Design Brief
With the two weeks provided, my partner Danny and I had to develop and design a fun experience for a user to playfully navigate a location.
There were many options we thought about as a pair, as to how navigating is now way too clear with the likes of google maps at our constant disposal, sitting in our pockets all the time. However, we agreed one of two main things: directions were now too precise, and a user will constantly take the same mundane route to work or a certain location every time because it is the fastest route. And secondly, the majority of the users looking down at their phones miss some experiences or sights that they would’ve noticed if they kept their head up.
Initial Concept 1 – Dot Compass
The dot compass was designed as a fun device that would only consitst of easy to understand, light up buttons on a hexagonal device. To begin with, it would link to an app; we didn’t create the app, however we would use it to help the user select their start and end location then the device would do the rest.
The first display (pink highlited) is the path you want to choose, so the first green icon will appear and if they wanted the shortest direct route, they would move from dot-to-dot straight through the middle four.
But each time they reached a location or checkpoint, the compass would let them choose another three options (yellow dots) and the user could select if they wanted to veer further away or closer to their location. Highlighted in blue, the lights would change to an arrow and would guide you like a compass towards the location you chose, and once you reached your checkpoint or final destination, it would reverse back to choosing the next point (pink display) and so on. To clarify, there are not two sets of buttons or two devices, but the pink and blue references would be to which ‘screen’ would be displaying.
We made a blue foam model to get a feel of how ergonomic it would be, such as, testing the size of the buttons, how comfotable it sits in the hand and what scale would be the most suitable for practicality (such as putting it in your pocket) and actually seeing and pressing the buttons with ease.
Initial Concept 2 – Third Person Directions (Bit of a laugh)
The third person directions was a small design where the user would wear a visual headset that would connect to a camera or a drone behind them. This would make it feel like they are walking in third person, and could recieve 3D visual directions like a video game.
Initial Concept 3 – Press-Nav (Our continued concept)
Press-Nav is an attachment that clips onto each strap of the rucksack and creates pressure to indicate where the user should turn.
Our design was inspired by how the tank commander would tell the driver to turn by kicking them on the shoulders. And through this inspiration, we would make the user feel an amount of pressure through each shoulder to guide them either left or right. This could be done through an elevated piece pushing out but we decided to stick to an increase in air pressure as that would be the most comfy and ergonomic.
Development
We thought about further features such as how the rucksack attachment would wrap around and concluded that hoops and loops (velcro stuff) would be the most suitable as it could connect at multiple distances. The sides of the attachment would also be elastic to extend the range of adjustment since rucksacks will vary in width and size.
We tried our method of directing to the extent that I was blindfolded and my partner was able to guide me quite distinctly through tight spaces. This worked so well as I would turn right for as long as there was pressure on my right shoulder etc and would walk straight when there was no pressure at all.
Final model and CAD Rendering
We created a stuffed fabric prototype (full of pillow stuff) as our final model which would attach nicely onto my rucksack. One was needed as the attachments would be identical.
Part of our way through the week we were introduced to the Rhino CAD software. To me the program seemed a lot different and went about a different approach to what I was used to so I struggled to carry out advanced things. For this reason, I decided to stick to AutoDesk Inventor as my ability is a lot better and I was able to create a scale model with a lot more ease and detail.
Below is a few angles of the CAD design that was created:
Presentation
Our presentation went well as both my partner and I were comfortable at speaking in front of a large group of people and we managed to get across all our key points within the allocated two minutes. We also created two A3 sheets: the first was more of a visual display, and the second was to show more of our design process.
Conclusion
I think as a pair, my partner and I worked well as we both had strenghs in different areas, and so took on different tasks within the project, yet we were communicating well and made sure we were on the same wavelength so to speak. The rucksack/Press-Nav idea is something that I wouldn’t have normally created and gone for but I am pleased with how we both contributed to the ideas we both had and developed the product from different thinking perspectives. Personally, my thought process board was a lot better than my visual display one so I will need to develop how I display a single idea in a more visually appealing way.