Greatest Team Since Sliced Bread

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📽️ 📹 CONCEPT VIDEO 📹📽️

And finally, we’re bready with the final concept video!

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DESIGN SOLUTION

Trailblazer attempts to establish a resilient and prudent relationship between children and natural ecosystems, a divide that has only widened during the pandemic. Trailblazer directs children to experience natural ecosystems in curated safe spaces through meticulously formulated tasks, with consistent and indubitable consideration for health, security and social distancing paradigms. It provides a platform for children to share their experiences with their friends in novel and engaging ways.

Journey:

The wearable notifies the child to step out to a nearby location at a suitable time. 

The wearable is equipped with a speaker and microphone which enable conversational, voice-assisted interactions away from the screen. 

After reaching the destination(identified safe-space by the app), the wearable device, through a series of conversational prompts facilitates and empowers the child to observe and familiarise objects/entities in the aforementioned safe space.

Visibility of things in surroundings is greatly influenced by the size, but prompts like 'identify yellow things in nature' will encourage the child to look at things he/she would have otherwise overlooked, and perhaps in a new light/perspective.

The Trailblazer application interface is a platform for generating stories (fictional or real) around discovered object/entities. These stories are built using the found object as key plot indicators in addition to some fictional elements called “Available Assets”. 

The application lets the child share these imagined/constructed stories with their friends as a byproduct of their experiences in natural ecosystems. Most children spend their time in comparative isolation with very scarce shared experiences. Moreover, most of their tangible experiences can only be shared with their parents. Yet, the joy of creation is progressively amplified when a child gets to share them with his/her friends.

The solution leverages digital medium, with grounded understanding in its immense potential for engagement and interest in children these days. Additionally, games can serve as a potent tool for learning and behaviour creation. It was therefore only logical to influence the potential of digital mediums extended into physical manifestations. Contrary to colloquial belief, parents recognise the relevance and potential of technology in the presence of conscientious and ethical constraints. Allowing kids meaningful exposure to natural ecosystems leads to infallible benefits in affective and cognitive development of the child.

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Finally! The Trailblazer App Arrives!

Its way past our breadtime 🥯 💤 but here we are, and we’ve got some App Mockups!!

You can experience the live prototype for yourself here: https://xd.adobe.com/view/85d9bceb-2a60-444d-9e6d-630e46678bf4-d08a/?fullscreen

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Safe Spaces are situated in the vicinity of the child’s residence. They are carefully curated to allow access to nature while still being in close proximity which ensures the child is familiar with the surroundings while on the trail. All trails and trail related prompts are performed under parental supervision. These curated safe spaces allow the child to be in the midst of nature while still following all necessary and prudent social distancing and health considerations. 

Additionally, this allows the child to identify and better appreciate natural ecosystems in his/her surroundings.

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We’ve just lost one of our teammates to sleep. God Save our souls...

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To keep the child hooked to the exploration journey, our team carefully incorporated the principles of gamification.  💰 💰

The objects/entities observed on the nature trail become Acquired Assets. Submitting an acquired asset fetches the child 10 coins. These coins can be redeemed to get Available Assets. 

Additionally, exchanging stories also exchanges the assets between friends. 

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Trailblazer Logo!

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⌚ The Trailblazer wristband! ⌚

Trailblazer Wristband is a VUI(Voice UI) enabled band, with just one button that triggers interaction. It assists the child on his/her journey of nature exploration in curated safe spaces. The VUI vocalises several prompts for the child to undertake, while also understanding what a child discovers/sees during his/her journey in surrounding ecosystems, all through verbal communication. This allows healthy disengagement from screen time and allows for more embodied interactions with nature.

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Here’s the wireframes for the Trailblazer app! Mockups coming up soon 😏😉

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This storyboard aptly explains the journey of our primary stakeholder- children, who were forced to be indoors in wake of the pandemic. We imagine a preferred state where the children have a resilient relationship with ecosystem.

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After synthesising the insights and coming up with the HMW statement, we came up with a solution - TrailBlazer. Trailblazer is a solution to meet the strained gap between children and the ecosystem. A combination of a wrist wearable and an app, it lets the child explore nature while ensuring a safe space for the child. It extends the experience of finding new elements in nature to a digital gamified platform so as to make the solution acceptable in the lifestyles of children whose digital identities are closely tied to their personal identities. It also encourages a 'sense of creation' in the children and sharing of experiences with their friends. It is therefore the desired solution in the aftermath of a global pandemic to help establish resilient relationships with our ecosystem.    

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🏆Mini Challenge 3🏆

Exhaustion? We don’t got naan of that 🫓🫓🫓

Here’s our very own Arushi, mesmerised by all the design magic from our prospective solution. 

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Subsequent questions pursuant to the problem statement.

It’s a shame that bread puns are always so crumby...

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Problem Statement: How might we help children establish resilient relationships with their non-human ecosystems(flora, fauna etc.) to allow holistic affective and cognitive development in them, during and subsequent to a global pandemic?

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Insights and Findings

After careful consideration of our secondary research and data from our research tools, here are the insights! 

Insights always make design butter... 🧈

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Naan of us are tired thus far. 9 hour 44 mins long call, still going strong. 💪 

Before I break down and rye, I want you to know that I loaf you Designathon 2020. 💖🥖🥯

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Keywords help navigate the space, you can crust us!  🍞 🍞 🍞