Gilbert Rogers

Case Study

Saudade - Exploring IoT

Overview

Saudade an is a product developed over the course of 15 weeks with a 3 person design team. The final result was a prototype, meant to connect people across long distances.

In the end, and stands as one of my proudest achievements. At the beginning of this project, I had no clue what IoT actually was. But by the end, I had found a new and interesting hobby that I think I will stay with me for a lifetime.

Approach

With no prior experience in IoT, I approached this project with curiosity and openness—qualities that quickly evolved into a lasting passion. Our iterative design process centered around human connection, leading to the development of a prototype that remains one of my proudest achievements from university.

Investigating IoT

  • Understand wiring, coding, laser cutting, and app connectivity

  • Perform usability tests with physical products, to understand how customers might use the product.


  • Create a physical product from scratch using a variety of IoT methods.

Business Outcomes:

  • Simplify key tasks (like like navigation or emergency mode), users are more likely to understand and trust the product early, reducing app abandonment rates.


  • A more intuitive UI and clearer status indicators reduce user confusion, which in turn lowers the number of customer support tickets, especially around setup and alert handling.


  • Create a reliable, premium feel to the Solid GPS brand.

Idea Craft

We kicked off the design process with collaborative sketching to explore a wide range of ideas. This helped us quickly align on a shared direction rooted in emotional connection.

To guide our thinking, we created personas that represented people maintaining long-distance relationships. These personas informed storyboards that mapped out everyday scenarios and emotional touchpoints.

Prototyping

Wiring

For our lamp, we had to find the proper distance sensors, lights, a screen, and a small enough microcontroller and breadboard to fit inside of our housing. We also needed to find wires with the least slack as to save space.

Coding

We designed our code as a state machine, leveraging a few different libraries for our animation files. This was new territory for me, and it was a lot of fun learning how code can be used to design interactivity.

Prototyping

Once we were wired up, and our code was working, we were able to build a quick prototype out of cardboard. Although it wasn't the prettiest, this would serve as our initial MVP, so we could begin testing our idea.

Lasers, plastic, and Magic

Finally we were able to wire up our high fidelity prototype. This would be the final iteration of our project, so we had to make sure we understood our materials, our wiring, and ensure all sensors and interactive components were working.

Although there was some difficulty with the installment of electronics, it was a fun learning experience to finally have a working product.

App Design

As this lamp was meant for messaging, we also needed to design an application for interactivity.

While the app was not the focal point of the project, it was an additional challenge to test and prototype an application, that works with a physical product.

Conclusion

This project was a rewarding deep dive into IoT, physical computing, and human-centered design. Through exploration, collaboration, and iteration, we created a prototype that not only met the technical brief but also carried emotional significance. It challenged me to quickly learn new skills, think across digital and physical spaces, and stay focused on user needs. Most importantly, it sparked a passion for connected technology that continues to shape my approach to design today.


Thanks for reading!

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