Look up- A design thinking project
Let’s say that you’re meeting your friends after a long time, perhaps on a Saturday night to have a nice dinner all together. And there it is: that friend who is constantly staring at the phone and never at you, not really taking part in the conversation.
Well, that friend is ‘phubbing’ you. ‘Phubbing’ is used to refer to ‘phone snubbing’, meaning you are more focused on your phone rather than around you.
Me, alongwith my friends decided to tackle this problem as this is something that we all have experienced. Below is a framework for the creative process we used during the project.
You can directly watch the video explaining the concept.
Below is a framework for the creative process we used during the project.
Goal> Research> Ideation> Storytelling
Goal:
To design something to encourage people to engage more with the world around them and not just those little screens that hypnotise them into submission.
Research:
Existing facts and figures-
● Internet addiction, fear of missing out and lack of self-control are the main reasons for phubbing.
● Phubbing is perceived to be normative.
We observed users in their natural environment, giving us a better understanding of the problem.
● Where do people usually place their mobile?
● Their posture & facial expressions.
● What might be the reason for them to take out their mobile?
● Reaction of the other people when somebody is busy on their phone.
User interviewing- We had a casual talk with people asking for their opinions on the phone addiction problem in order to get to know their painpoints. Few of the questions we asked them-
● Are you familiar with this type of situation?
● Why do you feel the need to take out your phone in a restaurant?
● Do you think that people recognize phubbing behavior?
● Do you think that phubbing behavior is typical amongst people around you?
● What might be the reason they take out their phone while having a conversation with you?
● Is this type of behavior appropriate?
We narrowed down our problem statement to a single “How might we…” statement.
How Might We — shift from phubbing to facilitating social interactions in restaurants?
Ideation:
We narrowed down our ideas by the dot voting method based on the following criteria-
1. It’s aligned with the problem.
2. It’s innovative, yet simple and obvious.
3. It’s feasible.
4. We’re excited about it.
After several discussions and combining ideas we came up with the solution.
Concept:
Smart Camera at the top detects a person using his mobile phone and it triggers the light above his head.
Placement of lights: Depends on the interiors of the hotel. It shouldn’t stand-out from the rest of the lights in the hotel. A dim-light family restaurant is preferred.
After taking feedback from other people and our mentors, we realised we need to reinforce positive behavior ( i-e encouraging an action by rewarding it)
Positive reinforcement:
● Rewarding diners with complementary food or discount coupons.
● “Finish me” Story games or “get to know” question cards that lets people interact with each other.
Prototyping:
Input- Camera- Logitech Webcam
Processing- Google’s A.I Experiment- Teachable Machine We can teach the machine using camera and let it respond in fun ways.
Storytelling:
We had to transform our classroom into a hotel scene for video shooting.
Check out the video that explains our design concept.
Conclusion and learnings:
This project is just a concept and not a final product. It will require more iterations and research to make it smart and practical. The main purpose behind this project activity was not to create a perfectly designed product but to go through the design process and learn along the way.
This project is a group effort and done as part of Summer School organised by Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design.
I would love to hear your feedback and suggestions on how this could be better. Reach out to me over naik.pranjal1996@gmail.com or LinkedIn
Thanks :)
