Introduction
For this project, the goal was to take a Starship delivery bot and change its purpose while focusing on human-to-human connection. Below is what our group did with this criteria:
Scenarios & Initial Design Space
Scenarios and the initial design space were something our entire group worked on together, collaborating and coming up with three different ideas and who these ideas would be directed towards. After much discussion on the faults of the ideas or simply talking about the ideas we just didn't like, we landed on the "StarMax" a robot that could go to class for sick students. The idea originally was a Starship that could go to class for any sick or disabled students. We didn’t have any limitations on this and quickly found that to be an issue so the idea evolved. Only sick students with a doctor's note approved by Purdue could receive code access to a Starship to go to class for them. The Starship would take your schedule and drive to class for you. Once in class a student could mute, unmute, raise-hand, etc. In between classes the Starship would charge so it wouldn’t run out of battery. When the student is done with classes for the day it could tell the Starship.
Research
We started off Project 2 by doing research on issues with Starship delivery as this went with our original idea. We gathered data on the terrain Starships struggled in and the situations in which they were getting stuck, for example, we found that they got stuck in the snow a LOT. We quickly switched our research focus to robots that went to class for sick students, what that was like for the other students in the classroom, the teacher and how the student themselves experienced that. Ultimately we were looking for the logistics of a robot going to class for a student, if the student found any benefit in it and if it didn't disturb the classroom environment and the people in the classroom.
After interviews we did a bit more research into the specific concerns people brought up, those being accessibility issues and terrain issues. I researched and found that all buildings on Purdue's campus are accessible either by ramp or elevator. One of my group members addressed the terrain issue by redesigning the Starships tires to be able to go over things like ice, snow, carpet, etc.
Below are the articles I found:
After interviews we did a bit more research into the specific concerns people brought up, those being accessibility issues and terrain issues. I researched and found that all buildings on Purdue's campus are accessible either by ramp or elevator. One of my group members addressed the terrain issue by redesigning the Starships tires to be able to go over things like ice, snow, carpet, etc.
Below are the articles I found:
StoryBoards, Sketches, & Images
After our idea was finalized and we had done enough starting research it was time to sketch and storyboard. My sketches and storyboards were a bit chaotic but I was focused on getting my ideas out in a way that made sense to me. The first thing I did was storyboard the process by which a student could get a Starship, then I sketched different aspects of our Starship and finally sketched what our website would look like. When looking at reference photos I came across a sketch online that helped guide myself and my group members (all of these are seen below).
Interview
As a group, we came up with a set of questions and an interview protocol to guide our interviews. For my interview, I interviewed a student in the College of Engineering and below is what was said:
What is your experience with Starships?
“I think I’ve ordered from Starships once. I thought it was fun, it plays a little song when you open it sometimes. I think they’re cute. They’re convenient. I’ve got no beef with Starships.”
Have you had any issues with Starships? (With delivery)
“ Delivery? Me not personally cause I haven’t ordered as much but I feel like friends, when I’ve been around them when they order sometimes it can just take a hot minute especially at night cause people like to mess with Starships but besides delivery times I haven’t heard as much.”
Have you ever helped a Starship?
“Absolutely I have! I help them all the time. If I see one struggling I go and help it. I like that they say ‘thank you’”
Besides food delivery, what else could Starships be used for?
“I think just the stuff that they have at the Boiler Market or like 3rd street or whatever because doordash has like the CVS where you can get meds or just little convenience items so I think that would also be nice for Starship.
(lets the interviewee know these next questions kinda switch topic)
How many of your classes require attendance? “2 and then one only on Fridays when we have discussions.”
How many of your classes have recorded lectures? “I believe only one unless you go request them.”
How often do you miss class due to illness? “Thats a perfect question I was just sick! I missed I believe most of my classes Monday Tuesday because of illness but I felt like I couldn't really miss one of my classes because it was not enough where I felt like I had to reach out to ODOS but at the same time I wasn’t gonna go into class cause I was sick.”
When you miss class how hard is it to get the materials you need? “ For most of my classes it’s not terrible to get the written down notes from a friend but I also think you miss the in person explanations of a professor”
Does missing class set you back in your learning/in the flow of the course? “Yeah! For sure! I don’t know how to do my homework for this class because I missed Thursdays lecture cause I was at an urgent care for being sick.”
What are your thoughts on Starships being used to go to class for you? - The Starship would go to class in your place and it’ll act like a Zoom call. Raise hand for you, etc. Professions can then put handouts in it and it will be delivered back to you once class ends. Can only be used when sick, have accessibility issues, etc. DRC accommodation? “ I think thats awesome because I know we have ODOS but I feel like its hard to get a note for some medical issues but also I mean people with like chronic issues it can be difficult to go to class and I think thats a very good method besides getting notes from a friend cause when you watch a recorded lecture you can’t always ask questions.”
How much would you be willing to pay for this student-starship service? “I don’t know I’d pay like $20 or something. If it’s just a couple classes but I also understand for accessibility issues or chronic things thats not a sustainable price for each class.”
How easy do you think it would be for this system to be misused? “I’d say pretty easy cause I think it’s sometimes hard to prove if you’re sick or not. But I also think it would be difficult for people who have chronic things to get the Starship but I think even also people, especially classes where you have group projects theres already people that don’t go it’d be tough because they’d just wouldn’t go more often.”
Would the Starship be distracting to your learning if you weren’t the one using them? “No I mean if it’s just like a zoom call, if they don’t be beeping or whatever cause I feel like when I walk around I’m not distracted by Starships because it wouldn’t be moving around it would just go to one spot, do it’s little zoom thing so it wouldn’t be too distracting.”
Any additional thoughts or questions? “I think this is a cool idea! That’s it!”
What is your experience with Starships?
“I think I’ve ordered from Starships once. I thought it was fun, it plays a little song when you open it sometimes. I think they’re cute. They’re convenient. I’ve got no beef with Starships.”
Have you had any issues with Starships? (With delivery)
“ Delivery? Me not personally cause I haven’t ordered as much but I feel like friends, when I’ve been around them when they order sometimes it can just take a hot minute especially at night cause people like to mess with Starships but besides delivery times I haven’t heard as much.”
Have you ever helped a Starship?
“Absolutely I have! I help them all the time. If I see one struggling I go and help it. I like that they say ‘thank you’”
Besides food delivery, what else could Starships be used for?
“I think just the stuff that they have at the Boiler Market or like 3rd street or whatever because doordash has like the CVS where you can get meds or just little convenience items so I think that would also be nice for Starship.
(lets the interviewee know these next questions kinda switch topic)
How many of your classes require attendance? “2 and then one only on Fridays when we have discussions.”
How many of your classes have recorded lectures? “I believe only one unless you go request them.”
How often do you miss class due to illness? “Thats a perfect question I was just sick! I missed I believe most of my classes Monday Tuesday because of illness but I felt like I couldn't really miss one of my classes because it was not enough where I felt like I had to reach out to ODOS but at the same time I wasn’t gonna go into class cause I was sick.”
When you miss class how hard is it to get the materials you need? “ For most of my classes it’s not terrible to get the written down notes from a friend but I also think you miss the in person explanations of a professor”
Does missing class set you back in your learning/in the flow of the course? “Yeah! For sure! I don’t know how to do my homework for this class because I missed Thursdays lecture cause I was at an urgent care for being sick.”
What are your thoughts on Starships being used to go to class for you? - The Starship would go to class in your place and it’ll act like a Zoom call. Raise hand for you, etc. Professions can then put handouts in it and it will be delivered back to you once class ends. Can only be used when sick, have accessibility issues, etc. DRC accommodation? “ I think thats awesome because I know we have ODOS but I feel like its hard to get a note for some medical issues but also I mean people with like chronic issues it can be difficult to go to class and I think thats a very good method besides getting notes from a friend cause when you watch a recorded lecture you can’t always ask questions.”
How much would you be willing to pay for this student-starship service? “I don’t know I’d pay like $20 or something. If it’s just a couple classes but I also understand for accessibility issues or chronic things thats not a sustainable price for each class.”
How easy do you think it would be for this system to be misused? “I’d say pretty easy cause I think it’s sometimes hard to prove if you’re sick or not. But I also think it would be difficult for people who have chronic things to get the Starship but I think even also people, especially classes where you have group projects theres already people that don’t go it’d be tough because they’d just wouldn’t go more often.”
Would the Starship be distracting to your learning if you weren’t the one using them? “No I mean if it’s just like a zoom call, if they don’t be beeping or whatever cause I feel like when I walk around I’m not distracted by Starships because it wouldn’t be moving around it would just go to one spot, do it’s little zoom thing so it wouldn’t be too distracting.”
Any additional thoughts or questions? “I think this is a cool idea! That’s it!”
Final Product
All of this led to the final point of our project which was our presentation, I helped write out slides, added images, and chose the template and some of the icons. Along with this I obviously helped present the project and create our documentation by writing the "Research", "Scenarios", "Initial Design Space", and "Interviews" paragraphs.
