30 Days a Hero
Testing product concepts for a month by wearing my camera
Inspired by my travels to capture and share experiences, I embarked on a 30-day adventure to ‘wear my camera’. My focus was to prototype what it would be like to integrate my camera into my shirt, watch, and hat. I took my GoPro, meant to capture video and pictures for extreme sport experiences, and wore it everyday for a month (actually 35 days). I used the chest strap, head strap, and the wrist strap.
Why did I choose to wear the GoPro?
After wanting to capture and share experiences with my friends and family in a more dynamic way, I started sketching concepts of possible solutions that could serve this purpose. One of those products was a ‘camera shirt’ with the camera integrated into the shirt to capture photos and video. I sketched the idea and instead of spending weeks or months creating the perfect product (that people may not even use or purchase), I tried to think of ways to prototype the concept now.
“One of the measures of an innovative organization is its average time to first prototype.” Change By Design, Tim Brown (page 106)
After reading Change by Design I have been pushing myself to prototype more rapidly. Thinking of my ‘time to first prototype’, (depending in how you define ‘prototype’, as I would argue that a first drawing is the first prototype), pushed me to action. The purpose of the activity was to push me into making my ideas real as quickly as possible. Getting the ‘camera shirt’ out of my head, so the real world can pressure test the concept. By collecting observations and drawing insights I was able to understand what would work, what would not and improve the product before its ‘polished’ and ready to sell to the world.
Taping a camera to my body was the logical quick prototype (which I tried, and that did not work since the camera I had is heavy), but I had just received the GoPro as a gift for Christmas and had travel coming up. Realizing there was a chest strap accessory, I thought it was perfect to test over a longer period and understand how I would use it, how others perceived it, and whether it was a practical solution.
One month, three flights, five countries, eight buses, and 10+ cities later, the learning was incredible. The original ‘camera shirt’ concept to help capture your travel experience did not survive as originally designed, but many factors arose from the journey.
Following the design thinking methodology and framework I am going to state some of my observations, share some of my insights and key questions I walked away with.
Observations
Was it noticeable?
Surprisingly when walking around with the camera on my wrist most people did not notice it and rarely asked me about it, even though it is quite large. The chest strap was noticeable and people would stare, but if the straps were under my jacket and not exposed people rarely noticed.
Cool factor
Walking around Iguazu National Park in Argentina and again Brazil, a young boy motioned to his mother and pointed at the camera on my wrist. In one case I had the chest strap on at the same time and they completely ignored the chest strap. They were curious as to what it was and one even motioned, after seeing me take a picture, like he had one on. A women in Buenos Aires also stopped me and took a picture of my wrist while I was in the hostel.
Functionality
A few people after seeing me with the GoPro and seeing how I used it said “I am going to get a GoPro”. In all of the instances it was when I was wearing it on my wrist for most of the time I was with them.
Quotes
“That is so practical”
“Did you go sky diving today?”
“That’s what I needed for my trip, a GoPro”
“It’s like the power rangers”
Body Placement
I found myself switching between the different straps as needed, but for most of the time I defaulted to the wrist strap. It was quick and easy to point toward things, but I would disconnect it from my wrist to take pictures at times and I saw others do the same.
Safety and security
On the beach in Rio I was robbed by a group of kids who stole my chain around my neck. At the time I had my GoPro on my wrist, my bag, and my hat. I was startled by the experience, but reflecting back they motioned only for my bag and for the chain on my neck and did not motion for the camera.
Interface
I made several mistakes switching modes on the camera instead of taking picture, even though there is only three buttons!
Every time I put the strap on my head I had to take it off several times to and put it back on to see the settings.
Speed and Battery
I was annoyed at some points that I missed certain photo opportunities, especially when traveling on the buses. I was in a bus from Mendoza to Buenos Aires, Argentina ad noticed a little community with architecture and signs that looked like Germany. By the time I powered up the GoPro, I missed the chance to snap a photo. Also I would keep the camera off most times so I could save battery.
Waterproof
I used the waterproof case for the entire time and actually only needed it for Iguazu and one day at the beach in Rio.
Wide angle
While the wide angle of the lens took beautiful landscape photos, I needed to get to the front of the action to make sure no one else was in my photo. In some cases my finger ended up in the photo.
Sharing
I did not share my pictures as readily as I would have on my iPhone. Their were extra steps involved in sharing such as downloading the photos, reviewing them, then uploading them to Instagram. This led me to take random photos on my iPhone just for the purposes of posting.
Time lapse
I found myself placing the camera into ‘time lapse’ mode with the setting set to take a picture every 5 seconds so I can just point instead of pressing the button to capture a picture over and over.
Insights
-the item should feel secured to the body, so as not to be stolen
-Placing on the wrist allowed quick access to taking pictures
-For everyday use, being waterproof is not completely necessary
-the large camera on the wrist, similar to large watches, was actually ‘cool’
-The faster it can go from being static to taking pictures (or video) the greater the ability to capture random, great moments
-Easy preview and connectivity of pictures would make sharing easier; I wanted to share!
-Capturing pictures has to be simple, natural, and fast
Questions to consider…
How would changing the wide angle alter the experience?
How might we make it easy to place in our palm to capture a picture?
Does a person have to actually motion to capture a picture? What can be automatic? What triggers the capturing?
How can sharing be more natural and fluid?
How might having multiple camera viewpoints later the experience?
I am glad I moved to prototype and test as quickly as possible. With the ‘camera shirt’ I imagined the shirt was the best place for the camera. I did not consider that it might be more secure to place on your wrist (or other places like around your neck). This insight came from the experience of being robbed on the beach, but the importance of security would have been overlooked if I had just conducted an analysis and wrote a plan. When the idea reached the real world and others used the device for travel the importance of security would have been realized. At that point lots of work and design would have to have been redone to make sure the device was secure. This critical observation and insights I would have missed if I simply wrote a business plan, sized my market, and tried to hypothesize how people would receive the product. Although those are all great exercises, I learned by putting an inexpensive prototype into the real world quickly. In the long run prototyping quickly saved me time and energy.
Narrow the scope
Knowing there are many ways to capture and share experiences, not only with pictures and video, but by sharing smell, touch, and taste I am modifying my design challenge and adding constraints to the project. I am focusing on pictures for now to limit the scope, but looking forward to what the future holds in considering the other ‘senses’. In Change by Design Tim Brown speaks about the importance of constraints being a foundation that drive innovative thinking, but also stresses the importance of asking ‘Why?’ a constraint exists to make sure you are solving the right problem. This is something I plan to continue to hone and experiment with as I continue on my product innovation.
I have a breathe of information and more questions than answers, but I think that’s normal. What are my next steps? My plan is to incorporate my insights, return to the ‘Ideate’ phase before creating my next prototypes.
Any designers interested in joining the quest?
Links to other posts on Leyeph Wearables:
