FLARE
January - May 2017
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The Story:
Like Neville Longbottom in the movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, we all have encountered a time where we know we are forgetting something, but don’t remember what we have forgotten. Beyond just setting reminders on our phones or writing a note on our hands, having reminders should be immediate and efficient to remember while living hectic lives. My team designed the Rememberall to help people who are constantly moving and be reminded of things that they don’t need to worry about forgetting.
The Team:
This project was supervised by a polytechnic professor and an anthropology professor, and they formed multidisciplinary groups in the class. My group comprised of two polytechnic students, an anthropology student, and supply chain management student with me as the only engineer in the group.
My Impact:
My main roles in this project were Interviewer, Brainstormer, Concept-tester, and Secondary-researcher.
PROCESS
Execution: What I either participated in or I took sole ownership of for this project
Objective: The goals or purpose of what I executed
Result: What actually happened from the Execution
DEFINING USERS
Execution: Decide on who is the user group that we are aiming to serve
Objective: Narrow user group scope so that the questions and future product design has a more clear purpose in mind
Result: Define our user group as working people who strive to become “morning people” and have “their life together”
DATA COLLECTING
Execution: Looking up and comparing existing apps and websites that serve the purpose of organizing your life
Objective: Get an understanding of what works and what doesn’t work and what can be applied for this future solution
Result: While apps that eliminate distraction and help organize the day, it becomes an evasive alarm to the day rather than a gentle reminder or helper
INTERVIEWS & DATA ANALYSIS
Execution: Conduct countless interviews with college students and working professionals with young children
Objective: Collect stories and find trends and patterns that help shed light on where attention for innovation should go
Result: Received so many perspectives of taking into account of not only themselves but how reliance on others also helps with accountability
NEED-FINDING
Execution: Discovering that people believe that organizing their lives means being able to remember everything they need to do stress-free and as a result help them become “morning people” with “their life together”
Objective: Decide what criteria and heuristics the final solution would need to address and satisfy
Result: Defined the highest priority of the final solution needs to subliminal as well as social
BRAINSTORMING
Execution: Undergo thirty minute spurt of countless drawings and descriptions of the potential final solution
Objective: Get as many ideas as possible out on paper with visuals for a better clarity of understanding
Result: Drew out a whole range of solutions from digital to physical that all more or less incorporate the social and customization aspect of organization
DECISION MAKING
Execution: Took the top ten ideas the team liked and compared them on a decision matrix with weighted criteria and priorities
Objective: Think deeply of the logistics of the ideas and how feasible and closely aligned with satisfying the problem statement
Result: Decide to pursue one main idea but also found ways to incorporate aspects of the other ideas to make the final decided idea even better
FINAL SOLUTION
An app with a physical component that emits a simple color notification as a gentle reminder of what you need to remember. It is customizable so that the user can control what the color represents and keeps users socially connected and accounted for by their peers and loved ones. Rather than deal with constant vibrations or noises or a clutter of reminders, this solution acts as a small nudge that won’t disturb the users’ routines and busy days.
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SKILLS DEVELOPED
Storytelling
Qualitative Data Analysis
Brainstorming
TAKEAWAYS
I learned how important it is to practice need-finding and really really understand who the user is. Even though this project was a semester-long project, three-fourths of the semester was spent on interviewing and observing our user group and organizing the data acquired from these activities. Spending all that time doing this really helps us understand what the users truly needed and made the brainstorming and ideation a lot easier.