Daily Goods Design Labs 'Essentials Kits'

Official DGDL product shot of The Covid Essentials Kit for everyday experiences ™ that I helped develop.

Description

Summer Job

The goal of this summer job was to learn the practices and processes of a Toronto-based design, research and innovation consultancy which specializes in a human-centred design process that focuses on what people value, desire and expect now and in the future. I was given responsibilities and tasks encompassing market research, trend analysis, concept development, storyboarding, and prototyping soft goods and various digital applications.

Working with the DGDL team enabled me to significantly increase my collaboration skills with other creative professionals and sharpen my ability to communicate my findings and ideas verbally one-on-one and in Powerpoint presentations to groups. I also gained valuable experience and insight on how to optimize deliverables in the remote workplace by participating in many team brainstorm and critique sessions. As a result of the summer job, I was better able to focus my senior year at OCAD University on building trust in the remote workplace, which has became the main topic of my major thesis project. A key projects to which I contributed was The Covid Essential Kit.

The covid essential kit

At the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, people learned about how to follow new health protocols. The DGDL sought to create a kit to help keep women traveling safe by holding personal protective equipment like masks and hand sanitizer in a convenient pouch. Pockets within the pouch were designed to help users on the go separate clean and dirty masks from each other to reduce the risk of cross contamination. The kit also includes a reusable plastic funnel and bottle for users to refill with their own hand sanitizer. I worked with Renn Scott, Founder and Chief Designer, and Friedrich Wing in the development of the kit.

Process

Problem and opportunity

Traveling is an important part of everyone’s life, whether it is to a different country or commuting to work. Unfortunately, traveling can be more complicated and dangerous for women compared to their male counterparts. The goal of the DGDL was to design products that meet the specific needs of women on the go to create solutions that improve the safety, comfort, and enjoyable experience of travel. The Covid-19 pandemic also added new travel and safety precautions that must also be considered in the design.

From Inspiration

When developing the form of the Covid-19 Essentials Kit, I took inspiration from first aid kits, hygiene kits, and luxury amenity kits. The first aid kits gave me an idea of how medical supplies where packaged and stored to decrease risk of contamination. The hygiene kits informed me on what products were necessities to help keep people clean and healthy. I learned from the luxury amenity kits what forms were chic and travel friendly.