luminaire jar
Beautiful, sentimental, and personalized – the Luminaire Jar redefines how we think about care. Designed for the home, this translucent lamp seeks to improve bonds in familial relationships through recollection of memories related to care. Through the process of recording and transferring messages to a connected lamp, loved ones are able to reflect about care and convey gratitude towards one another.
DURATION
10 weeks, Jan 2019 - Mar 2019
TEAM
Joanne Chen, Ariel Chiang, Jasper Xie, Elyssa Yim
CONTRIBUTION
Research, Ideation, User Flow, Visuals
CONNECTED LAMP
The Luminaire Jar is designed to be used in the context of pairs between parents and their college aged children. Messages are transferred between to further enhance communication and means to convey gratitude.
MEMORY BALL
The Luminaire Jar allows for connection through recording memories that encourage users to cherish moments spent with one another. By squeezing a memory ball, users can record messages up to 60 sec.
CENTRAL CORE
The Luminaire Jar encourages users to take action to implement care in the present. By touching the core of the lamp, the users can listen to messages that their loved ones have sent to them.
LIGHT SOURCE
The Luminaire Jar is a light source and a piece of home decor. The memory balls light up various colors, based on personal preference, and contribute to the lamp’s overall aesthetic appearance.
rendering
low-fidelity prototype & concept video
user manual
design challenge
How might we help parents and college-aged children who live apart convey gratitude for past events to better care for one another in the present?
contextual inquiry
To better understand and gain empathy for our target group, we proceeded in conducting research on both parents and their college aged children through three design methods: semi-structured interviews, personal inventory, and a creative entry. Through these various design methods, we were able to gain insight into the relationship dynamics of how college aged children and their parents show care.
RESEARCH INSIGHTS
Realization of Care
Participants can neglect the care from the caregiver in the present moment. But will often realize and appreciate such acts later in life.
Long Distance Relationships
When participants are farther apart in distance, the relationships between one another tend to be more intimate and intentional.
Everyday Item
Participants appreciate the day-to-day actions and simple objects that fulfill one another’s needs.
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
authentic
everyday Integration
influential
HMW STATEMENT
How might we help parents and college-aged children who live apart convey gratitude for past events to better care for one another in the present?
concept development
To address and design for our How Might We (HMW) statement, we proceeded by generating more than 60 ideas to explore various and potential solutions. Through numerous sketches, we were able to visualize a variety of ideas, from an interactive mirror to a time capsule. After our initial ideation phase, we began to narrow down to three concepts: a pair of connected lamps, a hand warmer, and a clock.
IDEATION AND DOWNSELECTION
We chose to continue developing our connected lamp concept because we liked how this idea bridges the concept of care into something abstract and representational. We combined elements of three concepts from our sketches to form a pair of connected lamps that better fits with our principles.
Care Lamp
Changes the color of your loved one's lamp. Different colors represent different types of care
Jar of Care
Records memories of care into momentos and placed into a clear jar. As time passes, each momento will begin to fade.
Lamp Projector
Projects images, notes, and videos from loved ones before you fall asleep.
participatory design workshop
With a newly refined concept, we began to organize participatory design workshops with two participants, a college-aged student and a middle-aged mother. In hopes to implement the idea of “designing with people”, we conducted various activities to gain insight into our lamp’s form, function, and overall concept flow.
WORKSHOP AND UPDATED CONCEPT
After enacting participatory design workshops with our two participants. We proceeded by updating and refining our overall concept. Instead of completely round, we made our lamp asymmetrical, added editable features, and indication lights to our memory balls.
Asymmetrical Form
Both participants agreed that the lamp would be multifunctional, as a source of light and a piece of decor. Thus, We decided to make our lamp asymmetrical to enhance the aesthetics.
Editable Feature
The process of recording was deemed to be a little stressful for the participant. In order for users to adjust to using the lamp, we made the voice recording balls editable and semi firm texture.