PEBBLE
Cisco for your work and life balance
Intro
Cisco Pebble is a portable collaborative communication device focused on maintaining the work-life balance of hybrid workers by supporting their daily work-from-home and after-work time.
About
Strategic Product Design
Student Term Project
Duration
2022 - 8 weeks
collaboration
Cisco
Team
Chinmay Bhogaonkar
Trend
As businesses reopen after the historic challenges of the pandemic, it’s clear that the workplace has changed forever. The business stakeholders have seen the value that workforce flexibility can bring. The future of work will continue to be a hybrid of in-office and remote.
challenge
Remote work creates great new opportunities, but to make the most of it, you need to be sure people are using the best device for their role or location.
However, hybrid workers often find it difficult to unplug from work and even tend to work overtime. This work-life imbalance can cause physical & mental chronic stress, reduce productivity and impact social relationships with friends and family.
In cooperation with Cisco, based on their years of experience in the collaborative communication devices field, we aim to re-envision it as a lifestyle brand and bring it into the homes of users. We see it as an evolutionary step for Cisco since our product will organically extend into the consumer market.
How might we provide hybrid workers a way to be productive during work hours whilst detaching from work when needed and celebrating after-work life?
Final design
The final design is Cisco Pebble, a portable collaborative device focused on maintaining the work-life balance of hybrid workers by supporting their activities in daily work and after-work time.
Different modes
With a retractable screen, Cisco Pebble supports three display modes, which are designed for flexibility within the hybrid worker’s environment. This offers you the most comprehensive support when you need it, and when you're on a break; you'll have one less black mirror in your home.
Work-life switch
Hybrid workers can personalise how to perceive Pebble. By using the physical Work-Life Switch button, you can transform your house environment through smart lights, to create a suitable atmosphere for different times. This can help you maintain a healthy balance in your daily life.
Designed to blend in
Pebble is designed to blend seamlessly into the home environment. The CMF forms an intricate balance between comfort and sophistication. Its small footprint ensures multiple use cases around your home.
Contactless experience
You can command simple functions like playing a video or switching off a timer through gesture control when your hands are occupied. Additionally, voice control offers a deeper level of interaction to enhance the contactless experience.
Smart Webex assistance
The screen gently rises to notify you of upcoming meetings. You can then choose to attend sessions on your workstation or Pebble, resulting in the screen rising to its maximum to start the video conference.
Cooling
The cooling process takes place on the back of the pebble, ensuring that it maintains high performance at all times. Air is drawn in from the bottom and expelled through the top cooling holes.
Adjustable & portable
The foldable stand on the back allows the screen to be angled to give the best visual experience. The portability of Pebble is also well ensured, allowing you to hold it comfortably with one hand.
Privacy protect
Cisco cares about your privacy. Pebble allows you to instantly access the camera switch function through the physical button at the back of the screen.
Well-being
Cisco also takes care of your well-being. If the work slots are too long, by changing the display on the screen, Pebble will remind you to take a short break to relax and get some fresh air.
Design process
The initial concepts started as a portable phone/tablet docking module with reliable networking and audio capabilities that enable hybrid workers to have quick Webex meetings from the comfort of their favourite spots at home. The device doubles as a portable speaker for after-work entertainment. And portable module consists of a wired charging station and a smart hub that controls smart devices in the home. The physical switch on the charging station allows the user to switch between work and life modes, represented by environmental and digital changes.
initial concepts ideation
In the first phase of concept exploration, we demonstrated user daily interaction flow and developed ideas by sketching, illustrator, and rapid foam & laser cut prototype iterations.
Concept refine and development
Physical model building
In the final stage of design development, we decided to build up the functional screen retractable model to better show the user interaction experience in a real environment during the final presentation.
