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SNUGGLY

Duration
20 Weeks

Project Type
UX/UI
End to End Design

Individual Project

Software
Figma
Rhinoceros
Arduino

What is SNUGGLY?

Snuggly is a product combination of a desktop application that tidily manages projects, accurately creates patterns, and concurrently follow along pattern instructions, and a connected machine that automatically untangle yarn and conveniently count stitches, designed for a better crochet experience.

Our mission is to provide a friendly assister for professional crocheters so that they can keep track of all their crochet activities, save and create patterns, and reduce any tedious pauses while crocheting, resulting in a more entertaining and convenient experience.

Projects

Gain and Gather Inspirations

Conveniently shows the list of all saved projects and crocheters with the filter feature to allow users to quickly look through the list in four categories: all, my projects, favorites, and crocheters.

Create Your Pattern

Enter in Precise Settings

Accurately entering in the settings before creating pattern will enhance precision of every stitch for the machine to calculate the motor’s turn and the amount of yarn remaining on the machine’s spool.

Create Your Pattern

Use the Tool Bar to Create Pattern

Easily shows the different tools in three separate sections, types of stitches, other actions and yarn colors, to keep it simple and clear for the users.

Crochet

Connect and Use the Machine

The wearable wrist-mounted stitch counter will calculate the stitches made by counting how many times the user turns their wrist. Then with the stitch calculated, the machine will unwind yarn accordingly so that the yarn won’t get tangled in between stitches.

Stitch Counter

Yarn Unwinder

Crochet

Follow Along with the Live Monitor

Coherently color codes the pattern stitches on screen according to the wrist band’s stitch counts so the users to follow along easily the pattern without any confusions.

Dashboard

Keep Track at a Glance

Effectively shows an overview of the machine details, the user’s most recent projects in progress and overall crochet activity history.

Why SNUGGLY?

Recently, crochet has become very popular among Gen Z. Due to this boom, many Gen Zers have become skilled at crochet and started selling their handmade items through online shops or at art market booths. As a result, they are facing more work and need to find more efficient ways to complete their tasks.

As a crocheter myself, I wanted to combine crochet, a traditional form of art, with modern technology to boost precision and efficiency by eliminating unnecessary steps, such as constantly untangling yarn and repeatedly counting stitches.

Market Opportunity

According to a survey conducted by We Are Knitters, more than 45 million people know how to crochet or knit in the United States.

The Global Crochet Market was worth USD 1.68 billion in 2022, and is estimated to reach USD 2.2 billion in 2030 with a growth rate of 3.4%.

Competitive Analysis

Yarn Winder

the hand-operated yarn winder is easy to use, but it is not able to unwind the yarn while crocheting for full control

Pattern Creating App

this app is great with creating patterns, but it is ultimately a pdf file, so it is hard to follow along while crocheting

Row Counter

the row (tally) counter effectively counts rows and stitches while crocheting, but it is still manually done by users

Pain Points

Solutions

Yarn rolls away and gets tangled when crocheting

Get in control of the yarn while crocheting

Hard to notice the latest stitch completed on the pattern after some time

Accurately keep track of projects in progress, and activity history

Stitches are always counted incorrectly, making the crochet item imperfect

Follow along the pattern with correct stitch counts every time

User Persona

Chloe 24

Gen Z Crochet Business Owner

About

Chloe is a crocheter who owns a small business. She sells her crochet items both online and offline by joining various art markets. Chloe is constantly overloaded with orders, which makes time management the key to her business’s success.

Frustrations

  • it is hard to keep track of where she left off of a pattern last time
  • has too many patterns for her to manage
  • all the manual actions of untangling yarn and counting stitches slows her down a lot

Personality

Goals and Motivations

  • wants to become a famous crocheter on social media
  • loves crochet so much that brings around yarn and hook everywhere
  • precision and time efficiency is important for her crochet

Desires

  • needs a way for her to remember her progress
  • needs to become more organized with her business
  • wants to have full control over her crochet experience and stop wasting her time

Value Proposition

Snuggly helps professional crocheters to properly keep track of their crochet activities and smoothly complete their projects without any tedious pauses. We combined an organized application that tidily manages projects, accurately creates patterns, and concurrently follow along pattern instructions, with a connected product that automatically untangle yarn and conveniently count stitches, enhancing precision and efficiency for their crochet business. With Snuggly, crocheters can feel calmer and productive with a boost in creativity to design and make great products.

Information Architecture

Design Criteria

Typography

Color

Icons and Symbols

Project Icons

Tool Bar Icons

Stitch Symbols

Components

Buttons

Progress Bar

Navigation Bar

Calendar

Tool Bar

Search Bar

Instruction Bar

Design Elements

Yarn Remaining

Base Shapes

Machine Connectivity

Grid System

Dashboard Page - 12 Column Grid

Projects Page - 5 Column Grid

Machine Design and Prototype

Sketch

Design

Demo

Project Takeaway

Snuggly started as a simple prototyping project where my only goal was to successfully sense the user’s wrist motion and unwind the yarn with the collected data. However, in the process of researching, I have closely observed the whole experience of a crocheter including their posture and movement, especially in their wrist, for a more detailed analysis of the pain points, which allowed me to realize that there were so many more pain points in crocheting outside of the physical movements, so I decided to dig deeper to extend this project.

Overall, this project let me experience the process of designing an interactive product from research to physical prototyping, which I believe developed my skills in multiple areas as a UX/UI designer. Not only that, but I was also able to learn in the process of designing for a subject specific audience that it is extremely important to fully understand the audience’s deepest pain points and goals in order to successfully reach and attract my target audience, especially because the aimed market is already much smaller and limited.