Connect Cube
Connect Cube explores implicit communication with our families even while living afar.
Stay connected to loved ones with tangible messaging.
Role
Product Designer
Coder/Prototyper
Solo project for courses:
Meaningful Interaction Design (HCI)
Intangible Interactions (Physical Computing)
Toolkit
Figma
Fusion 360
Javascript
MongoDB
Arduino
Highlights
A Tangible Notification
Tangible Interaction Design
Communication devices
Functional Prototyping
Duration
2 Months
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Product Overview
Connect Cube explores implicit communication with our families even while living afar.
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Problem
For families who live far apart, it’s a constant challenge to maintain a meaningful connection. For our closest relationships, a connection goes beyond active communication.
If there were a better way to share moments from a distance, would families then feel as if they were together?
Design Process
For this project, I followed I User-Centered Design process from Discovery to User testing the prototypes.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.
Context
In this project, the goal was to explore the possibility of establishing unspoken and intergenerational communication.
The exploration was to formulate how simple objects could help us maintain a connection to our loved ones by sharing a moment.
Venn diagram of Long-distance relationships and our human communication behavior.
Research
Surveys + interviews with 70+ participants
I conducted surveys and interviews to better understand communication behaviors between potential users and their relatives, and to acquire information about the personal need to feel connected and ways to enhance that connection.
Findings
The survey shows that most individuals surveyed were women between the ages of 35 and 45. Of those surveyed, 88% communicate daily with their parents or close relatives.
Age of responders
Most frequent communication
Long-distance relationships?
Frequency of communication
User Interviews
The research is oriented on how people feel about the quality of communication, what other options they could consider and whether they envision other effective means of communication with loved ones.
Interview with Jean
Jean’s mother lives in Puerto Rico, while her father lives in Florida. She doesn't like when their parents don’t answer the phone. Her ideal way of communication would be something that let her communicate with their parent as if they lived together.
Interviewer’s quote
"I’d love to have a way to communicate with my parents as if we are in the same house."
— Jean C.
Pilates Instructor | SA, Texas
Research Findings
Constant communication relieves anxiety about their well-being.
People would like to be in more constant communication with relatives.
Most people feel that distance affects the relationship.
Users mainly communicate through phone calls and text. However, they have not found an option, that is less disruptive, to share time with them.
Define
The surveys and interviews highlight behaviors and motivations. I focus on a specific demographic group: women below 50 who communicate with parents or close relatives on a daily basis or at least regularly check up to assure that everything is okay. Persona, Empathy and Experience Maps were developed from the discovery phase.
Users Profile
Based on the research from the survey and interview, I created a persona that guides the design process.
Empathy Map
The empathy map is stated as a way of articulating the emotional spaces, where the user moves in the context of communicating with their closest relationships.
Experience Map
As noted in the interviews, phone communication does not ease the anxiety generated by physical distance nor can it substitute the actual presence of an individual.
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Design & Develop
Inspired by our current socially distant lives, I searched for a unique interaction to strengthen our human connections.
Sketching the User Experience
A series of sketches helped me visualize the concept and possible interaction models. This process resulted in a set of cubes that, when joined together by the user, sends a message to the other person.
User Interaction
By joining objects, the individual is invited to share their activities with another person. The message consists of an activity they want the other person to know about. The message can also relate to a moment, emotion, or feeling they want to share.
The activity cubes are interchangeable.
Storyboard
The story takes place in their homes. They make a connection using the cubes. The storyboard illustrates the casual use of the cubes and how easy it is to share a moment.
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Setup Flow & Visual Design
During this process, I defined the visual design concepts and set up the users flow.
Tangible User Flow
There are two flows that communicate through the cubes. A typical user flow is as follows:
User 1 is the first to initiate the interaction.
User 2 responds to the share connection.
App User Flow:
Onboarding Process
Although the experience is based on physical activity, as an IoT device it has a digital onboarding process. For this prototype on Figma, the onboarding process and flow of the cube activations. With the first lo-fi version of this wireframe, I tested with potential users and gathered findings for the next iterations. The product includes an app where the users can register their cubes and request connections with others.
Style Guide
While doing the first UI explorations I started to explore and develop the Style Guide to facilitate the wireframe and components creation.
Figma File
Figma File
Identity /
Mood Board
I developed a mood board that presents a consistent visual identity of the product and a better means to communicate with others. This mood board was created in line with the general vision of the physical product's feel and color palette. The objects have a relation of natural materials such as wood, soft wool, greenery and earthy tones.
A11y
As accessibility is a major focus in my design process I checked contrast considering the WCAG standards.
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Prototyping & User Testing
In this time I concentrated in develop a way to test the interaction a metaphor of the physical interaction and the app user flow remotely due to Covid-19 pandemic.
User Testing
I conducted 2 user testing sessions: one for the physical interaction and the other for the app onboarding process. Based on these findings, I was able to iterate the design and make improvements on the interactions.
Remote Testing - Product Interaction
To simulate the interaction, I rapidly coded a custom remote user test. These tests allowed me to check my assumptions and quickly gain insight into problems in the interaction and intuitiveness.
Usability Test - App
I tested the process of activating the product. For this process, I incorporated different useful findings in the next design iteration.
Iterations
Hardware components of the main cube and activity cube.
Insights from testing guided the next design Iteration.
Give more clarity to the actions users must do.
When it is referring to the physical block (in some wireframes), it is not that clear that it is referring to the cubes.
Manual connection to the cube is confusing. Reduces the steps.
Make a confirmation screen for actions, in case of user error.
Make more visible which are buttons are clickable.
Hardware Diagram
Hardware components of the main cube and activity cube.
Software Architecture
Software flow of main cube and activity cube.
Functional Prototyping
The system has already been prototyped locally to ensure technical feasibility.
Sending a message from RFID Reader to Database and Receiving the message back.
Github Repository
Receiving RFID tags in P5 Web Editor
Running localhost of the code on the Raspberry Pi.
Circuit
Running the Arduino Sketch and seen results on the terminal on the Raspberry Pi.
3D Modeling Explorations
Video of Functional Prototype
Future
Work
This project was developed during the first Covid-19 pandemic wave in NY. This definitely marked my ideation, testing, and prototyping process.
For future steps, I would like to build it for testing. I also foresee exploring intergenerational communication, adding shapes, and engaging with other household objects as a source of direct communication.