Moving towards a Final Concept — Exploring Novel Interactions
Following our presentation to the Philips team, and their feedback on our concepts, we moved into a final round of brainstorming. We wanted to push ourselves to consider more novel interactions, incorporate tangible objects, and make the bedtime routine (and our intervention within it) more responsive (to the physical environment) as well as contextually aware.
In addition to our formal presentation to Philips, we were able to present our concepts to James Tichenor and Josh Walton, visiting from Microsoft. James and Josh gave us some interesting feedback and push our ideas in some interesting ways.
- Ensemble computing works well when each object does something simple. Think critically about “where the smarts go.” For example, maybe the technology doesn’t have to tell the story, because the parents can tell a great story.
- Physical objects present an interesting opportunity because they are neutral — neither parent nor friend.
- Consider how this system or tool might allow (or not) rule breaking. Breaking rules, or not, is an important differentiator among families, and is an interesting point of learning for kids.
“Breaking the rules, or not, becomes an important object lesson for children.” -James Tichenor & Josh Walton
- It’s hard to make an interactive solution exciting for repeated use. When designing for interactions in space, consider how interactions build to create “choreographed environments.” It’s important to consider both direct and indirect interactions, and how a more indirect interaction can create dynamic and engaging spaces time and time again.
“We don’t want someone to look at the ocean and think, when is this going to be over. That’s the same question we have in our work.” -James Tichenor & Josh Walton
- It’s important to consider what a device does, what value it creates, in its “off” state. It’s easier to convince someone to buy and install an object in their home if it’s valuable (or at least considered) in its “off” state.
Consolidating Feedback
We anchored our next round of brainstorming with a few, key questions:
- HMW build a system that responds to the environment and activities that happen around it?
- HMW make sleep feel like a more like a reward than a scary thing?
- HMW balance routine and novelty within the bedtime routine?
- HMW use bedtime rituals to facilitate a healthy routine for parents that don’t have one?
What’s Working?
First, we mapped out our three concepts — the digital artboard, interactive path, and interactive objects — looking for the strengths and weaknesses in each concept.
Next, we considered each of the functional benefits and regrouped them according to needs or opportunities we had identified in the bedtime routine.
From these activity, we decided on fun, natural interactions as a priority. . We also became increasingly interested in how our solution might fit within in the context of a smart system. This “smart” integration might be able to take some of the burden off of parents and enable more meaningful moments around bedtime.
Collaborating with Philips gives us a unique opportunity to consider how our design solution might fit within their suite of products. We began by considering the existing range of Philips products and devices. For example, we thought about how we might incorporate Philips Hue smart lighting system. We also thought about how we might integrate with other devices like the Nest thermostat. Most importantly, we were interesting in finding novel ways to exist within existing smart home infrastructure.
Inspiration
Trying to push ourselves beyond screens and touch, we began to consider how the house might become a canvas or storybook, the child might become the crayon, and how the bedtime routine might become a platform for meaningful storytelling. To do this we looked out into the world for inspiration that might pushing our thinking in these areas.
When considering interactions, we were inspired by Pranav Mistry’s work, Sixth Sense. This wearable, gestural interface enables new ways to interact with digital information in the physical world.
We then began considering how we might engage children in active storytelling, maybe through embodied interactions with space (think interactive pajamas that allow a child to interact with the space around him/her).
We were inspired by projects like Sang-won Leigh’s Remnance of Form; particularly inspired by this poetic interaction that we imagined as a potential platform for a novel form of storytelling.
Similarly, Chris Milk’s Treachery of Sanctuary provided another inspirational reference to consider novel embodied interactions. This, once again, provided an interesting platform to consider opportunities around embodied storytelling.
Ideation
From there, we went back to our sketchbooks to ideate around novel interactions, tangible objects, and integration into environments.
We became particularly interested in the idea of immersive, environmental, embodied interactions. Addressing the environment, rather than simply the objects within it, seemed like a particularly interesting angle.
We began wondering what it might be like to personify the rooms along the bedtime route — giving them each a personality, having them forge bonds with kids, instigating bedtime because they are tired (rather than forcing the kid into a routine). We began to wonder what it might look like, sound like, feel like for a house to go to sleep. What devices or systems would be involved in turning off a house?
Ultimately, we decided to tone down the personality angle of our concept, moving instead towards a scenario in which the room simply supported the parent in facilitating a bedtime routine.
Environmental Storytelling — a Final Concept
Eventually we arrived a final concept to move forward into prototyping. An immersive storytelling system, our concept would use light, sound, and projection to create immersive story-scapes that follow the child from room to room. The parent would be the storyteller, telling a semi-scripted story as imagery and sound emerge from projectors throughout the rooms. The system would recognize keywords to advance the story. At key moments, the story would advance to the next room, sending the child running after characters and onto the next bedtime task. The story would culminate in the bedroom, where the parent finishes the story and the characters fall asleep together with the child, the projection remaining throughout the night as a nightlight.
In addition to facilitating storytelling, the system would connect to any number of devices — including lighting — to create a progressively calm and relaxing environment for the child. As the story unfolds, lights around the house will dim and the environment would become increasingly calm. By controlling lighting and sound, this tool would create a progressively calm environment to prepare the child for sleep as he or she moves towards the bedroom. Beyond physically and mentally preparing the child for sleep, this progressive “turning off” would prevent further friction around going to sleep by easing the child’s anxieties about missing anything after going to sleep. As the child moves towards sleep, the whole house “turns in” as well.
Parents would be able to set preferences for how the story would unfold — how long is each chapter, how many rooms does it happen in, how long does the entire process take? Reports after each successful completion would act as a sort of training tool for parents who want to get better at timing/moving through a bedtime routine.
Next Steps
As our next steps, we will be prototyping UI for our app as well as storyboarding a video to serve as a proof of concept scenario for use of this product.
The design will undoubtedly evolve as we bring it to life, and realize the constraints of our ideas.
