by Annie | Sep 9, 2015 | Education, Game Design, Interaction Design, Product Design, Psychology of Games
Early on in parenthood, I thought I’d somehow magically received the perfect child. He was no picky eater, rather quite the opposite. He was into steak, broccoli, watermelon, pretty much anything we put in front of him. …and then that phase ended. Nowadays, we spend dinnertimes bargaining, pleading, and joyfully cheering when even a single bite makes it down the hatch. Contrast that with the time he spends in front of a mobile device, wholly sucked in and willing to do anything to progress the game or storyline. That’s where new innovations like Yumit come in. Yumit is an interactive dinner tray that reinforces healthy eating habits by converting actual bites into virtual energy. Whether this actually has long term effects on kids’ experience and interaction with food remains to be seen. But more and more, the lines are being blurred between reality and the virtual world, which isn’t always a bad thing. After all, people are often much more engaged when cleaning a virtual room through a game than cleaning their actual room. Why? Because we all crave feedback for our actions, and online worlds often provide that instantaneous feedback to let us know the path toward a desired behavior. As for parenting, I’m on the fence as to whether I’ll try something like Yumit. While it may instantly boost veggie consumption, I’m curious about the lasting effects. But hey, I guess even one broccoli happily ingested is a...
by Annie | Jun 8, 2015 | Design, Product Design
Early on in my design career, I focused diligently on the problems that were assigned to me. A specific market segment had been identified, a specific need had to be met… I was on it, immediately researching the problem and coming up with a variety of potential solutions. But design has taught me to stay young. To look at everything through the mind of a beginner, to question everything, and to forever be curious. I’m a designer by trade, but I’m also a designer at heart. Even when I’m off the clock, I examine everything, always looking for hidden opportunities to use design to improve the world. As Tony Fadell, the guy behind the iPod and the Nest thermostat, puts it, “It’s easy to solve a problem that almost everyone sees. But it’s hard to solve a problem that almost no one sees.” Indeed, the world is full of invisible problems that most people are accustomed to and thus can’t see. As a designer, I have the unique and exciting challenge of finding those hidden issues and designing a better world, one small solution at a...
