SARAH GONG
On a rainy day, Kevin wants to play outside. He is curious about the nature.
He asks his mom: Mom, where do whales live?
Mom: In the water.
Kevin: It is raining outside. There is some water on the playground. Can I see the whale on the playground?
Mum: Well, let’s try!
As he goes to the playground, he sees the wet slippery slide.
Mum: Kevin, it is too slippery. Let’s go home.
Kevin: I really want to play on the playground in the rain. I am so upset now...
Kevin
6 years old
lives in Vancouver,
Canada.
Fortunately, our Play Bubble is a place that can make Kevin’s dream come true.
Play Bubble
Centre for Digital Media, 48-hour Design Jam, 2018.
For kids who needs an activity space outdoors and a unique experience on rainy days
The Play Bubble is a safe and comfortable dome with interactive installations
That promotes outdoor activity in the RAIN
Unlike using umbrellas and ponchos
Ours provides comfort and digital entertainment and encourages children to go out and be physically active even on rainy days in Raincouver.
The product prototype was accomplished within 48 hours.
My contribution
Experience design, project management
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Facilitated brainstorming to help team generate multiple ideas, gather data and collect solutions.
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Facilitated retrospectives and documented lessons learned.
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Facilitated quick prototypes and fast iterations.
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Mapped out user experience by creating personas, storyboards, user flow, and user journey.
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Conducted user tests with the team and iterated the design within a short period of time.
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Actively participated in the setup and presentation in the exhibition.
Click to view a journey entry (visual retrospective) on this project.
Features
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Transparent Bubble shape: It is a transparent bubble shape structure that can give children an outdoor space on rainy days without getting wet. When users enter the bubble, the bubble roof mimics the rain to recreate an immersive experience. When it is raining outside, kids need an outdoor space to play, learn and have fun. Our Playing Bubble provides such a place, enabling them to be close to nature, as well as providing them with educational and entertaining activities.
Inspiration
Ideation
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Motion-sensor: The bubble uses an interactive motion sensor and voice recognition system and has a series of games designed for engaging children’s physical activities. Sea animals (orca and dolphin) can interact with kids. They are able to react to your movements.
Inspiration
Prototype 1
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Hologram guider: We have a hologram demonstration to guide your experience in the Play Bubble.
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Pressure-sensing footprints: Wherever you go, there will be lovely footprint patterns on the floor following you, which creates an immersive environment for the kids.
Prototype 2
Exhibition poster (9 Sept. 2018 )
Poster design credits: MDM Cohort 13
Setting up the exhibition booth with the team
Design process
Brainstorm (theme: water)
Storyboarding 2
Storyboarding 1
User journey sketch
Pipeline
Decision making process
Lessons learned
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Make OARRs can help the project go smoothly: OARRsI is a tool for forming teams, which cconsists of objectives, agendas, roles and rules. t may sound like a waste of time, but setting common goals, rules, having a team name (and possibly logo), and even making a complete team charter can avoid many chaos and conflicts in the future. Teams work better if the members are united to a common purpose and everyone is clear about their roles and expectations. And in tangent to OARRS, I learned how important it was to establish and keep in mind a group focus. Asking ourselves “What is our goal?” “Why, and for who are we doing this?” to keep us on track.
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FAILURE: We, as a team, can make decisions for a better product from failed assumptions because, without testing, everything is simply a hypothesis. We made mistakes with our very first user-tests for operating one of our features, but in turn, it forced us to reconsider our presentation of it and enlightened us on the user’s perspective. We were able to then improve it for our next round of user-tests. Whenever we get stuck, we learned should view those moments positively as areas of opportunity. With this outlook, and strong group focus in mind, we can move forward quickly and come up with a solution. Small mistakes and failed user tests don’t equal a failed project.
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More research is needed: We struggled a lot when we defined our target users and the key features of our project. If given more time, we would do comprehensive research about the users, competitors, market, and technical feasibility.
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Think out of the box: If the current solution doesn’t work, think from another perspective. We can ask for opinions from outsiders, such as classmates, instructors, and users. For instance, on the second day of our design jam, we were stuck in how to simulate the pressure-sensing footprints. One of our user-tester suggested that we could use light and cardboard to mimic the situation. We never thought about using this alternative way before. His suggestion gave us an “aha” moment.
Our team
