Cari: A Luxury Shower Control
Purpose
The goal for this assignment was to create a 3-D model of a handheld device, with both physical and digital controls, while applying OXO’s design philosophy. OXO is a brand that typically designs tools used in the kitchen and for cooking that are easy to use, comfortable, minimalistic in design, and universal to cater to a variety of user needs. We were given three device options and I decided to create the shower control interface, a luxury shower control that controls the temperature, volume, and location where the water comes out (ex. faucet vs. shower head).
Brainstorming
I started by looking at OXO’s website. I wanted to learn more about their design philosophy and examples of their products. I really liked their minimalistic approach to their designs and wanted that to be one of the main focuses when designing this prototype. I noticed that their designs are meant to work for everyone and cater to their individual needs (ex. left handed vs. right handed) so I tried to take that into account as well and not make any features or design attributes exclusive or too limiting. I started by looking at the specification for the shower control and listing out how I thought the features could be implemented. The shower control needed to control the volume and temperature of the water as well as the location of where the water comes out. The shower control also needed to be able to be used in the shower environment with wet, foggy, or steamy conditions where users might not be able to see very well and might have a hard time using certain kinds of controls.
Design Sketches
I thought of the Nest home thermostat control because it has a minimalistic design that controls the temperature of a user’s home and its design could apply well to the design of this shower control. Below are some of my sketches I produced in the beginning of this design process. They include some of the design requirements as listed in the project specification and how I thought about incorporating those into my design.
I thought about displaying the location and volume on the screen where I was displaying the temperature but I realized it looked cluttered and it would be hard to see in foggy shower conditions. I thought about maybe having a panel outside of the shower to control some of the aspects before getting into the shower but I realized how that could be limiting because they might not know what they want until they get in the shower and feel the temperature and volume. I realized I was limiting myself and tried to think of ideas that were really different and potentially unrealistic to help idea generation. I thought of a pedal on the floor of the shower that could help control some or all aspects of the shower. I thought about some sort of scanner on the shower wall. I also thought about using gestures to interact with the control since gestures are more commonly used on a variety of devices these days. These ideas helped me realize that the volume and location were aspects that the user could sense. They should be able to detect the amount of water coming out and where the water is coming out of and therefore the digital display of them was unnecessary.
Sketch Feedback
I explained some of my design ideas to another student including the gesture interactions I envisioned and they pointed out that it might be hard to find the device on the wall if visibility is limited. They thought the gestures would be especially tricky if the device was hard to find and they also pointed out that they might not work because of the water on the screen. They said when they try and use their phone when their hands are slightly wet from rain they are unable to swipe and control much without drying their hands first. I decided to come up with a couple of other options for those controls since it seemed like gestures wouldn’t work very well. I sketched some other ideas and listed some notes to help organize some of my thoughts and ideas as seen below.
I realized I could work with some of the common interactions with showers currently and combine those with the Nest dial design I was envisioning. I noticed it is common to pull the shower knob out from the wall to increase volume and press in to decrease the amount of water coming out. I thought this would be a good interaction to include since it might already be a familiar interaction for some users. I also realized that simply tapping the front of the dial could be an easy interaction for the location of where the water is coming out. Users likely won’t have more than three water locations in their shower and therefore it should be quick and easy enough to tap through to get to the one they want. I also realized that voice control would be a great way to modify the control without having to be able to see or touch anything in the shower. I created a quick low-fidelity prototype to help show the design I had been sketching and see how it might feel and function. I used tape to help test the grip concept I was thinking of and otherwise used paper and pencil. I also created a few duct tape rings to test the feel a little more since the paper was pretty pliable and flimsy.
Model Prototype Design
I knew I would need a way to test the pulling and pushing interaction so I decide to use foam board, a bolt, a nut, cardboard, and hot glue. I thought the foam board should be connected to the cardboard in an adjustable way so I could have a user feel what it would be like to pull and push the dial. I cut the foam board in a circle and liked how it cut so I used two circles as the front and back of the dial and then made a duct tape ring with lots of layers to tightly stretch around the circles to make the dial. I filled the dial with some coins because the spec noted the suggested weight and I wanted there to be some resistance when turning the dial so that the temperaure wouldn’t suddenly change dramatically. I covered the front of the screen with transparency film so that the prototype could be tested with wet hands and I used a permanent marker to draw UI elements that would be primarily static. Once everything was put together, I bolted it to the cardboard so that I could tape it up in the shower and test with a user.
User Testing Setup
I decided I was going to provide my user with a brief description of the features and functionality before asking them to complete any tasks. I wanted to give them a quick demonstration because I wasn’t interested in testing how someone might approach it without instruction but rather how the prototype functioned and how the user felt about the functionality. I prepared some tasks, as outlined below, to learn more about how the prototype worked and how the user felt about the interactions.
Tasks:
- Imagine you want to take a shower. How would you turn the shower on?
- How would you change the temperature to 100°?
- How would you change the valve that the water comes out of?
- Imagine you can’t see the dial but you want to change the temperature. How would you do that?
- Using the provided water, get your hand wet and change the temperature to 100°.
- Change the temperature to a colder temperature.
- Turn the shower off.
This video below shows the tasks being completed by a user.
User Testing Analysis and Reflection
I tested my prototype with my brother. He completed all of the tasks except the task where he was instructed to change the temperature when he couldn’t see the dial. He said he felt weird using voice commands in front of me but thought he would be more likely to use voice commands if he was actually showering by himself. Otherwise, he thought it was comfortable because it was a small dial and the interactions required less effort than showers require currently. He thought it was easy to use because it was simple and all it took was one brief description of the features and he thought he could have figured most of them out on his own anyways. He liked how easy it was to access because you could place it anywhere in the shower and you could use the voice control if you couldn’t reach it or see it at some point. He thought adding a timer would be useful because it could automatically shut off when someone exceeds their time limit and this could make the device more environmentally friendly.
From the critique in class, I think people liked the voice control feature because it was a solution to some of the issues people brought up such as taking a bath and being unable to reach the control. My video got positive feedback because I showed the user test with clear tasks and displayed some user feedback. Next time, I think I might try to show more user feedback and cut back on some of the tasks shown, depending on the prototype I am testing and the approach I decide to take when testing.
I think if I were to do another iteration of this design then I could rework the design a little to see if I could add a timer feature and I would test it with a different approach. I would try testing my prototype as if the user is a guest at a friend’s home and wants to take a shower but has never used the device before. This would help me learn more about the out-of-the-box user experience and see which features are or are not intuitive and what they are inclined to do without any instruction. I think because of the minimalistic approach, the user might need a little instruction to get started and I feel like most showers take a little trial and error to get them in the way the user wants.
