PROVOTYPE
Prototype is intended to provoke user's mind and thoughts
For the provotype design process, a large amount of user research was required to create a provoking object. There were many diverging and converging phases during this iteration.
1) Identifying the Problem
Our team listed all possible topics each of us can think of. Initially the team was considering poverty in Hong Kong, but after a long discussion, we decided to focus on healthcare in Hong Kong. To understand and identify a clear problem, the team created research problems about Hong Kong healthcare system.
2) Ideation to Solution
After thorough research and analysis of Hong Kong and our users, the team and I started ideating how to alter REDONDO that solves the problem. With the issue of long waiting times in public healthcare sector and lack of attentive diagnosis from doctors because of time constraint, the team decided to created MEDI, a public health diagnosis machine for convenience and accurate analysis. We listed futuristic medical diagnostic tools that can be applied to MEDI. Initially, MEDI would transform into a body scanner by making the user lie down on a expandable platform. However, I countered the concept by stating that the users are people with illness or physical disabilities, hence forcing them to lie down in public is inappropriate. Our final decision was to have a full body scanner that scans while the user is standing up straight.
VIABLE PROTOTYPE
Viable prototype is like an experimental protoype which “is more likely to resemble a starfish, with a central concept and different prototypes to explore each of the aspects of the concept” (Ruecker, 2015).
In viable prototype, the goal was to product a knowledge about an idea through multiple prototypes.
1) Brainstorming
Discarding the previous concept in provotyping iteration, the team began to brainstorm other ideas. Two major ideas that caught our attention were:
- Ambience/Mood idea came from the idea that Redondo redefines your space, and could be
connected to Spotify or other apps to help set the mood for a home
- Education idea that came from the cardboard prototyping session where we built a home for a
young Hong Kong couple. Our couple quickly developed a family, and with a baby we realized
entertaining kids would be a great possibility for a function, especially when the space is
crammed.
2) Development & Research
Ultimately, the team chose to develop an idea that defines personal space. This strongly led to the issue of stress, which each team member researched prior to the solution. After completing and building customer profiles, we focused on the main issue of stress relief and discussed about how to integrate the problem to REDONDO in terms of convenience, substitution, and usability.
3) Starfish Modelling
The team had to be reminded that this is an experimental prototype. Hence, with research background set in place, the team created three starfish models to explore the ideas around stress relief in effort to think critically about credibility of possible solutions. The starfish models helped us identify potential problems with types of functions related to stress, such as sound and projection.
4) Individual Variations of Prototype
After an agreement to individually sketch variations of prototypes that focuses on one feature at a time, I wrote and drew two ideas that incorporates sound, projection, and light. First ideation was to create a bookcase with LED screen behind the shelves that would light up to imitate starry night sky of a specific location in real time. When I think about stress, nature and starry night sky came to my mind. The second idea dealt with relieving emotional stress through an online random act of kindness by recording their voice or writing anonymously to encourage other users. The problem behind the second idea was the lack of assurance that every user will act appropriately. In the end, I created a low fidelity physical prototype of the first idea and incorporated as one of our team’s prototype.
USABLE PROTOTYPE
Making our idea into a usable object
1) Reflection & Brainstorming
After our viable prototype, my group reviewed, analyzed, and discussed previous progression, along with introducing the guidelines for the usable prototype. The team began to struggle with the main topic of stress. Taking a step back, we listed variety of functions that can be implemented into REDONDO. We had visual brainstorming session and debated among team members about details of the concept, such as using ambient light or projecting relaxing scenes. To increase efficiency, the team categorized brainstorming processes to aid us in focusing entirely on the idea of integrating IoT and the placement and usability of other features one at a time.
2) Survey and Elimination
Survey that covered the questions and topic had come up during meetings was created to gain understanding. After, the team recorded results from the moist important questions on the whiteboard to better illustrate trends and patterns. According to the questions, the concept of app organization and detailed scene projection were eliminated. The team continued to discuss about functions that can best represent our topic of stress relief.
3) Branding
The team decided to call the redesigned REDONDO “Zone”, since the goal was to enhance the atmosphere and mood of the environment the product is placed in. The word signified the idea of creating a stress-free zone within a household. Following the step, a mockup of Zone mobile app associated with the product was designed.
4) Usable Prototype
The team had user tested the product’s usability of different variations of light, sound, and test the prioritization between aesthetics and functionality for the shelves in a user-testing room at University of Waterloo Stratford campus. After more analysis of the user test’s result, the design of Zone has been finalized and presented with high fidelity mockups.
