PX Motion
Enhance your communication & workflow in remote collaborations.
The goal of this strategic design course was to create a future vision for Logitech and provide a solution that enhances the quality of communication among colleagues in remote collaborations.
Project Info
Strategic Design Course
10 Weeks Execution Time
Umeå Institute of Design
In collaboration with:
Team / Role
Anna Gebala - Product Design
Jakob Jensen - Product Design
Ethnographic Research, Ideation, Concept Development, User Testing, CAD Modelling, Prototyping, Storytelling, Video Production
Tools
Interviews, User Shadowing, Sacrificial Concepts, Mockups, Wizard of Oz, Rhino, Model Making, Adobe CC
Learnings
Strategic Design, Team Collaboration and Time Management, Wizard of Oz, Storytelling, Filming & Post Production
Challenge
“ The thoughts expressed by hand motion are often our newest and most advanced ideas about the problem we’re working on.
We can’t yet assimilate them into words, but we can capture them in movement.“
There is a great lack of non-verbal communication in remote collaborations.
Next to the radical increase of remote collaborations, studies show that the lack of human interaction, body language and authenticity in remote collaborations have a negative effect on the quality of communication as well as motivation and eventually health.
Body language represents next to voice tone and spoken words 55% of our communication. That is a big part considering a future of work that will contain a crucial part of remote collaboration.
Future Vision
Sense of belonging.
In the future meetings via Skype, Zoom and Co. will become a major part in the environment of work. We can already notice that offices as we know them get replaced by co-working spaces and home office as well as employees that are working from where ever they are and whenever there is time. As remote collaboration become a daily tool for people being locally disconnected from their colleagues it is important to provide a sense of belonging. Make people feel understood, provide a natural and seamless flow and create a purpose driven experience.
Now
2024
2029
Seamless Experience
Logitech provides a seam-less experience through ergonomic and intuitive products to interact with digital devices creating a pleasant experience.
Sense of Belonging
Logitech will provide a purpose driven and supportive experience where a seamless flow between work & play creates a sense of belonging, that is as simple as a touch.
No Boundaries
Logitech will enable creativity and wellbeing to empower an inclusive remote experience by providing a service for boundary less collaboration.
Smart Pen, Case & Interface
Introducing PX Motion
PX Motion
PX Motion is a portable solution that enhances the quality of communication and allows more intuitive interaction among colleagues. The pen as an input device paired with a digital application captures its users body language and creates an abstract visualisation to improve authentic interaction. Through this added layer of communication remote meetings become more natural, more efficient and connect people in a new way. Next to the tracking of individual gestures it functions as a peripheral with many features to enhance the users way of work.
Concept Video
Interact with distant colleagues through heart, head & hand.
Wherever & whenever.
Because of the physical distance, people that work remotely face many communication problems such as a lack of emotions and characteristics. The pen is currently not only a present device at work and a future equivalent of the mouse, it is also an extension of our behaviour. PX Motion captures the movement related to the users emotions and behavior and functions as an extension of the person. This data is then translated onto an interface that supports and enhances the communication between coworkers. Next to the aim of enhancing communication among colleagues, the smart pen becomes a daily work tool that allows simple and intuitive interaction with other applications. From scribbling an idea to coding software.
Sytem Overview
James chewing on his pen means he contemplates.
Don't worry, he will be right back.
Communicate your non-verbal reactions to colleagues in a remote set up. The smart pen and a dynamic interface allow people to enrich their communication over distance by capturing movements from the user. Since each person expresses their thoughts through body language and gestures in a different way, the system is able to show that and support each participants character in an authentic way. PX Motion aims to transfer your body language from a physical into a digital space in order to provide a more natural experience.
User
People working from remote settings such as home office or co-working spaces.
Hardware
PX Motion functions as an input device that both translates your characteristics and combines sophisticated features regarding daily working tasks.
Software
LogiC connects all participants in a digital meeting space. Each person is represented by an avatar that translates their behavior in an authentic way.
Remote Colleagues
Team members located in different spaces or even countries all collaborating remotely.
Interaction
From toggling your CAD model to letting your colleagues
know that you are present. By using a pen only.
Describing a shape, selecting a view lines of code or simply illustrate your presence. As a physical tool to enhance your communication and workflow in a digital space, PX Motion was designed for easy and intuitive interaction. The user's individual movements are captured by the pen and translated onto the LogiC interface. In that way you can express your personality to locally distant colleagues more naturally and enhance your workflow.
Technical Package
A pen that knows his position in space?
How does he do that?
The working model of Yoro contains eight different electronic components to react properly to the interaction with the user. The core of the system, an Arduino Uno, is connected to a sound board from Adafruit that allows to drive internal speaker and eventually play back the correct sound. Internal LED strips make sure the right amount of light is applied to the right situation when interacting with Yoro. All the interactions in the final model are real and not simulated.
Technical Package Pen
Design
Beneficial.
PX Motion is designed to support people with their tasks on a daily base. The pen and case aim to reflect the current design language of Logitech with all its brand values incorporated. To communicate a feeling of being a working tool the appearance and materials of PX Motion are chosen to invite the user to engage with it. Due to its medium size, the pen fits in almost every hand and is with its case still convenient enough for daily transport.
Development of PX Motion.
Imagining a future vision for and with a global company like Logitech was a great challenge with a lot of learning outcome. Next to short exercises such as common core and a hmw-session our team focused on a human-centred design approach to be able to develop a meaningful experience.
Theme Exploration & Research
Look how Malachy & Paul are using a pen to gesture.
Probably like many other people.
The research phase started with the exploration of the future of agile workspaces and the equipment people will need to increase the quality of their remote collaboration. To get an idea of the experience with products from Logitech we tested their current series of mice, keyboards, speaker and suchlike in our daily surroundings. Through immersive experience, interviews with people who's daily business includes working with locally distant colleagues and the user study of fellow students in different set up, we were able to gather significant insights that helped us defining potential concept directions.
Zoom Meeting with Malachy and Paul from Logitech, simulating a situation of remote collaboration.
Quotes from Research
Design Opportunities
How can we create an agile communication tool that integrates character & emotions in an authentic way to enrich remote collaboration experiences?
Key insights we gathered from our research were the urge to experience 'real' reactions from distant colleagues, to increase efficiency through clear communication and a sense of belonging. The lack of body language result in misunderstandings and misinterpretations due to the missing information. The key insights represent the requirements as well as the design opportunities for the further development of the concept. Focusing on how to enhance communication, show presence and translate behavior of participants in an authentic way led us to the next phase of the process.
Communication
Enhance explanation of content
through the use of body language.
Presence
Make your colleagues know that you are present and create a sense of belonging.
Behavior
Utilise gesture and movement that
mirrors the users characteristics.
Concept Development
Just like a smart pen. Only a little smarter.
After exploring multiply ways of translating non-verbal communication from the physical into the digital we moved on with the concept direction of a pen as the input device for both executions and body language, especially gesture. Pens are used in a lot of different ways. Besides getting inc on paper we use them to point at things, bite on them, spin them in our hands etc. Basically they are extensions of our character and emotions as well as a daily tool to create things. Why not using this device in a new way to fight the lack of human interaction and authenticity in remote collaborations and creating a product that feels natural in its interactions?
Model Making
A lot of mockup pens later.
After freezing concept and design we started making the model of PX Motion. Since it wasn't the goal to built a functioning prototype we were able to spend more time on the appearance of the pen and case. Details of the products were carefully designed within a CAD model which was then 3D printed, painted and assembled. Due to the size and level of details it was challenging to create an appealing first impression. The final model is in original scale and gives a close idea of what the product feels like in your hand.
All mockups that were used to validate concept and form of PX Motion.