week 14 – final post

I made a number of updates to the documentation blog. See below breakout for links to each page:

All other deliverables including documentation, writing and research, code and presentations have been uploaded to Google Drive and can be found at this link.

*Some files in Google Drive are not working in preview mode, but can be downloaded.

 

 

 

week 11 product design

Having completed the initial prototype of fitHub, the next step is to begin designing a consumer facing product. I have been doing research on materials, manufacturing, product design and functionality.

In continuing with the same shape as the prototype, I decided that a removable faceplate would be an efficient way to display the data categories for the hub. This way it is more customizable and different faceplates can be created if the consumer wanted to display other metrics.

Canvas 10Canvas 12Canvas 14Canvas 13

In terms of materials and staying with the customizable theme, I am going to construct one hub out of acrylic and another out of wood to show the audience how choosing different materials can change the look and feel of the hub.

I will be manufacturing the hubs by laser cutting the encasing based on the above sketches. In order for the laser cutter to process the above designs, each part of the hub including dovetailing to secure each panel was designed in Illustrator. See below screen shot of the laser cutter file:

Screen Shot 2013-05-09 at 10.01.36 AM

These updates have also been posted to my blog here.

week 10 FitHub updates

In the last few weeks I have been programming the functionality of the matrices, condensed down the quantity of electronic components and developed code to simulate how each data point will progress over the course of a week, but sped up so that it cycles through in a few minutes.
hub1The next steps for the hub include linking live data taken from Fitbit (activity tracker) to the device, so that the progress bars show current status of each designated measurement. I am also working towards having the encasing laser cut for a more polished look and feel. I will present the encasing in acrylic as well as wood; ultimately it will be up to the customer as to what materials, colors and data points they want for their own FitHub.

Customers will be able to customize their hubs on the FitHub website which I have sketched out wireframes for (seen below landing page example).

fithub_wireframe_01The site can be found here: http://thomaslawrie.com/fithub/. I am also working on developing how customers can place an order as well as providing as much information as they need about the product.

More details and photos from this past week’s progress can be found on the documentation blog here.

week 8 mid-semester updates

Having reached the half-way point in the semester, I have finalized the product’s design (blog post here), produced a physical prototype and set production goals for the next few weeks. Constructing a physical prototype not only assisted in realizing what form the object will take, but also gave a sense of the feeling it evokes when in use.

Bringing the project to physical form also greatly helped demonstrate progress for the second desk crit with David Carroll. The points he brought up were very insightful and I will need to significantly change the way I present this work to others. A few major takeaways include:

  • pitch it like a product to make it more understandable, do not spend so much time saying this is my project this is what I made
  • could do a better job of telling the user story to justify how it could be effective, figure out a way to understand it as part of a routine and how it plays upon our own susceptibilities when you’re thinking about your day
  • look towards the car industry and how they are designing displays and adding features that encourage cognitive behavior change

I documented the construction process and final outcome of the second prototype which can be found on my thesis blog here and here. By the end of the process I felt like my documentation could be improved, and I think I got caught up in building as opposed to being more conscious of how this will be visually explained later, another area I plan to improve upon.

Below are images from the construction and final outcome.

construction_labels

hub1