Hello! I am Ankita, a grad student from the University of Michigan. Through this blog, I am going to share my recent experience with Sencity Corp and how it was a wake-up call for me to notice the urban infrastructure around me.
My spring break (Feb 27 - Mar3) was all about the things I wanted to do in this 1 week; visit New York, meet dogs and explore something new in UX. The something new happened through Steven Bai, co-founder of Sencity Corp and TetraBin (the office was in New York and had a dog also).
Steven Bai was a speaker at Interaction’17 which held at New York from Feb 3-8 (a must visit for every UXer!). During the conference, Steven talked about urban infrastructures and how there is a need to bring back these infrastructures to life and to the notice of its citizens.
Sencity Corp focusses on making delightful experiences through these infrastructures. Their first product TetraBin, which marked its debut in Sydney, was a huge success amongst kids and got so popular that it was shot by National Geographic and Discovery Channel. TetraBin has brought delightful experience in throwing trash. When you throw trash, the bin starts a Tetris game and you must throw more trash to continue the game.
During my 1 week externship at Sencity Corp, I got to see the re-iterated version of the bin, got to discuss the endless possibilities of interactive experiences of a trash bin and pitched some ideas for utilizing these bins in theme parks and streets. The vision behind this trash bin is not to add another digital medium in our lives, but to make the citizens more connected through each other and make the city experience a delight.
There are endless possibilities of TetraBin, it can be used as a multiplayer game connecting strangers from different parts of the city, a fun educating material for kids to learn about recycling or environment or even a safety tool to keep the streets well lit.
The point is, the next time you walk by a trash bin or a mailbox or a lamp post it might catch your attention because it is adding more value to your city life. Why do we need sleek shiny billboards when we can utilize the existing ones and make them more noticeable? The next time you walk past a mailbox or throw trash in the bin, wait for 2 seconds because it might thank you or challenge you to a game.
Think about it, and let us know in comments what you think could be the future of these infrastructures, we might make it come to life!