The Design Process
In this section, you will understand why the Foldable Gaming Chair is much more than a basic camping chair. Let's go through the process of how I designed the chair.
Part 1: The Harsh Truth.
My initial thought was to work with subcontractors to design and create the chair from the ground up.
The first thing I did was to create a presentation explaining my vision. Here's an excerpt of it:
Once I broke down what I was looking for, I went on Fiverr, a freelance website, to get my first sketches. After a couple of iterations, I came up with sketches:
These sketches would be good enough to present the concept to a product development firm.
I reached out to a couple of them to present my project.
A lot of them understood the idea and were excited to work on it.
However, I had a reality check once I received quotes.
Creating a chair from scratch would cost me much more than I had anticipated.
But, I was so passionate about this idea that I was not going to give up.
That's when I had an idea.
I needed to find an existing foldable chair with a structure that met my requirements. Then, I would track down its manufacturer and build upon that structure to design the Foldable Gaming Chair.
Part 2: The First Samples
I tried over 100 foldable chairs to find the one that fit my criteria.
Below is me trying a camping chair I bought from Amazon.
Our house was filled with foldable chairs that no one used.
Needless to say that my wife was not too pleased with that part of my journey!
At least, this process helped me become an expert in foldable chairs. I got to understand what felt really comfortable to play video games over time.
After countless failed attempts, I finally found the chair with the structure I was looking for!
The comfort potential was definitely there.
I validated with the manufacturer that these main changes were possible:
Accessories: I wanted to have a headphone holder, a controller holder, a wine holder and a beer holder.
Comfort: I needed to change the padding arrangement to add lumbar and head support.
Design: The colours on the chair needed to be changed so it looked more like a gaming chair.
After much back-and-forth, I landed on a good, workable design. I ordered the sample and here is what it looked like:
Here it was, my first real sample of the Foldable Gaming Chair!
Although, after testing it, there were still some improvements to be made:
Headphone holder: I needed to find a way to have it retractable, because the way it was sticking out, it could break too easily.
Padding in front of the seat: The padding and the strap in front of the seat were too high. This caused discomfort as the strap could put a lot of pressure below the knees/legs..
Logo + Colours: I didn’t like how the colours of the padding were positioned. Also, the logo was too generic. I knew I could better communicate my vision through my logo.
Drink Holder: It was missing the drink holder, which is crucial for gaming!
Now that I knew what improvements to make, I was ready to go to the next step: improve the design and the functionalities, so I have a first version of the Foldable Gaming Chair I can sell!
Part 3: The Last Stretch.
Knowing the modifications to be made, I first tackled the design of the chair.
I worked with my Fiverr designer and created over 50 versions to ensure I wouldn’t miss the best combination. Here is what it looks like:
After showing the design to as many people as I could, I chose the third option on the second row.
I also worked with the manufacturer to design a new headphone holder that could fold and make it less likely to break when the chair is moving around.
Below is the new design of the headphone holder we came up with:
Here are the other modifications we worked on:
Addition of extra padding for the lumbar support and readjusting the strap under the edge of the seat.
New logo on the headrest. If you want to learn more about the ideation process behind the logo of The Foldable Gaming Chair Company, please click here.
Addition of a label on the chair so it would be easy to recognize the logo for people who saw the chair for the first time.
After all these modifications/improvements, here is the sample that I received:
Here again, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the chair, especially the quality of the padding.
I was really close to having my final version of the chair, the v1.00!
In order to make sure I had the perfect version, I needed the number one fan of The Foldable Gaming Chair Company to try it.
My daughter definitely seemed comfortable :).
Joking aside, I went to all the Gamestops in my town to check what other gamers thought of the chair.
They all said the same thing: it was much more comfortable than they expected!
I also received great feedback concerning the color of the typography in my logo on the headrest; it was hard to read the TFGCC.
Also, the label on the front of the chair was not big enough. Some people didn’t even see it was there.
So I only needed two more changes before I had the final v1.00 version!
I got back to the manufacturer and they were willing to create the modifications.
Now, I can finally say that the v1.00 is finally done!
I wish I could tell you that it was all simple. But, designing a gaming chair that is foldable, comfortable, and durable was definitely more complex than I thought!
That is why I am so excited to share it to the world.
Now, only 1,000 of the v1.00 are available.
So, if you are as excited about the chair than I am, please go ahead and pre-order it!