Shovel Jacket Hanger

One day, I was about to sit in front of my desk and do my homework, but I can't even sit down because my jackets were sitting on my chair. Too many jackets are stacked on the chair, sofa, or desk. It was such a mess, and it was driving me crazy. I usually get home when it's late, and I'm burned out because of school. I don't have any energy to support me to sort out the jackets nicely. Here's my daily routine when I get home: first, take off my shoes; second, take off my jackets; third, jump on my bed. I usually change my jackets every two days, which means every one week I will at least be wearing 3-4 jackets. If I keep doing that for a week, I will earn myself a "small-jacket-mountain" like shown in the picture.

I realized that I can't take this anymore, it is turning my room into a mess. I decided to make a jacket hanger for someone like me, for those who live in a small to middle size space, for those who often just throw their jackets away.

My main focused customer groups are college students and young office works.

My expectations for this product are:

1. It should be from small size to middle size.

2. It should be able to hold at least 4 regular jackets and 1-2 pairs of shoes.

3. It needs to be able to move around easily.

4. It needs to be easy to reach.

5. It can not be too complicated to put up, which means it can not be made of too many parts, nor can it require some unusual tools to put up.

6. It can not just be a regular look hanger.

I first looked up how hangers in the market look like, to ensure where my design direction is. Then I started thinking about how to make my hanger looks more interesting. Actually, I was first worried about how to solve the stableness issue of my hanger, and Andy(My instructor and also my friend) suggested me to looked up how bridges are built. He said maybe I can get an idea from how the engineers use cables to stabilize the bridge. Coincidentally, the idea of designing the hanger to a shovel look just popped up in my mind. It was like a thunder light in my brain, I don't exactly remember how I got this idea. I guess because the cables look like an upside-down triangle, and the triangle is a highly stable pattern.

Here is a survey I created as the use research. 47 people(most are students from NYU or NYU SH, and other people from the internet who is around my age) in total were involved(including myself).

Q1: Do you live in a dormitory or off-campus?

Q2: What is the area of your residence?

Q3: On average, how many jackets do you wear every week?

Q4: Do you usually put the taken-off jacket back to its original place?

Q5: If the answer to the previous question is no, where do you usually put your jackets?

Q6: Have you ever wished that there was a hanger at home that would allow you to hang your clothes conveniently?

Q7: When you buy a hanger, which one attracts you more: the practicality of the hanger or the appearance of the hanger?

The answers are shown in the picture(from 1-7).

Overall, most of my users will be living on their own, and they live in a space that is around 20-40 meters square. The majority of them wear 2-4 jackets per week; only a very small group of people would put their jackets back to where they took them, and they would just throw the jackets to a random place. Almost all of them had wished to have a hanger so they can conveniently hang them, and seems like both appearance and practicability are important to them.

I had a series of different designs, I heavily focused on practicability at first, but I realized that appearance is as much important as practicability. So, eventually, I ended up with the shovel design.

Picture 1 is my very first design, but I got over it.

1. PLA 3D Printing Materials

2. Rubber 3D Printing Materials

3. Two pieces of wood sticks

4. A wood board

4. Cables

5. Screw

6. Paint

7. Wood wax

I mainly used Rhino Standard design for every 3D printed piece. I first built the models, then started printing them. It was a long process. Then, when I got the pieces, I will first sand them, because some of them were a little bit coarse. Then I spray lacquered them, based on my personal color preference. Then I put some wood wax on the wood parts, to give a better look.

The process went well, except the printed connecting joints weren't the exact size I wanted them to be, so I got to put some tapes on the sticks, so they will fit in the hole.

Everything was fine, the only issue that I found was the hanger might slide a little bit on the wall. So I added two rubber pieces on the back, and it won't slide anymore.

Testing video link:

Now my chair is clean and tidy!