Memo

project overview

Many Chinese parents have busy work schedules, and therefore, struggled to take care of their kids. Moreover, parents prefer to use school Apps to know their kids' lives instead of asking them personally. These issues alienate the parent-child relationship. I designed an IoT device Memo as a bridge to connect parents and children: they set it up together, leave voices, understand each other's interests and make company plans together.

PARTNER

Individual

TIMELINE

Nov. - Dec. 2021
8 weeks

TOOLS

Figma, Rhino
Arduino, M5Stack
After Effects, Davinci

Living in the same city,
but HARD to accompany

Due to the 996 (a work schedule from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week) working system in China, parents' and children's lives lack intersections. Parents can not fully understand their children's lives. In addition, these parents tend to use more convenient ways, such as campus Apps, to get information about their children. So the children need companionships particularly.

Mismatched Schedule

The mismatched schedule of children and parents reduces their chances of meeting.

Lack of Understand

It is difficult for parents to understand their children from the perspective of children.

Technology Dependent

Parents rely on technology and ignore their personal company.
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So what if children can get company and understand everywhere?

Memo is a voice company IoT device. Parents and children can set it up together and attach it to their favorite items. Whenever children touch these objects, they can hear voice messages from their parents. Also, parents can use Memo App to understand their children's interests and create common communication topics. Accordingly, parents can make a company plan with their children and achieve it together.

THE FULL EXPERIENCE

Design concept video featuring the story of Luna and Jayce, who set Memo together and company each other.

Main product features

Memo

The Memo can be attached to children's favorite items. Tap Memo, children can hear family members' messages.

Memo Mobile APP

Memo mobile app can be used to leave voice messages for children, check children's interests and develop companionship plans together.

Memo

The system features an in-vehicle digital display, a mobile app and a wearable app for a seamless multimodal experience.

Set Memo together

By setting up Memo together to enhance parents' understanding of their children, the Memo mobile App will give a series of prompts to remind parents and children to set Memo on objects that children are interested in.

Accompanying sound

The child tap Memo to listen to the parent's voice whenever and wherever they want. At the same time, Memo's NFC function allows more family members to participate in the company freely.

Understand interests

The Memo acts as a bridge for parents to understand their children’s interests and develop companionship plans.

Plan to play together

Parents and children make a companionship plan together based on the children's interests. When the time is on, both parents and children will receive a reminder on their devices.

01 Investigating problems —

The 996 work system in China has created new “left-behind childrens”

"I usually go to the square at 5 p.m. My mother will bring my child over. So my child and I could talk to each other, and my mother will take the child home to eat and do the homework. And I have to continue to work until midnight."

Recently, due to the popularization of the 996 work system of tech companies, many highly educated employees still have to work long hours and cannot accompany their children's growth. Although these children live in the same city as their parents, there are few opportunities to meet their parents, and many parents are forced to become "weekend parents."
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02 Exploratory research —

Children from 4 to 10 years old need the company and support of parents extraordinarily

The age span of children can be extensive, but I narrowed our research scope to a specific target group to more easily identify specific behaviors, circumstances, and possible opportunities. I chose this target group mainly because:

Children- Psychological and environmental changes cause them to need company.‍

In the critical character formation period, parents’ company is essential.

At this time, the children are experiencing the transition from kindergarten to elementary school.

Parents- Both objectively and subjectively create obstacles to companionship.

At this time, the parents are in the rising period of their careers.

Parents think the children have entered a new stage and don’t need too much company.

02 Exploratory research —

What are the obstacles for these parents to accompany their children?

Children's learning, understanding, and characters are all derived from the imitation of their parents. Therefore, to close the relationship between children and their parents and to empower parents to give children sufficient support is essential. So, what obstacles exist in the relationship between children and their busy parents?

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Are there other reasons that cause the lacking company problem?

Are there frictions between the children and their busy parents?

How do busy parents and their children communicate now?

Are there problems with the existing communication method?

02 Exploratory research —

Finding barriers and potential opportunities

I conducted multi-methodological research to understand the frictions between busy parents and their children, what causes these frictions, the current communication methods' problems to find potential design opportunities.

Literature Review

I reviewed 19 papers and articles related to company, communication and IoT.

User Interview

I interviewed 4 couples and children who are from 4 to 10 years old.

Video Record

I asked for video records of 3 couples and their children's ' daily lives.

Competitor Analysis

I reviewed 5 home and school co-teaching Apps and 3 smart wearable devices for children.

02 Exploratory research —

Lack of participation in children’s daily life is the primary reason

After coding the quantitative data through primary research, I distilled four insights to answer our research question: why obstacles exist in the relationship between children and their busy parents?

Mismatched schedule

The conflict between the children and their parents in their schedules reduces their chances of meeting.

“I often work overtime until 12:30, and drive from Wangjing to my home dozens of kilometers away. When I get home at 1:00, my daughter has already fallen asleep.”

“My biggest wish is to spend a good day with my child without a job”.

Lack of Understanding

It is difficult for parents to understand children from the perspective of children.
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"My mother always asks me: "Did you finish your homework?", "Did you perform well in school?".

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“I built a building block at home, but I can’t tell to my mother.”

Lack of Self-participation

Parents rely on campus apps or grandparents to understand their children.

"Teachers will upload the child's life to the app, and I can know the day the child is at school through the app."
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"We usually ask the grandparents who are with the child at home because they know the child best."

Call without topic

Lack of conversation topics between parents and children on the phone due to lack of context.

"When my mother called me, we always had no topic to talk about."
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"When my mother called me, she always asked about my performance at school."

03 Generative research—

When could parents participate in their children's daily life?

To find times when design might intervene, I asked for video records of 1 couple's day with their child and asked 2 couples about their typical day in interviews. I found that although they would talk to the child on the phone during breaks, I found that they always talked about the schoolwork due to a lack of context.

In addition, I found that both parents and children have their own free time outside of phone time, just out of sync, so using asynchronous communication to build a connection and understanding of each other during the out-of-sync time could be an opportunity.

03 Generative research—

The objects that children contact everyday are opportunities to build connections

In the video record of children's daily lives, I found that their moods generally begin to decline when they get home from school because there are fewer friends at this time.

The child's activity at home is usually playing with toys alone. But after the parent comes home, the child will be delighted to invite the parent to join in the play. Even the same toy, whether or not the parent is involved can have a very different effect on the child's mood

Diversity

Children's daily activities are diverse, and the daily items they touch can represent children's different interests.

Long Duration

Children play with daily items for a long time. So the time is enough to keep them company through items.

Representation

Daily items can carry shared memories with parents and children. They have special meanings for children.

04 Ideation —

Design principles

I developed 5 design principles to consider through concept generation and down-selection.
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Support the company,

to make the two who do not together feel company with each other

Share the world,

to help parents understand their children's daily life

Not automatic,

because the machine can’t replace the parent’s role

Easy and Frictionless,

because my users don’t have much experience in technology products

Voluntary,

because I want to emphasize that both parties take the initiative to record and share

04 Ideation —

Concept Ideation

Guided by my design principles, I generated 48 ideas in the ideation stage. After a round of voting with my classmates and my potential users, I narrowed down to the final 2 concepts: Memo and Finder.

04 Ideation —

Two Directions and Remote Co-Design Session 1

These two prototypes came with the initial step of my desire to facilicate understanding with parents and their children. To help me test with kids and down select to a final idea I refined my concepts and created lo-fi video prototypes.

Concept 1: Memo

Memo is a set of electronic message stickers that can be attached to any object. Parents and other family members can use the stickers to leave messages for their children, make plans to spend time with them and learn about their children's movements, and children can use the watch to listen and respond to family members' messages.

Concept 2: Finder

Finder is a child-friendly magnifying glass that allows children to observe and record objects of interest, while synchronizing to the parent's mobile app to encourage parental involvement in the recording. Finally, the objects recorded by the family will generate a story to be told by the parents.
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+ Children like to leave messages on stickers.
+ Children like the feature that allows their parents' voices to appear in all corners of the home.
- Children already have the electronic watches.

+ Children like to take the Finder with them everywhere and scan things.
- Children feel they don't get feedback from their parents.
- Children want their parents' physical presence more.

04 Ideation —

Selected Direction and concepts

Memo
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This concept aligned the most with my design principles and the form attached to objects can encourage parents to accompany their children at any place and time at home and participate in their children’s daily lives.
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This concept also has the potential to generate a story from the family's day-to-day events and tell to the children when the parents can't go home.

Mismatched schedule

Lack of Understanding

Lack of Self-participation

01.Message each other

The asynchronous communication mode allows parents to leave messages with their children anytime, increasing the topics of communication between them on the phone.

02.Interest Delivery

Parents use the Memo App to see how messages are being listened to by their children and their children's interests, increasing their understanding of their children's daily lives.

03.Companionship Plans

Parents set up a companion program with their children based on their interests, and a reward animation appears on the Memo and App pages after the program is completed.

04 Ideation —

How can parents understand and be with their children through Memo?

I back to research insights and design principles to map my product features to truly reflect my research insights and meet users' needs and design opportunities.
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05 Prototying and testing —

Determining physical form and lighting system of Memo

I conducted the first remote co-design session with children to consider another physical form, including the size, shape, and structure of Memo. Based on the results from children, I developed the lighting system with After Effects.
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Size & Shape

What size and shape is easy for children to grasp and attach to objects?

Digital Model

I designed Memo's shape and internal structure according to size and shape from my research.

Lighting system

I designed diverse lighting effects according to different types of information

05 Prototying and testing —

Exploring the size and form of Memo

Since this is not a standard device, I needed some testing on children's hands. So I asked for photos of children's hands holding common objects. Then I used foam board to simulate multiple sizes and forms to determine the proper size and forms of the device. Finally, I decided on the simple plates because they are grabbale, safe and can be attatched on items.

05 Prototying and testing —

Developing Memo's lighting animation system

I used a motion matrix to help me define how obvious/subtle, high/low frequency each motion state should be. By presenting the matrix of motion clips, I collected several main feedbacks from my cohorts and guest speakers.
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It may not be easy to distinguish each function only through animation.
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The unity of colors will make the animation look more harmonious.

For the realization of Arduino, I should simplify the effect of animation appropriately.
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05 Prototying and testing —

Developing the physical prototype and testing with users

I developed the physical prototype of Memo. And I conducted the Wizard of OZ testing sessions with adults and remote testing sessions with children with Figma to test the usability of Memo. I want to know:

Physical Interaction

What kind of physical interaction metohds (tap, touch, hold, shake) are easy for children to accept?

Information Redundant

Are existing operations such as switching information sources, determining and returning redundant?

Multi-sensory interaction

Do I need to add more sensories (sound, viberation) for users (mainly children) to use Memo?

05 Prototying and testing —

The physical prototype and simulated lighting effect

In order to test the usability of Memo with users, I made a physical prototype with Arduino M5Stack: an RGB LED board, a Touch sensor, a Microphone, and an IoT Processor, as well as a 3D printed shell.

I use RGB HEX of Arduino M5Stack to simulate the preset light interaction effects designed in After Effects and Figma.

Set up

Message

Listen

Celebrate

05 Prototying and testing —

Finding1 & Iteration1: Remove redundant confirmation commands and add voice guidance

In the test, the children were more comfortable with touch than I expected. They could basically use touch, such as Tap once and long press to complete all operations, except for the rotating gesture to view history messages which the children could not use on their own without prompting, but after explanation they said they could learn it quickly

In addition, children can identify directly from the voice who is giving them messages, and they want to hear everyone's messages to them, rather than selecting one kind of message.

Based on the above conclusion, I made changes to the flow of Memo, mainly removing the extra confirmation steps and adding voice prompts during operation
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06 The Final Design —

Luna and Jayce's a typical day with Memo

I created a set of photo storyboards to plan out my video. This process helped me select shooting locations, prepare props, set up shots, and think about how I would transition from one scene to another.

06 The Final Design —

Creating the video

Design concept video featuring the story of Luna and Jayce, who set Memo together and company each other.

07 Reflection —

Project Takeaways

Children are more adaptable to technology products than I thought.

I was worried during prototype testing that a product without a screen would be a big barrier for children to use, but the results were surprising. Touching the screen has now replaced the button format in the eyes of children as the interaction method that fits their mental model

The design should consider the help for the disadvantaged party.

I encountered a conflict between parents' busy schedules and children's need for companionship. I first considered using a machine to replace the parent's role, but that didn't work. What children need is the in-person company of their parents. As a designer, we should try to help vulnerable people instead of always giving in to the limitations of the real situation.