Development of a portable display system with a human-centered design approach

Abstract: This master thesis project in industrial design engineering at Luleå University of Technology was about developing a portable light box for Spennare. The work was done under the supervision of the design engineering studio Catino in Stockholm during the spring of 2020. The background for the project was that Spennare today has a large selection of display system products that companies can use to promote themselves, such as roll-up screens and pop-up walls. But a product they does not have in their range is a portable lightbox. A portable lightbox differs from roll-ups and similar products in the way that the message that is conveyed becomes backlit, since the lightbox contains LED lights. This differentiates  the lightbox amongst other similar products and the message is conveyed in a clearer and more prominent way than with a roll-up which is not backlit. The work has followed a user-centered design process that has followed a framework called Double Diamond developed by the Design Council (Design Council, n.d.). The framework consists of four phases: discover, define, develop and deliver. The purpose of the process was to first create an understanding of what the problem was, and then to concretize it into some well-formulated problems and needs that needed to be solved and fulfilled. Then ideas for solutions to these problems would be generated, ideas that could then be refined and evaluated until final solution were reached. Methods used during the process was benchmarking, interviews, observations and tests to identify the problem. Then, among other things, different brainstorming methods have been used during both creative workshops but also throughout the process of generating ideas. In order to test and evaluate different ideas, prototypes have been built in different stages during the process. The final result was compiled in a cad model. In the initial phase of the processes, when an understanding of the problem was developed, showed that many of the existing lightboxes consist of many different parts that the user must assemble themselves, which puts great demands on the user. Interviews with users showed that they wanted products that are as simple as possible to assemble. Interviews with people who had experience with lightboxes stated that plastic lightboxes are not an option as they are of quality worse than dittos in aluminium. Tests also showed that plastic lightboxes had flaws in the mounting process and the end result became unstable. Based on these insights, a large number of different ideas were generated that solved these problems. These ideas were iterated and narrowed down to four different concepts. These concepts were evaluated against requirements and goals set at the beginning of the process. After the evaluation, one concept remained, which was then developed further with the help of prototypes and detail sketches. The end result was a lightbox which is an improvement in the way that it requires significantly fewer steps to mount the lightbox. The number of parts is the same but these are connected with joints and this makes the lightbox consist of only two modules. It can be argued that in order for the end result to be as good as possible, more tests should have been done. But due to the situation that was the spring of 2020 with the Covid-19 pandemic, it was not possible to conduct more tests. More prototypes had also had to be made to ensure that the design worked as intended. Likewise to evaluate the shape of the lightbox, which is currently only designed with the help of 2D sketches and 3D digital models. So to ensure that the shape not negatively affect the function, prototypes of higher quality and with the correct shape have to be made and evaluated. However, it can be concluded that the lightbox designed is an improvement of what exists on the market today. It has better usability and does not require as much of the user when installing the lightbox.