Bair

Bair is a physical networked product that helps siblings affected by COVID-19's social distancing measures feel more connected with each other. This was the outcome of our Prototyping Studio course, where we learned about physical prototyping as a means for design. 

Initial Concept

During the beginning of the project, we needed to come up with concepts around helping children rekindle or foster connections in a remote world. With this in mind, we developed over 90 ideas from sketches and rapid prototyping. We concepted around games, interactive messaging systems, collaborative storytelling, and many more themes that drove some of our ideas. As a group we went through our concepts and began to downselect based on feasibility and pure interest in the product itself. With this, we came up with Squeesh.

Squeesh was a small physical messaging system that used gesture-based inputs and voice recording to send and receive messages with other people within a “Squeesh network.” Through lights and real-time interaction, the ball became a semi non-verbal communication tool that children could use. We gained inspiration from cup and string messaging and walkie talkie’s while designing the interaction model behind Squeesh.

We used a WOZ approach to test this concept due to the time and feasibility constraints required to make a functioning physical product. Our goal was to trick our participants into thinking the product worked. To do so, we tested a few of our friends, used remote control bath orbs, and had the cameraman (me) control the interactions and lights as they proceeded to use our prototype and test the product without actually having to make a fully functioning product.

Although this sounds incredibly simple, it worked! We were able to convince our participants (all mechanical engineers, by the way) that our product was real. We even gained some valuable insights as well. Our most significant finding was learning that creating a new form of communication that requires a bit more effort and is different from the text was perceived as a much more personal and caring message than just texting or calling.

Shifting Stakeholders

Introducing Bair

Design Goals

Bair’s Evolution

As a group, we needed to test our concept and see if what we thought on paper could become a reality. We began to build a cardboard prototype of our initial concept of Bair.

We needed a material that could properly diffuse the light. We tried fogged glass, some plastics, and even fiber optic cables. However, most of these materials were either too expensive or didn’t give us the best output. Through this, we landed on glue sticks as our primary materials to showcase and communicate the shift in light and color. Beyond that, we shifted away from a cardboard structure to a white acrylic. This material gave us room to cut and customize to make the product shape we wanted. After a few weeks of laser cutting, sautering, and 3d printing, we came up with a product that worked.

How Bair Functions

Bair works as a two-part physical system that records motion and sound data on one device and sends it to the other sibling paired Bair in the form of various luminance patterns and lightning speeds. This simultaneous visual nudge lets siblings know when someone is on the other side without distracting or comprising their personal space. Let’s say one of you is working at your desk, making a lot of noise. And the other is passively reading a book while sitting next to their respective Bair. The sibling reading the book would soon see various light outputs on their device, signaling their brother or sister is nearby in spirit. These two devices seamlessly connect via Bluetooth to our Bair website, which I will show more in-depth in a little bit.

Bair’s Visual System

Keeping our design goals in mind, I wanted to design a visual system that continued to evoke a sense of calm and peace within the system. Due to the way our product lives, we needed to focus on the simplistic beauty of our designs and make sure that Bair was a non-distracting product in their day-to-day lives. By using calming colors such as purple and blue to evoke trust and a sense of relaxation. Overall the digital system is straightforward. We wanted to focus less on the digital aspect to best showcase the product itself.

Unboxing Bair

Our primary flow for the setup of Bair showcases how the site is used to set up and pair the Bair to the Bair site. Beyond that the flow of the individual who bought the Bair’s and the other sibling who is receiving one is very similar, the only difference being that the sibling who bought the Bair will set up the platform and the “home” for the Bairs to pair to and communicate to each other.

Once Bair has been set up, we wanted to provide the user with the ability to customize their Bair in a simple, yet effective way. Through color customization, triggering various light sequences on your Bair hardware, you can add another layer to this simplistic form of communication. We also added a subtle Poke function, if you want to give your sibling a more direct indication that you’re thinking about them. Lastly, if you want a break from your brother or sister, a Do Not Disturb function kindly “shuts them up.”

Learnings and Challenges

We ran into challenges such as, worrying if our concept is good enough and capturing the essence of what we wanted to get across, we ended up pivoting three different times going from a story box to a gestural ball (squeesh) and finally Bair. We had a steep learning curve when it came to the physical building of the product, no fingers were lost in the process of making Bair… And finally, working in the physical world brings a whole new set of complexities that we had to work through.

I left understanding the benefit of trusting your gut and pivoting when needed. Forcing a solution into a situation that doesn’t work is not what makes good UX. It is seeing opportunities within a broader system and focusing on actionable ways to understand that space and help.

Next Steps

If we had 10 more weeks to experiment and play around with Bair, we’d want to continue to refine and further develop our physical prototype--although its already pretty cute. A large part of the UX process is conducting research and user testing with target audiences, so we’d love to talk with more sibling groups and get their feedback. Bair beautifully preserves this concept of passive communication, but we’d like to discover other lightweight interaction forms and explore the idea of longevity, assuming this product will learn and grow with sibling pairs over time. We were however, able to have conversations with our siblings a bit after the project for some informal feedback and comments.