"Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again." Project Wearables.
"Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again." ― Henry Ford. Why start with a quote?
This quote sums up my project. I am not going to show you an end product...because I do not have one. But that is part of learning. Making mistakes, regretting things, failing. But when that happens it is important to learn from them and improve.
This project started with a persona, a classmate made this persona, with the randomised group/class. The persona I created was a Steampunk butcher with damaged eyes that slowly make him blind. I first started to do research about steampunk. but it was quite difficult to get ideas since its still broad compared to a farmer or wizard. I started asking ai for ideas and then an idea sparked. AI made a character with the surname bacon. from that word an idea grew. And eventually got the character Chris P. Bacon
The persona I got was a kid from a Weed farm. For this persona we needed to make a Bio that fits the persona.
The next step was to design a wearable for this character to help him. I was pretty keen on the idea for a wearable to help with his sleep insomnia. But before I could think of designs, I first needed to do research about wearables and these designs were the most inspiring.
But here comes my first mistake, I forgot to take pictures of my design and I do not have my sketchbook available. What I learned from this is making sure I have everything saved up for my Behance and making pictures after I made something instead of gathering everything at the end.
I will add my designs as soon as I can, but I am not home right now where my sketchbook is. for now, I will add a quick sketch of my sketch, so you get the idea for my design.
I was quite intimated on the process of making a plushie since I never sewn one and I did not have a (working) sewing machine available. Figured I should just make it from clay since I know how to work with it, and it is easy to shape. To not waste clay, I made a base of paper and wrapped it with foil to make it easier to remove later.
This was my second mistake. Since the clay was so thin and the prototype so big, it could not manage the process of removing the paper and broke. Stumped, and sad since it took me a while to make. But from this I have learned a few things. for starters have I learned that when making something big with clay you should not make the clay thin, or it is going to break like a biscuit. secondly I learned that if I want to make a prototype, I should use something more resembling the texture of your final product otherwise it can be difficult to do research about what people think of the product, you can't really test the comfort of the plushie with a clay sculpture. And lastly, I should keep in mind that when making something, it can always go wrong. I will not try to spend ALL my time again on one thing for when it goes wrong, I can quickly make another, and I shouldn’t panic of be stuck on the fact it broke but go forward and make do with what I have and not lost.
after I "made" the prototype it was time to design an interface. I wanted to make an app with a fresh and clean feel but keep in mind that it is for a child. Inspired by other sleep apps.
I wanted to make an app that shows his sleep. The vest would gather his sleep by gathering data from his heartrate, body heat, and the audio from the room. This data would be processed and show in a graph. This graph would show how deep his sleep was by the hour.
This data would also be used for a medically tailored alarm clock, which can be switched out with your usual alarm clock.
I also wanted the app to control his vest since it is designed to go on a torso while laying down in the dark. If the controls were on the vest, it would be difficult to find them and know which one did what.
So, I wanted to add buttons to let him add background noise like rain and white noise but also sleep music. A button to change the colour and brightness of the nightlight. A button to heat the vest and a button to simulate an animal laying on you by moving a mechanism that replicates breathing, heartbeat, and general pressure.
I also added an FAC button that will show medical advice about sleeping
the first design for the main screen looked like this but I got feedback that it was too small. Forgot the fact that it would be the size of a phone screen and not a computer, so I altered the design. I was also told that the font I chose was to fancy and did not fit in, so I changed that as well. And the general look of my design thanks to the moon looked more like it was made for a wizard and not a farmer so by removing the moon (getting rid of the whimsical feel) and by adding a farm I made it look more for a farmer. And I made my own icons instead of getting them from the internet.
the rest of the interface was not difficult to make. I wanted do make it in XD so it would be easy to see what did what BUT...
but here comes my last mistake. I got sick and did not have the time to finish my interface and add it in XD, so I did my best so visualise what did what thing if it got presses. I learned that making a sort of blueprint to visualise it was easier that I thought, and I quite liked it. I also learned that I should accept that sometimes I must show and incomplete project. You cannot predict your health and you cannot go back in time to change something.
I want to note that I chose to make the medically recommend alarm clock blue to quickly notice that you activated it. If you do happen to accidentally press it, you would not miss your alarm.
Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again. I've learned so much from this project that if I were to do it again, it would be so much better. After each mistake I learned a way to do it better next time. Like that I am going to try to make my Behance while doing the project not after to prevent doing everything last minute. I want to say that this project is the one I learned the most from. though I did not learn a lot about a program (I learned a bit of adobe XD but not a lot) and did not learn a lot about a creative skill. I’ve learned a lot about improving myself as a person and accepting facts like things will break and sometimes you get sick. I know I do not have a lot to show right now but I will promise my next project will show you my improved skills.
-Emi Hiraki. 29-3-2024
