When you have a flat tire and don't know how to fix it, why don't you just ask your handy neighbour for some help? And if you are that handy neighbour why don't you walk out and help your clumsy neighbour? We wanted to develop a system or application that can help them overcome the difficulties in reaching out to eachother.
We interviewed four colleagues on giving and asking for help: why would they and why wouldn't they. We discovered some returning issues that withholds most of the interviewees from both offering and receiving help from strangers: safety issues, the amount of time and effort it could take, the possible awkwardness and a lack of skills.
We created a range of ideas on how to cope with the issues surrounding helping one another and placed them in a morphological chart. Being in a group with colleagues from highly varying backgrounds (computer science, graphic design and a cognitive psychologist) I had to possibility to function as a facilitator of these brainstormsessions. Finding out I really had learned something during my years studying Indutrial Design.
Morphological chart
We tested the concept, the flow and lay out with a LoFi prototype. Working with a LoFi prototype first saves a lot of time and makes it easy to do adjustments on the go,.
In the HiFi prototype we focussed more on the visual language (cheerful and energetic) and on the details of the interactions. We tested this prototype through videorecording.
Usertesting a LoFi prototype
The resulting design provides neighbours with a tool to offer and ask for help. By adding a rating system we wanted to ensure safety but also add a certain gamification element to the concept that would stimulate people to partake actively.
The HiFi prototype
User flow chart
In this project I was the only Industrial Design Engineer which showed me what use this is. Facilitating brainstorms and (for example) not going straight for the first idea is something I've learned there.
What I especially enjoyed within this project is creating something that could help people and make the community they live in a better place.
2 weeks
4 days a week
1 Cognitive psychologist, 1 graphic designer, 1 computer scientist and me
