A quick simulation of the product being used in a party like scenario.
SID (Social Interaction Distancing) — An immersive social platform to facilitate interactions between people around the world.
Academic Project
ROLE
User Research, User Interface Design
YEAR
Spring 2020
TEAM
Casey Montz, Julia Engfer, Omzee Pitchford, Porfirio Moreno, Ross Meredith
Understanding
This project evolves around a home-scale connected device and the first-hand experience of living through a world-wide pandemic. Using ourselves as subjects, we were challenged to analyze the world and our lives during Covid-19 and lockdown. We kept an observation diary and highlighted individual struggles we were dealing with during the this time.
Product shown in use via projector (left) and HDMI connection(right)
PROBLEM
The constraints of this project was for us, as designers, to focus on the daily struggles we faced during this lockdown. As a group of extroverts, we came to the realization that the lack of social interaction was affecting us the most. While we turned to available technologies to reduce the void, the experience felt very limited and superficial.
INSIGHT
Each team member was asked to conduct a daily observation of our routine during quarantine. Ross, a designer on the team, threw a virtual party from his living room “This evening I hosted an impromptu dance party on Zoom, which was a blast. A handful of friends popped in by just posting an invite on Instagram. I plan on doing this weekly.” Observations and actions like this led us to design SID.
SOLUTION
SID — A home-scale projector equipped with a camera, controller, and virtual games that will be used as a life-size immersive social platform to facilitate interactions between people around the world.
Design Challenge
How might we ease social isolation for those who crave in-person human interactions?
“Person-to-Person contact helps regulate stress and anxiety”
People copped with the pandemic in indifferent ways, some baked bread, some exercised, some binged shows and most of us spent hours in front of our computers on conference calls. Whether it was for work, school, or talking to family… everyone was using a video-conferencing tool that felt limited and two-dimensional and how do you regulate your stress and anxiety during a pandemic when you can’t see people?
A lockdown diary
The project began with an internal observation of each member of the design team. What was uncovered was that some team members missed going to the gym, others missed the stability of a routine, but as a team, we noticed that we missed going out with friends. By attempting to solve for this, my team and I looked at the daily challenges as an opportunity to solve a problem, rather than fixating on the problem itself.
Ideating
We found out that people were spending more time with their family or contacting them more since the stay at home order. Playing board games, cooking, remote happy-hour, speaking to friends they hadn’t spoken to in a while. Unfortunately this all became old too quick because of the limitations of sitting with your computer or phone and seeing only peoples’ faces, and because most of these interactions were being held in the same platform as remote classes and work meetings. There was no change of scenario or position. It was just more of the same but with different people.
Users Needs
These are the user needs we uncovered from our one-week observation.
Competitive Analysis
The Idea
What if we created a device to facilitate social interactions between friends and family in a way that emulates real-life social gatherings?
Product Design Sketches
Sketches by Casey Montz
3D Model
Modeled by Casey Montz
Modeled by Porfirio Moreno
Physical Model
Created by Casey Montz and Julia Engfer
UI Design Iterations
Initial concept by Porfirio Moreno
3rd iteration by Porfirio Moreno
Second Iteration
Final Iteration by Porfirio Moreno and Gaby Castro
Reflections
The most valuable lesson I learned from this project was the power of positive thinking in such a negative environment. Contributing with a solution rather than feeling stagnated in the current situation helped me stay sane. This was the first time I worked remotely in a team and I know we did our best.
Even after we delivered the project, there were several occasions where I wished SID was a real product, especially during this endless pandemic. I’m looking forward to conducting usability test with SID as we were not able to do so yet.