Dorico
Social Entertainment System
Group project w/ E.Poletti - 2018
The digital natives and the next generations are the main characters of the future scenarios and systems; they have a lot of peculiarities and features, considering their social and relational world. In a context where trends such as micro-living, immersive experiences, and video reactions have spread, it is necessary to rethink the entertainment moment connected to the digital world and strictly related to the sharing of experiences.
Dorico is an entertainment system that comes from the idea of renewing the way you relax by watching video content. The product has great flexibility within the home and can be carried by the user. With this device, we wanted to create the conditions for which relaxing in front of a TV series also leads to socializing in a physical or digital with other people. You can connect with friends far away to watch a movie together or you can invite the closest friends home and take advantage of the interactive features of the product, to be together, have fun, discuss while watching what you want.
What's new?
You can watch your favorite tv series with your best friends or your partner, canceling the distances. You can watch sports programs with improved content or more technical information. You can taste the best cinematography thanks to the live comments of the moviemaker. You can expand your youtube channel, recording your best reaction videos. You can easily have video conferences inside your office with your colleagues, sharing your screen and, at the same time, looking them on the face.
Shaped to its purpose
The shape is what communicates with the user, mainly speaks about style, but when a product melts with its functions the shape explains there too.
Dorico starts with an octagonal base that slowly turns into a perfect circle. The base is solid and, just like Doric columns, stable. Then we go up, and everything becomes freer, the radius increase, a part is moving. It’s like putting your head above the clouds. It’s the metaphor of going higher and freer, enclosed in a video projector. But we have another scenario. Dorico could be used both vertically than horizontally. In the second case, the characteristic shape helps to hold the object in position, while the circular part could rotate to meet the right perspective for the best projection quality.
The screen is placed asymmetrically to give more chances to orient the screen, in that case, we have six suitable positions instead of just 3 if the screen was placed symmetrically
Designed to the core
We were asked to create a real product, using real technologies, and existing components. When we started designing the product we had those bonds quite clear. The engineering part was quite easy, then.
We selected all the components through analysis and benchmarking between our needs and our competitors. We wanted an entertainment system that is really entertaining. So, with an eye on the budget, we selected the best components and placed them inside Dorico. For that reason, we have a DLP projector, that guarantees a full HD vision, paired with a 360° 25W full-range speaker. Together with a 12v lithium battery powering up the whole system and letting it be cordless.
UX and UI Design
Electronic product, such as Dorico, has a double soul. The external one is surely transmitted by the aesthetics and the shape, if it works well the product would be likely to have more success on the market. But once the product is out of the shlef and it begins to be used by customers the most important part becomes the User Experience. It’s undeniable that nowadays the main satisfaction is given by the software than the products itself.
In order to create something very useful and usable, we studied a flow of action that simplifies the use. Dorico could be used with the touchscreen or by vocal command but what we care most is to create confusion by an overload of information. We tried to keep the UI as simple as possible, and as much organic as possible too with the help of bubbles that pop on and pop off.
