On reflection, I feel the project as a whole went reasonably well. I've never had to design a product for use in the future before so this obvioulsy presented its own unique challenges. I think I spent nearly half of the 12 weeks researching the future and trying to create plausible user scenarios. This left very little time to actually design a chair which meant my final concept wasn't as well developed as I would have liked. Ideally I would have been able to make a number of prototypes to explore the various mechanisms, refining the concept after each iteration. As it was, I only had time to make a presentation model with basic representations of the desired functionality.
The part of the project I struggled most with was the business side of things. Even after conducting weeks of research, I found it impossible to say with any degree of certainty how much the chair would cost, if the technology would make it unaffordable, what manufacturing processes would be used and what materials it would be made out of.
I am still undecided about entering the RSA competition to design a work space for 2030. If I were to continue the project I would be looking at the idea of an expanding/contracting seat and possibly trying to make a basic prototype of the mechanism.
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