Week 6: Work session & Brainstorm
Reframe the problem again
We hold a team meeting on Sep 27th and chose to focus on two major concepts with different goals based all the research and brainstorms we did before.
- Goal: changing behaviors and be more aware of situation
- Goal: minimize disruptions
Then, according to user research and interviews, we got a storyline which was established in a scenario of three roommates’ co-living life.
Storyline
7:00AM
Allison set the alarm to be woken up at this time. She goes to the bathroom.
7:00AM
Bob set the alarm to be woken up at this time. He set his wake-up time to between 7 and 8AM. Because Allison is in the bathroom at 7, the smart alarm will wake Bob up once she is out of the bathroom, or at 8AM, whichever is earlier.
7:00AM
Charlie set the alarm to be woken up between 7 and 7:40AM. He has to go to a meeting in the morning and cannot be late.
7:30AM
Allison is done with the bathroom. Charlie’s alarm wakes him up. Bob’s alarm would wake him up once Charlie is done. Even though Bob and Charlie have overlapping ‘wake-up’ ranges, Charlie takes priority because he needs to leave sooner.
7:50AM
Charlie is done with bathroom. Bob gets woken up.
10:00PM
Charlie gets into bed. Charlie sets his smart alarm for the next day. Sets the range to 7–8AM.
Do Not Disturb mode is triggered. (how!)
10:20PM
Bob is playing loud music. Charlie can’t fall asleep.
Somehow, the smart home system lets Bob know to stop being a disturbance.
11:30PM
Allison comes home, and she’s alerted that Bob and Charlie are asleep
Thus the goal of design was reframed as “smart sleep awareness system”, which had three major features: pleasant alarm, fun notification system and sensor.
Drafts for the storyline
We are designing a smart sleep awareness system for housemates who share living spaces.
- To optimize their morning & night routines through providing awareness of each other’s status.
- To reduce tensions that result from conflicts due to a lack of communication.
So that these people can have less anxious sleep in the short term, and in the long term, feel more at home living in a shared space.
Drafts of possible solutions
Focused on the morning routine of three roommates, we got three timelines which were entangled with others. By implementing all those possible solutions we designed, the tension and conflicts between roommates would be ameliorated.
These ideas included displaying hologram images in space, mirror doodle, message on the celling, virtual clock, ambient environment, punctuality stars & point rewards, footprints, schedule displaying, changing bedroom into an alarm.
The next step
Come up with prototypes to explain the following key interactions. Think of why your interaction makes this system delightful to use.
