The Bag Product Design From Umbrella Plant Fiber

Abstract

The Bag Product Design from Umbrella Plant Fiber aimed to 1) to study about the umbrella-plant fiber which was used in designing bag products, 2) to design bag products by using the umbrella-plant fiber which could respond consumers’ satisfaction, and 3) to survey the satisfaction of the consumers towards the use of umbrella-plant fiber in design bag products. The participants consisted of 3 experts (i.e., economic and ecological design and materials and production process expert, design expert as well as textile fiber innovation expert) and 100 consumers. The research instruments were interview and evaluation forms. The data was analyzed by employing the statistics of percentage, mean and standard deviation. The results illustrated that 1) the umbrella plant is a herbaceous plant or water weeds that grow well during the rainy season. Its stalk is tougher than reeds which annually grows in rainy season as well as is normally used for weaving mats. The umbrella plant propagated by division. Its stalk is long, and its texture is soft when its stalk is green. In addition, its internal sponge-like fiber is always left from weaving mat of the community. Therefore, it could be used in designing interesting and eco-friendly products emphasizing academic knowledge as well as maximizing the utilization of natural resources according to the assumption that using the umbrella plants in developing products did not only utilizing local natural resources sustainably, but also promoting more choices for people in the community in creating profession. 2) There were 4 designs of umbrella-plant fiber bag products including two women bags (i.e., saddle bag and bucket bag) as well as two men bags (i.e., belt bag and tote bag) inspired by truncating the characteristics of umbrella plant and colored in brown tone. 3) The evaluation of consumers’ satisfaction towards the designed bag products demonstrated the highest level of overall satisfaction on combining umbrella-plant fiber with cotton fiber as well as materials used in sewing (average 4.6), the highest level of satisfaction on suitability of the umbrella-plant fiber in designing products (average 4.63), the highest level of overall satisfaction on beauty (average 4.59), a high level of satisfaction on product color suitability (average 4.44), the highest level of satisfaction on usage convenience (average 4.59), a high level of satisfaction on maintainability (average 4.33), and the highest level of satisfaction on beauty of fabric patterns (average 4.5).