BB Bunny
Project Duration
01.08.20 - 30.11.20
Thirteen weeks
Challenge
Course
Social & Mobile Computing
My Role
Interaction Design
Visual Design
According to our research, data analysis, and subsequent user requirements, the biggest problem for long-distance couples is the lack of physical interaction.
Our Solution
Our concept product BB Bunny is a huggable rabbit. Its primary function is to imitate and transmit the partner's embrace experience as a medium to make up for the spatial limitation of the distance and achieve the purpose of promoting their relationship to a certain extent.
Target audience
Our target users are mainly couples in long-distance relationships, such as those across countries and time zones. It can also be couples who live in different cities and can not meet each other very often.
Research
We used interviews, online surveys, statistics and literature reviews to conduct the research.
Insights from interviews
Insights from the literature & statistics
• Create a product that allows for real physical contact between partners
• Reduce the metaphorical and reality of the device
• The product needs to be maximally integrated into the user's daily
communication and life
• Create a product that allows for real physical contact between partners
• Reduce the metaphorical and reality of the device
• The product needs to be maximally integrated into the user's daily
communication and life
• Can provide remote hug for LDR partners
Insights from online surveys
• Create a product that allows for real physical contact
• The product needs to be maximally integrated into the user's daily
communication and life
• Can provide remote hug for LDR partners
• Clothes and toys are more acceptable to users as hugging carriers
Ideation
Cuddle Bear
Hug T-shirt
or
Public places
Private places
or
A/B testing
Results
In private scenarios, hugging shirts and hugging bunnies were equally acceptable.
Results
In public scenes, mainly because of embarrassment and uncontrollability, almost all users prefer hugging bunnies.
So we made the design product a hugging bunny.
Storyboard
Low-fidelity prototype
We imagined in the prototype sketch that two sticks long enough to pass through the arm from the rabbit's back, the tester could control the Angle between the two sticks from the user's back, and judge the size of the hug strength in turn.
Other idea was to put this [bending] strip.
Finally, we hope to use Arduino to achieve the feedback of indicator lights under different operations and put it in the heart of a rabbit, a metaphor for the symbol of lovers' yearning and love for each other.
Observation &
Face-to-face Interviews
Insight
The inner trajectory
Workflow
The final prototype
Two modes
It supports the ability to hug and communicate instantly in different locations.
In the first remote instant messaging mode, users can use a pat on the rabbit's head as an indication to start it. After receiving the prompt, the heart of BB Bunny will light up with red flashing light, indicating that it is waiting to connect with another BB bunny. At this time, the voice input by the partner in advance is played, and the voice content can be anything they want.
When a user's partner receives an instant connection request, a red flashing light will also be on her / his BB Bunny's heart. If the contacted person taps the rabbit on the head, they will be in instant connection. At this point, they can chat in real-time.
It supports the ability for couples to leave messages and record each other's hugs in different places and at different times.
The bunny flashes orange in the heart to indicate that he/she has received a message (both a voice and a hug) from his/her partner, then holding the bunny's head allows him/her to listen to the voice mail from his/her partner, and if the bunny raises his/her arms at the same time, it indicates that a hug from his/her partner has been received at the same time. This barrier across time and space is filled by auditory and simulated physical contact, effectively maintaining and enhancing their bond.
• Receiving and transmitting in device functions is preferably user-controlled
• The hug needs to feel real and synchronized hug intensity
• Feedback is required for user operation
• Addition of voice features
• Has the ability to store hugs or voices