Social Pandemic Hub

Product Design · researcH

2021

Client

Santa Monica College | Product Design & Senior Studio

My Role

Product Designer
UI Designer

Team

Julia Engfer
Gaby
Porfirio
Casey
Ross
Omzee

Time frame

8 Weeks

Tools

Figma, Google Workspace, Zoom

Project Overview

This project was created for an Adobe Creative Jam. We were instructed to build a minimum 15 page mobile app over the course of 2 weeks using adobe XD, and adobe suite. With the goal of addressing food insecurities.

Change Statement

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

Product Design Case Study

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

Heuristic Evaluations and Key Results and Insights

We created a Heuristic Evaluation to check how our concept and UI would work with users. This helped us to flush out our design. We learned that we were on the right track with the results of our evaluation.

System Diagram

In initial conceptualization we came into the issue that we were sure what the communication between the different features. I created a System Diagram to help us visualize our products communication

Initial Product Design Brainstorm

My partner and I first started sketching thumbnails first. We brainstormed and picked the best one in accordance to what would be most realistic for our need or product.

Initial Concept

Controller

We added buttons to the remote so they have the ability to play video games through the Hub.

Hub & Dock

We created the hub with an adjustable neck that can capture the users image and move as the user moves

Final Iterations

Hub & Dock
‍Drawn by: Casey

We then added more sculptural features to the Hub to create more of an art piece one can have in their home. After we created the final sketch we drew these mockups of the Dock, Hub, and the Controller.

Controller

Hub standing alone

For the remote instead of have buttons and a joystick we changed it to a touch screen so that we could change the UI screens on the remote for different tasks throughout the Hub.

Paper Prototype

It was important that we build a paper prototype, we needed to visualize the concept and think about how we could manufacture the Hub and what materials we need.

First Physical Mock Up

Cone was created by using the top of an orange safety cone.
Remote & Top of camera created with Styrofoam that was

Fusion 3D Model

After we had our final sketches I oversaw the Fusion 360 building. I oversaw Porfirio on creating the remote. And Casey create the Hub form and the HDMI/charging Dock.

Created in Fusion 360 by Porfirio

Fusion Mock Up

Prototype Building

We then knew all the forms we needed to create for the prototype. We created the Hub fully out of wood to get a real feel for the final product. Casey and I used a lathe to create the Hub form and other tools to create the controller.

Final HiFi Prototype Mockup

We added fabric for the speaker part

Then printed out the main UI and glued that on the controller so we could have a real product to show.

Finishes and Fabrics:

Wood & Fabric:

1. Hazelwood/ Silver Gray
2. Espresso/ Sandstorm
3. Walnut/ Heather Grey

Plastic & Fabric:

‍1. Grey/ Aquamarine
2. Black/ Yellow
3. White/ Wedgewood

Reflection

Successes

We had many successes such as creating the HI-FI prototype. Discovering usability senarios. Along with developing a seamless UI that suits the product and its needs by the user.

My Contributions

As part of the product design team I was part of the product design conceptulization. I also created the system diagram of how the specifics of the Social Hub would connect to the Charger, Monitor, and necessary hook up for the Hub. Along with carving the soild wood mockup and selecting the product material and other possible product colorwaves that could be avalible to the consumer.

Challenges

We had a couple different challenges. One was that we weren't sure how to build the hi-fi prototype. We decided to make it out of wood but when we were creating the base we weren't able to make it seamlessly fit together so we etched it out with a Dremel tool to simulate the two pieces. We are still going to find a way to make the base and the main Hub come apart.

Future Possibilities

There are many future possibility with the innovative Hub. We want to explore the ability to create live entertainment and concerts from artists. Add or creategames that can be played on the Hub with friends or in a solo atmosphere. We want to procced with more user testing to uncover possible improvments and or new features that could be added. With the Social Hub the possibilites are endless

Mock Product Video

Although I was on the product design team. In the beginning of the project I helped with conceptualizing the UI. Below is the final concepts including a product demonstration video, How it work, and UI chat screens.

How the Hub works

Drawn by: Casey Montz

Log on to the Hub

Choice how you want to join a call: Start hangout, join a hangout (with code), Or see what's around (view activities)

There’s a where she can select from a list of different atmospheres. It’s Friday night, she made herself a martini and she wants to go to a bar.

She is very surprised with the amount of people that are online. She considers that maybe everyone is having a hard time quarantining at home. Kelly walks around and explores using the touchpad on her remote. She can choose to talk to people by using the remote. She clicks on an avatar to start a conversation. She uses the remote to type a message to this other avatar.

You have the option when joining a video to show how much of your surrounding that you would want to be shown.

Similarly to a Jukebox, SID has the ability to play music within the hangouts. Friends can request songs but only the host can skip them. In hangouts Kelly and Stenzy play games and get to know each other. Kelly is having a great time and doesn't feel bored anymore.

UI Design - Video Chat Interface

It was very important that we took time to design the different video chat layouts. We understood that our users would be showing either vertical or horizontal layouts and needed to create proposed layouts for these two angles to be in one chat.