Smart Plant for Employee Vitality

About this project

A research to find out how design & technology could help stimulate users of sit-standing-desks to adopt a healthier work style, paired with the design of a product concept and prototype. An innovative project on the intersection of industrial design, digital technology, and psychology.

Project Brief / Challenge

According to research organisation TNO (2016) the Dutch working population spents on average 7 hours of their work time sitting, each day. Long consecutive time spent sitting (a sedentary lifestyle) causes a significant contribution to common health issues. Desks with the possibility to switch between sitting and standing, like the ‘Ahrend Balance’, offer a solution. Frequently changing between sitting and standing behind the desk increases brain activity, concentration, creativity, and an overall healthier feeling and higher vitality (CBRE, 2017).

However, it turns out that in reality many users of these ‘sit-standing-desks’ yet rarely work while standing. To live up to the promise these desks make, an innovative solution has to be found to stimulate users to stand more and switch frequently.

Project Details

Client	(Royal) Ahrend
Main Stakeholders	Ahrend & concerning company’s: Employees (working behind a sit-standing-desk), Human Resource Department, Management Board, and Facility Manager.
Position	All
Roles	Context Research, Project Scope, Field Research, Literature Research, Value Proposition, Ideation, User Research, Concept Development.
Team	Solo
Period	20 weeks, 5 days a week

Client
(Royal) Ahrend

Main Stakeholders
Ahrend & concerning company’s: Employees (working behind sit-standing-desks), Human Resource Department, Management Board, and Facility Manager.

Position
All

Roles
Context Research, Project Scope, Field Research, Literature Research, Value Proposition, Ideation, Concept Development.

Team
Solo

Period
6 months, 5 days a week

Final Product | concept

Smart Plant

A simple, elegant desk plant to carefully nudge employees to frequently switch between sitting and standing while working.

How it works…
wdwd…

Sensormodule…
wdwd…

Nudging… (short-term succes)
To stimulate frequently switching between sitting and standing. wdwd…

Progress… (long-term engagement) — Proposal, not within scope of project to develop full concept.
wdwd…

Watch the animation video to get a sense of this product in use.

The scheme above is an attempt to visualise the process as clear as possible.
In practice however, it was less linear and full of iterations.

Design Process

Shower Thought

A music entertainment system with which users can discover new music & share the emotional listening experience with others, by sharing songs amongst each other. See images for the externalisation.	Externalising Product Idea
As this project started with a ‘shower thought’, instead of a project brief from a client, I wanted to take the opportunity to turn ‘the normal’ around and take more of an ‘entrepreneurial’ approach: Starting from a (random) potential product idea and investigate if there is a need/desire for – or if extra (unexpected) value can be added by – the imagined product, and if so, develop the idea further.	‘Entrepreneurial’ Approach
I came up with potential places/contexts where this product could be used. Airports seemed an interesting place to investigate, as people here are forced to wait for a long period of time, which is often filled with entertainment. This could be a novel addition.	Potential Context for Use

Externalising Product Idea
A music entertainment system with which users can discover new music & share the emotional listening experience with others, by sharing songs amongst each other.
See images for the externalisation.

‘Entrepreneurial’ Approach
As this project started with a ‘shower thought’, instead of a project brief from a client, I wanted to take the opportunity to turn ‘the normal’ around and take more of an ‘entrepreneurial’ approach:
Starting from a (random) potential product idea and investigate if there is a need/desire for – or if extra (unexpected) value can be added by – the imagined product, and if so, develop the idea further.

Potential Context for Use
I came up with potential places/contexts where this product could be used. Airports seemed an interesting place to investigate, as people here are forced to wait for a long period of time, which is often filled with entertainment. This could be a novel addition.

Field Research

Goal: To find out if there is a need for – or if extra (unexpected) value can be added by – a new entertainment service to pass time while waiting for departure at the airport.

During the interviews I asked participants to think back at a trip and in particular about how they spent their time at the airport while waiting for departure.
I printed a floor plan of Schiphol Airport and asked participants to draw their walking route, activities, and the time they spent in areas on the floor plan. These drawings gave me very clear insight in their behaviour and possible needs or where/how extra value could be added to their waiting experience.

Field Research Analysis

I analysed the interview data by using Affinity Diagramming & analysed and mapped the drawings participants made by creating one collective Journey Map.

I discovered that people who travel alone or those who have a delayed flight, have a big chunk of time in which they could be interested in spending this with an entertainment service, as their own items/entertainment doesn’t ‘sustain’ them long enough.

Another interesting finding was that most participants would rather wait together with someone else (familiar) than alone. This offers social value that makes time pass by faster. Being together also gives a comfortable and cozy feeling, as many stated. However, almost all participants would rather not wait together with a stranger, because they feel socially pressured to start a possibly awkward, intrusive, or uncomfortable conversation.

Conclusion
I found great potential to fulfil an actual need/desire and/or add (unexpected) value to the waiting experience at airports, and thus kick-start the development my product idea.

Context Research

Inspiration

A great example of how to technologically establish a connection between users (using IoT) to listen to songs together.

AmpMe (app)

This game inspired me to find a way to enhance the waiting experience of solo travellers in particular: by allowing them to wait together with someone else (a stranger) on the other side of the world, yet without the social pressure of having to talk with him/her.
This could potentially be achieved by adopting the following methods used in Journey: “Anonymous users”, “Non-verbal (emotional) communication”, “Pairing 2 users”, “Focus on the shared emotional experience” (music in this case).

Journey (game)

AmpMe (app)
A great example of how to technologically establish a connection between users (using IoT) to listen to songs together.

Journey (game)
This game inspired me to find a way to enhance the waiting experience of solo travellers in particular: by allowing them to wait together with someone else (a stranger) on the other side of the world, yet without the social pressure of having to talk with him/her.
This could potentially be achieved by adopting the following methods used in Journey: “Anonymous users”, “Non-verbal (emotional) communication”, “Pairing 2 users”, “Focus on the shared emotional experience” (music in this case).

Context Research

Tinkering with IoT

To get a better understanding of the possibilities of (what I can do with) IoT, I started tinkering. I did various small excersises and created little prototypes, that served as partial ‘proofs of principle’ and defined the functionalities needed for my final prototype.

Ideation

A Designed Design Process

With the adopted methods from the game Journey in mind, which are quite unconventional and ask for a focus on emotional experience rather than functional, I decided to create/execute my design process with the following approaches: Embodied Design, Multisensory Design & Calm Technology.
I did extensive literature research on these approaches to make use of their potential value to the fullest. This resulted in a tailored 6-part ideation process (see below), as well as ‘the right’ mindset throughout my process.

Ideation

Preparation

I gathered a lot of tools & materials to tinker and ideate with. This diverse collection helped me to think outside the box and come up with unconvential interactions and communication.

Ideation Part 1: (non-verbal) Communication between Companions

Ideation Part 2: Feeling the Presence/Absence of Companions

Ideation Part 3,4,5: General HCI for Control Panel

Ideation Part 4: HCI for Mode 2: (solo) Browsing ‘Active Channels’ and Listening along with others

Ideation Part 5: HCI for Mode 3: Receiving/Suggesting a Song to initialise Companionship

Ideation

Execution

Part 0:	Defining the right amount of space for the room. Considering: comfort, non-claustraphobic, safety, privacy, etc.
Part 1:	Designing ways to communicate non-verbally between companions.
Part 2:	Designing ways to feel the presence/absence of a companion.
Part 3:	Designing HCI for Mode 1: (solo) listening to own music.
Part 4:	Designing HCI for Mode 2: (solo) browsing ‘active channels’ and listening along with others.
Part 5:	Designing HCI for Mode 3: (companionship) suggesting a song to channel host, the followed pairing process of users, and the interaction flow during companionship
Part 6:	Deciding what to control physically and how.

Concepting

Bringing everything together

Next was a concepting phase in which I tried to find a way to combine all/most ideas and conclusions into one final concept. First with some sketches, followed by 3d modelling.

A small, but comfortable 1-person ‘pod’, with a semi-transparent glass door (for an ideal balance between privacy and safety/comfort), and sound-proof walls. Inside, there is space inside the wall to store baggage (bottom left), soft room lighting, a Hi-Fi soundsystem (integrated in the walls, behind fabric), a comfortable leather seat, and another space inside the wall (middle right) for the control panel, the ‘light’ panel (to communicate with companion), and some space to place small items or to rest an arm.

Prototyping (Companion Mode)

To figure out if my concept would work in reality, I decided to create a prototype of the most important/interesting component of The Music Room: “Companion Mode”. I used the essential electronics needed to resemble the ‘Companion Light’ panel. I set up two ‘locations’, one as the receiving end (lightbulb included) and the other as sender, for prototyping porpuses.
When buttons are turned on one side, the light changes color and intensity on the other side of the world. This is done by using an IoT Communication Protocol & Broker and of course custom coding to make it all work.
The prototype proved to be a succesful Proof of Concept.

Final Concept

This project has been the very start of what might become a real product one day, but for now, I’m to leave it with this.

See details about the Final Concept at the top of this page.