Tangible Interactive Product Development Term Project Case Study

Hello!

My name is Kylie Yarwood, I'm a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student, earning my BS in Graphic Communication with a concentration in Graphic Communication Management.

This site hosts my term project from Graphic Communication's Tangible Interactive Product Development course.

Throughout this quarter, I experimented with Arduino boards and coding, various sensors and wiring, and an array of actuatuors to explore the limits that tangible printed electronics can be brought to.

After a quarter of experimentation, Malia and I were challenged to create a concept for a tangible product to bring brand awareness through interactions using one sensor and two actuators.

With the holidays coming up, and a New York City trip for New Year's Eve planned for myself, we decided to focus our attention to innovating a product experience for customers who receive their NYE ball drop tickets for Times Square. In order to do so, we needed to do market research, form some various ideas, get feedback from our peers, and design and implement the product idea.

This project required an understanding of Arduino boards and how to use to connected software to get the code to run. It also requires an understanding of circuitry in order to avoid shorting the circuit and getting all the various sensors and actuators to run accordingly.

I hope you enjoy scrolling through my process of product development for our innovation New Year's Eve tickets.

Idea Generation

We began this process by brainstorming a variety of different ideas and applications that we could use our tangible electronics for. Our ideas spanned across many different markets and target audiences.

Idea #1- Interactive NYE Ball Drop Ticket Box

Create an exciting ticket purchasing experience for users
Features could include spinning disco ball, lights, or music to get the audience excited about the event

Idea #3- Drink coupon included in Coachella ticket

While Coachella is known for their fun an interactive boxes, this could be a fun way to get users excited and add an electronic element
Features could include a spinning wheel to reveal discount

Idea #2- Christmas Tree purchasing coupon

For a brand that sells Christmas trees, the company could send an interactive coupon that features a little cord to plugin and light up the tree
Coupon would be to encourage customers to purchase the lights, in addition to the tree

Idea #4- Nars Light Radiating Foundation

Create a play on the name "Light Radiating"
Features could include an interactive tutorial and lights that light up on the foundation bottle

We decided that of the ideas that we came up with, the interactive packaging when opening up tickets to see the New Years Eve ball drop would be most entertaining and feasible. People love to share to social media when they get a cool product, and this interactive product would allow to users to market the event by sharing the excitement of the tickets.

Market Research

For a company hoping to maximize ticket sales, creating an exciting and interactive experience that users want to post about is a great route.

Interactive tickets in the market feature NFC chips that store information, QR codes that link to interactive websites, and sometimes displays that make people want to post about it.

The music festival Coachella is infamous for their elaborate tickets, featuring interactive puzzles, stickers, maps, and buildable displays. While Coachella is not a direct competitor for New Years Eve, we took inspiration from their interactive box that the mail each attendee their ticket in. Their box is packed with fun games and trinkets, there is no electronic element to it.

Image sourced from: https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/2019/04/12/coachella-valley-music-and-arts-festival-passes-sale-bargain/3447202002/

Our idea is to create an interactive box that nests the tickets and a surprise electronic element inside. We believe that virtual tickets are decreasing the desire for consumers to want to go to events, and elevating the experience of receiving tickets will create more of a buzz and excitement about the event, generating more revenue for the New Years Eve ball drop.

Design Process

In order to maximize the potential of our product, we researched the demographics of people who would likely attend a Ball Drop event, and also who would benefit and enjoy the surprise electronic element being added to the tickets. We created two personas:

Problem Statement:

Currently, users are uninspired to purchase tickets for the NYE ball drop event, and often opt to simply watch the ball drop on their televisions. Existing ticket distribution methods lack interactivity. This process does not capitalize on the anticipation and excitement that surrounds the event, and it fails to provide users with a memorable experience.

Concept Development

With our personas established, we started to have a clear understanding of a product that would generate excitement and revenue. We sketched out three various ways to use actuators to create our product.

After talking to other students, we received valuable peer feedback which we used to make a decision and move forward:

“I think the ball drop is more fun, as it is something to look at, music may be scary? “

"The noise would be annoying, would make me not want to open it"

"More impending doom, might be nerve racking"

Taking their feedback into account, we decided to move forward with using a motor to make the disco ball shake, as the countdown seemed to be a negative turn off.

Low Fidelity Prototyping

Tinkercad

Tinkercad is a free web app for 3D design, electronics, and coding. We struggled to understand how to use the software for a bit, but we finally got the hang of it. We did not have a breadboard in our Tinkercad simulation, because the functions we were asking it to do did not need one. That being said, we later realized that in order for the tangible wiring to work, a breadboard is extremely necessary. The wiring we used on Tinkercad was much less technical here than when we actually put everything together. We did end up adjusted the wiring and actuators that we used when we got to lab and began the high fidelity prototyping.

Part of our struggles in the Low Fidelity prototyping stage were that we were not able to be in lab for the week when this stage took place. Therefore, we actually did not spend much time perfecting our product in this stage, and relied heavily on high fidelity prototyping in the following week's lab.

We were able to identify one key element that we knew we were going to use moving into Mi-Fidelity Prototyping: a photosensor to trigger the actuators when the box opens.

Mid Fidelity Prototyping

Moving into the Mid Fidelity Prototyping stage, we had minimal reference points to springboard off of due to our struggles with Tinkercad. That being said, using our knowledge of Arduino boards and wiring that we have gained over the quarter, we were able to break the prototyping up into three stages: the music code, the motor code, and the sensor code.

Our first problem that we encountered began with the cord and board not being recognized on our laptop. We switched out the cords for a new one, and were pleasantly surprised when we realized that the issue was not our error, but simply a faulty cord.

We wanted to make sure that all three parts of our code worked individually first, and then we combined all three at the end. First step was the music. We had ChatGPT generate the code for a song for us. We did have to manually adjust the buzzer pin to be 8 in order to work with our breadboard. Once we set up the wiring, (and overcame the cord issue), we tested our music and were pleasantly surprised to find that the buzzer played the tune!

Next, we outsourced to find a sample code to make the motor spin. We created a new sketch and ran just the motor code on its own, as we knew that the buzzer code worked, and wanted to test the motor on its own before combining the two.

(Motor code source: https://docs.arduino.cc/tutorials/motor-shield-rev3/msr3-controlling-dc-motor)

(Sensor code source: https://arduinogetstarted.com/tutorials/arduino-light-sensor)

Now that we had both actuators working on their own, it was time to add the sensor. We were also able to find a tutorial for the sensor, and followed the attached diagram. At this point, however, we realized that the sensor and the motor both required the use of the same pins. Combining the code together at this stage required some rewiring. We were actually able to consolidate the amount of wires that we used by understanding basic breadboard logistics and understanding where different wires connect underneath.

Test Run

With the wiring consolidated, it was time to import all the code into one, and run the test. The attached code is finalized:

Reflecting on Mid Fidelity Prototyping

Considering we had minimal low fidelity prototyping, and our concept changed slightly moving into this stage, I actually think that this stage went really well. While we did encounter some nerves with our cord being faulty, we were able to smoothly run 3 separte codes, and then combine and consolidate them into an working prototype. My only wish is that we were able to get the music and the motor to run at the same time, but that was a software limitation. Malia and I function better in a tangible setting, so having the pieces all in front of us like a puzzle was easier for us to prototype than a digital mockup.

High Fidelity Prototyping

Now that all the elements are performing as expected, it is now time to put all the pieces together. We created an eye-catching design for the box and ticket to enhance the user experience even more. For this level of prototyping, we brought in a shallow cardboard box to store the wiring and the ticket in. We also used paper to attach the design to the box.

One thing that we had to keep in mind during this stage was how to conceal all the wiring underneath, with the necessary parts being visible on top.

Putting it all together

We created and orange stand by folding the sides down so that it could stand just above the wiring. We had to use tape to keep the wiring flat underneath, which you can see in the mid fidelity prototyping stage.

We had to cut a hole in the backside of the box for the cord to attach to the breadboard from the computer. We also cut a hole for the motor to peer out of the top, and then attached the disco ball to the motor with tape.

When we ran the first test, nothing happened. What we failed to realize was that the photosensor was also trapped under the orange stand! We unfortunately did not account or design for the photosensor, and had to cut a hole into our design. That was a bummer for design purposes, and we would have designed differently if we were to do this project again.

Design for Manufacturability

In order to bring our idea to life for mass production, some adjustments would need to be made:

Instead of taping printed paper onto a cardboard box, the design of the box would need to be printed directly onto the box substrate
The material for the orange stand would need to be significantly stronger than the paper we used, in order to prevent damage during shipping
An ardunio board is not a feasible option for mass production
- - - Instead, design a custom printed circuit board (PCB) to integrate the components
    - This reduces size, increases reliability, and lowers production costs
The light sensor would need to somehow be hidden or incorporated into the design, possibly moved to the side of the box so it peaks out, but is not in the middle of it
The buzzer would need to be much more loud and clear
The final design will honestly look the same, just with the sensor hidden and the design printed directly onto the substrate!

Final Reflection

This term project was an opportuntity for me to grow and challenge my skills that I had gained throughout the entire quarter. I learned to break up elements into smaller chunks, be patient, and take things one step at a time. It is easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of wires and code elements that go into something like this. But taking it step by step and identifying the key components make it much simpler. It truly is like a puzzle!

By breaking the project up into parts, I was able to understand project management. It was easy to identify what step of the project needed improvements because it was all simplified into chunks. I also learned how to work together with a teammate, and as the professor for work when necessary. I also really enjoyed that the use of AI was allowed, as it broadened my perspective on AI. AI is not something to be feared, but should be used as a tool to push the boundaries of projects and innovation.

In conclusion, I surprised myself this quarter. I was nervous for the unknowns of this class, as the skills seemed so far fetched from something I was capable of. I am grateful for this class and the skills I am taking away from it. Please enjoy the final tangible product innovation below :)

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