People have been wearing objects since the dawn of civilization, and using tools for even longer than that. Wearables moderate an individuals identity, indicate status, and sometimes also provide practical utility.

How can a wearable provide lasting meaning in a world where we no longer hunt or forage, and in a society where rigid hierarchies have become fluid? Spark is a fresh look at how to create lasting value through the introduction of an extrinsic gesture to a pair of objects that have existed relatively unchanged throughout recorded history.

I developed a user journey (below) using one of the personas which helped to align the stakeholders as well as to inform the direction and features of the app, in it you can see some of the significant milestones in the use of the Spark system.

The Spark app tied together the hardware components of spark to help dog owners build community, stay fit, and ensure the excellent health of their canine companions. The user flow I developed (below) enables this through 3 primary user flows accessible from the home screen, Walk (above left), Social (center), and Metrics (right). Wherever the user is in the Spark app tapping their avatar in the top left takes them back to the home screen.

The primary feature of Spark was taking your dog for a walk and meeting people while you did it. below are the screens for going on one of your favorite walks, the Hot and Discover screens displaying walks popular with other users or new walks by distance.

Spark is all about bringing people together. The Spark Band and Collar work in concert to create communities and enhance users lives through the everyday activity of walking your dog. The spark app works with the bracelet and collar to create a network through hotspots, smart walks, and profiles that can be shared with the spark community if members are looking to meet new people or arrange walks as a group. This functionality (including the screen above) was represented in a series of excellent mockups by Ryan White.

The Collar recognizes when two dogs come into proximity with one another, logging the interaction and location in the app, encouraging friendship and community. A built-in accelerometer allows us to measure a dog's gait and body language, by comparing this information against a baseline we can better ensure the animals health, happiness, and wellbeing.

When people interact through a handshake contacts are exchanged, allowing users to contact one another through the Spark network. All of the photography in the presentation was done by JJ Mah, who also created the fantastic foam mockups you see above.

Making connections through designed interaction, and the every day act of walking your dog.

For this project I had the pleasure of working alongside Cindy Chen, Vivian Lin, JJ Mah, and Ryan White; we began the project by asking what a wearable could do to enhance modern life in a meaningful way. One of the most important elements we identified in modern life is creating connections which strengthen communities and individuals, a support network provides the infrastructure necessary for success and happiness in a fast-moving world. Many of the most successful products available today facilitate this in some way and Facebook is the number one application on smartphones in North America as a result. We reasoned that if we could enhance communication and interaction to create a community through our wearable this would bring lasting meaning to the lives of our users.

Our project was successful because we all had different and complimentary strengths: Vivian Lin provided a wealth of contextual design research to inform and support the direction of the project, JJ Mah had photographic expertise while also providing excellent physical mockups, Cindy Chen provided a wide variety of rapid physical prototypes to test out different forms and materials, and Ryan White brought excellent hand sketching and CAD skills to the table. These talented individuals brought a lot to the table and this allowed me to focus on what I love, the semantics of form and iterating extensively.

We began with mind mapping to define our problem space.

After examining a number of design opportunities as well as the objects and rituals surrounding each, we decided walking your dog was something that a lot of people did, already had a social aspect, and was ripe for enrichment through the integration of some well placed smart objects.

We began exploring forms through hand sketching, iterating possibilities for the hardware supporting the spark system.

When we reached an appropriate level of refinement I began sketching in SolidWorks to evaluate form material and finish through Keyshot.

We eventually settled on this iteration of the bracelet, and did some storyboarding to flesh out a scenario to drive development further.

We did a scenario supported by mockups, and created an interim presentation for our peers to evaluate as a means of informing our design direction.

After the presentation we solidified our direction and functionality which allowed us to finalize the form, eventually we had what became the Spark Band and Collar. I created the final versions in SolidWorks and rendered them in Keyshot.

Thanks for reading!