Recently, I took on a personal project. I wanted to experience designing a physical product from inception to reality. Ultimately, I decided to choose to take a creative spin on card holder wallets. I love card holders because of how convenient they are. It’s small, functional, portable, and reduces clutter.
Instead of my card holder being the typical horizontal orientation, I elected to try a vertical design with a flap. The goal is to protect the cards since your cards are visible in the horizontal orientation whenever presented. Additionally, traditional card holders expand to hold in cards. However, that has a drawback. When cards get removed after a long time being in a card holder wallet, the wallet is not able to snap-back to its' original tightness. That results in your cards potentially falling out of your card holder! The vertical design with a flap prevents that issue.
Also another key component was ensuring that my wallet design would still fit in the palm of my hand to keep that portable aspect in the forefront. Card holders can fit in the palm of your hand, so I wanted to make sure my wallet would do the same!
Iteration 1
First Iteration
With the first iteration, my manufacturer was kind enough to bring my design to life using different leather textures. So each wallet you see above, feels different to the touch. From softest to hardest, it goes: beige, brown, black, green. My favorite texture and the most popular choice (based on feedback I collected from others) was the brown texture.
Additionally, my manufacturer also added different design elements to each wallet in this iteration. They all look different. There are differences in the band height, band width, flap shape, flap length, bottom shape, and color. Based on interviews, I conducted the most popular choices were:
Band Height: Middle
Band Width: Thin
Flap Shape: Sharp
Flap Length: preference to the lengths of brown and green wallets
Bottom Shape: Rounded
Color: Tie between Brown and Black
Overall Design: Black (my personal favorite was Brown, which was a close second for others)
Interviewing people to collect feedback was such a cool and interesting experience. It was super interesting to see how different people value different things. In some interviews, some participants did not have a preference for design at all. Their focus was primarily on the color. Others cared more about the design. Others cared more about the texture.
Iteration 1 Problem
The main issue with the first iteration of wallets was that they were not functional. The brown wallet was the sole wallet were I was able to fit multiple cards. The beige, black, and green wallets could barely fit ONE card in. Obviously, that is a major issue. A wallet that can’t hold multiple cards is not a wallet at all! For my wallet, I wanted to ensure that I could at least fit 3 cards.
Iteration 2
Second Iteration
With the second iteration, I honed in on the design from the black wallet in the first iteration. You can see the thinner horizontal band, rounded bottom, consistent flap length, and the addition of stitching on the flap as well. The color isn't necessarily important in this iteration. This iteration is primarily design focused. Additionally, the functionality is much more improved in this iteration. I was able to fit FIVE cards in the wallets above. Much better!
Second Iteration with previous Brown wallet design
Ultimately, I chose the design on the far right as the final design based on feedback. Participants liked the look of the squarer flap coupled with the rounded bottom. I elected to have the stitching match the color of the wallet as well to give a more sleek look. Check out the final design and colors below!
Final Design
Final Design
Final Design with Logo
