Process

We began the process by deciding what aspect of life we wanted to explore that requires people to forget something. We found various projects that helped people let go of a significant other after a breakup but there were fewer products that helped people through the process of losing a loved one. It was then we decided to create a digital product that would allow someone to forget and accept the pain of losing a loved one through the act of transformation.

To do this we studied much of Corina Sas' work in which she found that a covert approach to letting go such as sowing, generated feelings of hope [6]. 

Findings from Sas, Whittaker & Zimmerman 

It is this feeling of hope and revival that we want people to feel after the loss of a loved one and so we wanted to find a way to create a device that could incorporate this aspect. 

We searched for various projects that focused on our target area and came up with our initial proposal of making a product that encodes part of the deceased into a seed that is planted into a pod-shaped ecosystem that is completely opaque on the outside. A person then receives said ecosystem along with a controller, and with each interaction, the owner has with the controller, the inner environment grows and is not revealed until a decreased usage of the controller reveals the transformation of the seed into a beautiful plant.

Initial Workflow

After talking through what we wanted the interactions to be for the product we decided to begin exploring how the object would be placed in an environment, what would trigger it, and what components it would consist of. To help us explain these further we drew up a storyboard in which a user would receive a package and assemble the product. 

Initial Storyboard

After receiving input from other stakeholders we realized that including the package in the video would make it harder for people to imagine it in their homes and understand the genuine purpose of it. For that reason, we decided to only show the user planting the seed and showing the connection between the controller and ecosystem. 

Final  Storyboard

Another major change we made at this point was reducing the scope of the project by eliminating some of the functionality, for instance, the seed would no longer have the DNA of the deceased. Additionally, rather than an opaque pod, we realized that opacity could be simulated using fog and having the shape be a box would allow it to be more pleasant to have in the home. 

In terms of the controller, we initially had it in the shape of a cube with many add-ons (i.e. a slider, a push-pin, a zipper) but realized that it would not be as pleasant to hold. For that reason, we came up with the current shape since it allows for a more comfortable experience and lets you fidget with it seamlessly and effortlessly. We also decided to have the user store the controller at the top of the ecosystem itself since it could serve as a ritual of sorts where you have to acknowledge what happened but realize that through time you'll heal and something in your ecosystem will grow and be visible for you once you've come to terms with what occurred.