Stanford Capstone · 2024
Soul
Role
User Researcher
Soft Goods Engineer
Project Manager
Brand Designer
Timeline
20 Weeks
Team
Biak Tha Hlawn
Kiki Iriafen
Beckie Leigh
Belem Salgado
Chan Un
Audrey Ward
Skills
Soft Goods Design
Prototyping
Material Research
Overview
A fully realized, market-ready product built in 20 weeks, designed to transform the way people connect.
SOUL started with a simple observation — large groups will always gather in a circle, but none of the products they were using were designed for it. Over 20 weeks, our team of six set out to build a form factor that actually made sense for how people naturally connect, turning that insight into a fully realized, market-ready picnic kit. Every detail was designed around the way humans truly gather, not the way products have always assumed they do.
Research
What we found was that no product had ever been designed around how people actually picnic — circularly, casually, and with a lot of moving parts.
Irrespective of the shape of the blanket or the volume of people, humans will always arrange themselves in a circle. The form factor was failing to meet a behavior that was already there. On top of that, a picnic is inherently chaotic; bags, snacks, games, drinks, and kicked-off shoes all competing for the same limited space. Furthermore, other companies making blankets for picnics often found themselves constrained by size and transportability.
competitor analysis
Solution
The solution was not a better blanket. It was a system designed around how people actually gather.
SOUL is an XL 6 to 8 person blanket that centers people around a basswood surface, giving them the space to sprawl, connect, and settle in. The full kit is housed inside a weekender style tote and includes a waterproof and spill-proof blanket, a laser-cut basswood center surface, drink and food coasters, and pockets for your water bottles, phone, and keys. Everything you need, nothing you don't.
Material Exploration
We experimented with weatherproof materials and layering to find what could hold up outside without becoming too bulky to carry.
We sourced swatches of foam, felt, nylon, taslan, and polyester and layered them to understand hand feel, thickness, and foldability. The goal was to find a combination that was weatherproof and comfortable to sit on, while still being packable enough to fold down and live inside the tote at scale. We ultimately landed on a custom coated taslan fabric without padding, as it was the most waterproof, thin, and comfortable option for surfaces like grass or sand.
Prototyping
Prototyping revealed that structure and tolerance are just as important as size.
Our prototype taught us that structure and visual cues were everything. We initially hypothesized that slack in the bag would give users the flexibility to fit items of various sizes, but too much slack caused items to spill out. We also found that users fold the blanket differently than how it was originally packaged, and in doing so learned that constraining the opening tolerances of the blanket compartment too tightly would work against the user. The goal became designing a system where the right amount of structure guided behavior naturally, without ever having to tell someone how to use it.
Design Decisions
Finally, a blanket matched to fit the way people naturally sit, sized for a real group, and designed to pack away into a system that makes the whole experience effortless.
Every design decision in SOUL traces back to one observation: people always gather in a circle. So we designed for it. The blanket takes on a rounded oval form, giving 6 people the ability to sprawl comfortably. And up to 8 people to sit comfortably without anyone getting left off the edge. A basswood surface anchors the center, giving the group a shared focal point and a place for food, drinks, and games. Coasters extend that surface outward, keeping drinks close to the body the way people naturally prefer. And the weekender tote ties it all together, making the host's job easier by housing the entire system in one place. All materials are machine washable and waterproof for easy clean-up and care. SOUL is not a better picnic blanket. It is a better picnic.
Reflection
We built the product. We should have built the audience too.
SOUL proved that there is a market for a product like this, and the next step is finding it. One of our biggest shortcomings was not documenting the process of building in public on social media. The behind the scenes of prototyping, testing, and iterating is exactly the kind of content that builds an organic audience on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, and drives early adoption before a product ever officially launches. If we were to take SOUL to market, building that presence from day one would be the first thing we would do differently. As for the product itself, the next iteration would explore combining XL blankets to create mega blankets for groups that go well beyond eight people, because if SOUL taught us anything, it is that the circle is always bigger than you expect.
