THE PROMPT
"Online and on the go: we live in a world in motion…”
In this project, we were challenged to create a human-powered transportation technology with a novel interactive experience. In particular, we were challenged to design for a type of transportation we were not very familiar with.
Using swimming as our chosen mode of transportation, our team created a FLIP: an underwater FitBit for kids.
SPECULATIVE DESIGN
Drawing on our own memories of learning to swim and water, our team took this project as a “speculative design” challenge: creating a concept that provokes “what if” questions, rather than a solution proposal to an existing need.
For our final deliverable, we presented both a looks-like and works-like prototype, as well as a functioning Android and LED interface.
MOTIVATION
1. Swimming is a great form of exercise. One of the core objectives of Flip is to help kids to become healthy and competent swimmers.
2. However, another goal of this design is to make kids learn and care about water animals. Traditionally, aquariums have been a way of bringing people, and especially children, closer to sea life. By triggering a sense of wonder and appreciation in visitors, aquariums are an effective way of teaching people about sea-life preservation, and it’s also just really fun to learn about these animals and their habitats.
With these two goals in mind, we saw an opportunity to create a device that not only encouraged children to swim more, but also generated their interest in preserving sea creatures and their habitats through a fun interaction.
TARGET USERS
Our target users are children ages 4-9. On average in the United States, children learn to swim at age 4. We felt that this product would be best suited for kids who feel comfortable in the water but will be engaged with this simple interface.
IDEATION
We saw an opportunity to create a device that not only encouraged children to swim more, but also generated their interest in preserving sea creatures and their habitats through a fun interaction. We eventually imagined designing a pair of webbed aquatic gloves that would track acceleration. It would then sync with an educational mobile app in order to generate animal profiles real-time. Our desire is to promote learning through animal-metrics.
HARDWARE
We developed two interfaces. The first LED interface, powered by an Arduino Micro, is to be worn underwater so that children can compare their swimming speed to the speed of local animals using the accelerometer. The wearable device connects to the Android phone app over Bluetooth, where a child can view a summary of their “swimming statistics” in an easy to understand way.
Here are pictures of the hardware as we consolidated the circuits to be smaller and smaller until it could fit neatly inside the glove.
USER INTERFACE DESIGN
Below is the development of our UI design. You can see the progression for Low-Fi Sketch, to Hi-Fi Wireframe, to Android code.
WORKS-LIKE PROTOTYPE:
In our works-alike glove (see images below), we used simple material like fabric, Velcro and a pre-made fin to mock-up a simple casing that would be easy to work with.
In our works-alike glove (see images below), we used simple material like fabric, Velcro and a pre-made fin to mock-up a simple casing that would be easy to work with.
LOOKS-LIKE PROTOTYPE
For our actual prototype, we imagined using materials like silicone, which composes the glove and fin, and an elastomer material for the wristband.
The wristband houses all the hardware that stimulates the child's magical experience. It hides everything that doesn't want to be seen. The screen is the only component that is exposed, which would be waterproofed so children can, of course, swim with the glove.
NEXT STEPS
In the future, we envision a product where the user could customize the audio feedback to their own needs, such as a voice recording, or capturing audio from uplifting memories. It would also be interesting to look into creating a smaller enclosure for the microprocesssor, uploading wirelessly to a tattoo, and using other sensory experiences such as smell.
Fun Fact: this product was 1 of 7 projects chosen from our class to be exhibited at the Marker Faire 2015.
LOGO + BRANDING
The logo was designed to look like the Flipper-fin of an underwater animal. "Flip" is easy to say for children, and relates to the motion of swimming but also the motion of flipping through UI screens.
We also included a style guide as part of our deliverable, shown below.
