Critiquing

With all the changes going on, it was really interesting to use the platform of Zoom to participate in classes for the first time. Using multiple platforms such as Zoom, combined with Watch2gether and Slack was a creative way of watching all the teams concepts and then providing feedback to them, while engaging in class.

Energy Saving Emily appeared to be quite an intriguing concept to a lot of our peers! We received some great feedback from everyone, giving us paths to explore that we previously didn't think about. I compiled all the relevant feedback that was given.

We did find a few comments about how implementing the aspect of discomfort could be deterring to people wanting to interact with it, however our topic is Change Through Discomfort, so that sort of defeated the purpose of our whole idea.

Potential Future Implementation Aspects

Aspects of feedback that have really interested me include implementing an emotional connection between the user and Emily, Emily providing further discomfort by potentially making the water or aircon too cold when using the shower or AC for too long, how Emily responds to several bad habits happening at a time, or the movement of Emily being annoying, whether it be the user having to chase Emily or Emily chasing after the user. A comment that definitely gave us something to think about is having some sort of reward system or end reward once the behaviour has been corrected.

Concerns Going Forward

Reflecting upon these ideas, I would love to explore more around the element of restricting the users access to their energy supply if they are not being energy efficient. I think this is a playful and annoying element that could be applied to the concept. In terms of adding an emotional connection to Emily, ideas that I'm currently thinking surround speech between the user and Emily. I'm unsure how I would implement this though, so further exploration around technologies would be needed. These ideas sound really exciting however I am definitely concerned about finding ways to actually incorporate some of these ideas. I've never really taken on a task like this individually so am hoping that the aspects that I do incorporate into my final concept will be functional and suitable to the project!

Things To Look Forward To

We have luckily gained ourselves a new team member! It will be really interesting to see the ideas and skills that she brings to the table. I'm looking forward to exploring my own skills and thinking about how to get a start on Emily, especially in the situation we are facing when a lockdown could happen at any point in time. It's quite important that I have access to as many resources that are necessary, should anything drastic happen! I'm also intrigued about the paths that my team members decide to take, to see what kind of form they give Emily and what habits they decide to explore. It will definitely be a challenge but is something that I'm getting more excited about as the semester progresses and our idea comes along.