Our project brief was “Design and prototype an interactive artifact related to your experience of moving to Bergamo and adjusting to life at CIID.” As the Introduction to Interaction Design module took place a month into our move to Bergamo, our thoughts converged around the feelings of missing our conversations with friends and family from home, and the small rituals that come from seeing them frequently. And from there, Aanal, Yisi, and Sarah realised they shared an appreciation for catching up with their loved ones over a cup of tea.
The opportunity space we landed on was “How might we help new CIID students who miss participating in the daily rituals of their family/friends still participate in these rituals from their home in Bergamo… so they feel emotionally connected to their loved ones?”. With ‘rituals’ and ‘emotionally connected’ as our key terms, we set off to design an interaction that enables loved ones to connect through a shared tea ritual.
Our solution consisted in a pair of remotely connected EmoTs that emit a glow to signal that your friend is having tea and is thinking of you. When you are about to have tea, pouring a bit of hot water into your EmoT’’s small opening as an offering activates your friend’s EmoT which starts to gently glow. In turn, your friend can join you for a cup of tea in real-time and offer hot water to their EmoT, sending a glow your way. Holding the sides of the [tea item] also helps communicate through it – by holding the sides of the EmoT with both hands, your friend can also acknowledge your invitation to have tea and signal that they will have a cup of tea later on.
Once both friends have had their cups of tea, thereby closing the ritual’s loop, both EmoTs emit a slow ‘heartbeat’ glow.
