Introduction
By the first milestone, we'd decided on a general domain that we are interested in learning more about and designing for: home cleanliness. We had also spent some time conducting observations around how people interact with their spaces regarding cleanliness, though these observations were brief. One major aspect of our scope that we had not yet solidified was our audience of interest; we'd proposed designs for parents and their children as well as for the population of those who live with roommates closer to their age, as we more commonly see in college students and young adults. We were able to observe one expecting mother, and quickly learned through this observation (and in comparison to the observations we conducted of students) that parents and young adults interact differently with cleaning, and likely would be privy to different design solutions. Therefore, we learned that we needed to select one target audience to move forward with.
Following Milestone 1, we collectively decided that we will focus on the demographic of roommates as opposed to parent-child living situations. We made this selection based on the availability of our target audience and our collective interest in the audience, as well as the flexibility and creative license we feel the audience affords in terms of potential design solutions.
We decided to conduct our formative study to learn more about people’s behaviors, perceptions, preferences regarding cleanliness in their homes, and how they relate to the other people they live with around cleaning. We also wanted to know more about how people are motivated to clean or inhibited from cleaning. Our overall goal with the project is to learn how to make cleaning an easier, more enjoyable process, both for those who dislike cleaning and for those who find it cathartic. We don't seek to further operationalize cleaning or design self-cleaning solutions, but to support people's cleaning behaviors.
Following Milestone 1, we collectively decided that we will focus on the demographic of roommates as opposed to parent-child living situations. We made this selection based on the availability of our target audience and our collective interest in the audience, as well as the flexibility and creative license we feel the audience affords in terms of potential design solutions.
We decided to conduct our formative study to learn more about people’s behaviors, perceptions, preferences regarding cleanliness in their homes, and how they relate to the other people they live with around cleaning. We also wanted to know more about how people are motivated to clean or inhibited from cleaning. Our overall goal with the project is to learn how to make cleaning an easier, more enjoyable process, both for those who dislike cleaning and for those who find it cathartic. We don't seek to further operationalize cleaning or design self-cleaning solutions, but to support people's cleaning behaviors.
Study Design
For our study design, we decided to use a two different methods: a photo diary and a written diary, followed by exit interviews. Since there is so much variation in context, emotion, motivation around cleaning, we wanted to conduct a heavily qualitative study as we sought to better understand these more personal aspects to better empathize with the users and come up with thoughtful solutions.
We asked our participants to take 5 photos of things they believed were dirty in their home, and 5 things that they believed were clean in their apartment, as well as a short explanation about how they determined the cleanliness of those objects or spaces. We selected this method to better understand how people define cleanliness (as opposed to tidiness), and to get a better grasp on how people can tell whether something warrants cleaning. This facet is of interest to us because in our initial observations, we noted that people sometimes have a hard time telling what is clean or dirty in their homes, so we sought to get more information about this observation.
Next, we asked our participants to keep a diary about their normal cleaning behaviors (or lack thereof) over three days, and to send us their content. We asked them to frame their diary entries around a few different questions:
We scheduled follow-up interviews following the diary studies (and after we had enough time to review their artifacts) to help them talk through their photos and responses. This aligns with the photo-elicitation study conducted in Tawanna’s project about saving energy in homes. We conducted these follow-up interviews both in person and over the phone. We would have liked to have conducted these follow-up interviews in each participant's home, but due to time constraints, we were unable to do so. We used a funnel approach to our interviews: asking for additional information about the participants' living situations, general cleaning behaviors, motivations, and routines, and then more specific information about what their pain points and emotions are around cleanliness and their spaces. We probed about how participants relate to and interact with their roommates around cleanliness. We asked any follow-up or clarifying questions about the photos and diary entries that these participants provided to us.
We asked our participants to take 5 photos of things they believed were dirty in their home, and 5 things that they believed were clean in their apartment, as well as a short explanation about how they determined the cleanliness of those objects or spaces. We selected this method to better understand how people define cleanliness (as opposed to tidiness), and to get a better grasp on how people can tell whether something warrants cleaning. This facet is of interest to us because in our initial observations, we noted that people sometimes have a hard time telling what is clean or dirty in their homes, so we sought to get more information about this observation.
Next, we asked our participants to keep a diary about their normal cleaning behaviors (or lack thereof) over three days, and to send us their content. We asked them to frame their diary entries around a few different questions:
- Did they engage in cleaning? Why or why not?
To understand how and why people clean, it's also important for us to understand how or why they do not clean, or what inhibits them from doing so. - When they clean, why do they do it?
We wanted to better understand what motivates people to clean. For some, we expected some perceived stress-relief benefits, or some social pressure (like not wanting to keep a shared space dirty or to not disgust visitors). - When they clean, how do they do it?
We wanted to learn more about what people's cleaning processes look like: what tools or products do they use, how have they habituated cleaning, how do they select a time to clean? - How did they feel before and after doing it?
With this question, we sought more insight into how cleaning makes people feel: both before and after they clean; this would give us more information about the emotional impact of cleaning and cleanliness.
We scheduled follow-up interviews following the diary studies (and after we had enough time to review their artifacts) to help them talk through their photos and responses. This aligns with the photo-elicitation study conducted in Tawanna’s project about saving energy in homes. We conducted these follow-up interviews both in person and over the phone. We would have liked to have conducted these follow-up interviews in each participant's home, but due to time constraints, we were unable to do so. We used a funnel approach to our interviews: asking for additional information about the participants' living situations, general cleaning behaviors, motivations, and routines, and then more specific information about what their pain points and emotions are around cleanliness and their spaces. We probed about how participants relate to and interact with their roommates around cleanliness. We asked any follow-up or clarifying questions about the photos and diary entries that these participants provided to us.
Study Results: Analysis
We analyzed the diary studies by grouping together the common themes behind the photos and the comments within the diaries themselves. We wrote down each entry’s trigger, cleaning type, context, and response. We collected the pictures from the diary study on a Sketch canvas and organized them into common themes.
We also organized these findings and insights into an empathy map, understanding what users say, what they do, how they think, and how they feel. This involved writing down quotes, observed behaviors, and their reported thoughts along four quadrants: Say, Do, Think, and Feel. This would help ground our product design in a solid understanding of our target audience. We used the empathy map as a way to synthesize our observations and notes and generate insights.
Study Results: Findings
We learned from our diary studies and interviews that participants feel obligated to do their part in keeping the communal spaces clean. They also expect the same sort of obligation from their roommates. For example, all participants said that they feel pressured to start cleaning when their other roommates start to clean. The presence of other roommates also made it more likely for participants to start cleaning, as they felt that they were more likely to be held accountable for any messes they made.
All households we spoke with described cleaning as a collective, synchronous activity, as opposed to an individual activity that people do on their own time. For example, one participant described cleaning the floors with a dry Swiffer, and the other roommate would clean the same floors with the wet Swiffer. Another participant described how one roommate would take charge of cleaning the kitchen, whereas the other roommate would start cleaning the bathroom. Tasks were delegated organically.
Roommates also remind each other which cleaning tasks have not yet been complete. Participants reported reminding each other when the trash and recyclables need to be taken out. Sometimes, it would take the household about three weeks to complete. Sometimes, rules would need to be reinforced to the entire group. One participant described getting a GroupMe text from another roommate about making sure not to throw liquids away in a trash can to avoid dealing with a leaking garbage bag.
Common triggers also include visual cues. If something looks stained or if they see unfamiliar material, like hair or dirt, people feel compelled to either clean it themselves or gather a collective effort to start cleaning it. Participants also described feeling or sensing the surface with their hands (for counters) or feet (for wooden floors or tiles) and understanding if a surface needed some cleaning, especially if it felt too sticky or sandy.
None of the participants had a formal system for scheduling their cleaning. Usually, if they had gone for two to three weeks without cleaning or saw any dust or dirt collecting, they would know that it is time to clean. All participants described the time it takes to clean the entire apartment as a pain point. As busy students or working professionals, it is difficult to find the time to coordinate and start cleaning.
Contextual activities included immediately cleaning after oneself after they ate or prepared meals. Cleaning was also described in the context of roommates talking to one another in person or over the phone. Roommates would arrive at a collective decision to identify areas that needed cleaning and start cleaning these spaces.
The types of responses were emotional (feeling very responsible or pressured to clean, feeling relieved when they see the rewards of taking the time to clean), social (wanting to help out in a collective living situation), and reflective (analyzing how often and why they cleaned the space the way they did).
All households we spoke with described cleaning as a collective, synchronous activity, as opposed to an individual activity that people do on their own time. For example, one participant described cleaning the floors with a dry Swiffer, and the other roommate would clean the same floors with the wet Swiffer. Another participant described how one roommate would take charge of cleaning the kitchen, whereas the other roommate would start cleaning the bathroom. Tasks were delegated organically.
Roommates also remind each other which cleaning tasks have not yet been complete. Participants reported reminding each other when the trash and recyclables need to be taken out. Sometimes, it would take the household about three weeks to complete. Sometimes, rules would need to be reinforced to the entire group. One participant described getting a GroupMe text from another roommate about making sure not to throw liquids away in a trash can to avoid dealing with a leaking garbage bag.
Common triggers also include visual cues. If something looks stained or if they see unfamiliar material, like hair or dirt, people feel compelled to either clean it themselves or gather a collective effort to start cleaning it. Participants also described feeling or sensing the surface with their hands (for counters) or feet (for wooden floors or tiles) and understanding if a surface needed some cleaning, especially if it felt too sticky or sandy.
None of the participants had a formal system for scheduling their cleaning. Usually, if they had gone for two to three weeks without cleaning or saw any dust or dirt collecting, they would know that it is time to clean. All participants described the time it takes to clean the entire apartment as a pain point. As busy students or working professionals, it is difficult to find the time to coordinate and start cleaning.
Contextual activities included immediately cleaning after oneself after they ate or prepared meals. Cleaning was also described in the context of roommates talking to one another in person or over the phone. Roommates would arrive at a collective decision to identify areas that needed cleaning and start cleaning these spaces.
The types of responses were emotional (feeling very responsible or pressured to clean, feeling relieved when they see the rewards of taking the time to clean), social (wanting to help out in a collective living situation), and reflective (analyzing how often and why they cleaned the space the way they did).
Study Results: Key Insights
- Roommates want to ensure that the allocation of tasks is even in the long term. There are certain tasks that are considered more arduous (such as taking out the trash or cleaning a very long hallway), and everyone is expected to take turns trying it periodically.
- Some stimuli include visual cues, touch, and smell. Our design solution should incorporate these senses into a single product design that keeps users up-to-date on what they need to do.
- Cleaning is a collective, simultaneous activity among roommates. Roommates motivate one another and keep each other accountable for cleaning tasks. In smaller group settings, it’s often easier to get more people involved, but the more people there are, the less likely that everyone will be involved. Usually, there will be a small subset of people who care more about cleaning that will end up taking on more of the cleaning tasks.
- Roommates almost rely on one another to get reminded of when the next round of cleaning needs to be done and when the trash and recyclables need to be taken out.
- However, cleaning is also a time consuming activity. It can be difficult for young students and working professionals to find the time to clean.
Ideation & Selection
Our ideation process was divided into two parts. First, we brainstormed and sketched ideas based on our research findings and key insights. We narrowed down these ideas into three design concepts that we wanted to further explore. To evaluate and select our ideas, we came up with a set of criteria based on our research findings:
- Transparency:
How does the system should allow users to better detect the level of cleanliness of the home? What information can they not immediately glean from the visual cues or sense of touch and smell as they described? How can we use sensor technologies to help them better detect messes and germs that negatively impact the health of the home? - Facilitates communication among people:
How can a system launch and/or foster a fruitful conversation among busy young students about when they start cleaning and how they should allocate tasks? How can it help roommates hold each other accountable for cleaning tasks that they have been assigned? - Enjoyable/fun:
We heard that people sometimes find cleaning to be a time consuming chore. Two participants described that they have always enjoyed cleaning, and others described trying to make it a fun social activity by incorporating dance and music. How can we make cleaning a more enjoyable and fun activity that users would want to partake in more regularly? - Gives regular reminders and notifications:
Students often lost track of the different spills or messes they had made and forgot about them. How can we better serve students by providing regular reminders and notifications about when to complete their given tasks or duties? - Efficient:
Cleaning also requires a fair amount of coordination and communication among roommates. How can this system make this allocation of tasks more efficient? - Problems/Opportunities
Redefined Scope & Concepts
Initially, we were considering our target audience more broadly in terms of people who share a home. This may include parents, roommates, and people with pets. Our refined scope has emerged as helping college students and young working professionals who live with roommates better detect the cleanliness of their home and come up with tasks to support this goal. This system would also help people coordinate and assign cleaning tasks to different roommates and indicate whether a certain surface or room has been cleaned or not.
Design Concept 1: Bacteria Detecting Surfaces
Design Concept 1: Bacteria Detecting Surfaces
In this scenario, Anne is cooking herself a pot roast. She cares about her health very much, so she always made sure to separate her meats and vegetables to reduce any likelihood of cross-contamination. She always makes sure to sanitize her kitchen tools and utensils. However, when she cut the meat, one piece of the meat fell off the cutting board. A part of the counter lit up and informed her that there was a 30% increase in the likelihood of salmonella due to the spillage. Meanwhile, the sensors in Anne’s house also sent her a message to her mobile telling her the same information. So Anne decided to clean the counters with lysol.
- Transparency:
- Users only need to check the screens to find out if there are harmful bacterias around them or not.
- Facilitates communication among people:
- Having this smart counter helps to form a joint understanding of the environment among people sharing the home.
- It strengthens the communication between the home and its residents. People are relying on their senses of sight, smell, and touch to gauge the cleanliness of each surface, but germs like salmonella and E.Coli cannot be observed. A simple wipe down or removal of the particles will not suffice.
- Enjoyable/fun
- Giving feedback on how to clean a polluted area can bring people a sense of security and accomplishment.
- Gives regular reminders and notifications
- The sensors will send alerts to users to remind them to clean certain spaces once any bacteria or harmful germs are detected.
- Efficient:
- Letting people know which surfaces need to be cleaned or are fine can save users a lot of time, as they will not need to wipe down already clean places. They can better prioritize their cleaning to target unsanitary surfaces.
Design Concept 2: Home Health Visualizer
In this scenario, Annie is referring to the main display that reflects the cleanliness and health of their home. She cares the most about cleanliness, so she often ends up in the position of leading or facilitating conversations about when they should clean. After a casual group dinner with her roommates, she refers to the screen, which tells the group who the members are (made possible by bluetooth technologies on their phone and display) and how clean the living room, bathroom, and kitchen are. She is happy to say that the group is on track for the week. If she drills into the “kitchen” bar graph, she is able to see the specific tasks she needs to complete to get her kitchen cleanliness up to 100%. For example, they need to do the dishes and wipe down the counters. The system also scrapes the roommates’ calendars to identify a good time for the majority of people to do a cleaning session. Each room with a sensor has a display outside indicating that the bathroom was cleaned within the last week. Annie takes a quick look around the kitchen and sees that the kitchen display advises taking out the trash.
- Transparency
- The system should allow users to better detect the level of cleanliness of the home. It uses sensors to detect the overall cleanliness of any desired room. It immediately provides an idea of what the user needs to do in order to attain a good level of cleanliness. We also imagine that this would help detect germs that are not easily sensed visually or with the sense of touch.
- Facilitates communication among people
- The system includes a scheduling system that detects the availability of the members and indicates who can help out at which time. It also helps people keep roommates accountable, as the individual room display will tell them if the space has indeed been cleaned recently or not.
- Enjoyable/fun
- Cleaning can be a more fun experience if completed collectively. By using data to visualize the level of cleanliness, this serves to quantify and gamify the level of cleanliness one can achieve for each room.
- Gives regular reminders and notifications
- This system serves to notify when the household is meeting the standard levels of cleanliness and when its users need to pick up their pace and take necessary actions.
- Efficient
- Through understanding what needs to be done and who is available to help out, the system can help allocate the tasks for cleaning the home.
- Problems/Opportunities:
- How does the system exactly sense what tasks need to be complete? Are users responsible for manually leaving sensors that can detect the cleanliness of each room?
- How does the system exactly sense what tasks need to be complete? Are users responsible for manually leaving sensors that can detect the cleanliness of each room?
Design Concept 3: Mobile App & Augmented Reality
In the sketch, Annie is one of the members that lives in the house. On a normal day, Annie goes home and her mobile phone starts to sound an alert. When she looks at the phone, it shows her the places that have been detected to be unclean. It displays a camera view with warning icons that point her in the direction of the dirty places in her home. Annie has bacteria-detecting sensors around her house, and these sensors interact with an augmented reality interface. The interface navigates Annie to the right places to clean. In the sketch, Annie goes to the kitchen from the living room since the mobile app shows there is an unclean surface detected in the kitchen. After Annie finishes cleaning the kitchen and returns back to the living room, she can see that the warning icon that was previously overlaid on her kitchen has been replaced with a check mark with her name. For cleaning the kitchen, she will get some reward points for that. There is a cleaning competition every week that the house members will rank their points from cleaning the house. The reward for the one that gets highest score is randomly selected from the award list that decided by all members initially. By turning cleaning into a form of game for the roommates, people will be more motivated to clean the house. It will also help keep roommates accountable by creating a dashboard or leaderboard of who is contributing the most and least to home cleanliness.
- Transparency
- This system has an indoor navigation running in the background. When users enter the house, they can easily see which place is unclean currently. The AR view gives users a direction that they can quickly follow. By following the AR view provided by the system, users are able to get the right place and clean up the dirty things.
- This system has an indoor navigation running in the background. When users enter the house, they can easily see which place is unclean currently. The AR view gives users a direction that they can quickly follow. By following the AR view provided by the system, users are able to get the right place and clean up the dirty things.
- Facilitates communication among people
- On every sensored space that is detected as being unclean, the system will show a warning icon on users’ mobile app. After users cleaning up the place, the system will also indicate which person has cleaned the place by adding an icon on the AR view on mobile app. In this way, house members are able to know who did the chores that they were supposed to do.
- On every sensored space that is detected as being unclean, the system will show a warning icon on users’ mobile app. After users cleaning up the place, the system will also indicate which person has cleaned the place by adding an icon on the AR view on mobile app. In this way, house members are able to know who did the chores that they were supposed to do.
- Enjoyable/fun
- There is a cleaning competition system in the application. Each time users come home, they may clean up all the things as fast as they can if they want to get the award for that week. The reward system motivates users to clean their house.
- There is a cleaning competition system in the application. Each time users come home, they may clean up all the things as fast as they can if they want to get the award for that week. The reward system motivates users to clean their house.
- Gives regular reminders and notifications
- If there places that are remaining uncleaned, the system will send out reminders and notifications once users come in the house.
- If there places that are remaining uncleaned, the system will send out reminders and notifications once users come in the house.
- Efficient
- Through the indoor navigation system, users are able to quickly find the right place to clean. In addition, the competition activity in the house will give users more motivation to clean the house. By integrating the above-mentioned, the house cleaning efficiency can be significantly increased.
- Through the indoor navigation system, users are able to quickly find the right place to clean. In addition, the competition activity in the house will give users more motivation to clean the house. By integrating the above-mentioned, the house cleaning efficiency can be significantly increased.
- Problems/Opportunities:
- How does the system support indoor navigation? How does the system decide the points that users can get for every tasks? How to decide the reward for the weekly cleaning champion? How can we integrate sensors that are inexpensive enough and accessible enough to have them throughout a space?
- How does the system support indoor navigation? How does the system decide the points that users can get for every tasks? How to decide the reward for the weekly cleaning champion? How can we integrate sensors that are inexpensive enough and accessible enough to have them throughout a space?
Conclusion
At the end of Milestone 2, we narrowed down our scope of designing for people who live with other people (parents & children, roommates) to college students and young working professionals who live with roommates and are learning to live independently with other people for the first time. We learned that cleaning is most likely to be accomplished when it is framed as a social, collective, and synchronous activity. The main constraints for cleaning regularly seems to be a lack of time. Our design concept aims to provide salient notifications and updates to remind people to include cleaning into their weekly schedule and everyday lives. We have started to discuss the social and technical constraints on our designs. Our next steps will include solidifying our design concepts and preparing for user enactments. We also noticed that almost all of our participants were women in their 20s and 30s. We should make sure to get feedback from the male audience.