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And Voilà! After a couple of weeks prototyping and testing, this video illustrates the intended experience and interaction.
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Prototyping
Time to give shape to this alarm clock!
Before I started prototyping, I first went to couples, and talk to them about the idea ( don’t trust yourself, when it comes to design for people!). They liked the idea of 2 alarm clocks that “force” you to be synchronized (because actually you don’t have to if you don’t want, it allows cheating) and brings all this conversation up (which they already engage on, but on different context) The overall comments where quite positive, so let’s do it:
Not going to much into details, but first of all how to do it fast and clean? I thought about the timers/straps in order to make a system that works the way I want:
I could 3D print some of the parts I needed to have more customize, like the gearings:
And definitely, laser cut the basics: the front part and the lever:
Videos to come and tests to be done! :)
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Protothinking
So after all, what I was gonna design?
During all the ideation phase, lot’s of ideas were discarded, some of which came back again and went to the mental trash again. Before iterating again with the 3 “1st selected ideas” I was trying to address, why they could be selected (they fitted on my PTM blueprint and had potential) and there was something all 3 had in common: their uses was revolving around one moment/situation time context: From before going to sleep, up to after you wake up.
Checking on my research again, couples usually make/talk/comment/dream about plans on this moment. It is also one of the only moments left couples have and no one has still taken from them.
I launched a small survey, asking people about routines before sleeping and after wake up, activities they engage in, and products that were really present during all this time lapse. I got plenty of inspiration out of their answers (thanks again people!) and one of the 3 products I had in mind became the ideal candidate: The alarm clock
It made sense: normally, the last thing you do before going to sleep is to think about what you have to do tomorrow (isn’t that planning), and from research I learned that couples that wake up together show higher levels of “complicity”, how can through an alarm clock I could engage couples into practice Social Intelligence? What and how is the friction that the alarm has to create to arise this behavior? I was almost there...until..booom!
During this process, by iterating and inspired by the products and designers I described before (check earlier posts)
Why not create an alarm that:
1. Nudges you into a healthy behavior (wake up together, to have breakfast..etc), throughout creating a friction ( when i set my time, yours it’s also stetted), that triggers couples into a conversation about their tomorrow and ideally deeper plans they want to share (talk about motives, goals...the “behind the scene” of planning..Social Intelligence!) that can be cheated easily (you’ll see how)...
Could be something like this?
Keep tunned!
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Quote
[…]Couples are encouraged to rearrange work schedules, turn down promotions that would make them busier, renegotiate childcare responsibilities, get up an hour earlier, schedule “dates” far away for weekends alone without the kids, a hundred-and-one standard therapeutic prescriptions for shoehorning a little more “quality” time into a time frame already bursting at the seams. But if the inner experience of that “quality” time is as mechanical as the prescription itself, not much value has been gained. If there is no change in the inner sense of the time taken for the kiss, for cleaning up the clothes, the kiss will be perfunctory, duty-bound, without any vital current of compassion or empathy[…]
“Synchronicity: The couples therapist view” from Ritterman, 1995
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A glance to the masters
Before and while ideation, I had in my mind how I wanted the final concept to look like.
First, and as I have already introduced, I am very inspired, first by the how, but also on the result of the PTM. What I really like about them (and this is why I used them as inspiration):
The primary focus is on human needs: And they don’t mean to support you in a way that you do not realize, they want to create this moment of thought, this awareness. You are the main actor on the story, and the decision it’s always yours.
They do it thought friction: They raise awareness by touching you in a deeper level. The “better I”. Friction is well done. Even that nowadays it might be strange to have a product that “gives you a trouble” rather than solving it, it makes you the main actor and nudges you into make a decision that ideally, might have a positive impact on yourself (and hopefully on the others for these project of SI).
They are humorous: You cannot get mad at something that it’s so naive. A PTM, knows that you want to engage in a better behavior and “helps” you doing so. But we are not talking about a “hyper technological buy-me-i’ll-make-you-happy”. You cannot expect that from them, because at the end, you are who know best what to do in a situation. They are you stupid and good-hearted friend.
They look nice: And coming from such a research (human psychological needs) it means a lot. Embodying an experience like this (context, interaction, desired outcome) in an object that looks sharp, easy and direct, does not seem as an easy task and in my opinion, they do it in a nice shape.
Another inspiration, is Naoto Fukusawa. Who better than himself to explain it:
“People shouldn’t really have to think about an object when they are using it. Not having to think about it makes the relationship between a person and an object run more smoothly. Finding ideas in people’s spontaneous behavior and realizing these ideas in design is what Without Thought is about.”
“Designers often want to make something special, something that really grabs people’s attention. But I realized that when we actually use these products, whether or not they are special is not that important. So I decided it would be a good idea to look at people’s subconscious behavior instead—or, as I call this principle, “design dissolving in behavior.” I realized then that design has to achieve an object “without thought.”
And of course many more. Artists, designers, philosophers. Some of them as an aesthetic inspiration, others as soul food, as for example Felix Gonzales-Torres withs his project “untitled (Perfect Lovers)” where the concept of time as a media to be molded, it’s explored in a way I found very interesting for myself. Because since the final concept is gonna be an “alarm clock that nudges/helps couples to practice SI through the activity of planning”, time and synchronicity are very important inspiration.
This last mood board illustrates my main inspiration for design.
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Explore to Understand (and viceversa) (II)
The process of ideation could be divided into 2 periods:
The first period, one week were the goal was to come up with 5 concepts every day. Every concept had to fill this criteria: “how it’s related to SI and planning // behavior to change // nudge-friction to do so”. Every concept was trying to explore a different situation, from brushing your teeth, to being aware of the other’s schedule.
Most of these ideas, where not even candidates for a final design, but they helped me a lot to throw all the the thoughts I had been accumulating during the last months of research. After the week was over, I selected 3 concepts that I could fit on a “PTM blueprint” which means, that these ideas were fitting on the characteristics of a PTM. I not going into details, but here you have the 3 concepts:
After arriving to this point, there was something in common within the 3 concepts. They were situated on the before-after moment of going to sleep. Will come to this later on. The concept of the lamp was trashed. It was an interesting concept, but I was not offering enough options to keep on exploring it. 3 more concepts were done for the other 2.
The overall ideation process would look like this:
And the winner is....the alarm clock. Mission accomplished. I finally got one well-situated concept, that fit really good on the PTM blueprint. Still, this is not over ;)
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Explore to Understand (and viceversa) (I)
After all these time, I had a direction to stick to. It was a relief, that little by little, you can start working with more (and more) concrete ideas; still, planning was already too general to know what specifically I was going to design.
Also at this moment, some criteria was needed to be defined. Since the very beginning I was really inspired by the “Pleasurable Troublemakers” (PTM)
Following these examples, the idea is to put in practice the principles of the “Aesthetic of friction” proposed by Hassenzhal and Laschke. This aesthetic: “aims at creating friction (mainly through choice) to highlight and suggest behavioral alternatives to established routines. However, it does so in a light, often naïve, understanding or even ironic way.”
What better to “help people practice SI” than an object that remembers you and your couple partner that you want to become better at that and that forces you to engage in an activity that helps you out on this practices?
When looking to the PTM, there is something that, in my opinion, is top priority and that would be one of my main focus during this ideation: Find a good situation. Explore and discover what is a good moment for coupes to “plan”
Taking this set up as a starting point, I got immersed in 2 weeks of intense ideation: Think about different situations, puking bad ideas, looking for opportunities in already existing objects....Let’s go!
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After some days on the zone, I had the feeling that I was on a good direction to find the inspiring theme to start ideating, first the experience, and later on the concept that would embody this one. One word, several meanings: Planning
When I was doing the booklet, “planning” was an exercise that I “knew” (people and literature kinda pointed to it) I had to include, even thought, I never expected to be such a relevant topic. After finishing the interviews and while listening to them later, planing was becoming more and more present. People was talking about it even before we were discussing about the exercise. And what it look like to me, was that couples were very engaged and vivid while talking about it. It is clear at this moment that this is my direction, but to my surprise, is not as concrete as I thought it was going to be (eg. “make a sandwich”).
Planning it’s an outcome and still a hell of inspiration and room to move and explore...I’m 100% sure that planning embodies “Social intelligent activity that couples engage in” and this is what I have been looking for a while. Still, I need to find a really concrete (and not abstract) activity. In which situations couples on a daily routine, couples engage in “planning”. Is it something to do today,tomorrow, or next year?? I think I need a pen.
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On the Zone
Meanwhile, in Studio Lab...
I'll be here for a moment...it feels nice :)
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Outcomes
After a almost 2 months immersed on the user research, the outcomes is a lot of stuff to do and some of it very boring of very rich data, which means a lot of work to do (which means 10 booklets and a "couple" of hours typing interviews)..This sounds pretty depressive (the typing), but there is a very good thing that is that I already typed everything and taken the interesting "stuff" from the booklets:
Hereby you can see a picture, just to show you the nicest part of this pre-analysis, going through the booklets and seeing what people has done:
From what I have seen so far, I have a "focus" for the analysis, but if you want to know that, then you should wait a bit more...
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Free Dinner(s)
Heading to the first interview, feeling really curious about how the participants experience doing the booklet...do they like it, it was too much..and...did the booklet help to put us the same words and intentions in our brains (and mouths).
When I arrive there, dinner is ready, so first we gonna eat some, take some energy and prepare the atmosphere for what is coming later...
Interview went really nice, I was really happy when I could see that the exercises where fitting very good the level of conversation I wanted to set up, and they were quite engaged while sharing with me (and also with themselves) some stories, anecdotes...and later on dreams and goals.
After a long day, I'm ready to sleep out that interview in my bed. I've heard lots of things during 1:45 min, so it's time to process it.
4 more interviews to come, hope they all go like this one! :)
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Open the door
Done! Booklets finished!
After being overthinking for a couple of weeks, I came up with the first version of the booklets. Some pilots where done before sending them to the participants...Oh, wait, I haven´t talk about this:
The user research is structured in 2 parts:
The first one, is the booklet. The aim of it, it´s to trigger people (5 couples x2=10 people) past experiences, anecdotes and memories of activities and moments that connect (in my opinion) SI with Positive Relationships and further on, bring reflection on the relationship and build up upon dream, concerns, meaning...All this is meant to be done individually, this way I want to trigger people to reflect in a more personal way.
The second part would be the interview; After every couple (5) is done with the exercises, I would present myself on their place and go through in an in-depth interview. Looking for more concrete answers and of course, engaging in interesting conversation us 3, to get to know more about them!
At this precise moment, letters are flying to 5 different locations...hope they like it!
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youtube
Thinking about how to give shape to a tool for the user research, that seeks for activities couple engage on where they make use of SI to achieve a positive outcome on their relationship and themselves....($%$%=)
"Hey doubt, come on around anytime" (but don´t stay for dinner).
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Starting to think "what" should be on the user research. It looks pretty much like this...
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Criteria
About to start the user research, I feel ready for it (after making my mind up).
But before getting on the specifics and detailing of this process, I needed to make some things concrete, before I can start for real.
What is my criteria? Let´s see so far what has been connected:
That's quite a lot of things, can I have it a bit more compressed clear?:
Ook!..and what I supposed to do with these?:
Nice, let's do it then!
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