Box Project I
(aka The Pillbox)
Created by: Gloria, Kat, Kelly, Elyssa
SUMMARY
The aim for this project was to develop a maker project centred around the redesign/ recreation of the use, design and philosophy of a box. At the beginning my group didn't know where they wanted to start, so all of our ideas were everywhere. Though, one thing we had in common was the humanitarian focus. The idea came when realizing that: within our group, all of us had at least one person within our lives who depended heavily on medication. So with that focus, we delved into the medical field with the idea of recreating the pillbox to be more functional, accessible and user-friendly.
Duration: Oct 9- Nov 6
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Team: 4 people
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Role(s) played:
- Ux researcher, - Interaction designer, - Content strategist, - Project manager
FOR MORE INFO
DESCRIPTION
The prototype itself was made of cardboard, hot glue, tape, and spray paint due to the limits of time and materials. Due to these limitations, the prototype created was a low-fidelity prototype with the aim to accurately express and illustrate the accessibility and functions the pillbox could serve for a user. The pillbox functioned much like an advent calendar, other features the box included are: the ability for it to be wall hangable, doubling as a whiteboard calendar, being connected with a pill tracker app with an in-box and in-app alert function, and modular-detachable pillbox compartments.
After all the brainstorming of where to focus our ideas, each of us went on the web to research if there were similar products to the one we were outputting. There were many to note, though each of the designs had their pros and cons. So with our designer caps on and critiquing skills in hand, we got down to working out the which best aspects to include and iterated on those aspects in order to improve on what those pillboxes lacked.
PROCESS
One of the problems that were encountered when creating the modular compartment function of the pillbox was how the pillboxes would be nested within the main body and how users would be able to detach the compartments and reattach them in a keychain fashion for days where they were on the go. Originally, it was thought best to nest two boxes within each other and then have them fitted into a compartment within the main body of the pillbox. Though due to the challenges of needing exact measurements for manufacturing the prototype, we forgoed the idea in favour of nesting a singular box within a compartment in the main body.
Goals:
- Accessible
- Functional
- Great UX
One of the things that’s been standing out prominently throughout the whole of this project was the fact that despite all of us, within my group, being very flexible with the different roles we could play, each of us had a speciality that we tended to excel in best. This may seem a mundane realization, though for me, it highlighted how important it was to get the right variety of people together in order to cover all the bases needed to excel in a project. Personally, I played a part in researching, ideating, and creating the schematics of the user experience needed in order to fulfil the goals for the pillbox. Though, where I was very idea and research-oriented, one of my team members, Kat, helped to focus the scope of the ideas and helped me with putting together the content for the powerpoint. And while I may have created some of the schematics, two of my other team members, Gloria and Kelly, was very technical and excelled in building the prototype. With these examples, it illustrates how I was lucky since all of us shared equal goals and values and through each of our strengths, it covered for another person’s weakness within the group.