#environmentsprojectfour

[albert-does-e]

A4 Reflection

For this project, I learned a lot more about the highs and lows of the design process through iteration and design thinking. I had given myself a goal in the very beginning to incorporate nature into the studio space, so that gave me a general prompt to work with. When I went forward with a certain idea, however, I found that I didn’t know what to do once I discussed with Peter and came to the conclusion that the idea I had was a dead-end. I felt a bit demoralized and confused as to how to move forward since the only way to continue the project was to take a few steps back. As a result, I decided to think back to the beginning of the project where I mapped out what my goals were for each step. In particular, the only goal that I was adamant on keeping was having plants in the studio space and having each student interact with them. I learned that dead-ends in design are completely normal, and that sometimes it just takes a few steps back to figure out how to move in a new direction towards a different solution.

I think that the thought map that helped me reorganize my ideas was extremely helpful, so it’d be really useful in the beginning of each design process to view many options to decide which path I’d like to go down. Had I known how useful actually mapping out my thought process would be, I would’ve done it a lot sooner rather than just thinking of something and then moving forward with it on the hopes that it will work. Writing out the process was also a really calming activity that helped me go step-by-step

While I’m happy I came to the final solution after different iterations of ideas, getting there was pretty painful for me because I felt myself running out of time when I had to rethink things through a few days before the demos were due in class. I had begun to felt unmotivated towards the end because of other final projects due around the same time. Additionally, I didn’t spend as much time as I would’ve liked to film the video demo because I spent much more time creating the graphics for the interaction between the student and the screen. The biggest challenge for me this project was getting over that dead-end hurdle I experienced the week before the project was due, but I’m happy I experienced it so I know how to tackle it next time it (inevitably) happens.

If I were to do this project differently, I’d take a deep breath and realize that dead-ends in design happen all the time rather than sulking about the fact that I spent a significant amount of time on a busted idea. I would also push myself to expand on the idea to create something more unique, since I felt that my solution was a bit too similar to previous digital assistants. I would’ve looked more into the idea of having multi-screen compatibility, but also consider why someone would enjoy the experience of having multiple screens to move the digital plant around in. While I considered the idea, I had ended up shooting it down rather quickly since it came off to me as more of something unnecessary to the design of my solution. Looking at references was a huge benefit to the design process as well, so I would research more about digital assistants and see how people tackled that issue in a variety of ways.

[albert-does-e]

Plant Buddies

Plant Buddies uses real physical plants to create a more enjoyable, less stressful learning environment and a digital plant assistant for each student to int...

Final Demo Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouEU5XmKGnE

[albert-does-e]

After discussing with Peter and realizing I had a hard time pushing my previous idea further, I took a step back and re-thought why I was interested in creating a more natural environment for the studio using plants. I wrote out my thought process during the thinking phase to try and understand which direction I wanted to move forward the most. Eventually, I discussed with Austin about my idea map and went forward with something that I would personally find fun for someone to use -- a digital assistant or companion that could react to physical environments. I had wanted to avoid a sort of blackmail to make the student take care of the plant, so I opted to motivate them by incorporating something fun into the studio environment. In this idea, each student would have their own plant to take care of and their incentive to take care of it would revolve around forming a bond with a digital assistant (”plant buddy”) that serves many functions and physically resembles the real plant, growing over time.  The photo on the right is a short storyboard showing the different reactions, emotions, and functions that the plant could have, either alone or with other students’ plants.

[albert-does-e]

These are mockups of how the app will function. The user will use their phone to view the plant on the desk and select it, bringing them to a variety of cloud computing services. Choosing one will bring them into their personal account (accessible through other devices) and then they can look through the folders and files to choose what they want to upload. I still have to create mockups for naming things, such as folders they can upload to parts of the plant. People’s personal plants can be viewed (but not edited) by others to encourage collaboration and curiosity in what other people are doing. P.S. The setting button on the bottom left of the first screen leads to people logging into their personal cloud services and maybe offering help on how the app works.

[albert-does-e]

Here’s a quick storyboard of my interaction and video demo. The page on the left is a (very) general idea of what I want to film. I plan to just have the interaction demo be a quick runthrough of someone using the “Process Plants” app to upload his/her process into part of the plant. The story itself will involve someone finishing up work for the day and uploading the process work into the plant, and then coming in the next day to refresh his/her memory on what was done the night before. I also have tentative plans to create a website for those outside of studio to use with the plant’s contents. At this moment, I’m not sure if a website is really necessary since it would encourage students to work in studio more if they had to be there. Additionally, uploading process to the plant isn’t meant to be a mandatory thing for the student.

[albert-does-e]

Here are a few wireframes of how the digital component of the “process plants” would work. When holding one’s phone up to view a plant through the camera, the phone highlights the plant it detects and the user can select it to either view, add, or delete process files that have been saved to the plant. I still have to make wireframes for how the user will obtain files from certain cloud storage services, such as Box, and what the actual physical model will look like (this is just a sample plant to show how the system would work).

[albert-does-e]

Process for the final environments project. My idea has moved on to focus more on the interaction with the plant rather than having a mobile air garden. By having each plant represent a project, students can experience the growth of their work by taking care of the plant in the center of their table clusters. They can use their mobile device to view what each plant represents and “upload” process to parts of the plant as it grows. For example, when the plant is a tiny sprout, the person can upload their process on the project to it and it stays there as the plant grows. By the time the plant has fully grown, the person has (ideally) added more process work and eventually created a high-fidelity version. The plants continue to grow even after project deadlines, so the user is encouraged to go back and re-explore each project to maximize their potential.

Each table cluster (consisting of three to four people) would share their own community garden, where they can add whatever projects/plants they want. Even projects with collaborators can have work uploaded to a new plant. People are free to look at other people’s plants at other tables and see what each person is up to. Overall the project is a way to improve the studio space with a more natural environment and help students focus on work while still enjoying the natural aspect of the room.

[albert-does-e]

This is my initial idea for redesigning the studio space to be an intelligent learning environment. My idea stems from the same concept I had for A2, where I used the biophilia effect as inspiration for my design. In this one, I aim to make the experience more individual or customizable for each student since a natural environment helps them learn better and reduces stress (read: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2760412/). By having mini-gardens that have vertical mobility, each table can take care of and foster their own natural environment. Additionally, by lifting the garden up into the air through a system of levers, a screen will come up from under the garden and show a live feed of a natural environment of each student’s choice. I’m still debating on how to make this design even more “intelligent,” how to make the studio a more collaborative space with the idea, and how to maximize the potential of the individual screens.