CLight: Bedside Storage for Dorm Rooms

Background

** **During Fall 2009, as a part of a class in Product Design and Development, I worked on a team of two engineering students from Olin College, two business students from Babson College, and two industrial design students from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).  Our team looked at storage in the college dorm room and developed a wall mounted bedside storage.  This new spin on bedside storage provided space for frequently used items such as cell phones, books, glasses, and wallets.  Additionally, we integrated power plugs for charging laptops and phones and dimmable reading lights.

The C-Light has been selected for the 2010 Industrial Design Senior Show at RISD.

**Process **

We started the semester out by visiting students from more than a dozen schools in the Boston area.  During this phase, we noticed that almost every student had a bedside table and most of them had purchased something to fill this need.  This table was used to hold small things like an alarm clock, a cell phone charger, a wallet, and a book. Additionally, we realized that students have several other driving factors in their choice for furniture- the importance of floor space and portability of furniture so it can be stored and used year to year.

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When visiting college dorm rooms, we consistently noticed that students used bedside storage for small, frequently used items like cell phones and keys.

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Based on this understanding of the problem space, we developed many concepts for potential products that filled the needs of college students.  As we continued refining several of our concepts, we began analyzing the opportunity space from a business standpoint.  Ultimately, we chose to focus on the C-Light, our wall mounted storage solution.  Sketches and solid models allowed for further refinement of the concept while physical “looks like” prototypes allowed us to experiment with material selection.