Pep Guardiola's Invisible Hand
Responsive Training Jersey
Different ways of Discover and Solve Problems
14 Week Project / Product Design 5
Instructor: Kevin Beard
Teammate: Faith King
Software: CLO & Keyshot
This project's goal is to explore a different way of discovering and solving problems. The traditional way is to start with market research and user interviews to form insights and identify pain points. This is a foolproof way of approach that works every time. However, this method often leads to marginal improvements because designers are limited to the problems their interviewees mentioned. Therefore, my instructor Kevin Beard leads me through a more poetic way of approach. This is a tortuous path but can indeed lead to dramatic and pioneering results. The first 7 weeks of work are group effort from Faith King and me. Then we separated to work on our independent project that is based on our previous group work.
Project Brief
Phygital
Physical + Digital
For this project, we got assigned the brand Umbro and the sport soccer. Our theme is Phygital, which is a combination of physical and digital. Our assigned target user is Generation Alpha that was born between the 2010s and 2020s.
We start by generating three pairs of two-word-story to describe the brand, the sport, and the user. Then we generated "What if" and "How could we" questions from the stories. This is where we explore and identify problems to solve. Then we start to brainstorm and solve the problem while making sure the solution still follows the two-word stories to make sure we stay on the path.
Brainstorming Two-Word Story
Umbro (Manchester)

Soccer

Generation Alpha

Brainstorming What if & How could we Questions
Soccer
Generation Alpha
Umbro
Sacred Fluidity
Reaching Instants
Saturating Rhythm
What if dirt was honor?
How could we beautify grittiness ?
What if thoughts could punch ?
How could we feel the impact ?
What if dancing made music?
How could the movement be heard?
What if dirt was honor?
How could we beautify grittiness ?
A soccer jersey that will leave a faint color patch on where the dirt and sweat spots were when washed. After wearing and washing several times, the jersey will be filled with different color patches that will beautify grittiness and display commitment and efforts.

What if thoughts could punch ?
How could we feel the impact ?
A soccer jersey that can contract on a different area to simulate human hand touches by tightening and expanding special fibers that were woven into the jersey. This is designed to allow coaches to adjust and guide player's positions during training in real-time.

What if dancing made music?
How could the movement be heard?
A pair of soccer cleats with musical spikes on the bottom that are like piano keys. Every spike is a different note and will play a short string of music when the user is running with the correct posture and compressing the spikes in the correct order.

After comparison and estimation, I choose to advance with...
What if thoughts could punch ? How could we feel the impact ?
Rough Mock-up


with pleasurer, allow me to introduce...
Pep Guardiola's Invisible Hand
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