Snowflakes: a design speculation for a modular prototyping tool for rapidly designing smart wearables

Abstract

Aesthetics qualities are critical aspects for smart jewelry as they are worn and considered as expressive artefacts. However, current tools for prototyping smart jewelry do not put aesthetic considerations as a primary concern. Therefore, we created Snowflakes, a design speculation for a modular, "snap-on-off", prototyping tool for designing smart jewelry. The design requirements of Snowflakes were determined after studying non-smart jewelry and extracting 7 parameters for them (limb, material, grip, fastener type, decoration, decoration placement and form). Drawing upon these parameters, Snowflakes were proposed as a tool that would allow prototyping smart jewelry by synthesizing conventional jewelry's form language with smart jewelry which is adorned with technology. This paper explores using this product as a design tool to experiment on designs blending aesthetics and function.