Week 1
We decided on working on designing a communication tool within sports where the scenario is being not able to use your phone so we would need to make a communication tool for a sport or more preferable since the design situation it would be mass produced and not of niche use. For our first critique session we needed 5 concept sketches each and then pick 5 to show the teachers.
The idea was to have a buzzer which would cause haptic feedback to the other person on the team so you don’t both go for the same birdie while playing which in return would improve communication. This would be on badminton racket.
My Second sketch would be used in basketball where players would have a clip on speaker and the coach would have the controller so he/she can communicate to the players while being more discrete than just shouting out orders.
My third sketch is similar to my previous sketch which is that the players would have a built in speaker in the collar of the shit and the coach can speak to the specific players he want to speak to. In football you are allowed to speak to the players but this can possible be a training tool since I doubt such thing would be allowed in competitive sporting events. A pro is that this wouldn’t impact the actual game since coaches are allowed to speak to players throughout the game.
My fourth idea was to have a formula 1 glasses where while focusing on the road you can see how far the next turn to be more prepared. This idea is not based on knowledge about the F1 but I’ll research more into it if we need to. On the other hand it can also be a great training tool during driving tracks as this can improve the driving.
For my last concept sketch its based in football, and is similar to the previous concept where a player would get information on the glasses to who to pass to for example since it can be hard to get in the box if players wave to get the attention of their player with the ball but they also risk getting attention from the opposing team’s defense.
Critique session 1: We were told we needed to base our concepts on actual research which was a misunderstanding since we did research but assumed parts. All the concepts can be based on personal experiences of some kind. for example the badminton racket idea came from me seeing two people on the same team going for the birdie and ended up by one of them fracturing their finger. After the critique we decided on going to the different places to ask questions of things that they believe are needed and what means of communication that they use. I will be going to badminton and Tennis courts for next week.
Week 2
I went to the tennis and badminton courts to ask questions- couldn’t find someone that played duo’s in tennis but found 2 people playing that said you can’t really communicate in matches when the ball is on their opponents side but can communicate when the ball is moving towards them and for badminton they said that bad communication could lead to collisions or rackets hitting each other. They can communicate with hand signals about how they will serve. The communicate as well when each other are doing good shots as encouragement. For For both For Tennis and Badminton they said that they don’t know what could be introduced that wouldn’t change the game experience. I guess a positive side to this is that we are narrowing our concept of what we can work with.
We are exploring a programmable pad button where its made up of 6 buttons where you can program whatever you want such as higher volume, lower volume, answer call, and declining calls. you can see the sketches and a lofi prototype below. While researching we found out that 5 is a perfect number for buttons (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/behind-online-behavior/201410/the-psychology-choice) and to think of remote controllers where the middle part has 5 buttons is also an interesting thing to keep in mind. As well as how people use the phone while exercising the link between loss of focus and exercising (https://time.com/4637895/exercise-smartphone-workout/).
Week 3
I was working on Experience prototyping and Storyboards.
These are the Insights from going to the Gym and biking without being able to use the phone:
At the gym and while I was biking I wanted to play an album and skip songs.
I wanted to see what time it was.
I really wanted to answer a call while biking which took a bit of a wait for the vibration to turn off since it took some focus away.
I didn’t mind the notification vibration but maybe since I normally have don’t disturb mode on when I go to the gym.
Nahid and I did another experience prototyping where we tested numbers and colors as a way to mean different things such as give me the pen and other commands but it was easier to us colors than remembering numbers as it catches your attention. During the critique when we presented the 5 button remote Johannes said something interesting that we had to think about which is finding the breaking point where using a device like this becomes too difficult and it becomes easier to get your phone. So that was what Nahid and I tried to investigate this week. We also had an idea of having a display of icons which can become easier to understand than colors and could be up to 5 people communicating through the device to each other while biking for example where you can see below that if the one user wants a break how the interaction would look like for accepting a request or declining.
You can see the storyboard Nahid and I made of a gym based situation where Nahid needs a spotter while I was running and then we communicate through pre programmed messages for the gym situation. This is a storyboard to display the interaction/communication with the use of our programmable 5 button idea.
Augustine and Sara were in charge of sketching ideas and of course we all gave out oppinions on the different subjects as was agreed upn in the group contract. We also looked into biking as a sport that it would be used in so we explored where it could be for example on the steering wheel or a watch type of thing. My and Frans went to interview people that work with diving and diving equipment and they liked the idea of having a fun and easy way to communicate with others. So biking and Swimming are the two sports that we will focus on but it could be used in other sports like skating.
We decided upon having color as masages connected to a number which in return would be easy to remember since it is easy to connect words to colors for example. You can see the different ways to communicate below as well as the final design.
Unfortunately due to the shutdown of the workshop due to the COVID19 we weren’t able to 3D print our prototype as we initially were about to do before the shut down.
Week 4
After our critique section we got good feedback and we were told to put our device into context. So my role was to put the device into context. For swimming, Biking, Skating, and the gym. Which you can see all below.
The aftermath: during the presentation we got valuable feedback about how we should of had photos of the artifact in context from the very beginning so the don’t have to wonder what it looks like. Johannes liked the POV bike image since it was straight to the point while he questioned the diving one for the positioning of the device for one of the people in the 2 way communication example. We should have explained why we are using lights during the presentation more which is understandable as well as maybe having a video where the device is in use during diving as an example.
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