Time Catcher

This website explains the design process aimed at an international case owner. This project uses an inclusive approach, considering the unique needs of the international participant. It implements various design methodologies which involve the case owner in the design process through methods such as co-design. It's crucial to design responsively, ensuring that our designs are truly reflective of the people that it was designed for, whether they be users, clients, or even friends.

In this project the group was assigned with designing a product for an international participant, specifically a Vietnamese woman living in the Netherlands for over a 10 years. She is working from home as a medical researcher and her interests include tea drinking, bouldering, cooking, and riding scooters and bikes.

During the interview, she mentioned struggling with productivity, often losing track of while doing research. She prefers focused tasks over broader ones, indicating difficulty with responding to general questions. As previously mentioned, the project is based around designing for the international user. When discussing potential challenges related to her international background, such as culture shock or language barriers, the participant expressed she feels at home in the Netherlands due to its opportunities compared to Vietnam and is even learning Dutch.

However, an approach to incorporating her international background into the product is by integrating elements of her culture into the products design. During the interview, she mentioned that this would be a meaningful way to introduce her culture into the product.

Feeling at home doesn't imply abandoning one's cultural background. Incorporating elements of the participant's culture into the product design is a meaningful way to incorporate aspects of her culture into the product.

Phase 1

Phase 1 is about analyzing and exploring the challenge. It began with an interview to understand the participant's needs and preferences. After the interview, research was done about topics that the case owner was interested in and struggled with such as time management, Vietnamese culture, cuisine… This lead to some potential design directions for the object.

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 2 of the the design process involves a collaborative co-design session with the participant in order to understand their needs, preferences and challenges better. This input was used in the ideation process that later resulted into three concepts. The Time Catcher concept was chosen based on evaluation against requirements and the participant's preference. In the second co-design session, the participant's feedback helped refine the final concept's details.

Phase 2

Phase 3

Phase 3 of the product design process was the last step in order to transform the final concept into a prototype. It involves a detailed plan which explains each step on how to create the final product so from concept to prototype.

Phase 3

Solidworks Animation.mp4

Solidworks animation

Video.mov

Prototype animation

The prototype reflects the participant's preferences regarding texture and color. It performs effectively, demonstrating the feasibility of the design concept. By integrating the participant's input, the prototype aligns with their preferences and meets their needs. Above, you can see a comparison between the SolidWorks model of the prototypes animation, as well as an animation of the actual prototype in action.

BROADENING THE CONCEPT:

If this product were to be broaden to other cultures, its goal would be to adapt to the diverse ways people visualize time. This emphasis the importance of recognizing and respecting diverse cultural viewpoints on time management, as having a unique perspective on time is not a negative attribute.

This product is designed for a participant who wants to have a more nurturing and calming approach to managing their time. The main function of the product is to subtly remind the participant to take breaks or stop working without being intrusive. It achieves this by in a visual way, gently nudging the participant to take breaks when working.

However, different cultural backgrounds can have different perspectives of time in terms of time visualization. This product offers this flexibility as the product can be changed to suit the time perspective of other cultures. For instance, cultures that prefer stronger reminders can benefit from additional features such as sound signals or lights being incorporated. Also, the lotus flower and the bamboo can be replaced with cultural flowers/plants of these cultures, such as incorporating Tulips in a version of the product for Dutch people.

Furthermore, a nice detail would be to have sand come from the country or region the end user comes from. For example, the Nepalese version can have Himalayan salt as the substance weighing down the mechanism.