As a user journey was established and the product showed signs of successfully meeting its design goals, repetitive construction allowed for refined tolerance, design for manufacturing efficiency, further analysis of flat-packing scenarios. It was difficult to stop implementing ideas. Feedback was genuine, and seemingly limitless.

Core elements of design were established, while smaller elements were moved, removed, or implemented in addition. Procedural testing at every step drove manufacturability, ergonomics, and price point as features were refined, materials vetted, and assembly streamlined.

Notice the feature similarities between this early concept, and our final design, nearly 3 years apart.

I prioritized consolidation highly. The wish list of features and attributes to improve the product individually was impossibly long. To distill such a complex dynamic into a set of realistic features required thinking critically about how each element of the product could serve us in as many ways as possible. Every feature on the product is multifunctional, solving multiple problems, skirting constraints, and providing latent benefits wherever possible.

The door deserves its own portfolio. It went through more construction prototypes than MeSpace itself. But, it absolutely had to have a sliding door. Fundamentally, it was a beacon of what we believed the unit to be: personalized. Someone could simultaneously control their incoming sound and visual landscape to a minute level without it getting in the way. A traditional door is stuck: open or closed. A traditional door also adds to the unit foot print, since opening it requires free space for it to swing.

I also streamlined the ancillary space. User interaction points are visible and simple. Interior storage is limited to discourage a high volume of personal belongings into this minimal-style focus space. Early on I introduced a shelf to the right side. Users in testing found so many unpredictable uses for it that it became hard to justify removing it.

I worked with engineering to streamline and consolidate the assemblies and subassemblies in our Solidworks model, and refine the CAD database. With 19 different vendors on the project, keeping track of components was essential for production, engineering, and realistic rendering.