Personal Cart
efficient way to grocery shop.
"Granny carts" are not known for their aesthetics or comfort. Although it is an attractive method for transporting goods for urbanites because of its efficiency, the aesthetics and functions drive potential users away. Starting with these pain points, the product development journey began.
The product development team for this project was formed by four undergraduate mechanical engineers (MIT), three business graduates (MIT) and one undergraduate industrial designer (RISD).
Research & Brainstorm
improving existing competitive products
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From initial interviews, it was clear that the existing personal carts could be improved in numerous ways. With maneuverability, protection and aesthetics as core concerns expressed in the interviews, we came up with sixteen different concepts.  |
After presenting our ideas to grocery shoppers with our sketches, we narrowed down our ideas. However, the take-away from the interviews was that none of these ideas provided anything necessarily better than the existing carts - if anything they were just more complicated. We went back to the drawing board.
Research 2understanding the user's lifestyle
Conceptgrocery cart for the active urbanite  This new concept has two fixed sixteen inch wheels and one rotating caster wheel. Such configuration provided amazing maneuverability; allowing the product to rotate in one spot. This cart is built with sturdy waterproof nylon fabric that allows the product to be light weight - light enough to take for a jog, or safely hitch to a bicycle. The size of the product was determined by the average amount of groceries purchased by our target user. The product also folds for efficient storage.
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