To see a complete write-up of the Physical Away Message project, including more photos and our notes from our user testing session, please visit our project website.
Group members are: Tom Gerhardt, Jen Grier and me, Heather Rasley. Details on my prototype are below…
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HEATHER’S FLASHY MAGNETIC BUTTON PROTOTYPE
The inspiration
My two big issues with our initial prototype were that the connections for the switches were weak and it wasn’t at all aesthetically pleasing. If it was going to be something that people were going to wear every day, it needed to be something that they would actually want to wear every day.
My personal prototype was inspired by one idea and one object: 1) The suggestion that our device could be used in the nightlife scene. Not so much for the “taken” or “single” signals, but for the notion that this could be a more consciously fashionable object, 2) The tacky, trendy necklaces at Forever 21 (which I buy and wear). In short, I set out to pursue an option that would appeal more to women and incorporate some decorative elements.
(photos by Tom Gerhardt)
The process
I went through a few different approaches to this prototype. After a cursory try at using normal wire, I took Mouna’s suggestion to use stranded wire instead, which is flexible. This works well, though it’s more delicate to work with, even after tinning the ends.
Mouna mentioned in her critique of our first prototype that we could do without the middle “neutral” position. After being out of commission with a cold for a few days and then seeing Tom and Jen struggle with their batteries due to the intentional short circuit of the netural position, I eliminated this from my schematic and went with a two-switch system.
For the switches, my first notion was to use clasps, but those weren’t solid enough to support a solid connection – not to mention that the clasps I chose melted when I tried to solder them. After a few days of searching, I came across magnetic buttons that were woefully expensive but great for making a connection that was solid but not too difficult to take apart. I found it impossible to solder directly to the magnets, so that too was a bit of a challenge.
I went through a couple of layouts for the switches, since it was hard to get the two bottom magnets to stay separate when the top two were connected. I ended up adding brass chains to the ends of the magnets on the bottom so they would dangle just above each other and not pull together. I added decorate brass cutouts directly on top of the top set of magnets after discovering that they were strong enough to connect with extra metal between them. For the bottom, I connected the decorative elements to the back, since these fasteners worked more with a traditional snap motion and weren’t as strong.
I chose to use a AA battery holder after observing Jen and Tom struggle with getting solid connections from theirs. However, I now regret this decision because the battery pack is so heavy and so obviously a battery pack that it detracts from the design, despite my attempt to hide it with felt and a decorative element. Also, I realized that it’s giving out far too much power for the LEDs on my circuit.
To display the LEDs, I attached one red and one green on the back and another red and green on the bottom, with a small piece of plastic backed with metal to diffuse and amplify the light. [One note here, as it’s my proudest find: the plastic circles are the sanded down tops of eyeshadow cases. I came across them at Kmart while on a strict mission to find any kind of small circular plastic/glass plate or container. For $1.99 each, they were much easier on my budget than the buttons.] I initially wrote “busy” and “free!” on these, but it wasn’t very attractive and I felt like by the time someone got close enough to read these words they would have already been invading that person’s space. So I just left them blank, for lack of ideas about a better way to signify “occupied” or “available.”
Thoughts on the final product
Aesthetics: The final product is a really kind of hideous take on the already tacky fashion of Forever 21 and the like, but I’m still proud that I at least gave it a try. My biggest qualms are, again, the battery, and the fact that it’s maybe a little too long. Also, the arrangement of the LED casings and the battery isn’t very nice. I think if they all dangled together it would look more like a normal necklace.
Construction: After using the same wire for my many iterations, the solder became weak, so my connection actually came apart in one place during user testing. This is probably also due to the fact that the stranded wire is probably a little too delicate to support the weight of my overly big battery pack and other doodads. Also, I unwisely used hot glue to attach the brass to the buttons. This too ended up being a real problem in our first user test, when our user accidentally ripped the brass covering off when attempting to undo the buttons.
Concept: I’m more of a button person than a zipper person, as far as aesthetics go, so I’m willing to sacrifice the ease of zipping something up for buttoning. However, most of the people we interviewed in the user test (more on our group page) felt that the zipper was more analogous to “opening” and “closing,” which I didn’t consider. For my personal use, I think I’d still stick with the buttons because I actually like having to think about making the connection, but I understand why others feel it doesn’t coincide well with the concept.
Conclusions: I definitely learned a lot in the process of making this product. Mainly, I learned that wearables are not at all as easy as they may appear to make. It’s a true challenge to work on a small scale with sewing and soldering and try to fit electronics in a package that someone would want to integrate with their everyday attire. I certainly didn’t meet it this time around, but I might like to try again. I’ve never constructed anything at all, whether of wood or fabric, so I’m happy I was able to complete something that at least worked for a little while. Another valuable aspect of this experience was learning where to find materials around town – and how easily the little things can add up.
