Inertial navigation peripheral/Design phase

The first phase in our project is to look at various design considerations, in order to build a user-friendly, user-desired prototype.

Ideation and idea picking

Notes from this session can be found at Olin university chapter/OLPC peripheral development/90208

Initial characterization

The first questions we have to address are "who are our users?" and "what are our limitations?" Once both have been answered, brainstorming can begin.

Target users

• 10-12 years old
• have access to food, water, housing, and some form of electricity (i.e. XOs can be recharged)
• have either XS or direct internet access

Ideation

We started by describing what qualities an interaction with our creation should have, and then brainstorming ideas (rule #1: there are no bad ideas in phase 1 brainstorming) that would then be narrowed down. Considerations when narrowing the range of ideas include desired interactions, limitations of the XO, and budget/timeline.

What kind of interaction do we want?

• FUN!
• related to livelihood
• does it need to be tethered to the XO?
• encourage interactions between kids (collaborative)
• challenge
• something that can't already be done on an XO

What do we have to work with?

• microphone
• trackpad
• speakers
• input sensors
• USB

Brainstorming

• minesweeper
• compass
• inertial navigation
• pedometer
• karaoke
• music keyboard
• accessibility
• interactive globe
• abacus
• dummy GPS
• flow rate sensor
• weather sensor
• tablet for drawing
• geospatial art
• USB pet
• physical location tamagotchi
• USB furby

Idea refinement

After discussing various ideas and gauging team interest/enthusiasm, we narrowed our options down to three ideas:

• geospatial art
• USB pet
• mesh weather sensing

Final design idea: "geospatial art", the idea of making art on the XO by interacting with the physical world (running around)

User considerations

User values

Creating a set of user values, designer values, and parent/teacher values gives us a lens through which we can evaluate our ideas. It also provides a basis for requirements that will lead to technical specifications.

User values

• friendship
• fun
• exploration
• visible progress
• storytelling
• satisfying curiosity
• freedom/autonomy
• uniqueness
• peer respect

Designer values

• ease of use
• fun (to build)
• encourage collaboration
• functionality
• cheapness
• versatility
• interactions understandable by 5 year olds
• durability
• safety
• encourage physical activity

Parent/teacher values

• "will it keep kids occupied?" - entertainment
• encourage collaboration
• enjoy with kids
• safety
• cost/money
• education

Interaction narrative

Interaction narratives show how a user would interact with a product, highlighting changes that the product would make and clarifying what the design is and why it is compelling.

Requirements

From our user values and practical limitations, we can abstract a set of technical requirements for our project.

• USB connection
  • use for power and data transfer
• rugged production
• production design smaller than 3"x3"x1"
• INS capable of tracking heading and travel in 3D with 75% accuracy
• no sharp edges