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Moe combines a visual and conversational user interface with the changing exterior environment to facilitate conversation between parents and kids.
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Simón leverages the spatial arrangement of car seats and the physically confined space of a car through a haptic interface using cooperative play through buttons placed around the surfaces of the car.
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Marty combines haptic and kinetic input, the movement of the car, and cooperative play into a maze-solving game where seats become controllers.
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CASE represents a shift in the automotive industry in coming years that projects a future where cars will be Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric [1]. This promotes a future where the car interior is a space more conducive to the pressure of productivity and the draw of digital entertainment and communication to those outside the vehicle.
The attention economy has affected not only the way we interact with technology, but the way we interact socially [1]. Smart phones promise us a reality in which we never have to be bored, alone, or unproductive. The allure of the mobile phone has deteriorated in-person social interaction leading to what some scholars call the death of conversation [1].
In the past, cars represented freedom. Now, they are seemingly a burden. Younger generations see the burden and responsibility of owning a car outweighing the value of transportation - especially given the prevalence of other easy transportation options, such as Uber or bike-sharing [3], and less and less young people are opting to get their driver's license [2].
As the world shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, a renewed appreciation of the car emerged. In 2020, domestic travel increased as the car was one of the only ways to safely participate in the world. The pandemic, once again, cast cars as symbols of escape, freedom and adventure. The road trip came back as families are looking for safe and easy ways to get away as the risks of the pandemic slowly recede.
CASE
CASE represents a shift in the automotive industry in coming years that projects a future where cars will be Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric [1]. This promotes a future where the car interior is a space more conducive to the pressure of productivity and the draw of digital entertainment and communication to those outside the vehicle.
Attention Economy
The attention economy has affected not only the way we interact with technology, but the way we interact socially [2]. Smart phones promise us a reality in which we never have to be bored, alone, or unproductive. The allure of the mobile phone has deteriorated in-person social interaction leading to what some scholars call the death of conversation [3].
Shift in Perception of the Car
In the past, cars represented freedom. Now, they are seemingly a burden. Younger generations see the burden and responsibility of owning a car outweighing the value of transportation - especially given the prevalence of other easy transportation options, such as Uber or bike-sharing [4], and less and less young people are opting to get their driver's license [5].
COVID-19 Pandemic
As the world shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, a renewed appreciation of the car emerged. In 2020, domestic travel increased as the car was one of the only ways to safely participate in the world [6]. The pandemic, once again, cast cars as symbols of escape, freedom and adventure. The road trip came back as families are looking for safe and easy ways to get away as the risks of the pandemic slowly recede.
A participant during the directed storytelling study, showing us items in his car.
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Sample of artifacts that represented different aspects of the symbolic relationship between a participant's car and her home.
An example of our future-facing storyboards.
People view the car as a utility to transport them from point A to point B, placing value on the destination rather than the journey. This perception overlooks the possible value of time spent in transit. People don’t view the car as a space for joy, connection or reflection. We heard people repeatedly reduce the meaning of the car to a utility that does not provide value other than as a transportation device. This focus on the functional element of the car reduced the perceived value of the time spent in transit.
We heard people describe the time in the car as unintentional, “lost” time that forces them into a space between leisure and productivity. People told us they feel bored in the car. They wish they could use the time better, allowing them to be more productive or allowing them to relax, but the constraints of the car make them feel as though they can do neither.
Attention is a limited resource, one that is increasingly demanded and commoditized in today’s attention economy. The pressures of modern life demand constant consumption, communication, and productivity. However, the unique constraints of the car demand a level of disconnection from the outside world. The act of driving limits the ability to multitask and encourages respite from the world around you, making the world inside the car uniquely designed to facilitate moments of true presence. We saw the car used as a portable private space where people are able to be their true selves, and heard stories about moments where being in the car encouraged mindful reflection.
We repeatedly heard stories about meaningful conversations happening in cars. Stories about break ups, future plans, retirement, coming out, death in family, social pains, exciting life announcements, and many other intimate conversations. The car’s unique qualities and constraints such as limited distractions, perceived separation from the outside world, familiarity, and relaxed informality make it conducive to deep conversations and connection.
We flipped the perceived limitations of being in a car into design opportunities. For example, instead of viewing the confined space as constricting, we reframed it as a space for meaningful conversations.
Confined Space
Small fixed interior car space where walls and ceilings are reachable
Spatial Arrangement
Short rows of forward-facing seats, each rider often has a “designated” seat
Movement (People)
Constrained movement in a seated position
Movement (Car)
Riders subject to the physics of car movement
Exterior Environment
Constantly-changing exterior environment provides unique contextual stimuli
Next, we devised a list of different types of “play dynamics” that we could explore:
Communicative
Play designed to encourage revealing information about oneself in order to get closer to other players
Cooperative
Play where players working together to achieve a common goal
Competitive
Play requires players to work against one another
Co-creative
Play designed to bring players together through collaborative creation
Educational
Play fosters connection through an engaging and informative medium
Finally, we organized ways that users can interact with a digital and physical system into five categories of modality, borrowing from Cheryl Platz’s Design Beyond Devices.
Visual
Stimuli that is interpreted over optical channels
Auditory
The use of music, sound effect or language to communicate meaning
Haptic
The use of pressure, vibration, taps or clicks to communicate meaning
Kinetic
Communication based on movement or orientation in space
Ambient
Inferred meaning driven by environmental or biometric conditions such as temperature, heart rate, lighting, etc.
Once we decided on a game convention, we enacted a scenario as quickly and cheaply as possible. In the example below, watch us simulate a cooperative marble maze game using the movement of the car.
Once we validated a basic concept, we increased the fidelity just enough to bring the idea to life in analog or Wizard of Oz form. After quick testing and some small iterations, we decided whether or not said idea was fit for testing with external participants. Below, see our cooperative, seat-controlled apparatus using foam core, pool noodles, and Legos that we built and internally tested in the course of an afternoon.
To validate our static, early stage prototypes, we created our very own portable car buck (fake car) to meet families where they were, places like parks and playgrounds. The buck gave us enough simulated driving context to get actionable feedback from participants before dedicating resources toward building a particular prototype to high-fidelity and suited for a moving car.
Moe facilitates conversations that promote self-disclosure between parents and kids by leveraging the psychological impact of the confined space of the car with the changing exterior environment through a visual and conversational interface.
Moe builds upon the traditional “I Spy” game that many families are familiar with, and it pushes it further by using contextual data of the exterior environment to generate prompts designed for parents and kids to learn more about each other. For example, crossing a bridge can trigger a question about "where you would most want to go if you had a bridge to anywhere". We simulated a “contextually aware” system by showing families recorded video of a drive with pre-written question prompts that a WoZed conversational UI would read aloud at certain moments in the video, all while participants sat in a stationary car.
In follow up interviews after final testing, both parents and kids told us that having Moe in the car is more fun than their typical drives, and parents from all 7 families said that they learned something new about their kids. With one family in particular, the father told us in the follow up interview that he is now considering hiring a coach for his son based on what he learned about him during the game.
The key takeaway of this prototype is that contextual triggers are effective at getting parents and kids to share and learn about each other and create moments of joy and connection.
Simón aims to foster connection among players by leveraging the specific spatial arrangement of car seats and the physically confined space of a car through a haptic interface with cooperative play.
Simón’s experience is based around colored buttons that are placed around the car in different locations depending on how many people are in the car and where they are sitting. This experience was designed to test haptic interaction with different parts of the car.
To implement this, we were inspired by the classic game "Simon", where you have to mimic the color pattern the system gives you. In our version of the game, players had to work together to hit the buttons around the car in the right order - what we called interdependent cooperative play.
Unsurprisingly, kids loved pressing buttons. Moreover, they found ways to work together, and they tried out different strategies for collaboration and cooperation that added to the family’s enjoyment of the game.
It’s clear that the key elements of Simón that made it effective at fostering connection in the car were cooperative play and haptic interaction with different portions of the car. This combination was effective because it required communication and collaboration toward a shared goal while utilizing the affordances of the car in a unique and fun way.
In fact, all users said that their drive with Simón was more enjoyable and made them feel closer to each other than their average drive.
Martin combines haptic and kinetic input, the movement of the car, and cooperative play to create shared presence for families.
What sets Marty apart most is that the seat itself becomes the controller and players have to physically move to use it. Reframing this affordance of the car points the way to numerous use cases for existing sensors and opportunities to introduce new sensors.
To test the basic viability of this combination of interaction, movement, and cooperation, the first version of Martin used foam core, pool noodles, and Legos. Our participants used the static car simulator seats as controllers to collaboratively navigate a maze using a marble, as seen in the picture from early prototyping below. Even with this simple, analog prototype, players laughed together often, and they were highly motivated to complete the maze.
To implement a version of Martin fit for a moving car as well as explore underlying technologies, this higher-fidelity version culminated in a cyber-physical system where players each sat on a phone enclosed in a specially-designed pillow that transmits its accelerometer data to a Raspberry Pi which correspondingly turns servo motors using Arduino, thus moving the game board.
Testing with families confirmed that Martin successfully fostered cooperation and connection. Players loved how they had to physically move in order to control the game, and parents loved how their kids had to talk to each other and work together in order to play.
As a proof of concept for combining a seat controller, car movement, and cooperative play, Martin was a resounding success.
