Introduction

We are students at Carnegie Mellon University taking a class in physical computing, a project-based course in which we learn the basic skills in programming and electronics to build simple interactive devices.  Throughout this course and each project, we have been challenged to raise the bar and use our newfound knowledge to create fun, interactive, and creative devices.  Our current and final project challenges us to make a device that would benefit not ourselves but someone else.  We were assigned to meet with Joseph, an older gentlemen from the Pittsburgh community, and to create a device that would somehow benefit his life.  The device doesn’t need to be anything grand or hold commercial value,  it is simply specifically designed to help out Joseph by solving a troublesome aspect of his life.  Our group, the Dog-Loving Duo, consisting of Kristie, Logan, and Chirag (who came along to help out Logan and me because of his design expertise) met with Joseph at his apartment in downtown Pittsburgh on Friday, March 30.   There, we talked about our lives and what types of technology we could build.

Meeting with Joseph in his beautiful apartment

Agenda

Before the meeting, we met on Thursday to plan for the meeting and divide up roles to make the meeting run smooth.  Logan was assigned as our picture taker, Kristie was the talker, and Chirag was the note taker.

Initial Plan for meeting:

Introduction:

• Start off with each member introducing themselves (names, majors, interests)
• Explain the purpose of the project and what we hope to accomplish this meeting
• Ask for permission to take photos during meeting

Interview

• Start by learning more about Joseph’s life in general, using probing questions like “why is this important to you?”
• Place the three print outs of our purpose next to him, so he is unconsciously thinking about them during the meeting (see picture below)
• Ask him about any difficulties he faces
• Don’t start by showing previous designs so as to not limit the creative process and only use if needed
• Use print outs of different areas in life if there is difficulty thinking of new ideas (see picture below)
• Ask Joseph to walk us through an average day
• Ask about his experience with technology and what he thinks of it
• Use knowledge we gained from a simple Google search on Joseph (learned he used to paint) to bring up new talking points

Conclusion

• Exchange contact information
• Thank him for his time and allowing us to visit his home
• Re go over timeline

Placed these ideas next to him to keep the meeting focused and unconsciously get him thinking about these ideas and as reminders in case he forgot

Ideas for different areas of his life we could improve

Meeting Summary

During this meeting we learned a lot about Joseph’s life and identified several areas where we could create devices to help.  Joseph is retired from sales and marketing and used to work for Gatorade from the time the company first started.  We learned that Joseph is a dog owner, avid reader, and enjoys going on walks with his wife.  He is also a vegan and has a fascination with technology and learning new things as he enjoys taking classes through Carnegie Mellon’s Osher program and at UPitt.

We came up with a few different ideas based on problems Joseph brought up and his various interests.  After discussing practicality, we narrowed it down to three ideas, but haven’t decided which of the three to use and the specifics of each idea yet.

Ideas for Projects:

1.) Staying awake in class:

While we were talking, Joseph mentioned that it’s sometimes difficult for him to stay awake during the classes he takes.  He also mentioned that when the previous group who is working with his wife came to visit, they showed him someone’s device for staying awake and he really liked it.  Ironically, this device was created by our group member, Kristie.  Therefore, our first idea is to expand on this device by making it wireless, more compact, and try out new ideas other than a motion sensor attached to a pencil to detect if someone is awake or not.

2.) Inventory Checker (Figuring out what he already has and still needs in his cabinets or refrigerator):

Cabinet in his house

Refrigerator in his house

Joseph mentioned that it’s difficult to remember what he already has in his cabinets/refrigerator and hard to find food in them.  This causes him and his wife to buy more food than they need since they didn’t realize they had the food already because it  was hidden in their cabinets or refrigerator.  Therefore, we discussed potentially creating a device outside of his cabinet that could keep track of what is currently in his cabinets or refrigerator and what shelf it’s on.  We also thought it would be convenient if the device could beep or light up when he runs out of something so he knows.

3.) Book Reminder:

Book Shelf in his apartment

Joseph mentioned that he enjoys reading books, but it is sometimes difficult to remember where he left off, especially since he is usually reading more than one book at a time for his various book clubs.  Therefore, we discussed creating a device that could keep track of where he was in each of his books.

Final Thoughts

We think the meeting went very smoothly.  We didn’t quite follow the agenda we created as our meeting was a lot more like a regular conversation and just flowed naturally.  We did get derailed a bit, but Chirag always helped bringing the group back on track. Joseph was very easy to talk to and his dog was adorable (hence the group name).  Also, him and his wife were very friendly making us snacks and offering tea.  The snacks were very  delicious and it was sweet of them to make them for us!  The only difficulty was the fact that his wife was there as the meeting was supposed to be with just Joseph.  We felt awkward suggesting she leave and felt it was unavoidable since they’re a couple.  His wife was very nice though and only talked about her husband, so we still mostly stayed on track despite her being there.  We were quite surprised by Joseph’s love of technology as he uses Alexa, orders groceries online, and enjoys using photoshop.  His interest in technology made the meeting run a lot smoother as did the fact that him and his wife met with the previous group already and therefore, knew what the project was about, so we didn’t need to explain it for too long and could just jump straight into talking about problems. Overall, our meeting went well and we wish we had more time to talk to Joseph as it was a lot of fun and we could have fleshed out our ideas a bit more.