Design of a family of acoustic panels that follows Kinnarps guidelines

Abstract: Development of a conceptual proposal of acoustic panels for the Swedish company Kinnarps. The project uses as main methodology Design Thinking with an user centred approach. Secondarily is influenced by the product development process of Ulrich & Eppinger and some IDEO method cards. A literature review that mainly covers acoustics with an emphasis in absorption, a market research, and user studies were performed in order to have a based foundation to create feasible concepts. Along this report is possible to see how the development of the concepts has been done, how they were generated, evolved, and evaluated. As a final result it was proposed a family of 3 different types of structures with 4 variable absorbent panels that ease the way of mounting with a magnetic attachment, and gives several compositions to the customer. It is considered that the final concept fulfils all the demands, although there are some debatable requirements like the functionality, and sustainability that require further development. The methodology and the approach chosen were considered effective tools to work with product design projects that seek an innovative result because they give an appropriate mix of exploration and selection of ideas, and relevant input obtained by the involvement of the users.