buy Now” in the navigation which leads her into a list of stores that currently carry Smart Cabinet. Elizabeth realized this is what she wants so she tells her friend they should go to the store to shop instead.
Logo
The logo is essentially 2 tilted cabinets overlaps and facing opposite direction with drawers out at various lengths.
Below showcase the video of the final prototype: