Weft Furniture is a prototype for sustainable, recycled furniture that explores the emotional connections people form with their possessions and the impact on waste production. Weft creates functional pieces of furniture out of shredded textiles destined for landfills to give a new life to textile waste. Each piece is accompanied by a digital storyline that allows the user to engage with the history of their product and create a lasting emotional connection. By telling the story of the materials incorporated into the furniture, Weft aims to reduce textile waste and landfill-prone furniture. This two pronged approach to sustainability promotes designed products that are both long-lasting and encourage a deeper connection to the physical object.
Product Manager & Product Designer
- Led UX / UI and visual design
Rebranded ‘Healthy Bladder’ to ‘Bladderly’.
- Took charge of brand positioning and feature development.
Sarah Fletcher
Vishaka Nirmal
Bennett Graff
Advised by Monty Sharma
Product Manager & Product Designer
- Led UX / UI and visual design
Rebranded ‘Healthy Bladder’ to ‘Bladderly’.
- Took charge of brand positioning and feature development.
This project was guided by a user-centered design approach. Through initial surveys and interviews, we learned about emotional bonds between users and their belongings. We then explored a range of user experiences for individuals interacting with their furniture. Finally, we went through multiple rounds of prototyping which led us to final products in the form of a cabinet and an accompanying app to relay the sentimental value of the item.
We started of ideating by mapping out how we would create emotional connection to a furniture piece. Then we sketched out where the collected textile would fit with in the furniture.
Our process started with small molds to compress different sizes of shredded textile scraps into boards. Over several iterations, we refined the materials using resin for structure. Then, we distinguished boards that would be the structure of the furniture and that would be the veneer sheet.
Finally we put together all the boards to build a cabinet.
To complement the physical furniture, we designed a digital platform that lets users scan a QR code on the furniture to access its story. This includes images of the fabrication process and the original form of the materials, helping them memorialize the original fabric and enhancing the user’s connection to the product.
For the promotion of Bladderly products, I created an animation based on the fundamental information regarding bladder disorder, aimed at delivering essential knowledge to the audience.
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