For the sketching and drawing practice, my problem is drawn from the cards shown below  –“Mothers need a way to interact on the internet that is 100% recyclable.”

I started by brainstorming ways to interact over the internet, and came up with 3 ideas — online social media, IM (instant messenger) and  a means that connect the real world via internet. These ideas in nature satisfies the constraint that they are recyclable, so at that moment I put the constraint away. Finally with the fact that mothers need to develop new way of communication, 3 models are introduced:

#1.A social media that tries to address parent-child relationship issues.

#2. Bone-conduction earrings.

#3. An NGO that raises money for mothers who need financial support.

 

Sketch for #1

This social media tries to find solutions for parent-child relationship issues from anonymous posts from either parents or children. The only information needed to register includes identity(mother, father, boy, girl), age and location. A post will be categorized under these information. The posts can be about anything and will be tagged as “Moments” “Problems” “Suggestions” etc. — Kids can post about something that they have trouble talking with their parents, a mother can write a post asking how to properly talk about a mistake her kid made, and someone can post a great parent-child experience.  A post or reply may be extremely simple but makes big difference. For example, a girl complaining about her mom not spending time with her may let many mothers take their kids to a trip to the park. Also, this social media will be a great resource for research.

 

Sketch for #2

These days we have a trend for wearable devices. What’s better for mothers than a pair of earrings that eliminates the trouble when they did not answer a call or a message from their kids? With the new headphone technology of bone conduction, it is possible to envision the concept of earrings that have both aesthetic and functional values. Further details will be included in the drawings.

 

Sketch for #3

 This is the operational map for an NGO that donates for poor parents from actions of rich ones. There are two groups of users — member parents and target parents. Member parents can directly donate to the organization, and they can suggest, vote and participate events with their kids through the organization. An example would be a charity basketball tournament, and the scale of it can be either small or big. Imagine the amount of donation that a national basketball tournament will raise. All the organization and preparing work will be done by the NGO and it connects parents and kids who love basketball and want to help poor parents and kids live a better life.

 

Drawings for #2

 It is covered with carbon fiber and decorated with glass, which are both 100% recyclable. All the tech components are inside the earrings and connected to the studs, which connect with the cap and activates the bone-conduction device that allows clear voice only audible to the user herself (like a headphone). The earrings are connected to cell phones via bluetooth, and the company can produce an app that allows pairing of parents and kids. After all things are set up, a mother will be able to listen to voice messages, getting notifications of calls and so on. The second drawing shows how an earring will look like on the ear from different angles, and it shows how the bone-conduction device works. Also, some possible variations are introduced (ear pendants, non-piercing versions, etc.)

*Also, I feel like this idea has a lot of potential in the sense that it can be adopted to any purposes so that not just mothers can use them to communicate with children. Paring with a well-designed app on mobile device, it can be a voice version of Apple Watch or Google Glass.