Magdalena Breitinger
PRODUCT DESIGNER
PREPARATION SEMESTER
The project
The final Master project was divided into two different semesters. The first semester was designed to act as a preparation of the final semester and lead a way to the outcome of the project.
Based on the research semester, the project was concerned with the smart home and more specifically the interaction with it.
The initial goal of the project was to design a user interface for the daily interaction with IIP which later got accompanied by haptic feedback as a means to communicate the principles of the smart home system.
The use of haptic feedback was motivated by the new client NXP which also provided electronic parts and knowledge on the topic.
The preparation semester was therefore dedicated to the exploration of haptic feedback and the review of literature to be able to implement the knowledge in the second half of the project.
The outcomes of the process were several explorations of haptic feedback on paper, in a clay model and eventually digitally on a Raspberry Pi. These outcomes were further evaluated in the second semester and improved for the final outcome.
The process
Since the project’s outlines were rather free, the first step in the process was to formulate the goal of the project.
Designing a user interface for the smart home using haptic feedback.
This was done by evaluating mine as well as the client’s expectations of the project. Additionally, literature was reviewed to evaluate the market of haptic feedback and its possibilities for interfaces. The design process was started through several iterations which helped to define the project further. The results were presented within a project proposal which included the space of the project and its value. This proposal also served as a vehicle to communicate the concept to the client.
Following the approval of the project, the research on haptic feedback was continued and the initial planning was further improved. Once this step was taken, the possibilities of haptic feedback and the interface could be explored. This included the building of the clay model and the attempts to incorporate the technology into a functioning prototype.
The work on a digital prototype was a parallel process, starting with the experimentation with a smart speaker which turned out not to be successful. After several expert meetings, also with the client, a prototype was built on the basis of a Bluetooth speaker and transducers which could be used for further investigation.
