Project Date :
Feb 2018 to June 2018
NAVON
The project was initiated with an exploratory objective in mind - to investigate two distinct contexts, namely Cycle and Smart Fabrics. The intention was to identify a common intersection that would facilitate the fusion of these contexts into a singular entity.
Following the preliminary exploration phase, the focus shifted toward discovering the potential for Smart Textile integration in Cycling. The subsequent exploration was approached with a solution-driven methodology, culminating in the creation of a final prototype to illustrate the practical application of Smart Textile technology.
Platform :
Screen-free interaction (textile)
Goal
This project is a result of exploring Smart Textile as a technology for cyclist to enable better cycling experience. One can enhance the experience of cycling in multiple ways but the focus here is on exploring new methods of
Screen-Free Navigation for cyclist using smart textile. The exploration is supported through research, experiments and prototyping by using user centric approach. The experiments resulted in NAVON, an interactive smart glove prototype. This prototype evolved through multiple paper prototypes which helped to explore different form and interaction methods for cyclist using NAVON. The project is an attempt to open doors to various screen free interaction using Smart Textile.
Topics Explored
Smart textiles are fabrics that have been designed and manufactured to include technologies that provide the wearer with increased functionality.
Smart Textile
An attempt to make cycling a much more interactive and fun process, right from solo navigation to group cycling.
Interactive Cycling
Concept Video for Navigation Mode
Secondary Research
Cycling
The cycle has been the oldest mode of transportation used worldwide. The 1st part of the project deals with exploring cycling from various lenses. The initial questions that made the base of the research are, What exactly is a Bicycle? Where did it come from? Why did it come into existence? How or for what did the people use it in earlier days? How did it change the lives of people?
The process of exploration started off with finding answers to the above questions.
Anatomy of cycle | Types of cycle | Evolution of Cycle | Use of cycle in Indian cities
Tools Used
Topics explored
Literature Review | Research paper analysis | Analysis of chapters from Books
The revolution has begun, Smart textiles will redefine the way we think of our clothing, homes, and other products. Smart fabrics have many interesting spectrums to explore, so the process started with exploring what is smart textile, what are it's properties, different explorations made in this field, future of smart textiles to use in the context of screen-free navigation.
Smart
Textile
Topics explored
Tools Used
Literature Review | Research paper analysis | Analysis of chapters from Books | Studying existing products and research from scholar articles, books, and journals
Primary Research
SMART textile and its history | Learning from existing books and articles | Current and future positions and products of smart textiles.
Cycling
The major aim was to find cycling preferences of people, then from analysing those preference the further task was to deal with the data received and further clustering them
Tools Used
Survey & Ladder Interview
Major Insights
From Survey
From the research it was clear that 50% of the people are active cyclist. Majority of them are inclined towards group or community cycling. They find cycling as a fun and therapeutic way towards healthy, green and happy lifestyle”
Insights were gathered from the process of interviewing and visiting the stores. These insights acted as next steps to make sense of raw data through analysis
Major Insights
From Interview
Data Analysis
After accomplishing the step 1 of gathering all the information through primary and secondary research. It was time to put these raw data into valuable insights and opportunity area. From the research it was clear that majority of the population I interviewed was interested in group cycling and thus the focus shifted towards group cycling.
Group
Cycling
Tools Used
Stakeholder Mapping & Scenario Mapping
Customer Journey Map
Touch point Matrix
Matrix of evaluation
Ideation
The ideation is based on the data analysis and opportunity area identified,
1. Cyclist to navigate their way back to the group in case of being lost or distant from the group
2. Create interactive and engaging cycling journey which would keep the cyclist together during the ride.
Ideation
 Random idea were put on paper to explore how smart textile can help cyclist to navigate when they are lost during a group ride. |  After looking into the form, I started ideating different technology that can be used in the form explored. These technology were ideated keeping in mind the concept and form ideation. |
|---|---|
 The ideation started with finding multiple form of smart textile that would enable a cyclist to have fruitful communication and directions in scenario of getting lost. This analysis gave an idea of the things that cyclist prefer to carry with them while cycling. |  After looking into the form, I started ideating different technology that can be used in the form explored. These technology were ideated keeping in mind the concept and form ideation. |
 After looking into form and technology, it was time to look into different types of interaction that a cyclist could perform keeping in mind the limitation that they have in term of movement and vision. |
Final Concept
Screen Free Navigation
The Navigation is for cyclists to find the location of the Alpha(leader) and navigate towards the group in the scenario of getting away from the group. NAVON has LED technology sewn into the fabric that allows users to see the direction that the alpha has taken and follow the LED lights to reach the group. Navigation can also be used by a solo cyclist to navigate from one location to another. For example, If you want to travel from Kormangla to Yelahanka on a cycle and you do not know the route. What you would generally do is wear earphones, connect them to your phone, and listen to the navigation. Firstly, It is risky as you are having earphones on there is traffic on the road. Secondly, there is always anxiety due to a lack of visual and tactile feedback, which many a time led to confusion, accidents, and demoralize to cycle again. To overcome this Navon is built to be the futuristic Screen Free Navigation system, to help you navigate and be safe when on a cycling journey.
Scenario describing Screen Free Navigation
Interactive
Cycling
NAVON is acting as tool helping the cyclist to be connected with each other throughout the journey by playing games that they decide.
How does this work ? Imagine you are playing antakshree while on cycle with a group of new people you meet at the cycling group. Now, how you communicate with everyone when the group is big ? and moreover how do you initiate interaction with other cyclist ? NAVON helps you play games with other cyclist while cycling, so helps you stay connected in group, socialise and interact with lot of people through games. The best part is the games are DIY. We set the rules of Interaction and cyclist can set the meaning of interaction. The leader is responsible for creating the game using the NAVON app. The leader could create game based on the group suggestion or based on his choice. The NAVON app also comes with pre - defined games for beginning.
The goal is to make the journey of cycling to a destination engaging, so that the group spirit is retained and eventually less number of people get lost during a cycling adventure.
How does the gloves change from navigation to interactive cycling mode ?
Creating games for Navon Using Participatory Design Technique
Design Process
Task Flow for the Mobile App to create games using Interactive Glove
Initial Wireframe for the mobile App
Steps describing the App
Screen 1
Select the New Game option, to create a new Game. This option is available for the leader
Screen 2
Select the Number of people in the group, Leader can create more than one group and then customise the action and reaction for each group
Screen 3
The actions are Pre defined as they are connected to the NAVON gloves. Once the action is completed the circuit is completed, each action is a new switch
Screen 4
Select the Reaction for the gesture selected in the previous screen. The reaction can be applied to random people or You can select from the group you have created and assign customise reaction for each group.
Screen 5
Select the reaction in the form of either LED, Vibration, Trigger( another action ), You can customise the number of LED to be light up, the color of the LED. You can also decide the time which you want the LED to be light up, OR if you want the light to light at a particular distance you can do that too. The LED lights can be either given diffused effect that is fade out, or instant shut.
Screen 6
User can select Vibration in the same way as LED. After particular time, or distance yo can instruct the vibration to set on.
Screen 7
You can choose to end the event here, or add a new action and continue the game.
Final Product
