My next project in HCDE 451 explored a new form of prototyping I would have never thought of: prototyping a product or service using a video. Throughout my time as a designer, I have never fathomed that video could be an appropriate medium to showcase how a service may be prototyped, but this project helped me explore this new form.

For this project, we were assigned to create a video for a product/service relating to health, fitness, and wellness. Video editing, cinematography, and storytelling are meant to help bring this prototype to life in order to explain a use case for our product/service.

Design

Inspired by applications such as Calm and Headspace, I wanted to create a video that used storytelling to showcase a meditation app that utilized a necklace that tracked an individual’s neurotransmitters. Because my idea was a new concept that not many individuals would be familiar with off the bat, I started by writing down a synopsis for the entire video, in which I then broke down each scene shot by shot to explain how I would tell a story using my video prototype. Below is the following synopsis that I wrote before breaking it down into a shot list.

<aside> 💡 A young adult woman is struggling with work-life balance in her job. After working on a project after hours, she glances over at her “busybee” necklace and puts it on. Immediately, she gets a notification on her phone saying, “Cortisol levels extremely high” and “Take a break!” The woman sighs, opens her phone, selects “Destress” from the busybee app, puts her headphones in, and then closes her eyes as the speaker says, “Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and imagine yourself somewhere relaxing.”

Upon opening her eyes, she finds herself in a new environment. She is outdoors, exploring the nature around her and enjoying her breath of fresh air, which the scene fades. The next day, the woman is talking in a meeting feeling confident, and gets compliments from her manager. Her busybee says, “Serotonin levels in balance. You’re doing great!” She smiles as the scene fades.

</aside>

Many product-oriented videos utilize a narrator or captions to tell a story; however, I wanted this video prototype to tell a story without utilizing these elements. From this, I wanted to make sure that there were many detailed extreme close-up shots to add context to the video. For example, as seen below in my shot list, I wanted to focus on close-up shots of certain objects that create a narrative into the stresses that add to the user’s current mood, such as hands typing or a close-up of the time on the user’s computer.

Screenshot of my Video Prototype Shot List

Before diving into storyboarding, I had other peers review my shot list to understand how might I adjust shots so that they pertained to my written synopsis. Overall, I received feedback that the shot list was very clear in regards to what the story is meant to convey, but each member gave useful critiques for how I might improve my personal storytelling:

Showcasing elements of the “scenery” to aid in storytelling how the application can “transform” you into another place
Make sure to have shots that clearly show the necklace, which is a key element in the product itself

After this exercise, I dove into storyboarding that utilized my shot list elements and feedback from other classmates.

Storyboards

Two principles guided my storyboarding:

Efficiently expressing the product use case. The most important part of this video is to make sure that audiences can follow the narrative, especially because this product is not something they may encounter in their everyday lives. Translating the idea that one can “wake up” in a relaxing new environment when meditating is a narrative that is best expressed in fiction, and I want audiences to understand the metaphor I am trying to create with this product.
Keeping the audience engaged with the story. Without a narrator, videos that solely rely on environmental sounds and music can be easily overlooked by audiences, so I focused on making this video relatively short (1:20) and utilizing background music to add a feeling of “rising action” as the video progressed.

Storyboards to express the user’s stress from their work environment

Showcasing the use of busybee meditation to regulate serotonin & cortisol levels.

After crafting my high-level storyboards, I found that the biggest feedback I got from other students was that the “waking up” aspect of the video came out of nowhere. In the video, the user is meant to meditate and think of a calming place to regulate their cortisol levels. From this meditation, they imagine themselves as “waking up” in another location, such as a beautiful beach to clear their mind. From my feedback sessions, other students felt that this video could benefit from elements of foreshadowing to show how this transition came about.

Analysis

Following the feedback from my storyboarding sessions, I added extra scenes to my shot list and began filming for my video prototype, which can be seen below.

“busybee” Video Prototype