project info
Duration
Sept - Dec.2021 (part time)
project type
Independent Passion Project
TOOls
figma, Voiceflow, C4D, Wechat
key words
Creative Concept Design
HCI Dialogue System
UX Research
Overview
Background
Before we get started, Let’s take a look at a new concept “SWoT”related to IoT,
What is Social Web of Things(SWoT) ?
Literature Review
Definition : The “Social Web of Things” = Social Web + Internet of Things.
it’s a social network service for your connected products and services, where they could talk and say what they do or need, follow each other, discuss with each other, collaborate, create events and do things together. (Formo et al., 2012)
In this circumstance, devices are presented as“beings” in social networks. Their interconnections are compared to social relations, their communications are compared to social interactions. (Rau et al., 2015)
A common interface on IoT
(image from Google)
What is Social Web of Things(SWoT) ?
In a word, the Social Web of Things resemble a "circle of friends," in which connected devices can talk, collaborate, and create new things together.
To better understand the Social Web of Things concept, you can watch a video presented by Ericsson.
This video explains the world of SWoT intuitively.
Now previous interpretations about the Social Web of things is that connected products can collaborate, and create new things together so they can be more efficient.
🧐What innovation I made based on SWoT concept in this design?
Different from the previous interpretation, in this design project, I created an emotional interactive products group of "Smart Home Appliances" with the concept of Social web of things. In the home scenario, those appliances are like your friends in social relations, who are in your friends circle. You can chat with “the friends” or give instructions to them about some household, which can really help those people living alone to relieve their pressure from life and have fun with the “friends”.
Source of Inspiration
After I conducted research on interaction with SWoT(Servants, Friends, or Parents? Exploring how interaction style affects users' perception of Social Web of Things agents in home scenario.) ... I found some interesting moments:
when some young workers who live alone communicate with those Social web of Things, they indicated that talking to SWoT smart appliances in this experiment can relieve their fatigue their from office work, making their feel warm and being cared by someone. After the experiement, some of the participants even talked to their friends about the experiment, and said that they loved those friend-like ”smart home appliances” in the experiment.
Figure👆: Some participants' feedbacks after the experiment of interacting with Social web of Things agents in home scenario.
Why would they say that？👆
Lose Happiness and Warmth
Currently, for most young workers who live alone( we called this kind of people as drifters in Beijing/Shanghai*), everytime they go back home, they usually just play their phones from day to night ...😢
(image from google)
*Drifters in Beijing/Shanghai refers to a group of people in China who come to Beijing/Shanghai(Such metropolis) from other parts of the country to make a living without a local household registration.
Generally, they are well-educated young people from other parts of The country who drift in Beijing/Shanghai. The city gives them a job and a rental house. But they don't belong to the city. These people are in a state of drift psychologically, lacking a sense of belonging and security.
Reasons behind this phenomenon
Because they are under a lot of pressure from their work during the day, at night they want to feel like they have time to themselves. They usually play mobile phones, twit, and play games during the night, which couldn’t make them happy, but more tired and lonely.
After playing with their phones, they will go to sleep at midnight and get up the next day for new 996-work(the 996 work schedule, which means Work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m and work six days a week). Also, they couldn’t gain “real communication” and joy at work. Day after day, their life gradually loses happiness and warmth. That is why they said that they loved such chat agents on the Social Web of Things.
🧐So how might we...
build a living environment full of joy and happiness for those living alone, designing daily emotional interaction and efficient life around them ?
final design
After I conducted some research and deep interviews about this group of people(drifters in metropolis), I learned more about them and gained more insights.
I created an emotional interactive products group of "Smart Home Appliances" for them with the concept of Social web of things, establishing a living environment full of joy and happiness for those living alone.
Key Features
1. Communicate with your appliances, like a housekeeper in your home.
Make daily chores fun.
2. Automate some households.
Through voice guidance, Chores are no longer boring!
3. You can start preparing before you go back home!
4. Get a feeling of being accompanied by friends and being taken care by family
5. Spice up your life once in a while 😉
Ideation
——Design Process——
Discover
Desk Research
According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of people living alone may reach 200 million by 2030, and the rate of living alone may exceed 30%
------- Report on the New Age of Living Alone, Published by the Shell Institute in China
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Quantitative Results
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Qualitative Results
Except the quantitative results(data) about people living alone in metropolis, There also some qualitative research about them online. Here are some characteristics of this group I conclude from online research.
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Drifters in Metropolis
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20 -30 years old, graduated from good university, have a decent job in a first-tier city with average income
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Looking at the phone/computer screen for a long time, and no one to take care of them. So they are prone to sleep disorders, with red and bloodshot eyes always.
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Live in a room of 25 square meters, and all their daily life is in this small space
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The only roommate is their pet (but most people don't have one because they don't have time to take care of them)
Data/ figure from: 好奇心大黄鸭. https://www.zhihu.com/question/43500794/answer/130181450
Interview
What do they feel about everyday life?
After the desk research for internet, I interviewed 6 young workers living alone in Beijing, to have a better understand their daily life in home and office. Here are some typical answers about their daily routines.
What do they think about interacting with SWoT in that experiment?
For those younge people living along who had already done my previous experiment. I conducted interviews with them and concluded their feelings on interacting with SWoT applicances in that experiment.
define
Target User Persona
Without doubt, our target user is those working individuals who live alone in metropolis. After interviewing with some of them, I get a user persona from one of my typical target users.
User Journey Map
After analyze users' painpoints and their goals, I orgainzed a user journey map on their daily actions in home, like going back home from work, staying at home, doing housework, leaving home for work, etc.
The journey map helps me to have a sense of the users’ problems, what they want to achieve and the opportunities that we can do to help them.
User Research
Their Core Problems When Staying at Home
Physical and mental fatigue
Get too much pressure from work, all they want to do is lie in bed/sofa after work.
No warmth in home
Because they stay at home alone, without having fun.
Don't want to do any housework
Since doing housework is boring and have no sense of accomplishment
Always feel lonely at home
They are reluctant to proactively socialize with others and don’t have time and energy to keep a pet.
Ideation
what can we do for them?
Build a Sweet & Warm Home for Them ❤️
Imagine a home that includes many Social Web of Things, in which you can talk, chat with your things(appliances in your home) and give instructions to them. They will take care of your daily life like your family and bring you joy like your friends, establishing a lovely living environment with you together
1. Communicate with your appliances, like a housekeeper in your home.
Make daily chores fun.
2. Automate some households.
Through voice guidance, Chores are no longer boring!
3. You can start preparing before you go back home!
4. Get a feeling of being accompanied by friends and being taken care by family
5. Spice up your life once in a while 😉
prototype
Design
Prototype Design: A Dialogue Interaction System
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Character setting of the agents on Social Web of Things
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Conversation Design
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Everyday before you leave work and go home, each appliance starts to "report" their work and ask if you need any service, like washing clothes, recommending dinner, ordering takeaway, handling of raw ingredients for dinner, adjust the room temperature..etc.
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Of course, you can also give instruction to any appliances, or just chat with them. They will render you service patiently.
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Also, Sometimes they will initiate a conversation with you, such as reminding you of good habits.
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VUI Prototyping
I design the dialogue system prototype in Voiceflow to organize the logic of the whole interaction system in this conversation design.
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Test through Wizard of Oz
In the evaluation section, I invited 4 students, who are intern in some big cmpanies and live alone in small apartments, to came in the evacuation. The evacuationt was conducted in Wizard of Oz manner. Participants can chat with those "talking things" on Wechat, to test the dialogues system and function I designed.
Some screenshot picture from evaluation experiment dialogue (performed in Chinese) and user's comment about those "things."
Reflection
This was my first freestyle independent UX project! It was definitely a great experience for me to do anything I want to do for people! The inspiration of this project was from my initial research on interaction with SWoT(Servants, Friends, or Parents? Exploring how interaction style affects users' perception of Social Web of Things agents in home scenario.) ...
During the experience, I was deeply touched when I saw one participant in our user experiment send a late-night tweet, saying, “Although it was with a smart agent, it has been a long time since I last chatted with others wholeheartedly. For a working individual living alone, I am so moved to hear ‘Welcome home’ from these virtual agents. I love this feeling of being accompanied.” It was the first time I sensed how the concepts we proposed in our research could substantially impact an individual. They always have lots of pressure from work and feel lonely at home.
To solve the problem that I found about the isolation and dullness of working people living alone in this research, I further launched this design project. I explored a new model of IoT, equipping everyday home appliances with the ability to “chat.” People troubled by their monotonous and tedious lifestyles can seek company and make friends with the aforementioned intelligent appliances in their homes.
At the same time, this incident made me realize that everyone deals with their own rich emotions, which cannot be easily detected. Since then, I have become increasingly intrigued by human-centered research, to understand each individual’s inner thoughts and behaviors, discovering the essence through the phenomenon, and designing accordingly.
At the end of the testing, I received some interesting comments from the participants (as follows), most of which are praises to the "chat" ability on those Things. I hope to see one day the technology reach that height that bot can understand human's emotions and can have barrier-free & emotional communication with human.
Some interesting comments from the participants