Digital Garden

About The Client

Kano is a computing company for children based in London. From talks with them, it was clear they wanted to branch out into the adult sector. Kano is all about learning and creation over consumption. Even though they are a tech company they want the user to be mindful of how they use their products and feel empowered when using them.

Unpacking The Brief

The brief from Kano was extremely open. They said we could do pretty much whatever we wanted as long as it had well-being at its core. I quite enjoyed this kind of open brief because of the creative freedom it entailed. It also felt like the client was open to some quirky options which I really liked.

key words used by Kano in meetings to describe what they are looking for

Research

To start off my research I tried to define what well-being meant exactly. I researched the meaning of happiness and came up with some key terms to keep in mind while designing that were associated with happiness and well-being.

What makes someone happy?
Happiness:
la: a state of well-being and contentment : JOY
b: a pleasurable or satisfying experience

Sense of well-being, joy, or contentment. When people are successful, or safe, or lucky they feel happiness.

surprise
delight
soothe
warm
connectivity
togetherness
expression
collaboration

For my own personal brief, I was really interested in everyday objects that make us happy. When I think about technology in relation to happiness I don’t think of my phone or laptop I think about other products like my light-up mirror or my kettle. Products that insert technology into small everyday tasks. Keeping that in mind, I mapped products like those through an average day trying to see what is out there. I went through some ideation that revolved around the idea of everyday tasks and moments.

everyday tech mapping

my personal favorite examples of everyday tech

Development

After coming up with several different concepts and meeting with the client, my digital garden concept was the one they were overwhelmingly in favor of. The idea behind digital garden is really simple. Brief = wellness, plants = happiness. There are a ton of studies showing the positive impact plants have on us and how we are genetically predisposed to love them. The initial idea was a plant hologram that sadly wasn't feasible, but I tried!

During development, an obstacle I came across is that all of my shapes were looking blocky and uninteresting. The feedback that I got from my teacher was that the shapes don't reflect nature at all and I agreed.

In order to fix that, when I was thinking about nature and Kano I thought about naturally occuring geometric shapes in nature. Particularly how things fit and stack on top of each other as well as how leaves move. When thinking about the idea of shapes fitting into each other I thought about it on a deeper level and looked into plant stem cells. They ended up being the biggest inspiration behind the shape. I abstracted the form and ended up making a bunch of little shapes trying to find the perfect set that would work best together and give the most options for different results.

User Feedback

I made foam models and gave them to a few people to try them out. I had people play with the shapes and watched how they would interact with them and hear their feedback. The overall feedback was that they can't stop touching them! Everyone really liked the shape and how tactile they were. Some people said that maybe they could be a bit bigger. As for how the actual garden worked, people really liked the idea.

How It Works

The way that Digital Garden works is that you stack the shapes in the way you prefer, and pick a flower to “plant”. You do that by solving a coding challenge. Once you solve the problem the seed will be planted and the plant will grow however it wants within the shape you set for it. It grows along with the solar energy the sun provides like a real plant. Due to the nature of how it will grow no two plants will look the same. When the charge runs out the plant also dies with it, making it a little bit of a misbehaving object, but not before taking a screenshot of itself for you to remember.

why is it right for kano?

Digital Garden is right for Kano because It is educational but also fun. You get to feel like you are growing things yourself as opposed to just looking at a picture of a flower on your screen. Digital Garden nurtures well-being through surprise, fun, and learning.