Between Studio meetings, our two River Teams got a little practice with out Human Centered Design process. With Halloween approaching, we thought making a halloween costume would be the perfect exercise!
Both teams were tasked with roughly following the HCD process to make the perfect costume for their user. They started by identifying their user by creating a persona, and then researched and ideated a solution while keeping the user and their needs in mind. Once they had a solid idea, they were tasked with prototyping their costume. We shared their ideas in class:
Rocket Team
Persona:
Barry the Electrician was invited to a halloween party with his old college buddies and he needs to find a costume to show them what’s up. He’s 36 and shopping on a budget. He lost track of time / procrastinated and now only has one day to get something together.
- He needs something flattering for his form
- Has a beer belly
- Needs something cheap & easy
- Preferable stuff he already has at home
- Likes toilet humor
- Looking for a funny costume, not a scary or serious one
- His girlfriend wants to do a couples costume, but he wants to do his own thing
- Doesn’t want to wear make-up or mask
- Known for never having a good costume, hopes to change that this year
- He needs something flattering for his form
The solution:
Our costume idea was to make Barry a human rocket ship. The joke of this costume is that Barry was equipped with a koozie labeled “Rocket Fuel” for his “beverages,” which emits a flame from the back of his pants. This costume solves his problems by being cheap, easy to make, and humorous.
Team Octopus
Persona:
Katy Jensen is an excited 10 year old 4th grader who loves animals and learning about the ocean. This year she wants her halloween costume to be one of her favorite animals, the octopus. She wants it to be cute, purple, and comfy. Katy and her brother usually compete to see who gets the most candy, so this year she needs a way to hold extra candy and beat him. Her mom thinks it is important that she stands out in a crowd and that she is visible at all times during the night!
Where:
Katy will be going trick-or-treating around a nice suburban neighborhood, door to door accompanied by her mother
Needs:
- The costume needs to be breathable as she will be wearing it all night and cover a lot of distance
- The costume must keep her warm as Halloween appears to be cold this year
- She also needs a way to hold her candy that will match her costume.
- Needs to be visible or contain some sort of reflector/indicator so she can be easily found by her parents
The solution
We really wanted all of Katy’s needs to be integrated into her costume instead of simply creating the costume and throwing on top all the leftover necessities. With this in mind we decided in making her costume a type of jacket or sweater that she puts on keeping her warm the entire night. Moreover, we added the pouch to her jacket playing with the idea of her wanting the ability to hold more candy than her rival brother. In addition, we came up with the idea of making the suction cups seen on octopus the reflectors on her costume needed to make her visible to her parents, keeping her safe in the dark and a crowd. Her candy bag is meant to be a sand bucket and shovel pertaining further to the idea of the beach and sea.