Design for Ambient Temperature
2021. Zaiqiao Ye, Ruiqi Fang, Sharanya Ravichandran and Shivali Jejurkar. “Design for Better Ambient Temperature Experiences”. Accepted to Proceedings of 9th World Conference on Design Research (IASDR 2021).
Introduction
Nowadays most people still rely on the weather report to access the temperature information. However, the weather report is less useful when people care about the immediate surrounding temperature. Concerning peoples’ wellbeing in terms of ambient temperature, we designed and developed ConnecT, a family-shared mobile application connecting with multiple temperature sensors. It could provide information on two parts: loved ones' surrounding temperature and saved places' environmental information. The target users of our design are homemakers, as they may plan the clothes and meals for a whole family. We believe this design can contribute to smart cities in the future, as the application could provide a platform to share temperature information for public places.
Poster
Brainstorming Session
Conclusions
We design for the ambient temperature problem. We conduct interviews and surveys. Through the interview, we collect a group of cases about people who encounters uncomfortable temperatures. Through the survey, we better understand the user needs on notifications. The final outcome is a working prototype consisting of an application and a set of widgets. We introduce the future implications of the design, which can potentially be part of a smart city and contribute to social justice. We think ConnecT could help people, especially homemakers, plan for better ambient temperature experiences for themselves and their loved ones. It collects temperature information from the Arduino sensors. Then users can get notifications and check in with the temperature change. Users could make a better plan by referring to the places’ information. In the long term, users could know themselves better through the app.