So for part 1 of this blog I'll just go through 8 ideas I came up with using the scamper method.
As a reminder here are my "how might we" problems.
How might we get younger and older generations to interact more during family gatherings(especially during winter)?
How might we encourage and engage family members to share stories in order to develop a stronger family narrative (especially during winter)?
I then thought of an object that might be prevalent at winter family gatherings, and since food is very common I decided to go with table. For most of my scamper ideas below it involves changing and modifying tables so that they better address the above two problem statements.
This first scamper idea addresses both substitute and magnify questions.
Can the rules be changed?-substitute
Can I add extra features?-Magnify
Here I decided to add a gaming component to the table. It keeps family at the dinner table longer, prevents children from getting bored, and is friendly enough to keep old and young alike entertained. In addition I was thinking prompts could fly around the table and family members would have to pass them to each other.
Another substitute question I asked myself was can I use a different energy source?
A bit abstract but basically access to laptops and things that may cause families to break up after dinner would lose power until the family solved a puzzle or completed a task displayed on a table or board.
Family dinner combined with a time capsule. This idea was inspired by an idea I came up with while in Leonard's Basement. It's basically a HUB for memories to be stored and ideas to be exchanged, when the new year comes families get access to what these things were and get to review them together as a family. Photos, big events, accomplishments, fears, and stories could all be uploaded and responded to.
As computers are becoming increasingly apt at identifying faces and recognizing patterns why not use those programs to implement a self-making scrapbook. Members post pictures with text and descriptions the computer analyzes these patterns and creates a personalized family scrapbook that the family looks at together at Christmas, the best part is that people forget what they uploaded in the beginning of the last year and so it's fun to look back at those memories.
I looked up what primates do for social activities. Turns out they groom each other a lot. Maybe a family Salon product that families could buy to do things like paint nails a mustache grooming kit and haircut set so that family members could in a sense "groom" each other without having to pick ticks off.
See the first picture.
Put to other use?
I remember seeing giant posters on tables in restaurants that people could draw on while waiting for food. Why not apply this to the common table?
Changing the layout?
Tables are always seen as immobile, take up space and hard to get around. What if the table components where modular instead? Family members could shuffle about to talk to one another easier or set up the table differently so as to offer more opportunities for interaction.
Here's one of the ideas I drew out. It's a cover that acts as a board game. The different food or types of silverware and dishes have different effects on the rules of the game. Throughout the game players are encouraged to talk about their day.
Most of the ideas that came from the blue sky generation session weren't product ideas, but more ideas on how to accomplish the how might we statement I proposed, so below I have some pictures that take these concepts and try to make them into actual products. Once again the statements are
How might we get younger and older generations to interact more during family gatherings?
How might we encourage and engage family members to share stories in order to develop a stronger family narrative?
One of the blue sky ideas was group improv beat boxing. When I thought of how to turn this idea into a product I remembered this cool table I saw at the Chicago science museum that had these cubes you could place on the table. When placing the cube on the table the table would make different sounds according to what cubes where on it and how they were organized. I thought this was a cool idea but it seemed really expensive and not specifically family oriented. So what I thought up was a set of cubes and a mobile mat. Cubes would have sounds recorded onto them, then would be placed onto the mat and organized in various matters to effect the tempo, rhythm, loudness etc. The mat could also attach to external speakers to get louder. On Christmas prompts would come up like record bells onto the cubes, or sing Christmas sounds into them, then family members could play around with the cubes and make their own music, which they could later save as an mp3 and play while setting up Christmas decorations for the following next year.
This next one was difficult to change from more of a ritual to an actual product. It was clean out your basement and talk about those objects. I was thinking this could be implemented with a simple card game. Cards would have special prompts that said things like "find something of personal significance in the basement." So what if families had prompts to find stuff in the basement the night before Christmas wrap them up and put them under the tree? People would open them up and the person who picked the object would describe the story behind it. I'm not sure how to make it a real product yet, but it sounds like a good time.
This next idea was taken from family cook book idea. Basically it's an app that contains all the recipes the family can upload through an app and share with one another in an ebook format on their phone, computer, or tablet. They could also describe the food background or stories related to the food in it. The only way of connecting this to Christmas seemed superficial and that was a Christmas holiday or having season themed sections in the book.
This next one is a hodgepodge of ideas. It encompasses retelling an old story with a modern twist idea, draw your story out, scrap-booking in one. This one is essentially the idea I had for the table time capsule just without the table, and trying to combine all these elements and ideas was basically what resulted.
For this last part I kept all the ideas I made from part 3 and put them into my notebook. All of the ten NUF ideas are listed below, some are slightly revised versions of ideas seen earlier in the blog others are made up on spot.
2. Family cookbook app-family recipes are on the cloud and can be downloaded on phones. Recipe as well as cultural background and family stories are included with the food.
3. Basement clean out game- card game to pick out old memories around the house and share them on Christmas.
4. Time capsule- same as before. Stories, ideas, pictures, videos, and music are all stored on this device and shared on a weekly basis. Family members can respond to stories by writing their thoughts or asking questions and continue a dialog. Then during a major holiday families review the time capsule. It's basically a fun and neat way to capture family dialog in a scrap book without the pain of making it yourself or having to keep track of it. The computer organizes things based on patterns like facial recognition, commonly used words, date posted etc.
5. Table game cover. A cover that goes on the table meant to act as a way of keeping conversations lively and keep families at the dinner table even after all the food is finished.
7. Storyteller- gives random prompts(if desired) and contains a voice recorder. Family members (Grandparents especially) can tell their stories and have them recorded. The object also act as a way to signal who is speaking and give said person a center stage.
8. drawfreak. Small hand sized tablets that can be used for a multitude of family games. The tablets can also assemble together into one larger tablet so that families can admire everybody's work at once.
9. Creative juices- Family members write down their goals for the year on New Year's and proceed to generate ideas as to how to attain those goals. This card game is essentially the brainstorming facilitator. It gives out tips for brainstorming and offers strategies like brute think and the like, also comes with a playful timer button to make sure all family members get a chance to have their goals be brainstormed.
10. Family timeline- Family members can share pictures, major events, on their own timeline or a family member's timeline. Voice memos can be recorded too(like a journal). These timelines are loaded onto the cloud and can be seen on any family member's family timeline app. They can click to listen to their thoughts even if they are far away or don't have time to make a call. I'm not quite sure how to make it particularly winter themed.
So those are my ten possibly feasible ideas! Some of them have a decent amount of overlap and some don't seem particularly winter focused. Perhaps with some more thought I can combine some of these ideas and make them more winter focused like say incorporating Christmas stockings or something.