MAYA
Background
Parents often miss capturing precious moments early in their children’s lives. To make matters worse, when they do pull a camera out, it usually disrupts the moment. There are existing tools in the moment-recording market, such as mobile phones, cameras, and even home security systems, but there are no solutions that specifically address this problem for parents. Over the course of our capstone, we have conducted research into this problem and prototyped a solution, which we call “Maya”, through a human-centered process. Maya is a smart, flying, home-camera; her mobility, responsiveness, intelligence, interactivity, and privacy-safeguards make her a great solution to our design question. Our final deliverable is a concept design https://youtu.be/y5jRIN4Vk5M with a user manual for Maya. To make Maya more relatable to users, we hope to create a physical demo of Maya using Internet of Things (IoT) gadgets in the future.
Design Question
Parents often miss capturing special moments early in their child’s life due to various reasons – their hands are occupied with taking care of the child, or the moment is already gone when they finally pull out a camera. To make matters worse, parents risk disrupting the moments just by the action of capturing itself. Although failing to capture special moments is universal to almost everyone, we think this is an especially strong pain point for parents. Unlike older kids or adults, toddlers from 1-3 experience increased mobility and a flurry of developmental milestones. Furthermore, they often won’t stay still or pose for the camera. Therefore, we decided to focus our project on that age-group.
“Q: How can we help parents capture the special moments early in their children’s lives without disrupting the moment?”
Process
1. User interview, Literature review, Brainstorming, Competitive Analysis, Survey, Expert interview, A day in the life
2. Brainstorming, Competitive analysis, User interview, Moodboard, Storyboard
3. Iteration, Digital prototype, Toy prototype, Phone prototype, Interative game
4. Wizard of Oz, Usability testing, Iteration
5. Video production, Poster design, User manual
Concept Selection
Interviews, Literature Review, and Brainstorming
Our initial idea about baby-tracking was raised by one of our team members. To broaden our understanding of our users, we conducted a literature review on the needs of new parents and conducted two interviews with our target users. We also had a brainstorming session where we explored different concepts. All of this resulted in a wide set of options for us to explore further.
Competitive Analysis (Round 1)
We reduced our concept list by voting based on preference, then did a deep dive into each of the four remaining concepts through competitive analysis. It turned out that the market for baby-health data-tracking is very saturated, and what we initially set out to solve had been mostly solved already. Having ruled that option out, we categorized our ideas into 1. Capturing special moments for kids, 2. encouraging kids’ developmental activities, and 3. enjoying fun activities with family.
Survey
After the competitive analysis, we conducted an online survey to investigate the value parents would place in each category. Specifically, we hoped to determine which one most addressed the needs of new parents. The results of the survey revealed that out of the three options, capturing special moments attracted the most interest and that the gap between existing solutions and parents’ expectations was quite large. Therefore, we decided to move forward with that topic.
User Interviews + A Day in the Life
User Interviews
We conducted three one-on-one interviews with parents who have children less than 3 years old. The conversation focused on their habits when it comes to capturing moments of their children.
KEY FINDINGS:
• Audio-only moments were not very attractive to parents when they have the option to take photos or videos
• Parents enjoy videos, either made automatically from a service like Google Photos, or made manually by themselves
• When presented with the concept of Google Clips (a smart camera that auto-recognizes good moments and captures them), parents were interested
• There might be opportunities to record physical prints (hand, foot, hair, etc)
• Different children enjoy different kinds of toys; it’s rare for a child to play with a specific toy all the time, making it difficult to use one toy as a vehicle for moment capture.
• Privacy is a concern if the device is on all the time. But if parents know the data is stored locally, it’s acceptable
A Day in the Life
In order to further build empathy with how parents spend time with their kids, we used “a day in the life” study that documents their interaction. One team member conducted it by observing his family.
KEY FINDINGS:
• Recorded moments were always inferior to the original moment
• Audio clips are not as compelling than visual
• It was impossible for the mom to record many moments because the phone would distract the toddler from the current activity (e.g. reading a book)
• There are times when kids spend time by themselves while parents are occupied with chores and are temporarily away
Brainstorming
Key Features
• Flying camera design
• Moment-capture triggers
• Interactive activities
• Rewards for children
• Voice and gesture interaction
• Specialized stationary cameras (toys, highchairs, cribs)
• Different types of output media
• Miscellaneous recording instruments
Mood Board
At this point, our design concept was becoming more detailed. We wanted to get a feel for our design’s appearance and set the tone for the scenarios. The mood board allowed us to better visualize our solution and established a common understanding among team members. We extracted keywords and descriptions from the interview transcripts that illustrated how our solution might look and feel. We chose pictures that matched these descriptions and put them together on a mood board.
Storyboard
With the tone set by the mood board, we started sketching out the use scenarios for our design. We came up with three main storylines explaining different situations where our solution resolves moment-capturing problems. The storyboards were a powerful tool that greatly helped us develop our design and communicate about our concept.
Prototype
Digital Prototype
From the interviews, we found that parents wanted Maya to be soft and friendly looking. We decided on the cloud shape as Maya’s appearance and came up with four facial reactions for interacting with parents. These facial reactions communicate Maya’s actions to parents. We wanted to test if these facial gestures were useful to parents and how they felt about them.
Physical Prototype
Usability Tests
These tests were conducted using a “Wizard of Oz” method, where one moderator performs as Maya, holding the cloud toy and taking pictures/videos. We teach parents how to use Maya and then give them a scenario where they can try Maya as much as they like. In the end, we ask parents for comments.
Process
We created a protocol that covers the logistics preparation, Maya tutorial, test scenarios and follow-up questions. In the first scenario, we introduce Maya to parents and teach them how to use it, then we observe how they naturally play with their kids for 20 minutes where they may use Maya as they like. In the second scenario, Maya plays games with the kid, with or without help from parents. After that, we show parents the three facial expressions of Maya and ask for feedback. In the end, we have a short interview with parents. Considering the unlikely case where the kid will just not cooperate at all, we also prepared a plan B, where we show parents the prototype and storyboards, ask them to imagine the situation, and give us feedback.
Final Reflection
Technological Limitations
Existing products have proven the technologies needed for most aspects of our design: collision avoidance, AI to capture photographically composed pictures and videos, the ability to lock on to a moving target, and AI for detecting special moments for children. The only aspect that we are concerned about is the noise produced by Maya during flight. We need to do research to determine if we can create a flying device that is quiet enough to blend into the background.
Diary Study with a Functional Prototype
Our Wizard of the Oz prototype had some significant limitations; moderators were present, we only observed the first hour of usage of Maya, and Maya was clearly non-functional. To determine potential issues with our design, we would like to create a functioning prototype that can be left with families as part of a diary study.
Release
After incorporating the findings from the diary study with a functional prototype, we think we will have enough data to refine the design into something that will provide value and delight for parents of toddlers.