As a part of my Product Design Fundamentals course, I was tasked with designing and making a desk organizer out of foam. Firstly, I communicated with a user and noted their needs and preferences for a desk organizer for their space. I made detailed technical sketches and continued to communicate with the user for their responses. Once I found a design that met their needs, I began more detailed modelling in SOLIDWORKS. I then used that model to help construct the physical prototype out of foam. After testing the structure, it was clear that while foam is not the most robust material, its design was novel and did work for the user.

The user wanted a desk organizer that could more easily store their items. These items range from large to small, some of them being very large and in strange shapes. They noted a basket on their desk as being very useful to simply toss things into. I used that design to construct a plant-like desk organizer. It includes slits like a basket to easily see inside the holders. These holders can then come on and off the organizer so the user can use it to organize their items, but still place them on their desk if they prefer to. The stem also changes length, allowing the user to change the height at which they want these holders to rest. The top holder is drafted for larger items, and the base is a basket that can be lifted off when removing the stem, allowing the user the ability to use this like a large basket they can carry around. Ultimately, the user chose to keep the organizer and is still using it today.