BeMee

A Multi-sensory Interactive Tool for Remote School

Project Overview

Remote work is becoming more popular especially after coronavirus pandemic. When different forms of collaboration transformed into online experience, such as schools, many in-person interactions are limited under video call platforms. Many issues emerged due to this transformation, including unnatural and inefficient communication and "Zoom Fatigue". In this project, we were asked to design a multi-sensory interactive tools/systems in remote work settings:

How might multi-sensory interactions that go beyond typical inputs improve user experience in remote collaboration?

Context

Multi-sensory Tools in Remote Collaboration
7 weeks
November- December 2020

Team

Alice Chen
Carol Ho
Hongxun Jin
Xuehui Zhang

Roles

Design Research
User Interfaces
Motion Graphics
‍

Course

Studio 1: Designing for Interaction with Dina El-Zanfaly and Kyuha Shim
Fall 2020

Project Outcome

BeMee facilitates self-directed learning for elementary school students through tangible and interactive experience, so that families and instructors can have a balanced remote school life. It consists of multiple cubes and one reader that connects cubes to laptop/tablet.

Schedule Blocks

BeMee cubes help children become independent learners through visualizing their class schedules and homework throughout the day. Each cube's screen uses clear color code to distinguish courses for children.

In-class Facilitation

Integrated with Google Classroom, BeMee provides simple interaction for children to enter online classes, communicate with their teachers, and check class agendas.

Play for Well-being

During break, the clock cube encourages children to leave seats to exercise and stretch through fun little games.

Celebration with Rewards

When students finish their homework for each class on time, the screen will generate a reward video that features their classmates' collective presence. They are able to merge the screen in various ways to form a larger canvas. The videos are different everyday.

Concept Video

Design Process

Exploratory Research

Interviews

To better understand the challenges in remote collaboration under elementary schools' classroom setting, we had conversations with 5 working parents and 1 kid. We asked them questions about their family background, their life changes from remote school, and their opinions on children's education under remote school.

Investigating Technology

We explored different technology from AR, VR to tangible UI to understand the possible technology we could design with. We researched on their applications, constraints and design principles to learn if they are suitable options. We also visualized their possible application in remote collaboration under classroom setting through storyboarding.

Key Insights

How might we
support a balanced remote school life
for families and instructors
by cultivating self-directed learning habits
in 6-10 year olds?

Design Principles

Based on the research insights, we developed the following design principles to generate our ideas.

Ideation

Storyboarding

We ideated a few rounds on the concepts of remote collaboration in elementary schools, including social environment issues, parents involvement, and physical learning. We finalized on the following storyboards to get more feedbacks, and conduct bodystorming to further understand the experience from users' perspectives.

Final Concept

System Diagram

Visual System

Physical Artifact

Form Exploration

The following image shows the ideation process of BeMee's physical component. We decided on the simple cubes because they are more suitable for independent learning. Not only are they not visually dominant to cause distraction, but they also provide simple and playful interaction for children.

After choosing the rough shape, we explored various forms for individual cubes.

Remote Testing

Since this is not a standard device, we need some remote testing on children's hands. However, it's difficult to conduct user testing during the pandemic, so we ask for photos of children's hands holding common objects. Then, we 3D printed cubes in multiple sizes to determine the proper size of the device. We also designed the the light strip along the edges.

Final Form

We finalized on the following form. It offers round edges for more comfortable grab.

Multi-sensory Feedbacks

Interface Design

Motion Clips

Integration with Google Classroom

Reflection

01. Designing for children

Designing for children was challenging in that we as designers need to be mindful on safety, suitable age, and usability of the product. When parents and instructors are involved, the design gets more complicated, because what's good for children's growth and education is not necessarily an enjoyable experience for them. When a feature can potentially causes micromanagement from parents/instructors or overemphasizes on extrinsic motivation, we need to detect the negative outcome, and make appropriate design decisions.

02. Understanding non-standard devices

The device and the UI design of BeMee is not a standard device, so we revised our design multiple times to find the most proper fit. One of the devices we often took as a reference was apple watch due to its similar sizes. To make the interfaces child-friendly, we also took a look at UI for children to learn the general rules, such as Youtube Kids.

03. Rapid Prototyping

Throughout the project, we need to quickly generate ideas and give them forms. We learn to rapidly find reference, build our design upon references, and test the idea in various ways, such as 3D modeling, 3D printing, foam board and even plasticine.