Whether it’s emotions, memories, or everyday things, carrying things is part of being human, So, what makes up the ideal backpack experience?

To find out, our team utilized generative contextual and participatory action research methods including cultural probes, lifestyle profiling, observations, questionnaires, stimulus kits, unstructured interviews, and velcro models.

Watch the video on the right to see fieldwork using our velcro model and stimulus kit.

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Our collection methods generated over 1,200 data points.

To digest this massive amount of data, our team used affinitization as our method of analysis, leading to the discovery of 95 unique insights.

Using data frequency and relationship maps, we visualized the connection between these insights to arrive at final design criteria.

To leverage these design criteria and inspire solutions, our team took a visual storytelling approach using “oversketches” to hint at what’s possible.

All these elements come to fruition in an inspiring and digestible framework expressing design criteria for the ideal backpack experience.

THE IDEAL BACKPACK EXPERIENCE