This small pen holder clip can attach to a book cover, between the pages of a notebook, or serve as a page holder for your planner. With creative individuals ranging from students to professionals in mind, the pen clip is designed to be simple to use and to look at. The pen clip is designed especially for Muji ballpoint pens, as almost every student I’ve met in undergrad had at least one Muji ballpoint pen on hand. Other pens with a 1 cm (about 0.39 in) diameter can fit in the pen loop, and those that are narrower with a built-in clip can attach to the loop as well. The clip is multi-functional in the sense that it serves as a single pen holder and a bookmark. It can be used for a variety of situations, such as for annotating and keeping your page of a book on the train preparing for taking notes at a meeting, or for marking up your personal planner. It is handy for having on your books to save time looking for a pen to use while keeping the bulk of your everyday carry creative items to just your book! 

Slide the pen clip to the cover of your planner, the book you’re reading, or on your class notebook pages, put your favorite Muji ballpoint pen in the loop, and now you’re ready to write tasks in, annotate in the margins, or jot down equations without the bulk of a pencil case! 

Usability Testing

For product testing, I created a Google Form consisting of the following questions and responses (10 participants):

1. How old are you? (dropdown menu of under 18-over 27)*

2. What is your occupation (multiple choice: student, employed, other)*

3. Do you use Muji ballpoint pens? (multiple choice: yes, no)

4. How many pens do you typically use in one sitting? e.g. while taking class notes, writing a homework assignment, compiling a to-do list (short answer)

5. How do you carry your everyday writing tools and supplementary materials (e.g. a notebook)? (short answer)

6. What things do you think of or prioritize when packing your items for class or work? (short answer)

7. This is the pen clip I designed specifically for a Muji pen that you can attach to a book, notebook, clipboard, etc. [insert image]. What would you use the pen clip for and how and/or why? (short answer)

8. Walk me through how you would put a pen in the clip.

9. Any other comments or feedback?

*These two questions were added after 4 people participated in the questionnaire

Assumptions:

• Target audience = students and professionals who use a Muji pen for writing

• People going to be around 20 something years old

• People who take survey most likely want to have Muji pen around when they have a notebook/book

• Muji pen is their go-to

Key findings:

• Efficiency is important

• Participants typically use 1-2 pens in one sitting

• Some participants use pencil cases, others just have writing utensils in a pocket of/in their bag

• Most participants thought to slide the pen through the loop (through the top) but did not specify which direction the pen would be facing (one person said nib down, another said bottom down)

• Design of clip was intuitive, design of loop intuitive

• Some participants pointed out that the clip on the pen cap could be used in some way–either attaching only the clip through the loop or using the pen cap clip as a stopper/extra security for the pen staying in place in the loop

• Some participants were concerned about pen type/size as well as capacity of the clip on page/book thickness, so making the pen loop fit more than just a Muji pen would be beneficial and the clip be strong enough to stay in place, not fall off, and attach to varying page thicknesses

• Participants able to differentiate between pen clip and pen cap clip, and saw value in the pen clip over just using the built-in pen cap clip (would go further in user interviews and usability testing to see which is better fit for user need)

Design suggestions

• Making pen clip’s loop accommodate for more types of pens (I experimented with an open loop by cutting the circle with scissors, creating a very thin opening)

• Testing out varying loop sizes for fitting the pen through

• Muji pens are not uniform in thickness from top to bottom (bottom end is thicker than nib/cap end)

• Incorporate using the pen cap clip into instructions/securing the pen in the pen clip

• Testing out varying clip widths and lengths for security and page-number capacity