Fantasy Device

Our first Ideation and Prototyping class started with us drawing 3 spaces where we spent most time over the past year and then we had to tear our sketches into pieces. That was a great start, I realized how important it is not to take quick sketches too seriously and be attached to them because they can be iterated, torn, thrown away any moment, because a client may have a totally different idea in mind. So it is important not to make sketches too detailed or to spend a lot of time on them. Sketches are there to show an idea of what you have in mind, that’s it.

Then we moved onto a second task which was to think of a fantasy device. The first thing that came to my mind was a device that would help me and other people quickly pick an outfit and get dressed easily (since now we are in person and need to actually get fully dressed for classes I thought it was much needed). I was imagining some device where you would select your mood and colors and it would select an outfit for you based on what you have in your closet, I also thought that it would come out from the closet as well on some kind of a railing, that would make the process easier. I explained that all to my partner.

My partner had an idea of a device that would help them easily memorize things they read. I asked why exactly such a device is needed and what are the emotions my partner is experiencing while trying to memorize things. I found out that when she is trying to learn things, especially before a test or exam, she is feeling anxious and as a result the next day forgets what she learned the day before.

My first idea was to create some kind of headphones that would use different kind of music or white noise to help students focus on the subject as well as helping my partner feeling less anxious and stressed while learning. Headphones would send impulses to the brain and would make my client feel calmer and ready to learn the material. Then I was thinking of the way how exactly would the algorithm know how the person is feeling at the moment and then I created sketched a special watch that would measure the vitals (such as heart rate) to determine stress level and therefore pick the right music or sounds (or no sound) to play.

I presented my sketch to the partner and explained how it works, she was surprised and said that she is pretty much satisfied with it but she also told me that I could go crazy with it that I should think of something that would really be a pure fantasy device.

Then I came up with glasses that scan the text for you and send impulses to the brain, placing the information on “hard drive” and then any time students forget this information, they can put on glasses again and the information is stored there, so it’s sending it to the brain again. I think this would probably be a better and easier device to use to learn something (especially with a lack of time).

After this iteration, my partner was fully satisfied with this device and she said that she would definitely use it and she needs it now.

In this process I felt some lack of time for ideation and time crunch for sketches (have never done that before) and nervous showing my quick sketches and ideas to my partner. However, all in all, the feedback was pretty positive and helped me iterate and create another device. So I am slowly getting used to the process of ideation and creating quick sketches without being attached to them and sharing ideas with “the client”.