For the workshop activity in CS6022, students were tasked with creating a prototype wearable. I participated with the group to provide guidance as to best practice, while letting them lead the process (as such). The domain of exploration was open. The group focussed on reminder mechanisms and tools. This was the starting point of exploration as the group felt that reminders were something we all had issues with. Some of the reasons for this issue included:
After a minor brainstorming session, in which we concluded that a wearable technology that could be used discreetly could function as an additional layer of notification. From this point, we created personas. The personas are representative of two distinct user types, a student with a part time job, and a professional. These were chosen because both have responsibilities to keep on top, of with limited access to their mobile phones at certain times. The personas are shown below: As you can see, the personas differed in most aspects; profession, gender, likes and dislikes. However, there were some overlapping needs, which we defined following a quick bodystorming session: These needs, defined as each of us took on the role of a persona in the bodystorming session, led us to the concept of a piece of jewelry, namely a ring. The ring was to be available in a variety of designs for men and women, with haptic feedback to signal a notification, for example pulses or vibrations. We thought that numerous feedback options should be explored to satisfy the 'design variety' need noted above, and therefore we would include an auditory reminder and a visual signal such as a light or text in different iterations. Each member of the group decided to create their own prototype with the materials available to us, which included paper, tinfoil, pipe cleaners, play-doh and pom poms. The prototype I created can be seen in detail below; it includes a 'screen' which displays a written reminder, a microphone across the top section of the ring (the tinfoil), and a button on the back which the user would hold to activate the microphone. It was created using paper, sellotape, tinfoil and play-doh. Overall, our short exploration of prototyping wearable technology was informative and interesting. We found that satisfying the needs of various users was no easy task, but despite the simplicity of our prototypes, we felt that our exploration and end product was successful.
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Author: Kim O'SheaThis page will be used to post my assignments from taught modules in UL over the course of my master's prgram. Head over to my portfolio page for a look at some of the work I have done in my undergraduate program of Digital Media Design! Archives
April 2019
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