Protecting Purdue Students from Vampires

This was project was focused on prototyping. We used the feelings of - what was then just on the rise - COVID-19 to inspire us to turn something scary into something fightable.

CONTEXT

Purdue UX Learning Studio Spring 2020

TEAM

Kaitlyn Tran, Chen Jingning, Benjamin Frailey, Emily Zaretzky (me!)

CONTRIBUTIONS

Ideation, Research, Prototyping, acting as a vampire

RESEARCH

Developing the universe

To constrain the details of the vampire problem we were solving, we needed to set a canon for the vampires we were dealing with and the universe in which we were solving. We used the YouTube video Dracula Synopsis, information from the Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency, and our recollection of vampires from popular media to determine what we were up against.
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The story so far...
Vampires have been attacking students for a year. Police have been trying their best to reduce attacks, but with vampires’ superhuman abilities and inability to be seen on camera, they have been unsuccessful. Purdue students have been scared to walk home, especially at night, and paranoia has struck some students, making them jump at shadows—some are questioning if their friends are the undead. After some false claims, many are afraid to cry wolf at a vampire and incite panic in others.

There is a need for a vampire detection device!

OBERVATIONS

Who would be at most risk?

We began asking ourselves "Who is most susceptible to a vampire attack?" and decided to answer it through observations. We observed students' traveling habits at multiple Purdue locations to see if there were any patterns.

We were able to determine three main characteristics of someone who would be susceptible to a vampire attack. We used these characteristics to help us walk through use cases and scenarios of our designs.

Habitually studies late at night
Walks home usually alone
Lives within a 2-mile radius off campus

Compiling Research Insights

Putting it into design

We initially drew from the G-SHOCK watch series as a starting base of our design to incorporate two different features:
Vibration if there is a detection of a cold body nearby and garlic seeds for the user to throw at the vampire. The vampire would be repelled by the garlic seeds but also must stop and count them, creating a stun yet distracting event.

Initial Brainstorming

‍We wanted to think about how the watch would work in action, so we used a very basic scenario to implement our idea into.

Benjamin is walking home late at night
Vampire is behind him
Benjamin turns around and presses the button
Garlic seeds deploy from the watch, causing the vampire to stop and count them

We had so many questions come up from the brainstorming session that we each decided to storyboard to walk through different variations of scenarios. Here is a storyboard I made:

From these activities, we learned:

Smelling of garlic is worth it if it saves one’s life
We should implement an automatic deployment of garlic if the user is prone to being distracted while walking, or if the user is incapacitated
Using the watch in a crowd can notify others of an attack, causing the vampire to have to flee

Moving forward, we wanted to test the scenario of actually using the watch and its features against vampires.

EXPERIENCE PROTOTYPING AND TESTING

Testing against vampires

With our initial testing, we wanted to understand:

If smelling of garlic is worth it if it saves one’s life
If we should implement an automatic deployment of garlic if the user is prone to being distracted while walking, or if the user is incapacitated
If using the watch in a crowd can notify others of an attack, causing the vampire to have to flee

We created a low fidelity prototype that would 'buzz' to indicate a vampire close by. The user would then be able to open the container of garlic seeds to deflect the vampire. The participant was informed about the vampires around Purdue and given the scenario that they were walking home alone at night.

To create the scenario without having them walk outside (it was snowing), we had them walk around the classroom. During that time, I - the 'vampire' - would walk and follow them. Benjamin would tell the user that the watch was buzzing – at that time participants would notice me and would either try to get away or use the garlic seeds. After the experience, we ask them a set of questions afterwards.

I am the vampire on the right.

Users preferred the ability to take protection in their own hands by using the physical garlic seeds. Being able to take action directly affected how they would predict their actions and feelings afterwards.

We felt that we needed to add a more real sense to the experience and provide more features to help protect them. Using an Arduino, we used vibration motors to turn on at a random time to signify the alert, and created an app to provide more details on the whereabouts of other attacks.

Participant roaming around the studio

Experience Prototyping and Experience Testing 2

We conducted another round of testing to identify key user emotions with the vibration feature and accompanying app.
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Similar to our initial testing, we debriefed them on the same scenario. However, this time we gave them the Arduino prototype that would vibrate at a random time during the time they walk. We gave them the autonomy to throw the garlic seeds as well. Lastly, we showed our participant screens of our app, which would notify users of areas where other watches were deployed.

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Participant roaming around the studio

User deploying garlic to vampire

By giving the testers freedom to use the device, we learned that they were likely to use only a small amount of seeds in case there was another attack. They also were not likely to tell the police because they felt the situation was too normalized.

These insights enabled us to iterate on our prototype.

final design

VVWATCH X G-SHOCK

In collaboration with G-SHOCK, VVatch is a multifunctional vampire repelling device. Appearing like a normal G-SHOCK watch, the device protects students from vampires through it's physical features and accompanying app.

Connected to the VVatch is the VVatch Alert app to provide users with more awareness of attacks around them.
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Users can confirm a vampire is in the area or mark it as a false alarm.

Users can see where VVatches have been activated.

The app is vampire-proof by requiring a FaceID recognition.

Protecting Purdue students from vampires

overview