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- Experience Architect -
Sophisticated Box
This project is aimed to design and build an interactive box that evokes the emotion of Sophistication in the user. It is not about what’s in the box, but about the properties of the box and the experience of opening it. Working in the team of two, we think about the full range of possible engineering elements (mechanisms, material properties, sensors, and affectors) and the range of human senses, routines, and social/cultural influences. Eventually, we chose a manageable combination of these elements to create a strong, coherent sophisticated experience.
The contents of this project are subject to NDA. Images have been blurred to protect confidentiality.
Project type: Interactive product design
2-week course project
My role: Prototyping Lead, Interaction Designer, Mechatronics Designer
Skills: Prototyping, Interaction design, Mechatronics, Lasercutting
Rhino 3D modeling, Arduino
Video introduction of the project. All credited to me.
Adobe PS + PR
To check more details:
MEET THE TEAM
Rita Wang
Physical Experience Design
Social Impact
Bryanna Benicia
Product Design, Consumer Products, Social Impact
Paige Hendersen
Design Engineering, Consulting, Sustainability
Objective
Sophisticated is a hard emotional to explain. It can be displayed under different situations.
Instead of answering the question of how our box can make people to feel sophisticated as a designer's point of view, we stand in users' shoes, to answer the question of What is the user experience?
This box feels graceful , refined, and luxurious!
This box feels graceful , refined, and luxurious!
Opening the box makes me feel luxurious, as there is a slow and simple reveal.
Design Objective
This box brings me to a special exclusive place, where I feel unique and elite!
Someone very elegant and high-class must have sent me this box!
BRAINSTORM
We associated word sophisticated to other words such as elegant, refined, polished, graceful, minimal, enlightened, delicate, unique and so on.
With those emotions bearing in minds, we quickly brainstormed and sketched, starting from its opening mechanism.
KEY INTERACTIVE DESIGN ELEMENTS
To better and more accurate convey sophisticated feelings to users, we combined a series of manageable interactive elements. The idea of contrast in materiality, color, inside & outside and so on overarched our design process.
Design Features
Design Features
Emotional Contribution
Execution
Autonomous Double door + Slow Opening
An autonomous slow double door opening was the main element of our interaction. It is graceful and subtle, builds excitement, extends a luxurious experience while allowing a unique reveal that is grand and classic. It also makes the user feel special as they do not have to physically open the box and the box announces its presence to the user by being autonomous.
To execute this, we had 4 motors aligned at the access of rotation. Two motors were on each side in a pair for each door. A motor house kept each little motor in place on each corner of the box. A link was attached to the side of the door and was pressed onto the motor shaft. Both the link and motor house were 3D printed. All four motors were connected to a DRV8835 dual motor bridge.
Key Opening
Providing only one user with the key to open the box allows them to feel exclusive and special. Very simple opening mechanism to contrast the grand opening that presents itself to the user.
We used a Hall effect sensor that was triggered when it detects the magnetic key. The key had 4 magnets at the bottom. It was important for us that the key opening is intuitive for the user. We had a very eye-catching mirror square that was the exact shape and size of the key and had the design head of the key above the square to both indicate that the key should be pressed in that location.
Soft Exterior & Sleek Interior
The use of contrast between the outside and inside is eye-catching, elegant and refined The use of the mirrors inside creates a refined look and allows the user to look at themselves and embody what it means to be sophisticated.
They are sophisticated.
Black velvet wrapped exterior, laser cut mirrored acrylic and black thin interior.
Lights + sound
Refined look, captivating, engrossing, theatrical. Twinkles as it reflects along the mirror, bringing user refined, enchanting experience.
Programmed neopixel light strip mounted around the interior of mirrored inner walls, intensifies in magnitude as the box slowly opens then pulses/glows then fades. Classical low-tone cello as box is opened and stays until lights fade.
MAKING PROCESS
After confirming the interactive design elements and the materials we would like to use, we started to work individually at first and then worked together to assemble everything together and ran several tests before final presentation.
As the prototyping lead, I cooperated closely with Bryanna, who was the Mechatronics Lead, to figure out how the box needed to be designed to fit all mechatronics parts right in their position and to ensure its functionality. I firstly built up a precise digital model with all parts in place to obtain measurement.
Making Process
I laser cut the materials, attached black velvet clothes on and assembled them together to the base box.
With the mechatronic parts were close to done, we started to put the motors at the bottom in place the tested out whether they can successfully lift the door.
The Challenge we faced: Because of the small motion of the motors we obtained from the professor, it was unable for them to life the doors from entirely closed to entirely open (0 degree to about 180 degrees). We have to manually place the doors in a slightly open position to ensure success.
However, to our surprise, with the doors open and revealing some mirror surface in the middle, our viewers thought it more delicate, as if they were looking at a jewel display box.
Ch
Inside the box and Open & Closed status (mouse on photo):
Closed
Open
FINAL PRODUCT
After conquering the motor problem, we stick the neopixel light strip along the edge at the opening of the box and closed the inside of the box with mirror surfaces. We ran several tests and invited people to experience. Almost everyone could gave out the word closed to sophisticated and even brought up more feelings we didn't expect like curing.
It was a success! : )
Final Design
“You, are the Sophisticated one.”
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