The Patch of the Future
The city of Guadalajara in the southern state of Mexico’s Jalisco has a grand vision for its future. It wants to become a shining jewel of the Smart Cities of tomorrow, today.
For this vision to become a reality, there must be changes made to make the community feel more comfortable in their own hometown. Mexico as a whole has has a myriad of bad press in the past decade. Overcoming governmental and police corruptions, alongside the cartels and lucrative drug trade has scared away tourists, and with it, honest profits.In an effort to combat this battle between dark and light, the government of Guadalajara has proposed the use of wearable tech to arm their residents and encourage tourism to resume. With all of the requirements and preferred outcomes in mind we considered the 21 technological tipping points proposed by Klaus Schwab to reach the the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Our cohort has focused on four main points:
- Wearable Tech worn by 10% of people
- Ubiquitous Computing with 90% of people regularly using the internet
- The Internet Of and For Things with 1 trillion sensors connected to the internet
- Smart City with 50,000 inhabitants and no traffic lights
Each of these points relate intimately back to the original vision of Guadalajara. The proposal itself will be wearable by its users and with the ease of use and many benefits that comes along with it, the cohort believes that it will increase the amount of people willing to use this type of tech. Along with that the more users of our tech would inevitably create more users of the internet and thus ubiquitous computing. Each of our proposed product would have at least one sensor needing to connect to the internet in some fashion and as the project is scaled up, more sensors and more uses would increase a need for more sensors in the urban environment. Lastly the Smart City is the overall vision of Guadalajara and the scalability of our proposed patch could easily be incorporated into the city’s push for not only people to be connected but vehicles, electricity etc.
With the use of IDEO’s Design Kit the cohort has selected tools for each step of the process: INSPIRATION, IDEATION and IMPLEMENTATION.
For the first step INSPIRATION, aligning impact goals, framing the design challenge and the 5 whys were chosen. Aligning the goals the we had as a cohort along with those of the stakeholders is crucial to consider before beginning any project. This goes hand in hand with framing the design challenge and considering all of the moving parts as well as desired outcomes to create the best product possible. Lastly the 5 whys creates a deeper understanding of our purpose and that of the city’s vision for their future. Each of these work together as we push ourselves further once moving into the second step of the design process.
The IDEATION step of the process allowed us to explore the theory of change, create a journey map and logical model as well as integrate feedback and iterate. Building upon our inspiration the use of the theory of change can push us even further to understand how the product we design can push society further as well as understand the downfalls that may come along with it. The us of a journey map in conjunction with the logical model can help us step into the users mindset and troubleshoot. Once we think we have gotten out all the bugs it is vital to allow real world users to try out the product and let us know how we can improve based on their feedback. Understanding that this product is meant to be used by a variety of people in many different lifestyles pushes us further but of the box whilst heading toward the last step of implementation.
In the final step of the Design Kit, the cohort begins IMPLEMENTATION. It seems obvious that the need for a live prototype would be necessary to push the product forward and create familiarity amongst the targeted users. This would also play into the need for more and continuous feedback. With this feedback we can monitor and evaluate the usefulness and uses of the product while aiming to optimize the product for mass production and use by the inhabitants of Guadalajara.
At the end of these Design Kit steps, the cohort has produced The Patch. It will be a nearly invisible patch that would be adhered to the users body. The idea is that it will be able to be placed anywhere the user feels most comfortable and can be moved for greater stealth. While Guadalajara aims to improve the “smartness” of its city, we had to consider safety as well. With a personalizable product those who wish to cause harm will not know who is connected to the system and who is not. In turn we believe this will act as a deterrent in and of itself. On top of this, if there are those that still wish to create unsafe environments, the users secret placement adds a layer of protection since it cannot be easily found and discarded. Within the patch there will be monitoring software that monitors biometrics of the user. It can in turn alert emergency services and enable GPS location tracking if the user should become in fear. We hope that with these capabilities the number of missing persons will be greatly reduced.
With this most basic patch you can upgrade the uses with connectivity to a variety of apps on your smartphone, or in conjunction with special lenses which allow for even more access to information right before your eyes. When pushing even further, smart jet sneakers that allow the user to escape dangerous situations even faster could also be produced.
The hope is that with all these personalizable options many more inhabitants would be willing to try the tech and overall create a more tech-savvy, innovative, and friendly city.
Through this process I was pushed out of my comfort zone and it was helpful to work with a cohort that did not always see eye to eye in the way tech can and should be used in the public sphere. While I understand the need to limit sensitive data from being leaked, there are so many awesome ideas that cannot be reached with the limitations of thinking about only data. Through the use of IDEO’s Design Kit I was also able to more clearly appreciate the entire process of design. I enjoyed the activity and it has sparked many ideas that I may use in my classroom to push my students further not only in their creativity but through the process to show them that inception through production is achievable with thorough trial and error.