Toto is a tool to help you and a loved one connect across distances by caring for each other through a fun, game-like experience.
Process
Tot was created in a week-long design sprint called SCAD StartUp.
The Team
I had the privilege to work with four amazing young creatives on this project: Maddie Buchmann, Piper Wishart, Kayla Brander, and Gabriel Mataleo.
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Erin Marshall
Industrial Designer
Piper Wishart
Industrial Designer
Gabriel Mataleo
UX/UI Designer
Mikayla Brander
Production Designer
Madelyn Buchmann
Writer, Project Manager
TimeLine
SCAD StartUp happens over the course of one week.
Concept and Sketches
The theme for the 2023 Startup was "Embrace the Unorthodox". After brainstorming we knew we wanted to do something with self care. However, we had to make it different and "unorthodox" from what was already on the market.
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Pitch
What if you could take care of yourself by taking care of someone else? Author and therapist Virginia Satir recommends that humans get 4 hugs a day at a minimum, 8 hugs a day for mental stability, and 12 hugs a day to see emotional growth. How many hugs do you get a day?
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Toto is a playful device that allows you to embrace the distance. Because guess what? You can hug your favorite person from anywhere in the world. Toto is portable, so it can clip to your keys, lanyard, or backpack, or it can fit in your pocket. Toto is customizable. You and your Toto Buddy can each choose different colors for your device and design your in-game avatars to look like you as well. Toto is easy to use with a simple interface, two buttons, and a navigation wheel. And of course, Toto is fun to play with.
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Toto has three main functions:
-The first is Sensory Support for sending haptic messages, like hugs, kisses, and high fives.
-The second is Physical Needs for reminding your Toto buddy to take care of their body and physical needs, like drinking, eating, or taking medications.
-The final main function is Mood Share for letting each other know how you’re feeling throughout the day.
-Toto also has a settings menu for customizing both your in-game avatar and your Toto experience.
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It was really important for us to embrace the concept of fun designed for adults because one-fourth of all kids toy sales are from adults buying those toys for themselves.
How does Toto work?
To better illustrate the Toto experience, we will continue following Gabe and his mom on their long-distance journey.
Gabe and his mom received their Totos in a package of two. After unboxing their personalized bevices, they set up their Totos by visiting the Toto website, where they designed their in-game avatars and then input a one-time code to connect their devices. The last step of using Toto is to become separated by distance—short or long. In Gabe and his mom's case, Gabe boards an airplane and flies to Savannah, Georgia for college.
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There are many different touch messages you can send with Sensory Support, each of which has their own unique haptic signature. One of the most important touch messages is the hug. In our animated example, Gabe's mom sends him a hug. For both the sender and the receiver, the device buzzes and heats up for the duration of the hug. Other touch messages include a kiss, high-five, head pat, and hand hold.
For Physical Needs, we've animated Gabe's mom reminding Gabe to drink water. On her screen, her avatar hands Gabe's avatar a glass of water, who drinks it and puts the glass away. On Gabe's device, he will receive a reminder to drink water with his mom's avatar holding up a glass. He has five minutes to respond to that reminder and confirm that yes, he drank water, or else his mom's avatar will put the glass away. There are many other important uses for the Physical Needs reminders, such as eating, taking medications, showering, or exercising.
Mood share allows you to share how you're feeling with your Toto buddy, even without a text or phone call. Let them know when you're feeling happy, sad, angry, lonely, anxious, excited, or loved, and then your Toto avatar will reflect how you are feeling with a speech bubble, expression, and movement on your loved one's screen. You can see how your loved one is feeling on your screen. This is a great way to let your Toto buddy know a bit about your day as if they were there with you to read your emotions.
Additionally, once per day, your Toto device will ask you to send a voice message to your loved one. It will give you a speaking prompt so that even if you don't have anything to say about your day, you can answer or ask a question to help you deepen your relationship with your Toto buddy. When you receive a voice message, you can listen to it whenever you want throughout the day until the next voice message arrives. This feature emphasizes the importance of growing a relationship even when you're not able to feel physically close.
Business Model and Product Positioning
For SCAD Startup each team is required to turn in a business model. We also decided to create a product position map to demonstrate exactly where in the market our product would live.
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Vision Video
Each team was asked to create a 30 second vision video that would be posted on the Startup Instagram:
