Team Funky Fungi and the story of City Buddy Bob
Abstract.
To go out of the boundaries and explore what the perception wearables can have, we designed Come sit around the d.camp fire and let us tell our research around empathy and it’s various you a story. contexts. Instead of focusing on monetary transactions and the shopping experience we The ever changing landscape of the world is a explored how do people feel when they are curious one. New things come and go. People react to these things like a cat sniffing a different considered 'strange' or special. Our points of interest were bottle collectors, school children, cat, curious and cautious. One of the newest second-hand stores and neighborhood shops. in the line of new things are wearable devices. Right now, no one can really see the full potential Through our research we collected and extracted of these devices or even how they fit in our lives. various insights into the exchange of empathy and the initial interactions of people. There were Is it phone or foe? several interesting outcomes from this stage such as understanding how the clothing of a Using steps of the design thinking process bottle collector can influence his social activity or as a framework, our team engaged the idea that an artifact such as a flower can be used as a of increasing empathy and social acceptance key for an interaction to occur. with wearables. By using sequential tools and methods of design thinking workframe, elements Next we reframed the concepts again, using of the final outcome were developed. Initially we more concrete profiles and answering key questions which led us to creating a more well worked with abstract associations around the topic, using metaphors and terminology to shape defined challenge. We focused on what we had learned and refined that into specific points of and reframe our challenge, finally focusing on view. How could we create a space or contexts in the relationship between wearables and the which wearables are learned and accepted? exchange of empathy.
Before prototyping we addressed the strategies that could be used to answer the questions from the previous step. By focusing on the user needs, insights and constraints we generated ideas that could augment our solutions. Finally, the ideation and prototyping began! This is the moment in which the group got a feeling of creating something concrete. During this part of the process we began to shape the basic idea, use role-play as a concept defining device and flush out the full impact of our concept. As a result we came up with the new service: City Buddy Bob, which helps the user to discover the city and connects him to the local society and local businesses. A flexible and familiar concept which allows manipulation of the setting and context without changing the essential experience. This end result has definite connections to each of the previous steps of the process and comes out as an amalgamation of the entire experience.
Building the team
metaphors | Mind-Mapping
Framing the Challenge
Research
Findings | Point of View
Iteration | Translation
Prototyping
Building the team
Alex
Anne Daniel Flora
ZEB
Building the team. In order to get to know each other and to break the ice we had a playful task to tell three stories about ourselves, one of those had to be a lie. Who could have thought that one of our members was the lead singer in a folk band? After exchanging our stories we came up with the name 'Funky Fungi', which stands for us being different but still belonging together and approaching challenges with an open minded attitude.
Mind Mapping // Metaphors. After mind mapping terms for wearables and retail and grouping them into meaningful categories, we went into the process of turning those words into metaphors. Wearables are an extension of our bodies, empowering us with extra skills, it gives a feeling of having magic stick in our hand. They are like friend or a helpful nurse, like having manual to our bodies, or discovering and exploring a 2nd world, private and very personal.
metaphors | Mind-Mapping
Retail Wearables
Framing the challenge. Coming up with metaphors helped us to open the boundaries of thinking about this topic and compare it with other everyday situations, which could be similar to our initial topic. By reviewing metaphors we could see problematic issues which come along with wearables and what are the areas of opportunity for improving the experience around them. Then we dove into what kinds of emotions and feelings wearables evoke. What kind of assumptions, fears, desires, experiences do people have using smart technology or interacting with people using it? What is this relationship between the social acceptance and wearables? Could enhancing the feeling of being cared for bridge that gap? We formulated our main research question:
How can we use wearables for increasing empathy in social interactions?
research. In order to figure out what are the contexts where those social interactions happen, we composed our research questions: How do people display empathy in social interaction?
How do unfamiliar objects interfere with empathy?
Where do people interact socially?
Planning our research, we thought of broad meanings of feeling special and accepted, of social settings and locations, where there is a lack of social acceptance. Furthermore, we thought of the moments of getting the very new experience, discovering new possibilities, and at the same time seeking for empathy and understanding. The core of our research was to push the boundaries. Not to just explore the world of smart technology and the buying experience, but translate it into the context, where we could learn about behavior, relevant for our design challenge, come back to initial theme and apply the learnings. This led us to ideas to visit playgrounds and observe children’s reactions towards unfamiliar objects. How do kids explore objects for the first time?
How do people act, when they are forced to interact?
Where is empathy missing?
Do people want to be treated anonymously or not?
How do they feel being special or interacting with the person who is in some way unusual? As children tend to perform more expressively than adults, we aimed to explore their experiences and learn from them. Similarly children can often demonstrate behavior patterns without realizing the purpose of the research. Another relevant point for us was to concentrate on people who sometimes feel awkward about themselves or are perceived as such, those who don’t always belong to the surrounding environment and social group. We examined bottle collectors, aiming to understand their experiences interacting with people, to analyse the moment of interaction when bottles are exchanged or not and the meaning of empathy.
Case 1 Visiting school yards, playgrounds, parks. Observation, interview.
Story.
Unpacking.
In the shadow of a big tree we have noticed a group of children, sitting in the circle. One child was somehow positioned in the middle, which seemed odd for us. When we approached the group and started observing them, we realized they assembled there as a group to train for a school sports competition. We also noticed they had three educators around, one of them was sitting with that child in the middle. Soon all the children stood up and went running in a circle around the park, but the one in the middle stayed. He was laying on the grass and staring at the sky. When interviewing his educator, we got to know he was disabled since he was born. He is not able to talk, express himself, show his reaction. Additionally the kid is not able to walk and is forced to use rolling chair. He started going to this school just a year ago since the new rules for disabled children were set, where kids with limited abilities were integrated into the public schools.
This was a huge contrast to see his classmates running around, playing. The very impressive moment was, when the other children came back after running activity, sat down around their handicapped schoolmate, started caressing him, some of them even kissed his cheeks or forehead. What we realized is how accepted he was among those children. He was part of them - being so different at the same time. The children accepted the disabled child as a normal part of their life since they had been acclimated to it. We were amazed to realize how something foreign can be accepted, when it is put into the right context and a familiar environment. We were amazed to realize how different 'expected behavior' can be, when it is put into the right context and familiar environment.
It would be game changing if there would be spaces / contexts to learn and experience wearables.
Case 2 Personal interaction with bottle collectors. Observation, interview.
Story.
Unpacking.
On a warm sunny afternoon, people lounge around the Rhine promenade sipping on various cold drinks. A few figures wander in zigzag patterns to people and trash cans, collecting bottles that have a deposit on them. One of these is Hans, an elderly man with a couple plastic bags of bottles he has already picked up and large bushy eyebrows. He said his name was Hans, he was 80 years old and he was alone. He told us there were days he found himself talking to people for more than half an hour. He gets to meet very different people, some of them are friendly and open for interaction, some not.
Assuming that bottle collectors are usually ragged people, dubious, looking for money, Hans seemed to us a social butterfly who breaks the 'bottle collector' stereotype. He was wearing clean clothes and was very friendly. He seemed lonely but enjoying interacting with people around the Rhine promenade. We found the bottles worked as openers to interaction and eventually to an empathetic connection. We were amazed to realize how influential a warm gesture like a smile can be.
It would be game changing if there was a welcoming, familiar gesture to begin the interaction in any situation.
Case 3 Small, specialised local businesses. Interviewing for awkward situations, interactions in retail. Interview local business owners about their feeling in regard to their customers and in relationship to how they may react to wearables, e.g. Google Glasses.
Story.
Unpacking.
In the SĂźdstadt neighborhood of Cologne, there are still many small businesses and specialised shops. This is where a lot of regular customers attend hidden shops in the back roads, hand-made and unique goods are exchanged as well as stories and the news of the day. In a little bookstore, Margarete welcomes us visiting her shop. Though books are often ordered online nowadays, she tells us, there is a serious amount of customers gathering information on the net and then asking her to order books to her shop to purchase from her. The location of her shop is also indexed on the web, so potential customers can find it. She sees different people come in, mostly looking for something specific. The quality of her service is the knowledge on the range of books in the shop and the publisher databases. If people were utilizing wearables in her shop, with access to the universal knowledge of the web, she would feel at a disadvantage, she says.
While many customers use the web to get informed which books to buy, and then buy them at Margarete’s shop, Margarete has a bad feeling about wearables which extend the customers knowledge on books beyond her own. We were amazed to realise, that an information imbalance among user and non-user of wearables leads to rejection of such devices. We were amazed to realize, how people utilize web-age technology to encourage small classic retail-businesses.
It would be game changing if electronical devices were solely seen as connectors among shoppers and small retailers.
Research Findings. Our consolidated research led to a variation of insights. We learned about how objects can be door openers to people, encouraging connections through smiles and conversation. We saw how uncommon experiences can have environments that ease the people in these contexts and familiarize them to the new situation. We took it from there and stated interpretations about the meaning and consequences of our research findings:
There are anxieties regarding what users of wearables want to achieve by the use and which information they utilize. I wonder if this means reasoning the use would evoke acceptance for wearables? Groups of people are anxious about aspects of life foreign to them, feeling insecure and uncomfortable in unfamiliar interactions. Still the experience can be altered when it is integrated into a familiar context. I wonder if this means creating spaces/contexts of information transfer and learning about wearables would encourage their acceptance?
Reframing the challenge again – Bringing it back to retail. After creating POVs from our research the Funky Fungi reframed the the process once again, trying to bring a final focus to the challenge. How could we access the users, a broad audience in this case? How do we make the added value of the product graspable and not just something abstract? How can the humans be integrated into the process? After a bit more of silent ideation we shared our ideas and compared. There were several ideas that were linked by our key questions and directed towards solutions. First, in order to connect to a broad audience it needs to be used in public spaces with specific contact points. A good example might be a library where people searching for information have a specific location. Next, connecting the people with the advantages of wearables. Creating an atmosphere where people can experiment and experience wearables in real-time in context to specific situations. Some sort of playground would be great. Something where the user would be able to be exposed to this new object without fear of attachment. Finally, the integration of people. Wearables have to become familiar and there needs to be some sort key in the interactions to create that familiarity. Most people in Germany know what the Deutsche Bahn is, a simple a way from getting from A to B. Wearables should be the same, not the end result but a tool used to facilitate empathetic reactions. Now to tie it all together. Choosing ideas on: How can we empower the individual shopping experiences with local businesses?
We found that small local businesses are places of retail where personal empathy is likely to be exchanged. This is in opposite to mass retail, which barely allows for individual experiences due to a high level of standardisation. We followed the idea to use wearables to connect to these small local businesses. Wearables can act as door-openers and are put to a transparent use, providing specific information and orientation. In this application, they especially support those shops which create the local culture which might struggle nowadays due to the spread of big retailers and online virtual stores. The user satisfactory unit is the benefit of an personalized shopping experience, a plus in personal contact and local knowledge.
How might we make the added value of wearables graspable? We could enable people to experiment with different functions on “playgrounds”.
We could let them experience problem solving with/without a wearable device.
How might we connect to a broad audience? We could spread it in specific, known contexts, e.g. as a guide in museums.
We could have a shop/exhibition in a central position, e.g. experience studios at airport waiting areas.
«how might we…?»
How might we integrate people personally? We could encourage to put it to daily life use for acclimatization.
We could integrate wearables in other businesses, brands, partnerships, trade fairs offering trials.
We could motivate (prominent) trial users to share their personal story.
We could encourage sharing of devices with friends.
Translation. We followed the idea to use wearables to connect to small local businesses, where conversation and exchange of empathy is still one natural part of the business. Wearables can act as door-openers and are put to a transparent use. In this application, they especially support those shops which create the local culture and might struggle nowadays due to the spread of big retailers and online mailorder. The user receives the benefit of an individual shopping experience, a plus in personal contact and local knowledge.
How can we empower the individual shopping experiences with local businesses?
Prototyping: City Buddy Bob. City Buddy Bob is a Google Glass style wearable device using audio and visual augmented reality solutions to guide users through cities. It provides information on local culture and small crafters and traders with a long tradition. As these businesses join the City Buddy Bob program, shops are aware of customers visiting them guided by the wearable. Program and device can function as door openers to conversation, leading to the personal contact which is highly appreciated within an individual shopping experience. Supporting the local economy and giving foreigners access to the special goods of local crafters and merchants are also important keys to the City Buddy Bob program.
City Buddy  Bob
Presentation. In our presentation, we want to convey the ease of access to the device, the gain of local knowledge and enabling contact to small and special businesses, where the device itself is not the protagonist, but a tool guiding towards empathic face-toface conversation. The presentation is held under the logo of our 'City Buddy Bob' brand. It is performed acting. Presentation slides and audio cues are combined to convey the glass visuals / announcements and setting the city mood. The Story. A traveler contacts the concierge at the hotel for information regarding local stores, regional experiences and local souvenirs. He is offered to do a tour with 'City Buddy Bob', a glass interface guiding through the city. As he proceeds, he learns about history and small business retailers of his interest. He enters a recommended shop and the owner recognises the 'City Buddy Bob' device. The device - now taken off - works as an ice breaker to encourage conversation and share experiences about the project, which led to better business for the small shop in its hidden location. A purchase is made. By confirming recommendations the device made earlier, the shop owner enhances the credibility of 'City Buddy Bob'. The participant is now fond of the device, stating it to be useful to re-experience known cities as well.
Our reflection. We have learned about the potential that exists in the flow presented by 'design thinking'. The process has taught us about exploring a theme and then bringing what we have learned back into focus and making it useable once more. Additionally, we discovered that we can use contained time limits to further our processes. This has allowed us to better identify the situation and decide what needs to be done, faster. We've also learned about how the spirit of the team is valuable and the way having a team allows for more possibilities in the design experience. Additionally we have learned that Mauro is 2m tall in the morning but compresses to approximately 1m 97cm by lunch.
The Team.
Alexandra Agafonova | alex_aga@kisd.de Anne Hegge | anne.hegge@kisd.de Daniel Quast | quastd@gmail.com Flora Coletta Ines Karger | flora.colett@gmail.com Patrick Zebolon Griffin | zebgriffin@gmail.com