Create something Fun… (By end of 2020)

Define Problems

Initial HMW Question

How might we enrich the lives of residents in Berkeley to become more socially and physically engaged?

We started our HMW questions by thinking about the daily activities people have in Berkeley. From a small poll, it appears that people keep their daily activities to something more mundane and repeatable. For example, students are saying after their 1 day school course, they normally go to the grocery store, buy something back home and cook at home. They do not have other interesting things to do. Another person shared with me: as a residence in Berkeley, he is not aware of lots of resources here. For example: Although there are several grocery stores in the vicinity he is not aware which bus routes will allow him to get there. This lack of information discourages him from exploring new grocery stores and even exploring new places. These are the main inspiration we start our HMW.

The limitations of our question include the fact that we are keeping ourselves constrained only to the residents of Berkeley, but perhaps exploring nearby cities will offer an insight we can bring to this area and the world. In the end tail of our question, socially and physically have two different connotations and can be hard to tie in together through just a single activity or product. Additionally, the residents of Berkeley may already be socially and physically engaged in a way we didn’t expect, and we would have to transform our question to meet a hidden need instead.

Prototyping

When we interviewed our users there were a few people in disagreement on the method they received their surprise from their personalized desk toy. One interview enjoyed the aspect of the “popping” motion of a character that would relate a positive message to them. Another interviewee found that action to be intrusive and annoying. With the first prototype (the cuboid shaped box “Tap it Out”) we are investigating the reaction and the interaction with a device that elicits a popping motion. We hope to understand the effect of this action with users whose moods vary, and even their response to it in general. This prototype has a character that pops up at random intervals using a servo.

With the pentagonal prism, we hope to discover how a user feels about a remote vs tangible interaction (shaking) with the desk toy. The second prototype (Shake it Out) is to discover if the user prefers to have the toy light up when a message is received or to shake, tap, bounce, elevate, move the toy in order to initiate the message (a light) when the message is received. This prototype contains an accelerometer which will then signal the toy is being moved which will then prompt a light in response. Additionally it plays a short tune.

Making Process

Prototyping Videos (First Round)