AM:PM
With the AM:PM project all the effort went into designing rich interactions within complex and growing systems. In the age of the internet of things, everything is connected and separate systems communicate with each other. We should therefore not design systems in isolation, but look broadly at the current landscape to determine how systems can add value to one another. The concept of growing systems puts a high emphasis on providing value to existing systems and/or retrieving value from them in order to create complementary value.
AM:PM is a system of smart alarm clocks which are IOT connected, but these devices also allow other systems and smart devices to access its data. An example could be that AM:PM provides wake up times of its users to a smart coffee machine which will make coffee only on certain days and for certain users. This open-ended system design approach allows separate systems to become smarter by accessing each other’s information allowing it to grow in value and become part of a bigger growing system.
AM:PM is designed for families with kids. For a lot of these families waking up is a boring and impersonal ritual. With AM:PM we try to make the morning routine of its users more pleasant, fun and intimate. People can leave voice messages on each other’s alarm clocks which messages will be played when the alarm goes off. This makes waking up always a fresh and new experience, because you never know what message is waiting for you when you wake up. The alarm clocks also communicate towards each other who is awake and who isn’t. In this way users can see who is already awake or who is still asleep when their alarm goes off.
Furthermore, during this project there was a high emphasis on designing rich interactions. This was done by exploring different interaction possibilities and mapping discovered interactions to product features to see how they fit into the interactive context. Rich interactions are very tangible and it was very challenging to create interactions that were easy to understand, pleasant to use and give users for full control of all the product’s features.
Finally, we created design guidelines which were followed during the form giving phase of each individual product within the AM:PM system to create a form family. By having this aesthetic continuity we were able to deliver this systems as a cohesive package.
