On Monday we wanted to have a finalised concept by the end of the day that we could continue working with and polishing, but something concrete that we knew wouldn't change. Toby the clothes horse and Tubs the washing machine were the first version.
"Tubs doesn't like being left feeling full and bloated. He is a bit shy and doesn't like complaining. He is great friends with Toby. He gives John, his owner, very subtle hints and would rather rely on his pushy friends to get things done."
"Toby is lazy and gets irritated. He only wants to put minimum effort into things. If he doesn't get his way he will have a tantrum. Toby is loyal to his friends."
Through these little personalities we were able to do some storyboards. The storyboards actually helped us to think through the scenarios. They also helped us develop our product further.
Our first storyboard, drawn by Billy, is a story of John putting on a load of washing, not having realised that his clothes horse, Toby, is full, and so after the wash is done, Toby annoys John, and becomes almost violent with him, until John HAS to get up and get his washing out of Tubs. After drawing this out, myself, Louise and Billy all agreed that we wouldn't be able to live with this object if it gets this annoying and aggressive. There was no subtlety. Although Toby might annoy John enough to get the job done, we decided that it didn't seem to be the most pleasant or enjoyable experience.
Storyboard 2, drawn by me, had a more organised John who took his washing out of Tubs as soon as he was finished washing it. This storyboard didn't bring about that much excitement and for something that we will have to film later, there wasn't a lot of content to it. So we tried again.
The third storyboard was a winner. Drawn by Louise, it had a slightly different concept. We scrapped the Toby and Tubs idea for a minute, and rolled with something else. We called this "Salt & Pepper". John puts his clothes into the machine and grabs Pepper, while Salt stays with the washing machine. Salt can tell what stage the cycle is at and lets Pepper know when the wash is finished. So John goes out about his day, he goes into town, meets some friends, and while he's still out, Pepper gives him feedback that the washing machine is ready to be unloaded.
"Salt is ready!"
After some time John is ready to go home. As he gets closer to his house, Pepper can sense that he's getting closer to Salt and gets excited. He starts jumping up and down, once again, reminding John that the washing is done and ready to be hung up to dry. John ignores Pepper and forgets about the washing. After a while he notices that Pepper is sad so he makes sure to bring him over to Salt, and take out his wet clothes from the washing machine. Salt and Pepper are ecstatic to be back together. They are only ever really happy when they are together. The end.
We wanted to explore different objects and shapes that we could use as Salt and Pepper so we went down to the building lab and starting making. These are some of the objects that we came out with.
Like the Yin and Yang, Salt and Pepper go hand in hand, they fit together perfectly and they like being together rather than apart. We thought it would make sense to have the part that stays with the washing machine, to have some sort of use, and the thing that came to mind was a scoop or cup for the washing powder/ liquid. So that was one form that we aimed for. The other part that you take away with you would have to be something small enough so you can carry it around, or else something like a peg, to clip on to your clothes.
After we got some feedback from the rest of the class, we decided to go with the Salt and Pepper idea, and the forms would be some sort of object to hold laundry detergent, that has a peg element that the user can take away with them.
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