Week 9 (15 - 19.03)
This week we finish our work on this project. We got some good feedback on Monday coaching session. We also obtained answers to the questions that were bothering us and we are getting back to work. We planned our week in detail, hoping for the best outcome.
Wednesday, 17.03
Oh, what a day! We met at the uni with a few other groups to cross-test our prototypes and concepts. This was so much fun. This time, we prepared very well for the user testing and we got very decent and detailed results. It turned out, that testers are very hesitant when it comes to the meaning of our plant’s movements - whether it needs water or not. When the plant was launching the alert mode, meaning starting interaction with shaking to show that it urgently needs watering, testers tended to more hear the shaking plant than see it, so this is definitely the thing that requires more research. Last but not least, the short movement while watering, seemed as a clear indication to stop watering and all the testers agreed on this one.
This time, we chose a nicer pot to care about our testers’ experience and we arranged the circumstances properly. I was launching proper plant’s movements on my computer, using the interface with buttons, that Sanna created just for user testing. As previously, we connected everything using Johnny Five and Arduino.
Just for fun, we also managed to use our handtrack.js API exactly as the last time, except this time, we connected a portable computer camera and placed it on the rim of the pot. This solution allowed to track hand movements of anyone who comes up to the plant and also created a nicer and more efficient experience prototyping possibilities.
Friday, 19.03
Today we were recording videos for our final presentation. Our inspiration was the video prototype we did before, except we instead of fishing lines, we used our Arduino/Johnny Five prototype and decided to divide our concept and create a single video for each aspect of it:
Person starting an interaction
To check on how the plant is doing, the person starts the interaction by waving their hand.
Plant replying
As a feedback, a plant shows its state regarding its water needs, using two different optional movements.
Feedback when watering
While a user is watering a plant, it will make a short shaking motion to show that it has gotten enough water.
Plant starting an interaction
The plant starts an interaction by moving itself to alert a user that it urgently needs water.
While me and Patrycja were recording videos, Sanna and Carlo were working on our final presentation. We also had coaching with Johannes and we got some good feedback. We know that we are on the right tracks and we keep it simple: we show how it works, what was the process, what insights we got and what we need to know more about.
Link to final presentation videos.
