Idea Generation Part 2
Phone Car Mounts
HMWs
Problem statements from User Research:
Drivers need a way to safely receive directions without causing needless distractions because driving requires them to pay attention to their surroundings.
Drivers need a way to control audio in their car because driving can often feel tedious and many find music and audiobooks to help mitigate their boredom.
Drivers need a place to put their phone because many people carry their phone with them constantly, loose objects in vehicles can be hazardous, and in some places it is illegal to hold a phone while driving.
To limit constraints and broaden the scope of possibility to include any ideas outside of traditional phone mounts, these problem statements translate into the following How Might We statements:
- How might we help drivers safely navigate to reach their unknown destinations?
- How might we change how drivers control audio playback in their cars?
- How might we influence where drivers put their phones while driving?
These statements provided the framework for the group idea generation session.
Set Up
Participants
Charlie is a student from Watertown, MN. He studies German in the College of Liberal Arts.
Henry is a musician and writer from Roseville, MN. He is a singer/songwriter and plays guitar in a band.
Kush is a student from Nairobi, Kenya. He studies Chemical Engineering in the College of Science and Engineering.
Ziyi is a student from Xi’an, China, who studies Biochemistry and Neuroscience in the College of Biological Sciences.
I selected these participants due to their wide range of varying backgrounds —whether in regards to geography, fields of study, colleges, and/or interests.
Location:
Architecture Library conference room (Rapson 204) on October 31
In addition to the whiteboard, chairs, and table in the room, the materials we used were:
- 5 stacks of Post-it notes, double-wide to allow room for sketches and text
- 5 different colored markers (red, pink, teal, green, and black)
- 5 sheets of color coding labels with 5 dot stickers of each respective color (red, yellow, and blue) for voting
- A full bag of Mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (not pictured) for Halloween spirit and a creative energy boost
Warm Up
Alphabet Animals
- Group stands in a circle
- The first person says the first animal that comes to mind, starting with the letter A, then points at anyone in the circle to take their turn next. Anyone can start. ex: “A — aardvark”
- The second person says an animal that starts with the letter B then points to anyone else in the circle, who then says an animal that starts with C, etc. ex: “B — buffalo,” “C — camel,” etc. to Z, at which point the activity ends
- If anyone is unable to think of an animal for that letter, the category can broaden into foods, people, places, etc. Just as long as every letter has a word and everyone says something on their turn. There are no wrong answers!
I developed this warm-up activity to help the group loosen up and keep track of multiple details simultaneously — whose turn it is, anticipating who’s next, and what letter of the alphabet the group is on — all while spontaneously thinking of animals when called on.
In addition to this warm up activity, I also led the group in two rounds of the “Word Ball” word association activity from class; first with related words, then unrelated words.
Brainstorm Session
I created the following documents to serve as a planning guide and a guideline to follow during the session itself:
First, I led the group in a round of introductions. I started off by going around the circle and having everyone introduce themselves with their name, hometown, and major (or interests). To break the ice even before beginning the warm-up activities, I also posed the question, “If you were a Transformer, what vehicle would you be? Would you be an Autobot or Decepticon?” This was a fun way for everyone to get to know each other and make the space more comfortable. We then did the two warm-up activities of “Word Ball” and “Alphabet Animals.” All-together, introductions and warm-ups took about 10 minutes.
Next, I led the group in a 10 minute general idea generation period for any ideas related to phone car mounts. I made sure to emphasize the building of ideas, deferment of judgment, and that every idea must be spoken aloud and be paired with a sketch and textual label. However, toward the end of the session I found that the group members didn’t seem to like the slowness and isolated nature of this format, and preferred just discussing ideas with each other (especially closer to the end of the session). I tried to get the group members to sketch their ideas or at least document them in some form to the best of my ability, but it was difficult to do without stifling the flow of ideas, so I began delegating people to sketch some of the “group ideas.” Unfortunately, this resulted in a loss of documentation for an unknown number of ideas and added difficulty in tracing ideas back to their origin.
Through progressive revelation, I then narrowed the scope of the potential idea pool by focusing on the first two HMWs for 10 minutes each, then 5 minutes for the last HMW due to the time constraint.
Following the idea generation phase, we began the step of analyzing our results. I facilitated a group sort similar to the in-class activity wherein all members had to remain silent for 5 minutes and group seemingly related Post-its by any common traits.
After silently sorting, I opened up the floor for discussion and rearrangement of ideas to fit into more defined categories. The main categories we decided on were:
- Car integration
- Steering wheel integration
- Positioning
- Incentives
- High tech
- Gimmicky
- and Other
Voting was based on 3 criteria: novelty, usefulness, and feasibility. Each group member was given 5 stickers of each color to place wherever they saw fit.
There were 54 total ideas, which makes out to be 1.35 IPM.
Top 10 Ideas from this Brainstorming Session (ascending order)
Light up steering wheel
This was Kush’s idea where the steering wheel is lined with lights, positioned like the hours on a clock. The idea is that the lights indicate the magnitude and position of the turn.
Votes: 1 Novel, 1 Useful, 1 Feasible; Total: 3
Speakers built into driver’s seat
This was my idea where the driver’s seat would have speakers built in to be located around the driver’s head for audio dedicated to navigation.
Votes: 1 Novel, 1 Useful, 1 Feasible; Total: 3
Vibrating wristbands
My idea for vibrating wristbands that indicate whether the driver should turn left or right. Additional vibration patterns could be programmed to indicate when to turn, or whether it’s merely a lane change.
Votes: 2 Novel, 1 Useful; Total: 3
Radio controls for phone
Henry’s idea for adding functionality from the built-in radio controls to the phone to make audio controls more tactile.
Votes: 2 Useful, 1 Feasible; Total: 3
4 Phone Holder
Henry’s idea for a mount capable of supporting 4 phones simultaneously.
Votes: 3 Novel, 1 Useful; Total: 4
AR display
Charlie’s idea for an augmented reality display on the windshield that connects to the phone, showing route instructions.
Votes: 1 Novel, 2 Useful, 1 Feasible; Total: 4
Solar panel
Kush’s idea for a solar panel-charged phone mount with a built-in battery.
Votes: 2 Useful, 2 Feasible; Total: 4
Phone port in place of keys/ignition
Charlie’s idea for inserting a phone into a dedicated port to start the car instead of keys or ignition. The phone would then take over many controls of the car.
Votes: 2 Novel, 1 Useful, 1 Feasible; Total: 4
Voice assistant all-app access
Kush’s idea to grant access to all phone apps to the voice assistant, e.g. using Siri to control Spotify.
Votes: 2 Useful, 2 Feasible; Total: 4
Reward points/lower insurance
This idea was a combined effort that was based off of Ziyi’s idea for “bubble tea reward points” to incentivize users to mount their phone and keep it out of their hands. The group built on this idea along the lines of Progressive Snapshot or PocketPoints technology to expand it to a rewards points app or lowered insurance rates for drivers who use the mount.
Votes: 3 Novel, 1 Useful, 4 Feasible; Total: 8
Top 10 Ideas
Balloon Mount
Boombox Stereo
Hologram
Electromagnetic Mount
Navigation Wristbands
Reward Points App
Extra Wide Mount
Gameboy Mount
Magnifying Prism Insert
Magnetic Phone and Earbud Charging Mount
Timeline:
Wed 10/30: Publish outline by 10pm, develop warm up activity, and decide on other warm-up games to play
Thu 10/31: Develop 2 HMW statements and purchase any necessary materials for brainstorming session; conduct brainstorming session in Rapson Architecture Library 5:45–6:45pm
Fri 11/1: Compile photos and findings from brainstorming session
Sat 11/2: Organize how to display text and photos on blog
Tue 11/5: Narrow down ideas to best 10; organize and display creatively on blog
Wed 11/6: Post finalized blog by 10pm
Fri 11/8: Conduct peer reviews
