An individual research project focused on encouraging sustainable behavior through social connection. A patent was filed by Electrolux Professional based on this design.
Individual project
with
Electrolux supervision
“Design a washing machine that encourages sustainable behavior by creating a social connection with the user”
Since this is not a common type of product it was important to understand the impact of a social machine from a cognitive and emotional perspective. And at the same time learn about what makes a machine social. So a literature research was conducted within 3 main topics: human factors, social machines and similar cases.
“Social bonding with machines can increase by facilitating the use of morphologically human features”
“Convey intentionality, meaning that it has to Make the human believe that it has beliefs, desires, and intentions.”
“Negative feedback has more persuasive impact, and when it comes from social agents is less threatening”
The research showed that people create quicker and deeper social connections when they respond to the machine in a loving and nurturing way. So a personality similar to that of a baby or a pet was defined, whose main purpose was for the user to learn about sustainable choices through nurturing the machine.
How might I create a machine that conveys the personality of a puppy/baby by making use of social cues.
How might I use the emotions and intentionality of the machine to encourage sustainable behavior.
The different usage steps were defined and based on the machine's personality different emotions were assigned to encourage specific behaviors.
The first ideation was based on exploring different ways of giving social cues (eyes, mouth, head, body, etc). And on ways of showing the water and energy consumption levels, so they could be perceived as part of the machine’s values. The smile concept was chosen because it felt more integrated with the machine’s personality, and because it helped with having more accurate expressions.
idea 1
idea 2
Different expression styles were explored. Style number 2 was chosen because of the less cartoon eyes and because the eyebrows allowed for more variety of expressions.
style 1
style 2
An important part of the concept was to define accurate expressions. To achieve that, several user tests were conducted. GIFs changing from a neutral expression to the evaluated one were used to provide better context.
Happy expression
Before
After
With the use of different materials, a real size mock-up was made to test the UI elements. Proper adjustments were made mainly on the icons size and placement.
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