Objects

The high-heeled shoe is ubiquitous despite its hazards and discomforts. Inspired by the figure skating world, Figured Out Heels uses heat-molding technology to create a perfect, individualized fit.

Premise

Women choose high heels for reasons such as fashion and height, and generally not for comfort or health. Our fieldwork indicates that women would prefer shoes that were more comfortable and more stable, but not at the expense of the appearance of the shoe. As a result, shoes that compromise the form of the shoe do not meet a target demand.

While high heels are not designed for stability, figure skates are. Skates are heat-molded at the point of purchase to each athlete’s feet to create a stable fit. Far from the feeling of rental skates, molded figure skates are soft and feel more like a sock than a shoe. The following video shows the sharp contrast between the two experiences exposed in our fieldwork.

Proposal

Figured Out Heels proposes the custom-fit high heel. A 3d-scan of each foot will be taken at an onsite location. This scan will reproduce a 3d-printed sole at the exact contour of the foot. The sole will then be attached to the leather-outer heat-moldable-inner shoe upper. The final process is to heat-mold the final product to the customer’s foot.

Since our research indicates that women like the aesthetic of high heels, this technology will be adopted to an already existing aesthetic – the bootie. Combining fashion and comfort, this shoe will appear from the outside to be a normal designer shoe, while secretly concealing our perfect fit technology.

Documentation

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beeLine is a proposed app platform that provides a social shopping experience with simple, performance-driven navigation tools. The platform seeks to be the Pinterest and Amazon for the online clothing market – combining a social atmosphere with a simple and rapid purchasing environment. Users are encouraged to provide useful content through the eBates monetization model; in other words, the company shares click-through revenue with posters of key content. Involvement with other users, purchases made through the platform, and signal-to-noise are all considered in setting the percentage of compensation to users, incentivizing quality posts over quantity posts.

Field Research

An equal split of online shoppers and brick-and-mortar shoppers were surveyed. Shopping time ranges from between 5 minutes and a week, with all respondents thinking they were average. Observations suggest 10-30 minutes of this time is active shopping, and the rest is deliberation time. Between 3 and 5 stores is considered the maximum number to visit during a shopping experience. More clicks are considered okay for shopping (with one user responding as high as 10), but users want 2-3 click purchasing. Respondents generally do not ask for opinions on public social networks.

None of the respondents shop for clothing on existing mobile phone platforms. The process of tracking down a product is convoluted, requires the ability to obtain and cross-reference data from several sources, and is conducted on sites that do not present the information in a simple-to-use format. All shopping experiences used at least three tabs of information in order to complete a purchase.

The result of this fieldwork is summarized in the graphic and target persona below.

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The Pitch

How many tabs do you open when you shop online? Do you find them frustrating, excessive, and complicated? Does your need to shop online with tabs prevent you from using your phone? You aren’t alone. We have become researchers rather than shoppers, and this fundamentally changes the way we work. Research suggests that we spend 10-30 minutes researching through countless websites, with at least 3-5 tabs open at the same time, even if we know what we want.

What if your research could be all in one place? Introducing beeLine – the mobile app that makes shopping on your phone easier than shopping with your web browser. Go from research to purchase in one unified, streamlined process – a unified browser, a unified product catalog, and a global cart with two click purchasing. We track your accounts and fill out all of your information for you. We offer a substantial tab system to allow you to save all of your product research in the system, whether products from our catalog or URLs.

Filters: some people love them, some people hate them. We offer two options – a human readable interface and a substantial number of filters. And yet, if there is one thing social media has taught us, it is that humans can provide the best recommendations and feedback. Want to contribute to our database? Anyone can post a great find, and as an added bonus, we will share the click-through revenue with our users who break the best products.

beeLine – cut through the hassle straight to your favorite products.

Demo the app here.

Documentation

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Wonderland is a a combination of theater and gaming, breaking the fourth wall in order to combine the construction of modules for low-income housing.

The Pitch

Fall down the rabbit hole to awaken in a dystopian future. “Wonderland” quickly becomes a psychological horror show, complete with a king, queen, duchess, and hatter ruling their own corners of the domain. Don’t want to hear “Off with her head!” before the end of the first act?

Navigate the game with care if you purchase a bronze ticket; the silver and gold ticket holders might change the rules of the game. And the challenges? Here, you won’t be painting the roses red, but strange toils with shipping palettes, rubber tires, recycled bottles, scrap metal, denim, and cardboard await.

The game operates on two levels — on the surface, players can attend a financially successful and exciting theater event, complete with actors filling modern adaptations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Underneath the surface, the “strange toils” produce the components for prefabricated panels that will complete housing at a fraction of the cost.

Set in an abandoned grain terminal, the project recoups its investment in three weeks and then raises additional funds for the furthering of the cause. Proceeds benefit a communal living space for New York artists unable to afford market-priced housing.

Documentation

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