Yihyun Lim

Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you for having me here today. So I’m going to take a step back actually turn the other way and talk more about the design processes. So about how we’ve been doing it at the design lab, observing interfaces, interactions, and also experiences. Not only using bio, like biotech but also with other materials, responsive materials, adaptive materials and so forth. So it’s going to be somewhat different from very science heavy presentations that we’ve been hearing, but more about the methods and processes that we have been thinking about and also adopting in our work. Speaker 1: So this takes through the five steps that you’re all familiar with.

00:40 - Right? About identifying user values, what are the experienced values that we want to embed into designing of our product or an experience. And how can we then evaluate a map, the emerging tech and materials and the things that we want to bring in to enable the experiences. Speaker 1: Of course and then to follow a framing of the ideation process from taking it from seed concept to full developed concepts. And then of course prototyping and iterating throughout the processes so you can really take that idea to a realized, and experience that can be story telled to others. Speaker 1: So one example that I brought today is the work that we’ve been doing with Puma the sportswear company and designing adaptive sportswear experiences.

01:25 - And with that in our three year collaboration, we’ve been looking at within the overall umbrella of adaptive dynamics. How can we create an adaptive to the user and also a dynamic experience with the sportswear? From looking into programmable materials as one, looking at acts settings, you know bio-design also another one of those or pneumatics embedded electronics. So there are different technologies or materials that we’ve been exploring within this overall topic of adaptive dynamics. Speaker 1: And within that was all about designing new experiences that we can really use in our day to day lives. And also of course using our body as an interface.

02:07 - So how can the changes in my body, heat temperature, sweat, eye movement or different ways, how my body is reacting to my sportswear activities and how that can inform the adaptation of your sportswear. Speaker 1: And one of them was to use microorganisms to sense and actuate. And this was a work that we did with Bio Realize a few years ago in creating these four different experiments from thinking about the packaging experience to a tee shirt that responds to your to the environment. All the way to an insole that can react to sweat as well as a shoe that will transform or biodegrade over time based on the temperature level of the heat. And some of these work, especially with the breathing issue that’s been also further developed by Puma.

02:58 - In also with other laboratories and other designers in addition to the design lab team here, to taking the experience further and to think about how can it be shoeable and how it can be manufacturable and how that can really enhance the user experience. Speaker 1: So in this one, in the video that I’m showing here, it’s all been developed post our collaboration with Puma. So it takes the the sweat pattern of her foot. And then you can see that the shoe can create a custom ventilation pattern based on how you sweat. So you may be able to use your sweat pattern as an aesthetic pattern of your foot as well. Speaker 1: And of course, so I’m going to talk a bit more about these five steps. So going into the back end, our internal processes of how we come to these concepts. And the first one is identifying experience values. And within these values we’ve been going a lot into the six categories of value experiences. And from playful engagement to how can you really show identity of the user.

04:08 - So I’m going to go through each one of those and kind of quickly share with you some of the experience, values, value experiences, experiential values. We’ve been using different types of terminology. But so you can bring those into the designing of a new product experience using the novel technology that we’ve been all seeing today. Speaker 1: So one is an adaptability. And of course this is all about customizing the experience of a product to the user’s needs. Making it personalizable. It could be about custom fit, about control and maybe fine tuning your shoes to your needs.

04:42 - And if you’ve seen the Puma bio design project that we did here. So what we’ve been doing with all of these values over the course of our work is to identify inspiring examples, including using ours as an example too. To really look at how is this product, what is the value behind it, what are the kind of key words, what’s a target group, what are the desired experiences and where is it within the product timeline? Is it at the research level, at product launch is there already launched? So we can also kind of map where this technology is in our daily products experiences. Speaker 1: Second is about wellness and safety. And I think this is also an area that’s being highly being explored within the wearable industry too.

05:36 - About how does this support the user through realtime sensing and then giving you the information. Speaker 1: All the way to identity of how you express yourself, aesthetics and then also ethics. Speaker 1: Playful engagement. Can you create an interactive and gamified and fun experience? Speaker 1: Productivity about enhancing the performance of the user. And then maybe it’s also about creating a durable product also. Speaker 1: And lastly, efficiency. So how is it convenient for the user? Can it do also be a multipurpose product as well? Speaker 1: And based on that, these areas we’ve been also looking at the materials and technology. Looking at these three categories.

06:18 - Is it user friendly, the technology that we’re seeing? Can it be shoeable in this case meaning, is it lightweight, can be manufacturable, what’s the response time? And also of course manufacturable. If you take this from the lab to the factories, how can it be adopted within that existing manufacturing processes. Speaker 1: I’m going to skip through quite a bit. So these are some of the technologies that we’ve been looking at. Within framing the ideation it’s also then crossing the values.

06:50 - Can we come up with the new experience value by crossing adaptability with gamified, fun experience and vice versa? Speaker 1: And looking through the all aspects. Right? What does it do? Who is a user? What is it doing for the user? What are they enabling tech? Then how does it work? Is it a stand alone product or can we think about an ecosystem of product experiences with digital, physical, all of that? Speaker 1: And then from the seed concepts, the full experience, it’s really going in depth into each of these levels and identify what’s the level of customization. How much involvement does it require from the user? What is it being triggered? Is it from the physiological response to user’s action? So these are some of the elements that we’ve been thinking about as we take the seed concept ideas into developing a full products. Speaker 1: And then of course mapping these into some more easy to visualize that we can also compare the different concepts together. For example, these are some of the four initial seed concepts that we’ve been looking at that uses hydrogel as an actuator, in this case.

07:54 - And this helped us to look through the criteria of evaluating between feasibility. Is this manufacturable system of performance? Is it easy to use, is it light to wear since it’s designed to enhance the performance of the user. And also what’s the visibility of technology? Since we’re using these novel tech, can this innovation feature be visible to the user? And also the engagement level of the user in activating and using this experience. Speaker 1: So a lot of the work has been going into designing and prototyping these different material prototypes. And the current concept that we’re working on at the moment is with the long distance runner.

08:38 - So within the marathon running, can we think about a face changing shoe that you start with wearing at one moment? And then when you’re at your later 30 or 40 kilometer mark, when you’re hitting the wall, can the shoe help you to really sustain that performance level by changing the cushioning of the mid sole and so forth? Speaker 1: So this is a concept that we’re working on that have been generated from this steps of processes. And yeah, would be helpful to share that with you later when it’s more fully developed. So thank you. .