interactiondesign project - pictureme

7/28/2019 Interactiondesign project - PictureMe

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PictureMe The modern girlfriend necklace

Interacon design autumn 2010

Supervisor: Aaron Mullane

Group 1Krisne Vestergaard Christofersen | 010381 | [email protected]

Carl-Johan Krisansson | 020485 | [email protected]

Johan Ernest Olivier Secher | 030286 | [email protected]

Mee Luise Jespergaard Sohns | 120671 | [email protected]

Signe Johannessen Lehrmann | 010685 | [email protected]



GROUP 1 | PICTUREME | InTERaCTIOn dEsIGn aUTUMn 2010 | 2

TaBLE OF COnTEnT

1. Introdcon 3

2. T ld 4

3. Rsarc son 4

4. Procss - mtods and rslts 5

4.1 Strat 5

4.2 Rsarc and Fildwork 6

4.2.1 Observaon 6

4.2.2 Interviews 8

4.2.3 Cultural Probes 10

4.3 Analsis and Strctrd insits 11

4.3.1 Deliming the problem 114.3.2 Persona 13

4.4 Idaon and Principls 14

4.4.1 Developing the concept idea 14

4.4.2 Sketching and prototyping 15

4.5 Rnmnts 16

4.5.1 Evaluaon 16

5. T Final Concpt 19

5.1 T ida 19

5.2 T fncons 205.3 T dsin 21

5.4 T tcnolo 22

6. Discssion and prspcvs 23

6.1 Procss and Mtod 23

6.2 T concpt 23

6.3 Nt stp - raliin t concpt 246.4 Or contrion 24

7. Conclsion 25

8. List of rfrncs 26

9. Appndi 27

9.1 Intrviws and focs rop 27

9.2 Moodoard: Tna lif sitaon 289.3 T tr concpts 30

9.4 T PictrM fncons 31

9.5 T srvic dsin 33

9.6 Scnarios 34

9.7 Dsin inspiraon 37




1. InTROdUCTIOnThis report represents a project performed in the inter-

acon design course at ITU. The purpose of the project

was to create a product and through an exploratory

design process develop methodological skills for inter-acon design. The main constraint of the project was

that the design object should be a “wearable” and that

the project should embrace a life situaon.

With this report we will illustrate, describe and discuss

the process that lead to our nal concept: “PictureMe”,

the modern girlfriend necklace. A wearable that sup-

ports young teenage girls’ friendships.




2. ThE FIELdThE LIFE sITUaTIOn and UsER GROUP

A brainstorm lead us to choose the life situaon of

young teenage girls (later dened to be 12-13 years old

girls). We based our interest on the shared assumponthat these young girls are good with technical gadgets

and devices, they are fast learners but also nd them-

selves in a complex period of life that involves many

choices to be made concerning the transion from

childhood to adulthood. We share these assumpons

since we have all been young teenagers and therefore

cannot claim to be unaected by this.

To challenge our assumpons and get at beer idea

on what these girls think of their own life situaon, we

did some inial eld research. From this we discovered

that friendships, is one of the most important but also

problemac aspects at this point in their lives – a vital

component for their “sense of belonging”.

As the teacher we later interviewed, menoned:

“They only hang on to one or two really good

friends, and then they are in a very vulnerable

situaon if their best friend suddenly nds some-

one else to talk to. That is something we talk a lot

about in the class and we’re encouraging them to

nd more friends.”

This conrmed our choice of friendships and a sense of

belonging as our main focal points and lifesituaon.

Through this report we will use the term “young teen-

agers”. We are aware that using this term could lead

to the misunderstanding that we intend to generalise

upon our work with only four young teenagers. Young

teenagers is our term for the four girls between 12-13

whom we have worked with throughout the process.

3. ReSeARCh queSTIONInially we worked from the noon of young teen-

age girls’ sense of belonging but narrowed it down to

the following research queson from the point of our

beginning eld work:

How can an exploratory design process lead to the

design of a wearable that supports the friendships of

12-13 year old girls in their everyday life?

This queson will be answered through these quesons:

1) Which process and methodology will enable us to

nd the best soluon?

2) What does friendship mean to a 12-13 year old girl to-

day and how can a wearable support these relaonships?

3) Which concept in terms of idea and funconality,

counters the user groups needs and wishes?




4. PROCeSS MeThODS

and REsULTsIn this secon we will give account for the process

from the start to the creaon of the nal prototype.

During the assessment of the process we will present

the methods that we applied, the analycal steps and

the results of these ndings. First we will present our

overall design strategy.

4.1 STRATegyAs our overall design strategy we have used Dan Saf-

fers design strategy model (Saer 2010:48). This design

strategy emphasizes the concepts of divergence and

convergence in the dierent phases of product de-

velopment. Saers model is only an ideal model, and

therefore we have not perpetually adhered to the

dierent design phases. The dierent phases of the

design process will be presented subsequently.

Furthermore we have used elements of grounded

theory methodology as presented by Emerson et. al(1995). The multude of qualitave methods used in

sTRUCTUREd InsIGhTs

ANALySIS

REsEaRCh and FIELdWORK

Brainstorm

Teenagers as life situaon

. Inial research: observaons

and small interviews

. Narrowing down focus on friendship

. Field work: Interviews with teacher

and 4 teenage girls

. Coding. Sorng data by subject

and alignment diagram

. Persona

. Structured brainstorming,

sort by data and mindmaps

with our three focal points in mind:

Friendships, Aachment to a group,

The use of media

. Midterm crique and choice of concept

. Sketching: physical, visual and operaonal dimensions

. Sketching scenarios, enactment. Inial prototyping, wizard of oz technique

. Evaluaon with the target group

. Final adjustments

. Report

STRATegy

REFInEMEnTs

PROTOTyPe/DeVeLOPMeNT

IdEaTIOn

and PRInCIPLEs

CONVeRgeNCe

CONVeRgeNCe

DIVeRgeNCe

DIVeRgeNCe

Figure 1. Our interacon design process inspired by Saers model.

In the following chapters we wil describe our phases: Strategy, Re-

search and eldwork, Analysis and structured insights, Ideaon and

principles and nally Renements.




grounded theory in opposion to a quantave

approach were ideal to get an insight of the young

teenagers feelings, interests and lifeworlds in general.

Furthermore the inducve approach to the eld found

within grounded theory, has had a great importance in

developing our own understanding of young teenagers

and their everyday life. In this light version of grounded

theory used in our design process, the related pialls

are primarily found within the dierent specic meth-

ods used. When relevant, this will be given account for

in the review of the design process which follow in the

forthcoming secon.

4.2 ReSeARCh & FIeLDWORKAer a long brainstorming phase we decided to focus

on a life situaon in which young teenagers and their

life should constute the overall frame. As we did not

have a clear insight of what was central for being a

young teenager, we decided to study the user group

further. This was rst done by conducng observaons

of the young teenagers.

4.2.1 ObSeRVATIONIn the selecon of an observaon, as the rst step in

our design process we were inspired by Blomberg et.

al’s research about ethnographic eldwork in which he

stress the need for examining people’s everyday acv-

ity and incorporang ethnography into design (Blomb-

erg et. al 1993).

With respect to the general assumpon that many

young teenagers are insecure and shy, we decided to

observe them in natural sengs, at Fisketorvet and

Strøget. A classic problem when observing human

beings, in this case young teenagers, is that they act

dierently when being observed. In this connecon,

observing the young teenagers in a natural seng

could lower the impact of these issues by allowing

us to blend into their sengs and sense the general

atmosphere without being seen.

Figure 2. Inial brainstorm about the life of teenagers.




Figure 3-6. Our inial observaon at Fisketorvet.

We detected that especially the young teenage girls clung

to their friends - both being physically in groups and while

using the mobile phone.


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Our observaons were primarily made in accordance

to the principles of open coding as it is used in ground-

ed theory (Emerson et. al 1995: 413). This was done

to obtain a broad overview of our user group, their

acons and their interest and in order not to lose any

potenal interesng design focus.

During the second observaon at Strøget, we decided

with reference to Blomberg et. al’s noons of observa-

ons coupled with informal interviews, to open brief

conversaons with the young teenagers (Blomberg et.

al 1993: 47).

Aer having performed the inial observaons com-

bined with brief informal interviews we detected that

especially the young teenage girls clung to their friends

- both being physically in groups and while using the

mobile phone. The brief informal interviews gave the

impression that they were aware of the important de-

cisions (regarding educaon etc.) that had to be made

during their “teenagehood”, and that they frequently

felt that no one understood them. They somemesalso missed a sense of belonging. Through this process

we started to noce a focal theme that kept recurring

- in this phase of their lives, their friendships were of

crucial importance. Friendships are essenal to their

sense of belonging.

As a consequence of our inial observaons we deci-

ded that our design focus should be towards teenage

girls and their friendships.

4.2.2 INTeRVIeWS

With the new focus upon young teenagers and their

friendships in mind, we contacted an elementary

school in Valby where we got to interview a teacher, a

eld expert, and a group of four young teenage girls,

see appendix 9.1. We decided to do a focus group

interview to get a more profound understanding of

young teenage girls, their sense of belonging and the

role of friendships.

Figure 7. We visited a public school and talked to four girls

and their teacher.


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Blomberg et. al claim that the eld worker should be

aware of sensive parameters concerning the speci-

c target group (Blomberg et. al 1993: 130). This is

of great importance in our context as we were to ask

quesons about young teenagers and their friendships,

which is a very sensive subject. In order to make the

girls feel safe, and to pave the way for an open dia-

logue we decided to conduct a focus group interview

where the girls knew each other. Also we were afraid

that interviews conducted indvidually would hinder

a proper dialogue, and therefore our chance to get a

deeper insight to their lives. However we were aware

that a focus group interview could create uniformity in

opinions, and we did what we could to challenge the

dierent presented viewpoints.

The interviews were held locally at the school, seeing

that respondents are more likely to feel comfortable

in familiar sengs, and recognizing that familiar social

and physical objects can help them in forming their

conversaon with us (Blomberg 1993: 133).

Our interviews were semi-structured and shaped

according to some of the implicaons Steinar Kvale

puts forth (Kvale 1997). Beyond the classic interview

principles (e.g. allowing the informants to nish their

answers, making them comfortable etc.), we deci-

ded to perform a dynamic interview with the young

teenagers. This decision was based upon the research

situaon. We were sll at an exploratory stage and fo-

cused upon generang a conversaon about the young

teenagers experiences and emoons, rather than

generang quesons from theory and categorizaon.

Further we reected on this issue and tried to turn the

quesons in a manner so that the young teenagers

did not “put themselves on the table”, but sll gave us

insights into sensive issues.

The contact with these informants has been constant

throughout the project. This is benecial since we beli-

eve that a closer relaonship with the girls is rewarding

in the way that the young teenagers will become moreFigure 8. Two of our informants.



GROUP 1 | PICTUREME | InTERaCTIOn dEsIGn aUTUMn 2010 |10

secure in their acng and expression towards us. In the

end this could provide us with richer empiricism and

insights. Agreeing with Blomberg et. al, we argue that a

certain level of trust must be reached before they give

us their honest opinion (Blomberg et. al 1993: 130).

The results from the interviews will be described in the

secon “Analysis and Structured insights”.

4.2.3 CuLTuRAL PRObeSFurther we idened a way of approaching the issue of

sensivity by using cultural probes. These were inten-

ded to act as a supplemental alternave to the con-

venonal scienc procedures we had been through

so far. In addion, considering that Gaver et. al (1999)

managed to use them to bridge the gap between them

(researchers) and the elders (respondents), we hoped

to achieve the same through the probes by an infor-

mal, and non-present course of acon.

The cultural probe was a “thought and sketching”

book. Each of the young teenagers were given a bookwhich they could use as a dairy, to draw pictures and

to insert photos. The books were intended to provide

us with insights that the informants did not dare to

tell us and the other girls during the interview. Further

they were given an opportunity to tell us things they

did not consider during interviews, and an opon to

visualize them by drawing or taking photos. In other

words the cultural probe was used to achieve an un-

derstanding of the young teenagers everyday life. An

understanding which in relaon to young teenagers

could be dicult to achieve, through classic scienc

methods.

Figure 9-10. Our cultural probe: the “thought and sketching” book.

One of the girls wrote about what a good friend means to her.




4.3 ANALySIS ANDsTRUCTUREd InsIGhTsAer the research phase, a data analysis was made in

order to get structured insights about young teenage

girls and their friendships.

4.3.1 DeLIMITINg The PRObLeMIn this part of the process we wanted to transform our

collected data into structured ndings (Saer 2010: 94).

In accordance with our lightweight use of grounded

theory, we created a focused analysis of the studied

group’s social life - an understanding of what was

important for young teenage girls, their friendships and

their everyday lives (Emerson 2001: 144). In order to

bring the large amount of data down without missing

important details, and to get a structured overview of

our data, we used sorng data by subject, scenarios and

alignment diagram as tools (Saer 2010: 96, 144, 98).

Through the sorng of data analysis we found that

three aspects seemed essenal in the everyday lives

of young teenage girls and their sense of belonging.

These were friendships, belonging to a group and the

use of media. As a consequence we decided that these

focal points should be included in the further develop-

ment of the concept.Figure 11-12. In deliming the problem we used sorng data

by subject.




FRIEndshIPs

Our analysis showed that the girls appreciated their

friendships more than many other things. The girls

considered friendships to involve trust, wanng to

hang out, having fun, helping when in trouble and sha-

ring thoughts and problems. They liked to show their

friendship either implicitly, e.g. by inving each other

home or explicitly, e.g. by wring “I love you” under a

photo of friends on Facebook.

“You don’t explicitly say that you are good friends

with somebody, but you can show it. You can hug

friends, but we don’t do it very oen. It diers a

lot” (Girl #2)

“I think it’s important to know that people care,

that the friendship isn’t supercial and that you

feel appreciated because I think it is nice to know.

It doesn’t have to be said directly ‘you are a good

friend’, just that they in some sense hint it so that

you feel that you are a good friend and nice to

hang with” (Girl #1)

UsE OF MEdIa

The girls use many dierent technical devices andmedia when interacon in their everyday life. Among

these acvies are photo shoong, recording and

eding lms, using facebook and texng. The girls felt

capable o using technology and oen included it in

their spare me acvies.

“We have oen made movies together …. many

movies actually, because we think it’s fun when

we’re bored” (Girl #2)

“It’s fun to look at pictures. It’s also fun if you’ve

parcipated in taking the pictures.” (Girl#4)

BELOnGInG TO a GROUP

The girls expressed that in showing their friendship it

gives them a sense of belonging to a group and that is

important to them. They were aware of geng older

and becoming teenagers. They combined this with

being able to have more than one friend and not ar-

guing or bullying each other as much as they used to.

“At the moment we are eight girls making amovie. It’s fun to be so many people making a

movie.” (Girl #3)

“It’s been a long me since we were arguing. Now

I think more of how to treat other people. We

have also started to smile and say hi to people

from the other classes.” (Girl #2)

POssIBLE sCEnaRIOs FOR ThE UsE OF a

WEaRaBLE

We used these groups of ndings to make an align-

ment diagram in which we gathered all the dierent

kinds of scenarios in which the girls arranged interac-

ons or interacted with either one friend or a group




of friends. We divided these scenarios into the most

concentrated acons possible into which we added an

outer frame of all the media and technological de-

vices they had told us they used, but also devices we

thought could be used.

This resulted in a visual overview of acvies where

the girls did and did not have any technical aids. It was

obvious to us that there were holes in the diagram

where acvies included conrming the friendships

when being physically near. Including being in a group.

Neither texng or facebook, calling, listening to music

were helping in this manner.

4.3.2 PeRSONABased on our target group and focal points we created

our persona Emma (see box). We used a light-version

of the persona concept, to keep in mind when develo-

ping our concept (Saer 2010: 106). Through this we

delimited our user of the future concept, and provided

an archetype we could relate to. Further we used it

to establish a common idea of how we perceived our

target group. Along with the persona we also made a

moodboard to collect our impression on a teenagers life,

se appendix 9.2.

PeRSONA: eMMA”It's important that my friends know I care about

them but it doesn't have to be said explicitly: “You

are a really good friend.”

“Me and my friends oen make small movies and

take pictures of each other.”

Emma is 13 years old and aends 7th grade in a

Danish public school. She is living in a suburb to

Copenhagen in a villa with her parents, her younger

brother and her dog.

She is very social and spends most of her me

together with her friends. When she is with her

friends she likes to record and edit movies, takephotos of her friends and put them on Facebook,

talk about problems and to eat cake.

She is very skilled in using technology but she does

not like to read long manuals. She is interested in

new trends and likes to accessorize with colourful

scarfs and jewelry.Figure 13. The persona we created based on the analysis.




4.4 IDeATION ANDPRInCIPLEsAt this point we entered a new stage in the project. We

needed to grasp our ndings from the research phase

and turn them into ideas and eventually a concept.This was the most iterave phase of the process.

4.4.1 DeVeLOPINg TheCOnCEPT IdEa

Aer having analyzed our data we focused on ideaon

and started to generate concept ideas based on the

outcome of the data analysis.

Through structured brainstorming, sort by data and

mindmaps we generated many dierent ideas in which

our focal points of friendship, aachment to a group

and the use of media were present. We had many

dierent ideas but ended up with three concepts (see

appendix 9.3) which we presented at the midterm

crique. We decided to go with the concept of a wea-

rable that can visualise friendships (through the use of

pictures), encourage physical contact and thus support

the friendships of young teenage girls. We thought that

this could best be embraced by a digital jewelry. These

noons were supported during the midterm crique. Figure 14-15. In the ideaon phase we used many dierent

methods. Among others we brainstormed about places to

wear a wearable, funcons and features of a device.




4.4.2 SKeTChINg ANDPROTOTyPINgFurther on we started sketching the physical, visual

and operaonal dimensions of the concept. At this

stage we sll wanted to focus on ideaon rather than

usability aspects to keep the concept open for new

suggesons (Buxton 2007:138).

During the sketching we had iterave brainstorm ses-sions at a whiteboard to include all team members in

exploring and developing the concept. We used ena-

ctment, and found out that the wearable worked best

hanging on the front of the person as a mobile ele-

ment - like a necklace or keyhanger (Saer 2010:27).

Many ideas were excluded and included: watch, bra-

celet, hair accessories, lockets, two-pieced hearts etc.

Eventually we decided to make two low- prototypes

of the modern girlfriend necklace.

While designing the physical prototypes we were

focusing upon incorporang role, look and feel and

implementaon to the wearable (Houde 1997:154).

Based on our persona, we sketched scenarios to il-

lustrate and brainstorm about the role of the concept,

see appendix 9.6. We found out that the wearable

among other things, should be able to sense and show

what friends are nearby and share pictures with these

friends on the spot rather than through a web basedservice. This process also made us realize the necessity

of the product being as simple as possible, e.g. without

superuous funcons such as texng.

Figure 16. In the sketching phase we worked with many and

dierent ideas: among others a round shape, keyhangers

and hair assessories etc.

Figure 17. We made low- prototypes.




We gathered dierent physical materials, illustraons

from magazines and sketched dierent possible designs.

Overall, the shaping of these prototypes were mainly

based on the persona - a young teenager who would

like a colourful, light weight and easy-to-use device.

Due to limited technical experience we were not able

to design a fully interacve prototype of the products

interface. Therefore we created a slide presentaon

with transions that simulated the acons (slide and

shake) when using the device. This allowed us to test

the experience and the funconality of the device

through a wizard of oz technique on ourselves and

others at the exhibion (Buxton 2007:239-243). Wefound that this technique was an eecve way of

understanding the implementaon of the product, i.e.

how we intended the device to be controlled, but it did

not result in feedback on alternave funcons.

4.5 ReFINeMeNTSAt this point our concept had been developed

thoroughly, and we needed to rene it. We focused on

rening the concept and not the end-product but sll

tried to balance between sketching and prototyping as

in Buxtons “The Sketch to prototype connuum”. This

was done in order to be open for suggesons and to

incorporate nal design soluons (Buxton 2007:140).

4.5.1 eVALuATIONWe brought our two low- prototypes to evaluate with

the teenage girls. To ensure that the they would un-

derstand our idea and imagine the context-of-use and

it’s funconality, we showed them some videos of us

“using” the prototype (among others the wizard of oz).

We had many quesons concerning the concept, func-

onality and design, but appreciated that the infor-

mants needed me to think and discuss on their own.

Therefore we le the room for 10 minutes to give the

young teenage girls space to discuss the concept inter-

nally, without our presence, as a hindering element for

their evaluaons.

Figure 18. The rst low- prototypes we made and evaluated.




Figure 19-22. In our evaluaon of the prototypes the girls

emphasized the importance of the social aspect of the device

and came with concrete ideas to the design.




They where very posive about the concept and

contributed with their wishes to the device. We talked

about many dierent aspects of the product: The look

and feel, where we had brought dierent potenal

material and colors for the product. Furthermore we

discussed operaon (implementaon) of the device.

But primarily we discussed the role of the device

(Houde 1997).

As a result of the evaluaon session we found out that

the girls preferred plasc as material, that they wanted

it in several colors, in the shape of a square and in a

small size. Further we found out that we needed to

make sure that the product should not cause any dis-

turbance or annoyance, and should be able to turn o

or go into sleep mode.

Finally the social aspects of the concepts was discus-

sed. The informants liked the social aspects of the

concept, and conrmed that the “friends-around”

funcon was essenal to the product and that they

could imagine to use the product in their everyday life.

Based on the evaluaon with the target group we deci-ded to go with more convenonal interface soluons.

The young teenage girls are all fast learners but they

sll prefer simple, convenonal and user friendly solu-

ons that does not compromise the actual intenons

of the device. To facilitate the funconality and design

of the product we decided to develop a service de-

sign that could handle other necessary funcons such

as upload pictures, administrang friends, changing

prole picture and so on. We have therefore decided

that shake, touch, press and pung devices together

is the most obvious and logic way to interact with the

device – despite the fact that we have discussed more

invenve operaon possibilies.

Figure 23. Evaluaon with the informants.




5. The FINAL CONCePTIn this part of the report we will present our nal concept:

the idea behind it, its purpose, funcons and the design.

5.1 The IDeAPictureMe is the modern and digital version of the

girlfriend necklace. But instead of being a small stac

jewelry shared by two girls, it is an interacve device

shared and used by the girl and all her friends.

The PictureMe necklace sense which of the owners

friends (that also have the PictureMe) are nearby. It

shows the owner if any friends are around, it brings

the friends even closer together and gives them a ge-

neral feeling of belonging to a group. PictureMe

enables the girls to take photos of each other and the

things they are doing, and wear the pictures in the

necklace or share them with their friends.

Where most social media today is focusing on when

you are apart and therefore can create a gap in the

physical contact between individuals, PictureMe is a

piece of social interacon design that brings you closer

in reality. To enable the friends-around-funcon and

share photos, the users of the devices must “become

friends” and this happens in real life and not behind a

screen when you are apart. To become friends (ex-

change ID informaon) and to share photos (exchange

photos) two devices simply must touch each other,forcing the girls to interact with each other and there-

by making them aware of the person with whom they

“become friends” and exchange informaon.

Wit PictrM or frinds ar alwas nar!- Sense which of your friends are around!

- Take photos of your friends and the funny things you are doing together!

- Wear the pictures in your digital necklace!

- Share the pictures with your friends!

Figure 24. PictureMe.




5.2 The FuNCTIONSThis wearable is based on the noon of social inter-

acon design and it is a small squared screen hanging

in a chain like a piece of jewellery. The pictures are

shown on the small screen, sized 3,75 cm x 3,75 cm,

surrounded by so plasc. PictureMe comes in many

dierent colours, to make it aracve and suitable for

dierent girls.

ThE PICTUREME FUnCTIOns

a) Take pictures

b) Show and change pictures one-by-one or randomly

c) Sense which of the users friends are nearby and

show it on the screen

d) Exchange pictures and PictureMe-id-informaon

with other PictureMe devices

e) Interact with the specially designed PictureMe Ser-

vice Design for your PC or Mac (see appendix 9.5)

f) Connect to and charge through a computer

g) Turn on/o

We have described the funcons in details (including

the possibilies in the service design) in the appendix

9.4 and 9.5.

Figure 26. The service design, a program for the computer,

makes it possible to manipulate the pictures, delete friends,

change prole picture and upload, download and delete pictu-

res. See more interfaces of the service design in appendix 9.4.

Figure 25. The ”friends around” funcon. Sliding on the

touch screen reveals the next four proles.

Frinds Pictrs Crav!Prol

I miss o!!!




5.3 The DeSIgNSince these girls are very aware of their looks the de-

vice is designed as a piece of jewellery in close corre-

spondence to our ndings at the focus group interview.

On the basis of the teenage girls’ wishes and inspired

by other popular devices among teenagers, such as

the PlasChic watch and the new Ipod Nano, we chose

to design PictureMe as a small square with a cover of

brightly coloured so plasc. See appendix 9.7 for our

design inspiraon.

Camera, On/O buon Camera lense

3,75 cm

Touch screen

Hang PictureMe in your necklace

So plasc - comes in many dierent colours

Figure 27. The design.




5.4 The TeChNOLOgyOur device demands dierent types of technology and

in the following we will shortly present the possibilies

of actually developing the device.

BLUETOOTh

We know through Internet research, that the inten-

ded funcons driven by Bluetooth, is possible when

it comes to synchronizing the amount of informaon,

which is quite small in this case. It is also possible to

use a le transfer model which can be programmed to

acvate only when being very close to one another, in

this case the actual touch of another device (Blueto-

oth.org, 2010 and Johnson Consulng, 2004).

For further development of this device we would exa-

mine whether the exact Bluetooth funcon can either

be programmed to acvate through a magnec sensor

inside each device that acvates when the devices

touch and then sends a signal to transfer the informa-

on, or the touch screen can sense when touched by

another screen.

TOUCh sCREEn OR nOT

The device can either have a touch screen or invisible

buons underneath the screen in each side. With the

touch screen you get more funcons and possible

soluons for future design, but also a more expensive

design. This decision we think demands a test with a

fully funconing prototype and due to me constraints

and the technical experience and competence of this

group, we have not had the chance to make an actual

technically funconal device - Only a non technological

prototype/wizard.

CaMERa

Cameras are becoming smaller and cheaper driven by

the mobile market, so this part of the device is also a

realisc possibility.

aCCELEROMETERTo acvate the camera an accelerometer is required

to make the transion from showing pictures to take

pictures. This is also a more common technology and

again the mobile market is relevant for inspiraon.

All in all our idea is technically possible. The only real

problem we see is the prize, which we will comment

on in the discussion below.




6. DISCuSSIONAND PeRSPeCTIVeSWe have developed a concept and designed a wea-

rable, but many things could have been done dierent-

ly and many new quesons and topics emerged duringthe process. In this secon we will reect upon our

process, concept and thoughts regarding a realizaon

of the product.

6.1 PROCeSS AND MeThODDuring the process we were very focused on what our

informants said through the interview and cultural

probes. We tried not to be aected by our own pre-

judice and experiences and instead let the four young

teenage girls lead our way through the process. Our

methods were therefore focused on analyzing the

interview data, pictures and cultural probes. However,

working with a life situaon and a theme like fri-

endships and sense of belonging, contains psychologi-

cal aspects that can be hard to explore.

Eventually it would be interesng to look at the issue

of young teenage friendships from a broader perspec-

ve. In contrast to our qualitave approach, a quan-

tave research could have generated alternave n-

dings concerning the intended users. For instance, the

esmated gender and age of the target group might

turn out to be dierent from our esmaon. On the

other hand it is important to be aware that a quanta-

ve approach is not opmal when you are interested

in geng a grasp of peoples emoons, viewpoints and

their lifeworld as a whole. Therefore we decided to fo-

cus on qualitave methods. However in order to widen

our perspecves on young teenagers we could have

strengthened the use of qualitave methods further by

spending more me on data collecon through obser-

ving them in other natural surroundings, interviewing

their parents and experts on psychology etc.

A fully funconing prototype is furthermore requiredfor tesng the usability of the product (Saer 2010:

117). This could also help us test how the concrete so-

cial interacon created by PictureMe would work out.

6.2 The CONCePTDesigning a wearable for social interacon has many

implicaons that can lead to unforeseeable conse-

quences. For instance quesons for further research

could be; How long the device will be interesng to

use? Could the device be used for teasing and bul-

lying? How can the physical developmental stage of

young teenagers aect the use of a device like Pictu-

reMe? etc. By looking further into these quesons we




could have contributed with a more solid product.

We could also have created the physical and technical

aspects of the products in other ways. For instance we

would have liked to evaluate the physical appearance

and its psychological implicaons more aer making

the prototype: Does the user think our product separa-

tes itself from other products? Does it work as inten-

ded? Are there any other ways of use that we have not

thought of? Could the interface be more user friendly?

In relaon to these psychological, physical and tech-

nical implicaons of our product, it would have been

ideal, to test the product over me, but the scopeof our process and the me perspecve within this

course, did not allow us to do this.

6.3 NexT STeP ReALIzINg The CONCePTWe have developed and rened our concept idea,

but to actually realize the project many things needs

to be done. For instance the price of the product is

a factor that should be considered. As menoned in

“PictureMe - the technology” the device might be too

expensive. The concept relies on the condion that

a certain amount of users must have the product - if

none or only a few of your friends have it, PictureMe

becomes less useful.

If the concept and the device would be developed and

adjusted to the liking of the user group, praccal arran-

gements would have to be set: Producon and price

seng, markeng and distribuon. And a business

model would be a vital requirement, especially consi-

dering the price issue. These tasks are maybe not in

the interacon area, but never the less it is important

to accommodate.

6.4 OuR CONTRIbuTION

We have developed a social interacon design whichchallenges the many present social technologies that

are used individually without real life contact. We nd

this to be an interesng contribuon to social techno-

logy as it is focusing on bringing people together in real

life rather than connecng them virtually.

Furthermore, in comparison to the trend of gathering

mulple funcons in a single gadget, our product is de-

signed for simplicity. We have created a simple product

with very few features, which makes the impression

and funcon of the primary features very accessible

and clear.




7. COnCLUsIOnThis part of the report will answer our research que-

son, of how an exploratory design process can lead to

the design of a wearable that supports the friendships

of 12-13 year old girls in their everyday life.

We iniated a design process in which the user group

were in focus. This was done by working inducvely,

and using methods known from ethnography such

as observaons and interviews. Furthermore these

methods and our lightweight use of grounded theory

enabled us to pinpoint three focal points. We found a

sense of belonging to be crucial in young teenage girls

everyday lives. We further found out that friendships,

belonging to a group and the use of media and techno-

logy were essenal to support this.

On the basis of these ndings we wanted to create

a concept which unied the idea of a piece of tech-

nology (wearable) that could support young teenage

girls friendships and their sense of belonging. Through

dierent methods such as brainstorming, sketching,

enacng and an analycal approach to our data, we

came up with an idea of creang a modern girlfriend

necklace. Through evaluaons and internal discussions

concerning the concept and the design, we developed

PictureMe.

The PictureMe necklace is created in order to support

the friendships of young teenage girls in their everyday

lives. With the necklace young teenagers can take pic-

tures of their friends and wear them in their Picture-

Me. Furthermore they can acvate the group funcon.

Both of these funcons embedded in a simple piece of

technology, are developed so that young teenage girls

can visualize, and thereby feel a sense of belonging, to

friends and groups.

Our design process has focused on the development

of the concept and its social implicaons. If the design

process should have led to a creaon of a nal product

ready to sell in shops, addional renement phasessuch as usability tests of a technologically working

device would have been needed.

The process could have been structured dierently, but

to design a wearable for young teenage girls, the indu-

cve and exploratory approach has been essenal. This

has been central in order to understand young teenage

girls, their interests and needs and thereby creang a

wearable that ts and appeals to this parcular user

group.




8. LIsT OF REFEREnCEsBlomberg, J., Giacomi, J., Mosher, A., & Swenton-Wall,

P. (1993). Ethno graphic eld methods and their rela-

on to design. In D. Scheuler, & A. Namioka (Eds.),

Parcapatory Design: Perspecves on Systems Design

(pp. 123-154). Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erl-

baum Associates

Bluetooth.org, 2010. Sharing Pictures With Bluetooth

Technology [Online] Available at: <hp://bluetooth.

com/English/Products/Pages/SharingPictures1.aspx>

[Accessed 6 December 2010]

Buxton, B., (2007). Sketching User Experiences: geng

the design right and the right design.

San Fransisco: Morgan Kaufmann.

Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I., & Shaw, L.L. (1995). In the

eld: Parcapang, observing, and jong notes.

In Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I & Shaw, L.L. (Eds.), Writ-

ing ethnographic eldnotes. (pp.17-38).

Chicago & London: The university of Chicago Press

Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I., & Shaw, L.L. (1995). In the

eld: Parcapang, observing, and jong notes. In

Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I & Shaw, L.L. (Eds.), Wring

ethnographic eldnotes. (pp.142-166). Chicago & Lon-

don: The university of Chicago Press

Gaver, B., Dunne, T., & Pacen, E. (1999). Design: Cul-

tural Probes. Interacons 6, 1 (Jan. 1999), (pp. 21-29)

Houde, S. & Hill, C. (1997). What do Prototypes Pro-

totype?, based on the arcale by Houde, S,. & Hill, C.,

What do Prototypes Prototype? In the Handbook of

HCI (2nd Ed.), Elsevier Science B.V: Amsterdam, 1997

Johnson Consulng, 2004. Bluetooth - An overview

[Online] (2004-04-17) Available at: <hp://www.

swedetrack.com/images/bluet00.htm>[Accessed 6 December 2010]

Kvale, S. (1997): Interviewsituaonen. Interview - En

introducon l det kvalitave interview .

Hans Reitzels Forlag. (pp. 129-147)

Saer, D., (2010). Designing for interacon: Creang

Innovave Applicaons and Devices. 2nd ed.

Berkeley: New Riders




9. APPeNDIxTo documentate our process, ideas and research we

have collected some documents in the appendix.

9.1 INTeRVIeWSand FOCUs GROUPWe interviewed a teacher, a eld expert, wednesday

13 October 2010. We also worked with a focus group

of four teenage girls - rst we interviewed them wed-

nesday 13 October and then we evaluated the concept

with them at friday 12 November.

We have taped and transcribed all the interviews, but

since it is many pages, we only bring an extract from

the rst focus group interview.

exTRACT FROM FOCuS gROuP INTeRVIeW

Føler I jer trygge i forhold l jeres venner, både når I

er sammen med dem, men også i forholdet l dem?

Pi 4: Jeg føler mig fx tryg, når jeg er hjemme ved

dem. Jeg føler mig også tryg ved at fortælle hemme-

ligheder l dem. Så stoler jeg på dem. Så føler jeg mig

tryg ved at de ikke siger det l nogen.

Pi 3: Jeg føler mig lpas ved alle de veninder jeg har,

eller i hvert fald er rigg tæt. Jeg kan snakke med dem

om alt og jeg ved at de kan forstå mig eller hjælpe mig.

Hvad med i forhold l jeres veninder, føler I jer trygge

at de er der den ene dag og så ikke bare lige ikke er

der den anden dag?

Pi 4: Med nogen, det er ikke alle, at man virkelig så-

dan kender. Der er jeg i hvert fald sikker på at det ikke

bare lige sådan vender.

Når I er ensomme, det er man jo en gang i mellem,

hvad gør I så?

alle: (Griner)

Pige 1: Tager hjem.

Pi 4: Ensom?

Når I er kede af det.

Pi 4: Når man keder sig derhjemme?Pi 3: Så ringer man l Paula.

alle: (Griner)

Pi 4: Så spiller jeg keyboard. Eller klaver, ringer l én

man kender, går på facebook, spiser.

Spiser?

Pige 2: Jeg sidder for det meste med min hund. Og

så skriver jeg på facebook om der er nogen, som kan

være sammen. Om det er ja eller nej. Og så er man på

et stykke d, så de har mulighed for at svare. Og hvis

de så ikke svarer, så bare logge af og … sove.

Pi 3: Eller sms’e l dem.




9.2 MOODbOARD: TeeNAge LIFe SITuATION PAge 1/2




9.2 MOODbOARD: TeeNAge LIFe SITuATION PAge 2/2




9.3 The ThRee CONCePTSConcpt 1: A waral tat is al to sns wtr

anotr prson is intrstd in makin an appointmnt

Friendships are important to tween girls and the best

way to pracce and conrm it, is to make appointment

with friends. Furthermore teenagers are normally very

insecure, and therefore can be afraid of asking other

people to make appointments with them. So instead

of (not) asking, they can just stroll by their friends and

through a sensor, feel if they the other part is intere-

sted in meeng up.

Concpt 2: A waral tat is al to sow frindsip.

Te moer girlfrie ecklce

This wearable should be able to show friendship and

an aachment to a group. Through our interviews we

have found that tweens are very capable of using tech-

nology. Therefore we would like to introduce you to

the modern girlfriend necklace. This wearable makes

it possible to take photos of your friends and display

them. Through this you can show your friendships

and furthermore this could give the tween a sense of belonging to a group without wearing exactly the same

shoes. It gives the tweens both space for individuality

and group aachment.

Concpt 3: A waral tat can lp tnars not in

foron or ovrlookd (wn t ar a part of a rop)

In our focus group interview we noced that some

teenagers dominate and talk more when they are to-

gether in groups. Therefore we are interested in crea-

ng a wearable who can help all the parts of the group

of being involved in a specic acvity and the decisions

related to it. This could help shy and quiet teenagers

being involved in groups and through that not feeling

as an outsider in the group. Signalize through colors if

you talk too much or too less, magic eightball or dice

who can choose who’s in charge etc.




9.4 The FuNCTIONSA TAKe PICTuReS

The wearable has a built-in camera that only has one

funcon, to take pictures. No ash and no zoom.

To take a picture you must ip the camera so that the

screen is now towards you and shows you what you

are taking a picture of. The screen has accelerometer

funcon to make sure the picture you see is not upside

down.

b ShOW AND ChANge PICTuReS

ONebyONe OR RANDOMLy

The pictures you take can be seen immediately on the

screen. To change the picture you simply slide your

nger across the screen, from le to right and the op-

posite way to go back. It is also possible to change the

picture randomly by shaking the device.

C SeNSe WhICh OF The uSeRS FRIeNDS ARe

NeARby AND ShOW IT ON The SCReeN

If you slide from top to boom on the screen to ac-vate the Bluetooth which then senses and shows which

of your friends are nearby, in an approximate radius of

10-100m, depending on whether you are in an open

space or being separated by walls.

D exChANge PICTuReS AND PICTuReMeIDIN

FORMATION WITh OTheR PICTuRe Me DeVICeS

Another Bluetooth funcon exchanges proles/gadget

informaon and pictures. By doing this you “become

friends” and your Picture Me saves your informaon

(gadget ID, picture and name).

The Bluetooth driven photo-exchange funcon is only

acvated when the two devices touch one another,

and thereby forcing the girls to interact physically and

socially. There is no buon on the device that acvates

this funcon. Only a touch of another device can ac-

vate the exchange. In this way it is also certain exactlywhich device you change your picture with and which

picture is exchanged.

e INTeRACT WITh The SPeCIALLy DeSIgNeD

PICTuReMe SeRVICe DeSIgN FOR PC OR MAC

Along with the device the user gets a small program to

administrate their prole, friends and pictures. Here

it is possible to change the prole picture, delete old

friends you no longer want to be friends with, delete

and/or save the pictures on the computer, load other

pictures you have taken with your mobile or camera.

Last but not least it is possible to manipulate the pic-

tures in a simple picture program: draw and write on




the pictures, manipulate the pictures and set in speech

bubbles. In this way the girls can customize the pictu-

res and make funny pictures to share with each other

– an idea our focus group really liked.

See the next pages for pictures of the service design.

F CONNeCT TO AND ChARge ThROugh

a COMPUTER

Through a micro usb port (or an even smaller port

inspired by mobile phones) it is possible to charge the

device.

g TuRN ON/OFF

The camera buon on the boom of the device is alsothe on/o buom when you are pressing it in several

seconds.




9.5 The SeRVICe DeSIgN


emma F. gndrsn

Hansstedsvej 21

2500 ValbyDenmark

Friends: 13

School: Hanssted Skole

Pictures: 34

Free space: 16

upl oad/ Coos upl oad/Coos upl oad/Coos


Julie

hansn

Ktrie

l Cour soe

ae

Føns Jnsn

Te

Søndrskov

sr

F. Nilsn

Pulie

Turei

are

S. Sclt

Crisna

Madsn

Frej

Frdriksn

Lois

Skov Astrsn

Annalla

Jstsn

Asmaa

I. Adlla

a Clr

Davidsn



I miss o!!!




9.6 SCeNARIOS PAge 1/3



9.7 DeSIgN INSPIRATION

Ipod Nano.

PlasChic. A hit among teenagers.

A non-digital picture-based jewelry.

The original girlfriend necklace.



P i c t u r e M e T h e m o d e r n g i r l f r i e n d n e c k l a c e

I n t e r a c o n d e s i g n a u t u m n 2 0 1 0

S u p e r v i s o r : A a r o n M u l l a n e

G r o u p 1

K r i s n e V e s t e r g a a r d C h r i s t o f e r s e n | 0 1 0 3 8 1 | k v e s @ i t u . d k

C a r l - J o h a n K r i s a n s s o n | 0 2 0 4 8 5 | c j o k @ i t u . d k

J o h a n E r n e s t O l i v i e r S e c h e r | 0 3 0 2 8 6 | j o o l @ i t u . d k

M e e L u i s e J e s p e r g a a r d S o h n s | 1 2 0 6 7 1 | m e e l u i s e @ i t u . d k

S i g n e J o h a n n e s s e n L e h r m a n n | 0 1 0 6 8 5 | s j o h @ i t u . d k

interactiondesign project - pictureme

Documents