Part 4 Design Process

Team forming & Topic decided

When we just established the group, we only knew that our task was to create someting "annoying". In the early group discussion, we discussed many possible ways of implementation, such as an annoying temperature detector in the room, a heavy shoes to keep people away from junk food store, etc.

We then found that we need to identify a major domain and then carry out further work, after all members have agreed to use the "annoying" method to achieve the result that can benifit user as main design concept , We focused our attention on health-related areas. Though a series of discussions, we finally focused our topic on the theme of "using annoying ways to help people improve the harm caused by sedentary".

Background research & Problem space narrow down

After deciding on the theme of sedentary, my team and I have done a lot of background research on the topic of "sedentary sitting." In this series of research, we recognize that sedentary is a very broad field, And not only the different working environment will affect the user's sedentary habits, the user's own attitude will also have a decisive impact on correcting sedentary. In addition to the environment and the user, which stage of sedentary intervention is also a very important factor . Therefore, I narrowed my user target group to people who lack self-control but want to overcome sedentary, and focus more on how to make people realize that they are sedentary.

Prototype built

During the early developing process, I planned to divide my product into two parts: a mobile bracelet and a non-removable fixed base station. In the following development, I chose to use an infrared transmitter/receiver to complete the data exchange between bracelet and the base station. Even though the infrared transmitter/receiver is proved to be impractical later in the project, I still spent a lot of time on solving the problem of infrared data transmission.

Replace IR sender/receiver with wireless transmitters

The replacement of infrared devices by Wireless transmitters is arguably the most critical part of the entire project. After discovering that the performance of infrared interactive devices cannot effectively meet my requirements, I tried to find other effective wireless interaction methods (such as Bluetooth). Finally, with the support of relevant background research, I chose a more stable wireless transmitter(WIFI) as an signals transfer device. As a result, I successfully used wireless transmitter to complete the two-way communication between the bracelet and the base station. On the basis, more functions are then realized.

First prototype & feedback

I got a lot of feedbacks in the first prototype, and then I made corresponding improvements for my product. The pressure-sensitive trigger device located on the bracelet was replaced with a more convenient button design. At the same time, I also realized my product lacks an user reward mechanism. A good user reward mechanism can effectively increase the user's dependence on the product. Since I don't have enough time and resources to really implement the user reward mechanism, I put it into my extended plan as an important function to be realized.

Feather improvement

In the later development, I completed the snooze function that can temporarily stop the alarm. At this point, the main functions of the entire product have been fully realized. I then proceeded to optimize the final product. The main points for the optimization of my final product are divided into two aspects: coding and appearance. In terms of coding, I have made further improvements to the code of wireless transmitters exchange data to improve the response speed of the base station and bracelet after receiving user interaction.

At the same time, in terms of appearance, I removed a large number of jumpers on the bracelet, and used the materials I could collect at home to create a bracelet design with good comfort and suitable for home use. In my design concept, because my target users are mainly those who study/work at home alone, so when it comes to the user's wearing experience, wearing comfort will have a higher priority than appearance fashion.

In conclusion, my entire product has been able to run completely and achieve the main functions at this stage, there are more improvement may on the way in the future.