Week 15 - Final Designs Definition

This week was a busy week with the group as we looked to lock in our final design requirements and begin our work towards the presentation and final deliverables next week. 

As a group we discussed some major aspects of the both the hub and the wristband that we felt we necessary to ensuring a good interaction with the user through seamless understanding and context and relation to the scenario.

To finalise our hub design we decided that it should be appropriate for the 99^th Percentile male and the 1^st percentile female to ensure a range of users could interact with the product comfortably. With these size considerations in mind it was also decided that although rare at most festival settings there are still a number or limited users who would attend such events, and that in considering this we needed to ensure the measurements used allowed the limited user to also interact with the product easily and comfortably.

We found that the opportune height for the section in which the users place their wrists at to sync the devices was 1200mm from the ground. Now this height allowed the 1^st percentile female and the 99^th percentile female to interact with the product without any strain or discomfort. However, this height wasn’t exactly ideal for the limited user of say someone who is wheelchair bound, the user could still interact with the product but they may need to stretch slightly in order to.

Below are some concepts of our developing Hub design

Hub Shape and form consideration

Further Hub consideration with the inclusion of bubbles and the syncing buttons

 We continued to develop these shape ruling out the need to have individual 'Fist holes' for the user to place their wrists through for the syncing process. We deemed this aspect unnecessary and potentially awkward to interact with as well as difficult to address all size variations while remaining aesthetically please. 

Due to this modification of the syncing section on the hub we looked at more anthropometric data to determine the gab required for the 99th percentile males wrist to fit comfortably in the space in any position. This measurement was found to be 150mm. Applying the modification allows the hub as an object to not only interact better with the user but to also allow a more freeflowing and seamless sequence of use.

below is a conceptual drawing of the new perceived look of the hub;

Ergonomic considerations influenced the shape and form

As the form started to take shape in our heads, in order to progress with the project at hand we decided to move on to the wristbands and the aesthetics of them for context and functionality.

Orginally we had a few basic forms and shape considerations that more or less looked like modified wristwatches. Naturally being design students we wanted to steer away from this simple look and aesthetic and consider more industrial futuristic designs. 

Below are some concepts found online that we used to help influence the shape and form of our wristbands;

The images above provided some much needed inspiration for us to progress with the design and development of the wristbands shape form and display. before we decided on a shape we felt it necessary to lock in the functions and features of the wristband to ensure its relevance to the OBS for this project.

the wristbands main purpose was to display the activity of the fellow wristband users within the synced group. This was to be displayed through the LEDs located on the products display and the actions they were carrying out;

Fast, Frequent flickering of the LED = someone dancing and having fun

Stable, Idle LED light = someone relaxing and chilling

These features were measured by an accelorometer built into the wristband that would read the users movements and output the necessary information to the other wristbands. These features were deemed the most important to display and understand by the group as they best related to the behaviour of the object and its place in the overall scenario of our concept.

Other features the wristband housed was the ability to track a fellow group members location via direction and distance. Distance would be indicated on the screen by the varying changes of the LEDs colour;

RED - Far

Yellow - Medium

Green - Near

The direction of a fellow group member would be indicated on the wristbands display, using a Compass influenced layout, by lighting up an LED on the display relating to the direction they are located. 

Below shows a conceptual image expressing these designs and feature inclusions on a possible interface; 

Features and functions expressed by the wristwatch display

while brainstorming potential needs for other features of the wristband and while looking at the CRA, it was decided we needed to include an actual physical interaction with the wristband to produce an interactive transfer of News. 

One of the ideas discussed was squeezing the product that would cause all other devices synced to the one being squeezed to vibrate. This could be interpreted as sending a mass message, be it an SOS or a predecided meaning by the group before they synced, 

I.e. mass alert = meet up at Grill'd burger stall on site.

Then Steve had a brilliant application; he suggested we provide an alternative method of syncing devices to account for the scenario of a lone group member running into an old friend and wanting them to join their group, or wanting to join their friends group. 

This scenario led to the design of the side buttons located on the edges of the wristband which, when pushed, intiated a solo sync sequence; the users would then touch displays until an extra LED light located on the side of the wristband illuminated a colour to indicate the syncing sequence was complete.

From these group discussions it was agreed we had enough detail and understanding of the hub and wristbands features and functionality, and Steve took it upon himself to begin CADing up the models for us to use in the presentation. Although this did mean Steve was left to predominately design the aesthetics of the product himself; we as a group had full faith and trust that not only were we all on the same page of how it should look and feel, but also that Steve was the best man for the job with his wonderful SolidWorks skills.