Time Capsule Part II
After we’ve decided on the items to put into the time capsule, now we were asked to ideate and design how the time capsule would actually look like, and think about the connection of the outer design of the items we put inside.
I’ve been thinking about my items and how do I want people in whatever years later interact with them: are my items sequenced? Do I want people to see them all at once? How do I want people to interact and try my ways of relaxation?
All of a sudden, the concept of a “blind box” came to me. “ A blind box is a way of packaging that the item inside is hidden and a mystery to the consumers. The packaging looks identical, and whatever the consumers get might be the same as what they had before from the series, or something different. I really like this concept of randomness and mysteriousness, however, all my items are of different shapes and sizes, it might not be wise and sustainable to have huge boxes to box them even if they are small.
Wait, isn’t an advent calendar of a similar concept but more applicable to my items? The advent calendar is a collection of a certain number of products such as skincare, make-up, candles, being boxed in a very well-designed package with the same amount of “drawers” or “doors”. Customers might or might not know the exact products included in the set, but the product behind each door or drawer remains a mystery to them. “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.” I want whoever opens my time capsule in 125 years to have the opportunity to go on a trial of my ways to relax and decide what works the best for them.
A Relax Advent…?
Here comes my idea of “relax advent”: a time capsule that has 6 doors with 6 items hidden randomly to provide people who ever open it in the future the experience of a fun “treasure hunt” when they look for ways to relax. This is a time capsule of me coping with my stress, but also a story about myself and what I treasure in my life that makes me calm and smile. I have this initial sketch of what it might look like:
As a reference, I looked for a DIY advent calendar tutorial on YouTube to get some inspiration to design my building process so that I can use my time better and more efficiently.
The process
The building process seems straightforward but actually way more complicated and time-consuming than I expected. There are numbers of times that I found what I envisioned and planned did not really work out that I have to change the design.
The materials I collected are pretty similar to what I usually had: cardboard, a shoebox that I took from my roommate, a precision knife, a scissor, clear tapes, and decorative tapes.
The dividers
In the video that I use as a reference point to start with, they started by drawing the doors; however, I started with making the dividers that can posit my items first in the box so they do not move and easier for me to draw the doors on the shoebox lid. I had two drafts for the dividers in my sketch, one is using paper rolls and sticking them together; the other one is to use the cardboard and stack them together. I decided to go with the cardboard route because cardboard might hold my items better in position for fact that my items vary a lot in shapes, sizes, and weights. I measured the length and width of the shoebox and made cuts for all the dividers so they can be inserted into each other to create a stable and grid-like structure.
The doors
Now it came the door part, which was pretty time-consuming. I drew the doors in different shapes on the outside of the shoebox and then used the precision knife to cut them out. The shoe box was much thick than I expected, and it did take me a while to get all the doors out. Being someone not really good at handcrafting, I made some mistakes when I was making the cuts that many of the doors do not look well-polished (but I guess that is the beauty of handcraft that nothing is perfect).
The next part is “installing the doors”. I would say this is the most challenging part of the entire process that I kept changing my mind about how I should execute it. In the beginning, I tried to cut out the shape of the doors on white paper and stick them on the inner side of the shoebox lid; however, I found the paper is too thin that it keeps falling down, and I couldn’t even open the door from the outer side without bending the paper door. As an alternative, I tore them off and taped them on the outer side of the shoebox lid with decorative tapes: one to make sure that one side of the door is stuck to the shoebox lid, and the other side is available for opening; two, the decorative tapes can help to cover some of the bad cuts on the edge and make my advent calendar look more pleasing and relaxing.
Finishing up
For the last few steps, I draw some numbers and glued them to the corresponding doors of the box. I also adjusted the layers of the tapes so that there won’t too much trouble when users open the door one by one based on the door numbers. Here is my finished prototype.
The Relax Advent
Here is a short demonstration of my Relax Advent and how it works.
Reflections
I somehow am proud of myself for thinking about an advent calendar or a blind box as my ultimate format of the prototype. Referring back to my Part I write-up, all the items I placed inside are ways for me to relax based on my personal experiences and stories — they either just work for me to release my anger and anxiety physcially, or mean something special and homey to me. I want whoever find this box (i don't know, maybe me) to go on a treasure hunt by opening each door of the advent box, and really see the item and relate to their personal experiences and feelings. Relaxation to me is a feeling of peace, balance, calm, and seeing what makes me happy. I hope this advent box can bring some joy from seeing something that is unknown to the users before, as well as nostalgia to think about the items and stories that are buried in their minds which can make them happy and smile.
Ideation has always been the most difficult and challenging part of all the projects for this class so far, and it is not getting easy. The good thing is that I start to get more used to the process of ideating what I want to do and how I can make the prototype that really can tell the story and be feasible at the same time. I like my idea of the advent calendar, even though the turn-out is not really what I envisioned, however, I found myself more open in accepting my imperfect work, and more flexible in changing my ideas and design along the way of building the prototypes. When I work on digital prototypes and designs that I can just switch the colors fairly easily; while during the process of building tangible prototypes, I still need to adjust my design plan or even remake when I make mistakes even though I have already made a “perfect” blueprint of what I need and how I actually work on it. What I have in hand hugely impacts what I design and how I build the prototype, and I was very concerned at the beginning of the semester; however, I figure out a way that it might be more efficient to see what I have in my room and then revise my blueprint accordingly instead of freaking out. Handcrafting has never been easy for me ever in my entire life, but I see the opportunity to make handicrafts as a way to get together my designer’s mindset of accepting changes, revisions, and imperfection.
The time capsule is a great medium to tell a story at the time, and I think the way this assignment is structured is unique and fun to enhance our storytelling skills. At the same time, I wonder how important is it for designers to have excellent storytelling skills, in other words, what does the skill “storytelling” mean to designers of different industries? In the industry that I want to be in the future, which is user experience, storytelling shows in ways such as building persona and journey map; those are essential tools to present the “why”s in design decisions in particular to other teams of the company, stakeholders and clients. For my particular route of the career pathway, I would like to make my next part of the time capsule more “user-friendly” that whoever gets my relax advent would know how to use them and why they are meaningful ways of relaxation to the creator, me, by reading my personal stories.
