Physical Counter

Overview

This week in Interface Design, we were tasked with creating a physical object that can sit on a desk that allows a user to count up or down (one object that can accomplish both behaviors). The target audience is someone who wants to keep a numeric tally and have a physical reminder of their progress to display for themselves and others on their desk.

Personas

Personas are meant to help with designing a product that can fulfill a large demographics needs. 

Maria
Maria is a 30 year old PR Account Manger working at Havas. She finds her job stressful and sometimes feel as if she is not getting enough water in the day. Some days she feels she cannot make it to 5pm without being completely exhausted and incredibly parched. Maria is constantly overlooking the amount of water she drinks in a day. She is looking for an efficient way to record her water in take while giving her hourly reminders to drink water to get those 104 ounces a day. 

In the process of creating a counter, I decided to create a task web with the needs and influences behind drinking water. After creating needs and goals of what this product should do, I decided brainstorming through sketch iterations.

From games to advent calendars to actual water bottles, I finally decided to create a smart vessel that calculates water intake, reminds the user to drink water and fill up their bottles. Through these interactions, I believe it hits a major goal in Maria's persona: drinking more water in a single day. 

I decided to create features that include:

• a physical representation of how much a user has drank in the vessel itself
• a component that lights up and makes sound feedback when a user has not had a sip of water for 40 min
• a feature that flashes light when a bottle needs to be filled
• a smart time tracker so a user does not get notified for water at night
• smart vessel is equipped to communicate data to a smart device 

Below is a prototype of the smart vessel. I intended to create the water bottle to look smooth and sleek - an accessory for everyday life. It is not only functional but form represents the working professional well. Being able to see physical progress with a simple progress bar helps motivate the user on the intended goal.