Venus

Background:

Tasked with creating an innovative product within the household industry, we sought to create innovative solutions in personal fashion technology to simplify and enrich the daily lives of our customers.

Process:

1. Analysis and Definition

• Initial Research: Focused on defining the "household" space and investigating five key solution segments: Sustainability, Augmented Realities (AR), Solar Energy, Product Lifespans, and Accessibility.

• Problem Framing: Conducted peer interviews to supplement research and identify desired solutions.

• Defined Problem: "How might we simplify and enhance the way individuals move and interact within their homes using sustainable, high tech solutions like AI and AR to support daily activities?".

2. Ideation and Selection

• Idea Generation: Utilized creativity techniques, including mind-mapping, rapid ideation, and brain-dumping, resulting in 8 possible solutions (e.g., recycling assistant, chore-gamification technique).

• Selection: The AI/AR Mirror was chosen as it best fulfilled the problem statement and team interests, having the most potential to solve for the largest number of people.

• Bias Check: Peer interviews were conducted where feasible solutions were explained to eliminate team biases and assess the viability and feasibility of the concepts.

3. Implementation and Branding

• Aesthetic Design: Built mood boards and decided on a neutral, sophisticated, and elegant look to convey high quality and create an inclusive design that did not isolate genders or age groups.

• Color Palette: Selected Maroon as the accent color, complemented by black, gray, and white. The mirror was designed with an elegant maroon frame.

• Hardware Challenges: Faced significant struggles in balancing factors like cost, versatility, ease, and appearance, particularly when sourcing materials for the physical mirror. Materials like wood and cardboard were initially considered but proved too fragile or rigid to achieve the desired sleek look.

• Digital Architecture: Orchestrated an accompanying application to perform the "larger grunt work". The app was designed to handle data, register user clothing, plan outfits, track unused items, and function as a remote control, utilizing AI to learn the user’s style preferences and dressing patterns.

4. Evaluation and Refinement

• Proof of Concept: Successfully developed a functional and worthy proof of concept showcasing the mirror's effectiveness in generating real-time outfit suggestions based on weather, events, and personal preferences.

• Usability Testing: Employed two primary techniques: large surveys (capturing public opinion on the concept, interface design, and features) and focus-group interviews (allowing for deeper exploration of opinions and personal concerns).

• Market Expansion: Testing revealed a wider market than the original high-earning consumer persona, expanding the target base to include a younger audience (starting in the late teens) interested in style development. This led to the creation of subsets of products, such as a subscription-based app model sold separately.

• Iterative Improvements: The team aimed to immediately fix areas of critique, whether related to privacy, aesthetics, or general recommendations. Changes included:

   ◦ Adding a cost per usage calculator to cater to sustainability-focused customers.

   ◦ Creating a simpler UI for efficiency-focused customers.

   ◦ Integrating a saved outfits feature for fashion-oriented customers

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