Overview

The objective for this task was to work in teams of two, to create a new way in which people can navigate a place. The brief was to create a navigation product that would help people in their everyday lives, connecting a physical device with technology (i.e a smart phone and GPS).

When considering what to design and the theme to base it around, we firstly had to consider who the target audience would be. For example, the idea could be targeted at a tourist who is new to the location and wants an easy method to navigate around, or a resident who lives in the location permanently and has done so for a while – both of which is a completely different.

Planning

The planning stage is very important, researching all possible ideas and products that are already out in the world for navigation experiences; augmented or virtual reality is often used. An example of this is Pokemon Go which is extremely popular because it combines the Pokemon game with the technology of GPS. The game makes people to leave their homes and explore their environment to collect Pokemon. Additionally, a further target audience we considered was dog walkers. The product would allow dog owners a chance to explore forest trails and paths they didn’t know was there.

Next, we attempted prototyping some different designs using foam. This was achieved using tenon saws and files. We found it difficult to get it a perfect cut but, as a quick prototype, it was successful in giving us an idea of the potential.

Once we had researched apps and products that were similar to the specs in our brief, we choose one of our ideas that we believe had potential. An app designed to help the visually impaired explore new locations. We started to research facts and figures around our new theme, giving us a better idea of the subject matter. There are many disorders that cause sight loss and these can either make you completely blind or visually impaired.

Development 

When developing our idea we began with the name of our product once we decided it was targeted at the visually impaired. Noting names such as travel assist and hear travel. After further deliberation we decided upon “Hear the Earth”

Continuing on to development the idea we had to answer questions to describe the concept.

What does it do? An app that connects to an earpiece and earbud that helps you map the city. Also giving you the ability to add beacons that will give you sound alerts when near. Who is it targeted at? The visually impaired who have trouble getting around. It would be ideal for residents of the location to discover more of their city. While if you were a tourist you wouldn’t benefit from the app as much. Why would they use it? To make their lives easier with a small amount of effort. Possibly to explore more of the area depending on how long they have lived there. When would they use it ? From getting to location to location in a busy city.

The goal is to help the visually impaired navigate a city by placing audio beacons around the familiar locations in order to get an idea of their surroundings. Sound is something that the visually impaired rely upon to get them around and be aware of whats in front of them. For example if there was an step in front of you that you kept on tripping on everyday when you went to work, you can use the app to set a marker on that location and place a sound. This will be activated when you get near again. We then continued sketching. Designing the earpiece and earbud to be very simplistic for either the elderly or children to use. With easy to control buttons and voice activation it couldn’t be any easier.

Final

The final concept was achieved on an A3 board, created using Adobe Illustrator. Using the pen tool to create the “Hear the Earth’ logo and the app design, we made both simple and stand out. Keeping blue as the colour palette throughout the concept board. We feel as though we captured the right amount of text and images to create a professional look.

We used Autodesk Inventor to make our earpiece and earbud. Nothing too complicated but really shows you what we would develop if this was to move onto real life applications. Maybe more stylish with different colours for different ages and genders.

Conclusion

The brief was to design a concept for a new way in which people can navigate an area and I believe we have successfully produced that. A professional concept board and presentation to the class made our product come to life. If given more time we could explore the idea further. We could give the app design more focus and spend more time doing the models. The brief was a good way to work in pairs and share the amount of work that needed to be done in a small period of time.