Final Concept

” To provide an accessible experience of nature for patients, the concept of a portable video streaming device with social capabilities was created. By use of a portable device, patients can access and utilise this meditative service in privacy with headphone and personal viewing screen to create a sense of relaxation to assist in healing and overall mental health through immersion. The project itself is also designed to reduce social isolation with aspects of commumnication through a messenger and bump system where patients can collide the spheres in order to share streams to then discuss creating a greater sense of community. “

Finalised Idrid Model

The finalised model of the Idrid portable meditation pod was created through the use of two Styrofoam balls to replicate the glossy nature of the plastic which would be used in its finalised form and to allow for a more solid structure in which to imbed the final screen (a old iPhone running keynote). Accents were added through paint and green foam to add a sharp sense of colour to break up the plain mundanity of the original design with the circlular base being painted and engraved with a bark-like texture to further emphasise the natural basis of the design and to provided a tree symbolism with the product (sphere with leaves and greenery is equivalent to the top of the tree with the bark of the trunk lying below).

This model overall was rather simple to produce compared to the room prototype of the previous concept due to the lack of excess electronic components that had to be assembled, by utilising an old phone I was able to bypass this system and avoid issues of finding and wiring a small enough display whilst gaining the ability to have a prototype that was interactive as intended. Originally the intention was to make a cardboard or paper sphere structure also, but this was quashed when it came to overall appearance (both had an unsightly, inaccurate geometric style) and structure to hold the internals. If given more time a sourcing for small speakers to be placed in the headphones of the model would’ve been undertaken however when placed within the display the sound from the aforementioned room experience prototype would have probably drowned it out and masked the effect.

Despite this it was decided to recreate the model on the 3D modelling software Rhino – this allowed for the creation of accurate digital sketches, environment renders and a realistic appearance of the model as intended. Due to my previous experience in creating Rhino models within the Navigating Experiences module and AutoCAD whilst in secondary education I found it relatively simple to create such as model with implementations such as bump maps, sweeps and the screen decal being relatively new to myself (within this software) allowing for more experience for me, allowing myself to become more adjusted and astute for later use within university and beyond whilst allowing for a more realistic hospital environment to be created.

Instructional/Informative Booklet

In order to truly recreate an immersive experience, a booklet was created which would provide information o how to the utilise the device itself. This booklet was created using Indesign, an adobe publication software which has the ability to create a variety of posters (as shown previously) and also booklet spreads for which this was utilised. By using the spread function the ability to create a seamless transition across several pages to create sleek borders assisted in modernising the standard booklet to match the overall design aesthetic set. 

Aspects of the Design:

• Colour: the same colour palette of the muted primary colours with green is further utilised within the booklet design in order to build up a company image and colour palette that was continuous throughout every article. The red, blue and yellow are used to separate different aspects of the booklet itself creating a subconscious state of organisation: Blue – company information, green – general product information, red – seriousness in the nurse alert, yellow – social. By utilising bold colourful backgrounds through the article itself the reader feels more inclined to read due to the interest provided through the boldness of the colours and the reverse of the text (white text on a dark background) compared to that of black text on a white background.
• Motif – Trees: Used to accent the overall design of the opening pages and to emphasis the connection between technology and nature through this product (as can be imaged from the front page itself showcasing a merging between the hospital environment and the trees itself.). The trees also act as a sense of indirect instruction, by having the trees angling upwards or downwards, the eyes of the viewer are guided; the downward angle of the front page’s trees lead towards the title and into the booklet whilst the second page leads upwards away from the bottom of the text towards the contents and beyond.
• Renderings: As way to clearly mark and indicate the individual pieces of the design itself the final renderings of the Idrid product was utilised to create an accurate exploded orthographic drawing of the design which could then be labelled for use. 

Visual Concept Board

and the flow of the design.Within the concept board itself several items are considered for the overall branding of the product alongside the ideology of the design itself:

• Font: Initially the basic idea for the font itself was to be accessible to a large variety of people (e.g. being dyslexia friendly) whilst also being San-serif (typeface without the “feet” at the extremities of the letters) this was due to the overall need for the design to be accessible and so the entire brand should replicate this ideology whilst remaining modern. The base font inspiration was taken from is the transport typeface created by Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinnear in 1963 and is widely used on all road signs across the nation due to its varieties with boldface and medium nature, created to allow the font to be read clearly on any coloured background (due to  main roads containing both green and white signs, a versatile typeface would be a necessity). The font itself also matches that of the dyslexia checklist: a san-serif font which has larger inter-letter / character spacing and minimal changes in upper and lower case. Through the testing of several fonts (as shown) the choice was made to utilise —- due to its overall similarities to the base Transport typeface whilst having its own unique futuristic styling which matches the entire concept.
• Colour Palette: working from several images from the Tensmuir excursion, a simplification of colours was taken including the primary colour of which I then expanded upon through photoshop, selecting shades and tones of the original colour to allow for a variety of choice when it came to the graphic design elements for adaptability to overlaying text/shapes on darker or lighter graphics.

Advertising Materials

However, through development from the overall room idea towards the meditation pods, the idea became redundant as the person was not fully enveloped within nature as the animal idea symbolised alongisde this was overall developmental issues in digitising the idea in a way that would match the other aspects of the clean, sleek design and so a poster representing the contrast between the dark hospital room and the brightness of the nature environment seen through the meditation portable pod (both in the standard circular manner replicating the actual pod and through that of a set of glasses, symbolising a new view seen through the product.).

Storyboard 

By using cross hatching the hospital ward is made to appear bleak and in contrast to the water colour nature show in the windows and later on surrounding the patient who is now at peace at being able to experience nature. The use of message bubbles and emoticons in place of speech was a way to drawing out this overwhelming connection with technology we have which tends to disconnect us from the world around us and was a prominent feature of the module itself allowing the storyboard to encapsulate all three elements in one: humans (the perpetrator), technology (the weapon), nature (the victim).

Concept Board

The concept board itself encapsulates the context and meaning of the design through the use of the relevant dark ward background image alongside the finalised concept summary of the product itself. Slight graphical alterations were made to the original such as a dark wash to allow for a clearer viewing of the white heading and body text.

Sketchbook Tour

Aspects:

• Initial bird drone: reference to the original design of the VR bird drone concept.
• Nature noises/Intro: A bridging of an urban enviroment and nature by utilising a room and its aspects to insinuate that of a river and forest (e.g. blue floor is the water, objects are equivalent to trees etc).

References: https://learningspaces.dundee.ac.uk/soc-dig18-amaduncan/2019/04/19/references/