Week 12

During this week we finalised the physical design of our Haptic Ball... which is now affectionally known as the H-Ball.


These are some Solidworks renders of our product, created by Andrie.

The H-Ball sits on its nesting dock. 

The image shows the output being transmitted and one of the circle buttons extrudes.

The nesting dock features inductive charging to charge the product while it is not in use.

This image is the exploded view of the product highlighting the parts to be ABS injection molded.

Reflection:

Overall, i am extremely happy with the aesthetics of the physical form. The simplicity in design promotes ease of use and is non-offensive. While all have contributed in designing the form and colour aesthetics, however, Andrie has effectively and wonderfully brought these ideas to life.

Scenario development

User specific needs:


Our two main users for the product are very different due to the massive ages gap and different context for use. These diagrams we have developed show a cross examination of these user needs.

Emotional needs:

Physical needs:

A day in the life of...


Billy...

Zoe...

Week 11

Guest Lecturer: Gavin Sade
This week in studio we were introduced to the amazing design skills of Gavin Sade. He demonstrated some of his interactive designs, in the form of art, that effectively involve the viewer with real-time interaction. My favourite of his works was the Lyre bird sculpture, e. Menura Superba. This highly technological bird sculpture is able to sense what colours the viewer is wearing and then mimic this in its own physical form. What better way to involve the audience than to personalise the work just to suit them!? Amazing!

e. Menura Superba

Woman wearing purple

Reflection:
I am truly fascinated by this art based form of interaction design. It appears to me as it also evokes an emotional response from the audience due to the personalised nature of the work. By incorporating a colour into the work, that the audience obviously already likes, the artist has provoked the viewer to immediate come interested in the work. This association creates a positive response to the object. In terms of the Haptic Ball, I hope this concept is also become apparent based on the idea that by looking/playing with the ball the user will associate it with positive experience or relationship, thus enhancing the user relationship to an emotional level, rather than just providing a ludic experience.

Week 10

Alternative Contexts


Although the product has been designed with the parent/child relationship in mind, it is important to explore other possible scenarios for the Haptic Ball as it's potential is not limited to just one situation. Here are the 3 additional alternative contexts we have developed...

Reflection:
By developing these additional scenario contexts we are able to broaden our overall market appeal.  As our product is not gender, culture or age specific there are many possible users of the Haptic Ball. The product is also suited to all physical abilities meaning those with reduced bodily function can also enjoy using the product. I think that the spherical physical form also lends itself to numerous uses and user groups and it is non specific and a universally recognised shape.

Week 9

Round Table Discussion

Reflection:

This week we finalised our brief for the round table discussion. We also made a basic (low budget!) role playing video to clearly identify and explain the user needs. The tutors seemed happy with our progress and suggested a few things for further development as we have now started working on.



Developing Personas

As there are two main users for our Haptic Ball product, we have developed two personas to help explore all needs and user specific needs. These are the personas developed to show the need and make the product more relatable. 

User 1: Billy, 5

•Just about to start his first day of school

•Active and healthy

•Loves playing with handheld toys

•Enjoys team sports, has not made friends at his new school yet

•Very close to parents

•Only child

•Quite anxious about leaving mothers side for school

User 2: Zoe, 32

•Married to Mike, 36

•Recently returned to work after caring for Billy as a baby

•Works as a full time Legal secretary

•Enjoys being a mother

•Enjoys playing social sport and family outings

•Worries about her son constantly

•Wants him to be happy

Reflection:

These personas reflect a very common situation in society today. While the parent is understands what is best for her child, it is just the initial separation that causes upset for both parties. These persona's are based on real life people (my sister-in-law and her son) and their perception of the situation that are yet to face. Zoe, (my sister-in-law) feels anxious when discussing the idea that she will not know of her son's state or wellbeing for up to 8 hours at a time. She knows of his whereabouts, however, she will miss having a constant companion by her side. This discussion helped to indicate the main user needs for the product. She insisted that the product also needs to be subtle and non-disruptive for both users. This will be further explored.

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...Scenario...

•Young child’s first day of school

•Close relationship to parents, mother in particular

•Mother and child have rarely been separated before

•Both feel anxious  about being separated

•Both would like to be discretely in contact with each other throughout the day

Week 8

Scenario Workshop 2

Scenario = Context of Experience


This week we did an video scenario exercise. The idea was to video a situation of human interaction around campus. We chose to film the Subway fast food restaurant as it usually quite busy and has some obvious design flaws. With the stills captured from the video, we made video cards and discussed apparent problems and solutions for the venue.


Observations:

There is minimal seating in the entire venue, there are 2 additional outdoor tables . These outdoor tables are in a public walkway meaning that it is not enjoyable or relaxing to sit here. When Subway gets busy the queue leads out the door, hindering seating and blocking the view of the food and menus. 

Through the sandwich obtaining process you are served by at least 3 people. While it may be faster and more efficient there are usually mistakes due to lack of communication between staff. These mistakes can be negative for both the customer (not getting exactly what they wanted) and for the restaurant (accidentally undercharging customers). There is no evidence customer service skills and you feel like you are part of a production line. This creates a negative emotional response and unpleasant association, meaning many people wont return again. 

The stores interior is not at all tidy, another deterrence for customers. The boxes in the far left corner show that the facility is lacking space and is generally messy. this reflects badly on the restaurant as customers automatically assume that this how the kitchen and preparation areas would look, implying that it may be unhygienic. 

Finally, we observed that the space was extremely loud. Due to the overcrowding, metal chairs and table are being moved around, clanging and clashing into each other, as well as scraping along the concrete floors. The restaurant users appear to want to be in and out as quickly as possible to avoid this harsh noise disturbance. We would also assume this is one of the reasons why this restaurant user is wearing headphones.

Reflection:

I think it is important to understand why exactly people choose to  use different public places, for which they are spending their hard earned money. This relates to our specific project as we want to identify any problems, that may have even subtle negative associations, early on in the design process. If we can develop our Haptic Ball into a product that connects a person to their loved one, we will be encouraging the user to create an emotional connection with that product. In doing this we will evoke a positive association with the product, thus pro-longing its success.