PROJECT BRIEF_

“The project centers on a wearable or home-scale connected device meant to alleviate some of the pains and challenges around the social distancing and “stay-at-home” lifestyle. Students work in groups to identify shared challenges and common design interests, create a proposal, prototype, test and iterate their solutions. The project challenges students to examine the formal aspects of user interface design in the context of product design as well as ethical and social implications of their designs.”

PROBLEM_

During the lockdown, we have started to miss social interactions. Being stuck at home has made us feel lonely and nostalgic about the good moments we had with our friends. Zoom, Facetime, and all the other services out there do not convey the same feeling as interacting in person.

Time Frame

7 Weeks

Project Type 

Group School Project

Role

UI Design (collaborative)
3D Render (Remote Control)
Design Research

Tools

Figma
Fusion 360
Miro

Google Slides

Team

OPPORTUNITY_

How might we ease social isolation in a way that emulates real-life social gatherings? 

SOLUTION_

A home-scale projector equipped with a camera and virtual games that will be used as a life-size immersive social platform to facilitate interactions between people around the world.

THE PROCESS_

During the lockdown, we have started to miss social interactions. Being stuck at home has made us feel lonely and nostalgic about the good moments we had with our friends.

PRIMARY RESEARCH_

The primary research required for every team member to document one week in a journal. The following are a few days from my week.

SATURDAY

Received an email from the boxing gym, they are going to open May 1st with some restrictions; a limited schedule, 5 people per class, one class per day, must wear a mask, and no changing in the locker. The gym is also posting workout videos on Instagram, I am not on any social media, so I am thinking about joining.

SUNDAY

I spent some time with my family, then did some research on the Studio 2 project. I am also considering getting back into online gaming. I used to play with friends online, but I feel like I don’t have much time to get back into gaming.

FINDINGS

Findings: Before the stay at home order, I felt that social interactions were not important to me, I took this opportunity to focus on my school work. As time goes on I feel that social interactions are important and I took them for granted. Based on my personal experience I identified that social interaction brought temporary pause and calmness from what I had going on in my life at the moment. During quarantine, it became difficult to achieve that same feeling The following steps were to conduct more research on existing technology and how we can avoid the pitfalls of the previous attempts other services have made.  The outside simulator was created during the pandemic to manage not being able to go out. The service runs videos of various things like train stations, coffee shops, and even concerts.

Spatial

“Meet with anyone, anywhere in the world as if you were in the same room. Lifelike presence from just a 2D photo, you'll forget they're not there.”Spatial is most effective with the use of VR, users can walk around and is primarily used for team collaborations.

Outside Simulator

The outside simulator was created during the pandemic to manage not being able to go out. The service runs videos of various things like train stations, coffee shops, and even concerts.

Mozilla Hubs

“Hubs is a VR chatroom designed for every headset and browser, but it is also an open-source project that explores how communication in mixed reality can come to life.”

*Modeled by Casey Montz

*Modeled by Porfirio Moreno

REFLECTION_

The challenging part was working on an extensive and substantial project during a pandemic. We were essentially attempting to solve the problem we faced ourselves while still going through it. We experienced all types of services for communication like zoom, google meets, slack, and text message, so we know what the competitors had to offer. Even after the project has been submitted the idea of sid continues to present itself, proving that there is a need. The project went through numerous iterations, those iterations are what improved the project, we did not approach this as a school project but rather as a project that we will be satisfied with using. We were not in a position to fully test our product and service so we are not done, and no project is ever done, so testing will be a crucial part of sid and its success. Working completely remote did present some advantages, a few late-night work sessions until three in the morning were only possible through Google Meets, and not likely to happen for in-person meetings.