Purdue University Graduate School
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PLANTO: AN ANIMISTIC PLANTER SYSTEM DESIGN FOR IMPROVING THE WORKING FROM HOME EXPERIENCE

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posted on 2022-06-17, 18:28 authored by Pengyu RenPengyu Ren

This thesis project aims to create an animistic system for remote workers to promote a healthier work style and more interactions between remote workers and their colleagues. The Covid-19 pandemic since 2020 resulted in a significant increase in employees who started to work remotely, and with that came the benefits and challenges. Working from home allows remote workers to work with higher productivity and a more flexible schedule and improves the work and life balance of the remote workers. However, major communication issues were reported due to asynchronous working pace and less in-person interaction, which became a significant challenge for remote working. Other remote working challenges include difficulties setting up a home office, health concerns such as sedentariness and hydropenia, higher worker self-discipline requirements, etc. In this thesis, I took the approach of animistic design, focused on the context of a home office environment, and created an interactive system, Planto, a planter and mobile application system designed to improve the work-from-home experience. This thesis presents the Planto system’s research and design process, including literature review, peer product review, user research, ideation, the iterative process of a mobile application design and a product design, and a heuristic evaluation to assess the quality of the design outcome. Planto system seamlessly integrates product design, animistic design, and IoT design. More importantly, it aims to facilitate the complicated work-from-home experience, and the medium is a simple planter.

History

Degree Type

  • Master of Fine Arts

Department

  • Visual and Performing Arts

Campus location

  • West Lafayette

Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair

Zhenyu Cheryl Qian

Additional Committee Member 2

Steve Visser

Additional Committee Member 3

Jung Joo Sohn

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