Stanford Design Capstone
IYSO
User research · Rapid concept development · Physical prototyping
Silence the world, capture authentic moments.
Project Overview.
For our 20-week Stanford Design Capstone, we looked at how young people capture and hold onto memories. We kept hearing the same thing, phones are the easiest camera to reach for but they also make it very easy to leave the moment. One notification turns into a text back, a scroll on a social media app, and suddenly you are somewhere else.
At the same time, people are gravitating toward analog cameras because they do one thing well. The problem is that they can be expensive, bulky, and a little annoying to live with. So we made IYSO: a reclaimed disposable camera lens that attaches to your phone, plus an iOS app with an intentionally simple camera and the ability to block distracting apps.
IYSO lens + companion app view while capturing photos.
IYSO team + our coach Mike!
Process.
Planning
We started out interested in memory, especially how people revisit it. After talking with people and working through a ton of ideas, we realized the more interesting question was earlier in the memory process. This led us to ask what helps someone actually stay present while a memory is being made?
Exploring
We dug into the appeal of analog cameras. They are not always practical, but that is almost part of the point. They give you one job and make it easier to pay attention to everything else around you. We wanted to bring that feeling to the device people already have in their back pocket.
Making + Refining
This final concept was a late pivot to say the least. We landed on IYSO during the last two weeks of a 20 week class, then went into sprint mode. Delali and Candace built the iOS experience while Pierre and I experimented with reclaimed disposable-camera lenses, and tested how the physical and digital pieces could work together. By the end, we had a beta app in TestFlight and lenses out with early testers.
