Grow With Fab

Sadly I lost this class because I didn’t realize that the program started. Fortunately I caught up quickly. To this lesson I clone the repo and I research Hugo that is a really nice tool to document at the same time you are making “thinks” in the lab. In the previous year when grow with fab was called FabX I set this page to FabX / Grow with Fab program so I decide to keep using HTML5 instead of Hugo.

On this week we learn about human-centered design and some methods for design adequately. And the words “useful” and ”meaningful” where remarked applied for products. Also “iteration” and ”reflection” are important when you propose a product or a project. Then we did an exercise to design the ideal wallet and possible iterations. My wallet contains the expectation to have digital and physical money and ID included. You can see those features in the drawing, where you have a wallet with a screen for digital and flat space for physical.

This assignment was really interesting because all the different methods to generate ideas. It was really useful to me in order to understand better the process that took me to design Bits And Atoms Pen many years ago. Now I know that I used concept combining process to make my project. Bit as minimal information unit and Atoms as a minimal expression of matter join into an object, a pen. I did an exercise with an interesting process called SCAMPLER that you can see in the button bellow.

• SCAMPLER

Even being an Industrial designer this class surprises me a lot. I did not know about all the methods explained in class by Georgi. I think that Georgi has a lot of experience and also I realized that I used concept combining process for generate BAP and also in fabacademy I did RESEARCH THROUGH DESIGN process with more than 5 phases. You may want to see the process in the next button.

• 5 phases

This explanation of Prototype was really useful because helped me a lot to understand with examples the difference between wireframe, mockup and prototype. I think that there are a lot of projects in fablabs that keeps on mockup state. Fortunately on 2018 I find the right components and I had a year testing them for BAP function. This year I’m looking to improve software functions and I ask providers to develop the pcb smaller 30 mm x 16 mm rather than the sandwich of PCB boards that I was using last year.

• 2018
• 2019

IThis class also surprised me as designer. I did not realize that is possible to measure novelty/originality. For sure I will use many of those methods in my carrier. In this case I oriented my research on usefulness and the acceptation for the user to the product. For sure in the future I will apply novelty/originality evaluation for this product.
The result was positive according acceptance of the creative users to Bits and Atoms Pen. 100% thinks that Bits and Atoms Pen is “simple”.
And also the 50% of users recommended improving ergonomics of the shape of the pen (because sharp edges) and adding projection in case of 3D drawing with CAM tools.
For more info you may click to see the research document.

• research
• Landing page
• WorkPlan

Fortunately I have worked some years to build a super team to support Bits and Atoms Pen considering the huge impact and supporting demand that it can demand. In the team we have a multidisciplinary group of people. We have two mechatronics engineers, graphic designer, industrial designer, psychologist and communicator.

The main problem with Bits and Atoms Pen project is related with Human-Computer Interaction and communication. It is based on the necessity of manipulating digital and physical objects easily and an important effort to adapt machines to humans and not human to machines.

For this reason the two main challenges are:
- Find the best method to facilitate interaction between human and computes with a pen
- Communicate efficiently with users and future users the benefits of this project.

The impact that this device could have on daily tasks are incredible. The research show that Bits and Atoms Pen could improve Human - Computer Interaction with people that are familiarized with computers and also with people that are poorly or not familiarized with computers. This means that the possibilities of this tool could push Human – Computer Interaction out of computer limits. Bits and Atoms Pen impact could change the life of almost any human.

At this point we are focused on creative users and makers who are normally familiarized with computers and digital fabrication processes. Thats why we find FabLab Community as the perfect ecosystem to apply and grow the project. And our main moment this year will be Fab Conference.

We are targeting Maker, Creative and Crowd Funding communities this year that are almost 3 Million people. We think to start with FabLab Community and Kickstarter. Communication Channels will be really important. Youtube, Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp will allow users to find important and relevant information according our project.

It was hard to understand the best way to communicate a Bits and Atoms Pen because I have been researching and developing for some years and I lost the simple understanding of it. Understanding of communications took me a month because I didn’t found how to match Bits and Atoms Pen with my previous work. BAP is complementary with other products that I have been developing as a 3D sketchbook and a CNC called Zero. For this reason I decide to launch a line of products called Bits and Atoms Collection. And thanks to this thought all fits in a natural way and has sense with ZOI as a brand of human and technology development

As part of external FabLab ZOI team we have a lawyer specialized on commercial issues. He helps us to create a contract for production. This is an important issue to solve in BAP because is really complex to solder because tiny sensors and in our lab we don’t have a pick and place machine. Talking about economics we ask for many providers different quotations, also we establish a price asking people perception. In Latin-America people won’t pay as much as in Europe for this device. We took a decision to charge users around $185 USD for the product.

• Contract

Once we have the cost and the price we also establish a scope for selling. Also we measured the communities to make maths. Incredibly I get and amazing financing for my project that I was trying to find but I didn’t actually expected. This success was really helpful for me and allows me to focus my goals around this project. At the same time try to make as much products as possible to bring to the Fab Conference Fab15. Fortunately I realize that spend all money in production was not a good idea. Managing money is important, my main objective is not economical, is more relevant if I communicate efficiently the idea to impact more people and get users instead of buyers.

Finally, I feel that BAP is already succeeding. I find founding before launching and creative user acceptance is super high. I wish communities target could enjoy it and keep supporting Bits and Atoms Pen development. I also feel that BAP team has the capability to respond users demand and probably in the future will grow. Now the challenge is communicate efficiently, consolidate community and keep make it better having fun.

• Landing page
• WorkPlan

I have to improve the super intense work that I did in the paper last year. And write the crowd funding campaign. In this part of Grow With Fab I will make my best effort to have everything well documented and presented. I will also do a great presentation for the event.