Process

Brainstorming

To begin the project, each individual toured the studio space and identified opportunities for improvement. Afterward, we sat together and spent 8 minutes coming up with eight ideas each. We posted them up on a whiteboard and grouped them, narrowed, and regrouped. 

While we ideated, we recognized that many of the concepts had a tracking feature. One idea particularly interested everyone- a locker that could tell you what items you left inside. Inspired by Tile, we came up with the idea of tagging power cords when they are too far from their computer. 

After sharing in the slack group and getting feedback, we pivoted to our value opportunity- tagging and tracking for shared tools from the IoT workspace to reduce frustration and costs. Sharing helps build community, but they can be easily lost if one person forgets to return them.

In order to create an ambient tracking our device requirements were:

Must: Conform to existing routines, not impede the use of the tool, be discreet

Should: Show the location of the tool, send a notification when a tool has been taken and returned

Could: Enable students to get into line for a tool

Components & User Experience

In storyboarding the experience, we focused on wire cutters, since they are the most demanded and always elusive tools in the workspace. Initially, we planned to use two sensors, one for the "home" and one for the table. This is ideal and should be considered for future implementation. However, the complexity kept us from doing that for the prototype.

During planning with the class, we noticed that most teams had opted for playful interactions. This limited our networking options. We decided to partner with two teams: we would house our table sensor in the Rings of Success and Shhh! would subscribe to our event and light up when tagged items are taken and returned.

To enhance the user experience in future iterations, we plan to add the ability to locate the item, see who last used it, and get into line to use items.

Building the Prototype

The first prototype was a working prototype that consisted of two buttons. When the green button was pushed it triggered the even "I'm Back"signaling an item had been returned. When the yellow button was pushed it triggered the event "I'm Gone", which meant an item had been taken. Once we successfully published these events, we gave the information to Shhh! to trigger their light.

After we successfully tested the working prototype and received feedback on it, we begin to build the functional prototype. This included adding a UHF RFID reader and tags. This enabled us to begin publishing events based on the proximity of the tag to a reader.