Case Study: Optimizing one’s experience on the balcony

A Design Thinking project aimed at understanding the gaps in the user’s experience and coming up with relevant solutions.

12 min readJun 9, 2021

The main aim of this project revolves around understanding users better through the design thinking approach. The idea was to choose a particular area of the house and identify the existing gaps in that area with respect to the user’s experience. As we were already divided into groups of 8, the users were none other than our teammates. For the project, my area was the balcony, a space that I was not too sure about as I felt that it isn’t as important as other areas.

Do people even use their balconies? Is it not something that isn’t much of a necessity? What problems can people possibly even have?

However, I realized that I need to keep my preconceived notions aside and trust the process. The more challenging your area, the higher will be the insights.

Plan of Action: What is Design Thinking?

Design thinking is nothing but a process that helps to understand users in a better way while empathizing with them and identifying the gaps in their experience. This process allows us to find the best possible solution for the problems that the user is facing.

Hence, in order to understand more about the user’s experience on the balcony, these steps were followed: Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test.

Before, going ahead with the stages, it was important for me to understand that I am NOT the user and that I need to keep my personal experiences at bay and not let them cloud the insights that I receive from my users.

Empathize

The balcony is usually the only open area in flats and is closely associated with leisure activities.

Before interviewing my users, I prepared a few questions keeping in mind that it is best to keep the interview conversational in nature. The idea was to understand how people interact with their balconies which would further help identify some of the gaps in their interactions.

Following are the questions

1. Where is the balcony located? Where is the entry point of your balcony? Is it covered from the top? What is the approximate size of your balcony?
2. What all functions does your balcony serve you? Do you carry anything to your balcony?
3. Are you someone that likes spending time on your balcony? How many times in a day do you go to this area?
4. Has the lockdown brought about any changes in your experiences with regards to this space?
5. What are the things that are present this area? Is it used as a utility/storage space? If yes, do you feel the need to cover/ conceal whatever you are storing?
6. Do you grow plants in your balcony? If yes, how are they placed and how much time does it take to maintain them?
7. Do you hang your clothes to dry on your balcony? If yes, where exactly do you dry them and for how long are the clothes outside?
8. Do you prefer sitting or standing? Is there any seating arrangement? If yes, is the seating specifically for the balcony? Do you spend time with your family on the balcony?
9. How is the lighting on your balcony? Is it enough? Do you spend more time in the day or the night?
10. Does the weather affect your experience/time spent on the balcony? Does your balcony require a lot of maintenance? What kind of flooring does it have?
11. Is there anything that turns you off?

While asking these questions I really had to make sure that I wasn’t trying to put answers in their mouth. I was actually quite confused while taking my first interview but by my 5th interview I got the hang of it and understood that the user will not directly tell me what is wrong, in fact, most of the times people are so habituated to their surroundings that they themselves can not identify the problem.

After the interviews, I mapped out the users, likes, dislikes, and gaps with respect to the balcony.

It was interesting to see how even if the problems were similar, the way those problems were approached and perceied varied from user to user.

Define

Now comes the interesting part, the define stage. After collecting and segregating all of the data, it was time to identify the problems with respect to the insights gathered.

The idea was to first understand what the problem was and then dig deeper to see why this problem is important to the user. This process also helped me realise why these problems existed in the first place.

Lack of space for relaxing due to the presence of utility items such as cloth stands, washing machines, and storage items. — all 5 users said that their main purpose of spending time on the balcony was to relax or take a break from work. Especially for apartment dwellers, the balcony is the only option to get fresh air without having to go down. 4/5 users have a small balcony (2 feet x 4 feet)
User is forced to sit on the floor or stand for a long period due to lack of seating specifically meant for the balcony. -Since some of the users spend a good amount of time in the balcony at one stretch, standing for too long can cause them discomfort. 2 users do not like to sit on the ground as it is muddy. Further, Lydia felt lazy to bring a chair from the living room and then keeping it back once the user leaves the balcony.
Having to get furniture from another area- Lydia felt lazy to always do this and this indirectly affected her frequency of going to the balcony
No place to keep coffee/tea mug or book. -User is forced to keep the items on the floor which spoils it. Sandeepan sketches and paints on the balcony and is forced to keep supplies on the floor or the wall ledge.
Obstruction of view due to hanging clothes on the wire. -Joe, Looking at the view helps Joe relax and gives him an illusion of living in a bigger space but it is also the only place where clothes can be dried. If the wire is too high then difficult to hang and if it is low then obstructs movement and/or view. This also stops light from entering the house.
Muddy floor because of watering the plants. -It leads to dirty slipper/footmarks when the user goes back into the house.
Presence of a mesh covering to avoid pigeons. — User is not able to lean against the grill which defeats the entire purpose of having a balcony. He also feels that it ruins the ambiance.
Inability to sit on the balcony during monsoons. -Since it gets wet and the rain comes inside user avoids the balcony. Because of the rain, if there is any furniture on the balcony it has to be brought inside.
High wall edge obstructing the view-Faisal, user likes to look outside and since it is an opaque wall ledge he can not see anything if he is sitting on the floor. Moreover, the area above the ledge is blocked by hanging clothes.
Cluttered storage space-Sandeepan, clutter in the balcony is a major problem for the user as he uses the balcony as a space to brainstorm. The unorganized storage items often disrupt his flow of thought.
Dust accumulation, maintenance is an issue-Faisal, Since cleaning the balcony is not an everyday priority and there is a lot of storage, dust tends to accumulate in and around the storage. For Lydia, when it rains the water hits the plants and makes the floor dirty.

Ideate

Now that my problems were defined, I used the Crazy 8 technique to come up with solutions. Some ideas were quite difficult to attain and were not really viable. After coming up with at least 20 solutions I realised that only a few of them could actually be executed. Below are those few ideas (out of which 3 top ideas were chosen)

Installing a different type of water-absorbent flooring/mat under the potted plants so that the water gets absorbed there itself
A clothing stand that hangs parallel to the railing and can be pulled up perpendicular to it when clothes need to be hung
Plants holders attached to the outer side of the railing. As this will increase space and the floor will not get muddy when water is poured
Multiutility foldable slab-like seating attached to the wall.
A small slab or box type holder attached to the railing, can be pulled up when to be used and then pulled back parallel to the railing.
Placing a settee against the wall which has a cabinet to store items.
Sliding grill that goes up and down so that user has the flexibility to open it when he/she is in the balcony and keep it closed otherwise (to protect from pigeons)
Flexible covering suspended from the ceiling to shield the balcony from rain.
Using wall space for storing small items like cloth hanging clips

These are the top three ideas that I finalized among all the others to go forward with.

A clothing stand that hangs parallel to the railing and can be pulled up perpendicular to it when clothes need to be hung, hence maximizing space when clothes are not hung on it. — Since the stands take up a lot of space and hanging on the wire obstructs the view, this solves both issues as it ensures that less space is used.
Multiutility foldable slab-like seating attached to the wall. Can also be used as a table for keeping a coffee mug/book. — 3 of the users felt the need for some sort of seating specifically for the balcony without compromising on the space
Flexible covering suspended from the ceiling to shield the balcony from rain. — The balcony would get wet and dirty because of the rain, making it a maintenance issue

Idea 2 was taken further for the prototyping and testing stages.

Prototype

Problem Statement: As the user is forced to sit on the floor or stand for a long period, find a way to incorporate seating that is specifically meant for the balcony, while taking into account the lack of space. Also, coming up with a solution that will allow the user to keep his/her items somewhere while spending time on the balcony.

Idea 2 revolves around providing a solution to the seating problem while looking at other aspects that were causing this issue in the first place.

I decided to come up with a foldable chair, that would be mounted onto the wall, and could be pulled down when needed. Whenever the user is not sitting, the chair can be folded parallel to the wall, hence not compromising on space. This same chair/slab could also be used to keep items hence solving more than one problem statement.

Below are a few initial sketches to understand what will work best with respect to the needs of the user.

During this prototyping stage, I realised that the solutions needs to be something which is easy to understand and use. After deciding on which I would like to go ahead with, I made digital renders of the same and experimented with the size. Initially I wanted to go ahead with wood, but then decided against it as it is not very easy to maintain for outdoor areas, instead I decided on plastic (polypropylene).

Below are a few concepts.

Concept 1

The chair is mounted to the wall and the width can only carry one person.

I felt that this would be a bit restricting hence I explored more.

Concept 2

I now tried to introduce a small foldable table along with the chair in hopes of enhancing the experience as the user can now keep his/her items.

However, after these explorations, I thought of making a few adjustments to the first idea. I increased the width of the chair so that the user can get more space to sit and also keep his things on the chair itself.

This keeps the design simple and doesn’t require any additional table to be mounted to the wall.

Reasons why this solution helps optimize the user’s experience on the balcony

The user now has the flexibility to either sit or stand.
This idea provides a solution while maximizing limited space.
Solves the user’s problem of having to keep things on the floor due to lack of a table.
As this is mounted, the user does not have to bring in furniture from some other area.

Testing

Now it was time to take the prototype to the users and ask for their feedback.

While my users felt that it was a very efficient idea, they also offered constructive feedback which brought me to my biggest learning so far in this project.

Joe and Nishchay felt that they would not feel comfortable keeping coffee next to them on the bench as they are clumsy and there is a chance of spilling it on the floor.
Lydia felt that the space on the bench can only be viable for sitting because she would ideally want to take up more space to relax.
Faisal, recommended that it would be more suitable to use wood as it would look better with the plants and greenery on the balcony.
Faisal was also curious about how it would be attached to the wall and whether someone else would have to attach it. He further said that he would like it more if it was possible for the user himself to attach it.
Nishchay and Lydia both felt that they would want some cushion for backrest.
Faisal also asked on which wall should the chair be mounted as no was the layout of the balcony mentioned.

Revised Prototype

After the feedback that I had received, I understood some of the key points that I needed to incorporate in my design.

Add a separate table instead to keep items
Try and incorporate some sort of cushion that can be tied when necessary
Change the material to wood that can be used outdoor or at least give the plastic material a wood-like wash/stain.
Provide a manual with information like at what height the chair must be mounted.

As in the previous prototype, the width has been kept the same however a table was added on the side after the feedback stage. Further, the chair is painted brown to give a wood like effect while keeping the same material composition as before.

The width of the base from the side is more which will give more space to sit relaxedly.

The backrest too has a bit of a slant so that it doesn’t strain the user’s back.

I was not sure whether I should include a tie up cushion with the chair as it would just over complicate things so I decided that I will just mention the idea in the manual.

Learnings from the project

I think one of the biggest learnings from ths project is that I am not the user and that I should try my level best to keep my personal biases aside while interviewing the users. I have also realised that I need to unlearn a lot of things.
Another very important takeaway was that, I need to understand that my solution need not try and solve every problem that the user is facing. The solution can be very simple as well as long as it is efficient and is enhancing the user’s experience.

Image Sources: Freepik.com

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