My team for Northwestern University's DSGN 308 (Human-Centered Product Design) class tackled the issue of paper grocery bags being too weak to carry groceries, forcing the practice of double-bagging paper bags. We created a bag that outperformed the strength of double bags.
This class taught me how to identify a white space, gather surveys and user interviews to justify the white space, and use the iterative design process to create a patentable product that beats all other competitors.
From our team's personal experience, we knew the pain of a paper grocery bag ripping while carrying groceries, but when we found out that the bags were frustrating for grocers as well, our team chose to tackle the task of creating a stronger paper grocery bag.
Our main consideration with our grocery bag was to increase the structural strength in order to eliminate the need for inefficient double-bagging, a common practice in grocery stores. This was paramount given that the purpose of using paper grocery bags was to be more eco-friendly, yet the practice of double-bagging created much more waste than plastic bags.
Our patent research showed that there had been no improvements to the patent of the grocery bags commonly used at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. With this information, I led the ideation of concepts to increase strength and minimize manufacturing changes.
To test our designs we first found a combination of grocery items that reached the breaking threshold of a single paper bag. Then we created a circuit of activities similar to real-world use that increased in intensity to put strain on the prototypes.
Five trials were conducted per prototype by the same team member in the same building to minimize variation across trials. We designed the trials to have every break at some point; this was so we could quantify the performance of each prototype against the others.
Our results showed two of our prototypes performing at or above the level of our control double-bagged trials; the double handle prototype and masking tape prototype.
To decide between the top two prototypes, we conducted user testing with real grocery shopping runs and found that the taped bag prototypes felt more comfortable for most users than the double handle prototypes. Based on this feedback, as well as the limited manufacturing changes, our team selected the taped bag prototype as our final product.
Though the final solution seemed rather simple, I learned that a great product can be simple in design but great through the research, testing, and validation that led to the product's final form.