Defining the Challenge
Picking a ‘start-up’ direction
How might we enable people to more naturally capture and share experiences with friends & family as we travel?
Having just returned from an amazing expedition in Saudi Arabia, a country with no ‘tourism’, my aunt asked me “How was it?” and all I could say is “It was amazing” as I pulled out my phone to show her some pictures.
…The coolness of the sunset and the wave of silence as the hypnotic prayer began to echo though the cobblestone streets of Jeddah. How do I share that? Does a picture or a video suffice?
After having the privilege of traveling quite a bit over the past several years I have begun focusing on ‘‘more naturally capturing and sharing experiences’’ as my challenge. My design challenge can be more defined, but I will start here.
The truth is I jumped to a recommended solution rather quickly, I wanted a ‘camera shirt’ with a video recorder embedded in it (more on that later). An engineer by training, typically as soon as I have a problem I look to sketch or play around with a possible solution. I recently did this when I was fustrated with tying my sneakers and developed a quick fix. In my quest to develop more ‘innovative’ solutions I tried the to use a human centered design thinking approach, a method developed by the design firm IDEO, and go back and define my challenge.
I realized what seems like a simple linear process…
Is actually a little more fluid…
I was annoyed and I wanted to share my experiences more easily with my family and friends without removing myself from the moment. When I sense a moment I have to pull out my phone and looking at the world through a screen disturbing my experience (point of view).
I jumped to idea of putting my camera on my shirt (ideate), sketched the concept (crude prototype), and starting making plans to make a shirt. Up to that point I was operating on autopilot. Taking a step back, resisting my urge to go build something, I went back to the ‘understand’ phase to define my challenge.
By starting with ‘enabling people to more naturally capture and share experiences with friends & family’. I was able to ask myself if that was the challenge I wanted to work on. By articulating the challenge it pushed me to define what I wanted to do (capture and share experiences…as I travel) and not do (example: be a clothing design company). Also it was liberating because there are many ways to capture and share experiences (not only through a camera) that envied more ideas.
Regardless with the Wearables movement where technology is being integrated into our clothes (then our bodies…yes that’s coming), I am extremely excited for the RoboCop possibilities of the future. To prototype and my ‘camera shirt’ idea, I am wearing my GoPro everyday, wherever I go, for a month. Just doing it for a few days has lead has lead to random stares, requests for pictures, questions, or in most cases people do not even notice.
So how might you more ‘naturally capture and share experiences?’ (Share your ideas! Post it or leave a comment. The crazier, the better.)
Links to other posts on Leyeph Wearables:
