Prototype
Loaded, Busy happy, anxious, satisfied unsatisfied then back to satisfied again. These are just a small part of a wide verity of feelings and emotions felt in the group as we reach our due day which is the final presentation at the end of the year MILAB event. During the past weeks we have done some film shooting for our concept movie. Seeing the WEphone at action is always interesting especially in its designate environment a real time family dinner. Shooting a film is never easy but we have found that through the process of filming it we actually discover different aspects we haven’t seen in the projects function and the "role” it’s playing around the table.
“ALL EQUELS IN THE EYES OF THE WEphone”
The WEphone device & app enables a family sharing digital space making sure we won’t forget the people that we care about most. Through the shootings we have found out that it also help gapping the bridges between the generations in a humoristic way. Seeing mom taking a” selfie “ or dad uploading a picture of something funny brings out parts of our parents we never really get to now and vice versa , kids can be who they are and not having to hide their “digital figure”. Sharing with their folks can help building a sincere relationships between kids and their parents as opposed to have a “digital figure” on social networks and a “family figure”.
CS wish list
The CS is still testing some of our future plans such as: small lights around the device, a family puzzle of the pictures they have uploaded and so on. Adding different ways to interact with the device could attribute to the “phone free” dinner and above all build a connection between the family members
IN COCLOUSION
Summing up the process we went through this year without being a little corny is impossible so here are some corny but yet true thoughts and conclusions :
LEARNING – Working on a project such as this from scratch involves a lot of learning. First you need to get to know the people you work with and what they “bring to the table” what are their thoughts and ambitions? What would make a world a better place and even how do they eat their pasta. Getting to know each other is mandatory for an open conversation when formation an idea.
One of the many thing we have learned is how to learn from each other, the computer team learn about psychological theories and the communication team learns about coding.
Learning is the real outcome of the work , we all agree that what we have learned from our mentors through the year we have learned from each other and at the end even the WE phone itself has thought us a lesson.
TESTING – Testing the product is an endless loop and a necessity for progress , the testing NEVER stops! You can always learn more and there is always more to examine. Without testing you’ll never know the real use of your product.
PLANNING – Everything you do Plan before you start !! Through the process we have seen that the more we plan it before the less problems we find during work time. “playing it as you go” is not a good plan in this case and it leads many time to having to it all over again.
LOVE WHAT YOU DO - when we weren’t passionate about some of the ideas we came up with during the year the project went downhill. Nobody wants to hear a bored person telling a boring story.
CHANGE IS GOOD – through the year we changed our concept till we reached WEphone. We had a “vibe mixer” a robot bar man and even an octopus. We weren’t afraid to stop everything and begin aging, changing and formatting until you find the best solution and when you get there test it aging and maybe change it!
THE WEphone group