Assignment: Create a nice collection of information that describes the results of your project.
Product Name: Post-it® Dashboard
I very much see this solution as a brand extension for the ubiquitous 3M Post-it® product line. The traditional use of Post-its as essentially a physical short messaging service, while incredibly useful, can be somewhat haphazard. For many use cases, this is not a problem but for users who need some additional structure around the way they use the Post-it tool to communicate, the Dashboard allows them to leverage the familiar tool in a new, more constructive way. While I originally developed this concept as a tool for better and more serendipitous communication, this idea could easily scale for business or educational purposes as well. For these reasons I feel that the combination of the widely recognized Post-it® brand with the very clear and accurate Dashboard descriptor yields a familiar and functional name that all consumers can understand and relate to.
Prototype Enhancements: In an odd twist I discovered that my physical alpha prototype was not too far off the mark for where I needed to be in order to address my identified end user needs. What I did discover was a need to bring the physical data in the virtual world where we increasingly manage our schedules and communications. The enhancement to my alpha prototype in the beta stage was the inclusion of a companion mobile app that would allow users to take pictures of their Dashboard notes and automatically transcribe them for use in calendaring, contacts, and notification functions of their personal smart devices. Using a combination of character recognition technology and some customizations to the Post-it® product itself users will be able to seamlessly meld their physical and virtual worlds so that no message goes unnoticed, no appointment goes unattended, and no task goes unfulfilled.
Dashboard: The Dashboard acts as the repository for everyone’s physical notes, messages, and reminders.
Post-it Smartphone App: Using a downloadable mobile phone app users are able to simply snap a picture of their relevant Dashboard messages which then get digitized and recorded for synchronization within their existing calendaring and messaging applications.
Post-it Digitization: Post-its can be encoded with some faint, prescribed areas for recording information such as an appointment reminder message or a to do note so that the app knows how to categorize the data and which connected platforms to populate the data into. Dates, start times, and duration help to set up calendar appointments and reminder notifications. It will also be possible to parse out names, phone numbers, addresses etc. in order to automatically create contacts and to help with follow up later on.
Prototype Background: I started this project looking to fill some very personal needs around the use of data, or information, to increase familial cohesiveness and as a way of bringing families together in unexpected ways. The key user need grew out of my first hand experience as part of a very busy family where it is often very difficult to know where each family member was, needed to be, or what they needed another family member to know. I started the project in a very technology-centric direction, envisioning a pure mobile app solution, but as I worked through the ideation process I discovered that there needed to be a much more tactile, visible, and “hands on” type of solution to maximize use across all potential use cases.
Next Steps: My family has been using the Dashboard prototype for over a week now and the results have been very encouraging. My children really seem to love the idea and have taken to using the physical prototype to leave all types of messages for everyone else in the family. Some of these messages involve the transmission of data (i.e. I need to be somewhere at this time…) but many of them are of the more serendipitous variety (i.e. Do you want to go to the movies?…) which we all seem to enjoy much, much more. In terms of physical improvements to the prototype I would like to give the board/shelf form factor a more unified and slimmer profile. It comes out from the wall too far right now. Also, I would need to explore how to scale the messaging system for more than 5 people which is currently limited by both real estate and color choice. I would also like to make the name plates more engaging and personal.
Overall Results: Generally I am very happy with the outcome of this project. I feel that the journey was a highly fruitful one with several enlightening detours that led me to a place I had not expected to go in the early stages of the design exploration. I was able to meet the key user needs and develop a prototype for a product that not only addressed the gap I identified but also has the potential to scale beyond its original scope.