FINAL DESIGN
Together with the co-designer, we have chosen for the NFC app. The co-designer thinks it would really help him remind to do a task when he is already at the location. He also thinks it would help that he is kind of forced to stand up after a notification. We are now going to improve this chosen concept with the help of scenarios, style collage, and most importantly, our co-designer.
Scenarios
Scenarios give insight into problems that may arise with a new product. To make our concept as fail-proof as possible, we have formulated some problems that are still not solved with the current concept.
Malfunction
James is cuddling with his dogs. Suddenly, his phone starts buzzing: he has a reminder to do the dishes. He walks to the kitchen to scan the corresponding NFC-tag. Meanwhile, his phone keeps buzzing. He taps his phone to the NFC-tag, but it does not stop buzzing. It seems like there is something wrong. James gets annoyed with the constant vibration of his phone and taps the NFC-tag again, even though he has not started with the dishes yet. The phone still does not stop buzzing. James now gets stressed and worried. He does not want to be around this annoying phone anymore and he hides it between some pillows. He finally has some rest, but forgets to do all of the tasks for the rest of the day.
Out of time
James is walking outside with his dogs. He accidentally forgot to bring his phone with him, and it is still laying on the kitchen table. When he finally gets home, his phone is buzzing. James looks at the screen of his phone and sees that he has to do three tasks now: doing the dishes, fold the laundry and pack his stuff for a training session. Because James did not do the task at the planned time, they just kept building up. James gets overwhelmed with all the tasks he now has to do at the same time. He does not know where to start, while his phone is still buzzing like crazy. James gets worried and starts to tap his phone to all the NFC-tags. When the phone is finally silent, he goes to sit on the couch. A couple minutes later, James’ mom arrives to pick him up for the training session. James is still sitting on the couch and has not packed his stuff. He is not ready to go to the training.
Style Collage
Our co-designer claims to love apple products, both for their sleek design and the simplicity of the products. Based on his preferences, we have made a style collage (image 1). Based on this, we will adapt the design to his personal style.
Image 1: Style Collage
Updates
Colour
When we finally got in contact with our co-designer, we were able to discuss the concepts, choose a final design, but most importantly, adapt the concept better to his needs. We discussed the shapes, size and colours of the NFC-tags with him, with the help of some drawings (image 2). Together, we have decided to make them blue, so that they are very noticeable. He mentioned that he can not easily distinguish similar colors, and can not, for example read white letters on a red background. We will have to keep this in mind, so we have made a colour-combination sheet (image 3).
Image 2: Shapes and sizes
Image 3: Colour combo's
Notification
With our third discussion with the co-designer, we talked about the specific details that a notification should have. He claimed that he prefers sound, and in specific a talking reminder over the other senses. However, he thinks a combination of sound and vibration would also be really nice. The most important aspect of a notification is that it should not be easy to swipe it away, because then he will forget it immediately after.
A constant vibration would not be seen as annoying, or overwhelming, but more so as motivation.
Our co-designer mentions that he needs a snooze button, for when he is doing something else at the moment he can not quit immediately. This snoozetime should be around 5 minutes. The first reminder should then also be 15 minutes in advance.
Our co-designer already has a whole checklist for specific tasks, like for doing laundry. It would be nice and easier for our co-designer to have this implemented in the app. Then he would not have to switch between apps and, with some alterations, it could even help him remember to do the next step. Important details for the notification are task, time and location. The co-designer would like to have some humour implemented in the notification, to keep it fun.
Failsafe
With the help of scenarios, we have found some issues with the current design. For example, there needs to be a failsafe. The importance of which is that there could develop a situation in which the user gets the notification but is not able to start the task. This could be caused by an injury, an important but unscheduled call, or the NFC tag simply failing to be read by the phone.
If this were to happen, there needs to be a system in place to override the need for the NFC tag and stop the notification from appearing. This system should not be easy or obvious for the user to use, because then the app would not work properly anymore. Yet it is important that the user knows how to do this.
That is why the app will also feature a way to override the notification, and also a page directing the user to a detailed guidebook. Since we expect the need for the failsafe to be rare, and our co-designer explaining to us that he will not actively remember the system to turn off the notifications if he rarely has to apply it, we assume that if we properly document the information, he will have it available when necessary, but that he will not use it regularly.
Design
After selecting our concept, we still had to do some ideation on the final design of the product. The decision was made to design 2 products. An NFC tag and a phone stand/charger. This since receiving the notifications the entire day drains the phone battery faster. From our co-designer, we got that he likes simplistic modern design like Apple. We started ideation on basic simple shapes. From the ideation, we selected two shapes. a rectangle with rounded corners and a circular shape. We then set down with our co-designer and asked him what he preferred. He preferred the rectangular shape, with a bright color, the size of a coffee cup, and text on it. This led to the final design of the NFC tag.
For the phone stand, we ideated further on a phone stand that still looks similar to the NFC tag, while still maintaining a simple modern design. We tried several variations of the design and ended up settling on the same basic rectangle shape supported by a simple pillar in the middle. Just as with the NFC tag we added the same text and logo to the phonestand to have continuity between the designs. For the continuity, the colors are also the same. This makes it easy for the co-designer to see the correlation between the two designs.
Image 4: Concept board
Prototype
Because of multiple factors; little time to develop the prototype before going into the workshop, the simple geometry of the product and the availability of a 3D printer, this is what we decided to prototype on. The parts were first modelled in SolidWorks, then exported into an .STL file, and afterwards sliced in the program Cura to prepare them for 3D printing.
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The results are shown on the right. One print is of the NFC tag (image 5), while the other is of the phonestand (image 6). Both feature the same phone as our co-designer for scale and the phonestand also has a seperate photo to show the different details and geometry of the model (image 7).
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The prints took around a combined 9 hours to print and are true to the size of their eventual real-life counterparts.
Video 1: The NFC tag being printed
Image 5: NFC tag and phone
Image 6: Phonestand and phone
Image 7: Phonestand
Image 8: Example of a notification
The application was designed in the program Adobe XD, and is made to look like the stock calendar app that Apple is currently using. We chose this look since our co-designer is already used to this interface and will therefore be quicker to adapt to the new application.
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Along with a functioning prototype of the app are some highlighted features of the application, visible in the images to the left and right.
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You can click on all the images to take a closer look.
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There is also a way to go through the app by yourself, by clicking the button below
Image 10: Example of a filled in task
Image 9: the main screen of the prototype app
Image 11: What the calender looks like
Final User Interaction
1. Add in new reminders for the future
2. You recieve a notification
3. You grab the phone
4. The notification tells you the task and where to go
5. Go to the specified location of the task (two examples are the kitchen and desk)
6. Tap your phone against the NFC tag or stand
7. Detailed instructions of the task are given in the app when you start the task