A two-week diary of passion and momentum
Field Hack TONO - Development ~ Announcement -

Hello. This is Nakaniwa, the editor-in-chief.
In this second part, we will share our experience participating in "Field Hack TONO," a hackathon co-hosted by Google Innovation Tohoku and IAMAS.
In the first part , we reported on the fun three-day hackathon, which covered everything from fieldwork to problem analysis, coming up with ideas for solving those problems, and creating prototype concepts.

However, when we returned from Tono, our view changed from the rural mountain scenery to an LCD monitor, and the furious development of the prototype began.
The announcement will be made the following Saturday! There is only a two week period.
All team members are company employees working in Tokyo during the weekdays. How much can we accomplish in this development period that only includes one weekend?

We will report on the team's struggles, partly in diary format.

Humulp Team
2-week development diary

Sunday, November 6th (last day of Field Hack)
It all started on the return Shinkansen train

On the day that the first half of the field hack was over, Kumaken-san, who should have been on the Shinkansen returning to Tokyo from Iwate, contacted me via Facebook (hereafter abbreviated as "FB") messenger to say that he had prepared a template that would serve as the basis for the prototype. I was amazed at how quickly he acted, without even having time to rest.

Monday, November 7th (12 days left until the announcement)
A short rest and preparation for tomorrow

On this day, we just checked the agenda for tomorrow's MTG.
Meanwhile, I was working at a rapid pace to deal with the Monosus tasks that had been piling up.
Kumaken has equipped his prototype with the bare minimum of functionality.

Tuesday, November 8th (11 days left until the announcement)
Today is the meeting right after Tono

At first glance it looks like a drinking party, but at the beer table a heated discussion is taking place.
While taking minutes and gathering information on my smartphone.

This day was the day of the meeting that had been decided in advance to be held immediately after Tono (although it was held in a beer pub).
First, let's have a drink, the Holy Grail, and then we'll get straight to the point.
The main mission today is to finalize the plan.

• Who are the users?
• Who is this app for?
• What are the features?
  

So the basics have not yet been solidified.

I thought that we needed to be more specific about who the users were, otherwise we wouldn't be able to organize the functions, so I quickly placed a "user demographics diagram" I had handwritten on a notebook on the table and started the discussion. (I thought that paper would be the easiest to present at a table with food and drinks on the table, so I prepared a handwritten notebook.)
After that, we all forgot to order food for a while, and using this diagram as a basis, we quickly discussed with the users each user's actions and the flow of information when using the app.

Handwritten demographics diagram

As the users became clearer, ideas for features started to come to me...
"Yoshida-san would like to know the evaluation of hops.
However, scientific analysis using something like a test tube is difficult with the technology we have. Instead, is it possible to convert the qualitative evaluations given by the words of beer drinkers into a quantitative evaluation...?"
With this in mind, we began to think about whether we could analyze the sensory expressions of taste and create something like a positioning map.

Also, from the user's perspective, we wanted a feature that would suggest dishes that go well with the selected beer, or nearby restaurants that sell it. We also tried to think about this original idea in terms of each user group.

At that time, Shinobu's wife, who is a food researcher, somehow managed to find out the five elements that determine taste.
Everybody just moves fast.

Just as the discussion was getting more and more interesting, the time limit was reached. Although we hadn't yet reached the point of drawing up an overall WBS (work breakdown structure), we had come up with a variety of ideas for users and specific functions linked to them, and we decided to create a "story" as our next action.
Shinobu-san created the plot for the story that day, and I was to flesh it out by two days later (Thursday, November 10th). I was anxious that we didn't have much time, but I was also excited to get started, so I headed home.

Wednesday, November 9th (10 days left until the announcement)
Thinking about the outline of the proposal

At that time, I understood a "story" to be something like a proposal, so after consulting with my partner, a web planner, we came up with the following items:

1. Discoveries (what I saw and heard during fieldwork)
2. Problem (problem seen in 1)
3. Issues (issues extracted from problem 2)
4. Means for solving the problem (solution explanation)
   

Let's look back at these and organize the information we have so far.
Meanwhile, the messenger timeline has begun to show cryptic, industry-jargon-like conversations between developers, such as "Pull request submitted" and "merged!"

As someone who senses a moe element in programming terminology, I find it very enjoyable.

Thursday, November 10th (9 days left until announcement)
The beer storyteller is here

I somehow managed to prepare a rough proposal and shared it with everyone on Facebook Messenger.
We received a generally positive response, but we also received feedback that people would like to include stories about user personas.
I wondered if this was what everyone was talking about when they said "story" afterwards, but then TM started posting stories to the group, asking, "For example, something like this?" It was like a beer storyteller had arrived. So I decided to ask TM to help me.

Friday, November 11th (8 days left until announcement)
We were only given five minutes!

This day was the Monosus anniversary party. I couldn't work at all because I was broadcasting the party live.
On the other hand, I was worried about the presentation time, so I asked the office and was told that each team would have 5 minutes. I immediately shared this with everyone on my team. There was a bit of a fuss, with some saying, "That's too short!"

• Project planning
• Persona's Story
• Prototype Description
  

These were the plans to announce, but there was a minor controversy over how the time was allocated.

Saturday, November 12th (7 days left until the announcement)
How to use a two-day weekend, Part 1

Day 1 of the only weekend during development.
As for next steps other than development,

• Continued story
• Organize the list of functions → Determine how much of the function can be realized in the prototype
• Screen layout
  

We quickly created a list of features and deployed it.
TM will also develop a new story.

Tomorrow is the opening day of a new exhibition at a gallery I am involved in as part of my personal activities.
The day ended with us being busy preparing for the event at night.

Sunday, November 13th (6 days left until the announcement)
How to use a two-day weekend, Part 2

The second day was the only weekend during the development period, and since it was the gallery opening day, I was barely able to do any work in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, the team discussed the following list of things to do in the near future on Messenger:

• Dummy data input for prototypes
• Deciding on an app name
• Preparing presentation materials
• Prototype: Includes a complete flow of input, detailed display, and search
• Design (are the main pages thin or something?)
  

With the functions sorted out, I thought we could finally start designing the screen, and when I started talking about design, we agreed that it would be good to have a design that would give an idea of what the final product would look like during the presentation.
I felt anxious and pressured, wondering "Will we be able to finish in time at this stage?", but I told myself that I had no choice but to do as much as I could.
And so the two-day weekend was over in a flash (lol)

Monday, November 14th (5 days left until announcement)
A heated discussion on screen transitions: "Suggestions" and "Check-ins"

Although we had a list of features, when it came time to actually implement them into the UI, we had some questions about how to organize the global navigation (hereafter referred to as "Glonavi"), so we asked the team via messenger.
The conversation then turned to screen transitions, and the discussion heated up.
If we could see a heat map showing the intensity of the discussion, it would surely be bright red right now; that's how heated the discussion was.
In particular, when I heard the words "suggest" and "check-in" from Mizu, I felt that these were key words for the app, so I dug deeper into the conversation.
"Search" cannot be used unless a person knows their own desires.
"Suggestions" bring to light people's unspoken desires and thoughts. They bring to light things that were previously invisible, and this can change people's behavior. They inform people of their desires that could not be picked up by a simple "search."
This is a story about UX design, incorporating the flow of the “suggestion” experience into the app.
It was a discussion that made me feel like the tides had really shifted.

A quick image of the screen transitions posted by Ms. Mizu on Messenger

The discussion continued until midnight that day, and in the end, my own design work was not started at all.
However, it seems we can now finally get started on the concrete screen design.
Well, there are only four days left, excluding today. Will the design be ready in time?

Tuesday, November 15th (4 days left until the announcement)
Let's go with "Humulp"!

Based on yesterday's discussion, Shinobu put together a table summarizing the relationship between users' "situations and triggers."
It's really interesting to see each member just create things that they think would be good to have and share them with everyone.

I was thinking that maybe I should reconsider the app name suggestions I had been calling out for a while, including yesterday's discussion, but the name "Humulp", which was voted for by everyone, was the most likely.
With the understanding that this might be changed later, it was decided to go with "Humulp" at the time of the announcement.

On the other hand, I have never used Adobe Experience Design (hereafter referred to as XD) before, so I started to think about using it. XD is still in beta, but it is a popular design software that allows you to quickly create simple prototypes with designs and screen transitions.
However, there was a lot of work that day, and I had to work overtime until late, so I could barely get any work done.
Will the design be in time?

Wednesday, November 16th (3 days left until the announcement)
Start studying a new app 3 days before the announcement

During my lunch break, I watched a demo video of XD and finally learned how to use it.
I'll start using it as soon as I finish work that day.
There were only three days left until the presentation, including this day. If I didn't show the design by tomorrow, I wouldn't be able to make it in time for the presentation. That day, I cut down on my sleep and devoted myself to the design.
Start with simple screens such as the login screen and list screen.
XD, it's very easy to use and runs smoothly.

Meanwhile, on the prototype development side, the search screen is finally starting to work.
The part that Kumaken created from the front end (UI) and the part that Mizu created from the back end (backend) are now connected, and it is now possible to actually input and output data from the UI.

A prototype screen showing the "view" function in action.

However, another problem emerged. It was discovered that the cache was not being handled properly, causing the screen to not update.
Mizu muttered that she had to fix it somehow before the announcement.
By the way, the two developers have been taking paid leave at various points during this period to work on the project, for which we are extremely grateful.

Thursday, November 17th (2 days left until announcement)
Kitchen office plan. The design is finally being developed.

Mizu-san found a solution to the cache problem last night early this morning, and had it implemented by noon.
In this way, the prototype is steadily coming together in preparation for its announcement.

In the evening, I finished work a little early and went home to continue designing.
In order to concentrate, I placed my monitor in the kitchen, which is the most comfortable place, and decided to work there until the presentation.
I want to roll it out to everyone before it's too late.
At the same time, I also have to prepare the presentation, such as a proposal document.
Despite this sense of crisis, I felt I had to complete the design, so I temporarily shut out information from the outside world.
I feel sorry that I was unable to participate in compiling the presentation slides.

The author brought in an LCD monitor and hacked the kitchen to do design work. It was no longer a place to relax, but a battlefield.

When I shared the designs along the way, everyone's reactions were positive.
I was immediately relieved to see that it was okay to proceed as planned.
And when it came to the app's logo, people were quick to express their pure love for beer, saying things like, "I want to use a yellow background (probably representing golden beer)," "I want to add white on top (representing beer foam)," "The yellow just doesn't look right... (expressing a sense of discomfort as the yellow of beer is somehow different from the familiar color)," and so on (laughs).
Watching this exchange, I was reminded how much everyone really loves beer, and I couldn't help but grin to myself.

Friday, November 18th (1 day left until announcement)
The production team makes a final push.

This day was a substitute day off that I had decided to take in advance. I spent the entire time creating the screen.
Now that I have a little more free time, I'm finally able to check the slides for my presentation (sorry).
It feels good.

It was 9pm the next day before the announcement. The production team was making their final push.
At that time, Kumaken posted a link on Line Messenger.
Everyone started getting excited about this, so I took a look and saw that the prototype had a reporting screen about hops!
The analysis results are visualized in graphs and tables!
This is amazing! Everyone was so excited!
Who would have thought that such a spectacular feature would emerge at this point!

Hop reporting screen

It was a night where it felt like each of them was making a furious final push, and even just from their online interactions it was clear...

That day, I ended up staying up all night, so I decided to head to the meeting place in Shinjuku at 6am, taking whatever I had with me.

6am. Rainy day at Shinjuku Station.

It's exciting presentation time. Will our prototype resonate with Tono-nii-san?

As in the last time, we headed to Tono by car with three members of Monosus who were participating in Field Hack TONO (one of whom was a former colleague) and one person who wanted to observe the presentation.
All three of us except the visitors were sleep-deprived. We took turns taking naps.
I wasted no time on the journey and kept clicking away on my PC.

Just like last time, the four of us had Utsunomiya gyoza set meals (600 yen) for breakfast at the Kamikawachi Service Area. For some reason, we sat in a row at the counter and ate heartily.

This time we don't have much time before the meeting time.
I had planned to meet up with my team members an hour before the meeting and rehearse our presentation, but due to road conditions we ended up running out of time...
Instead, we mainly use Messenger to discuss the arrangements for today's presentation.

Before we knew it, we had arrived at the venue.
The members of Field Hack TONO have reunited.
The Humulpu team will consist of four members, excluding Kumaken, who was unable to participate due to circumstances.

Each team spent the first 30 minutes preparing their booth.
In this time, we were finally able to do one practice run. It took about 7 to 8 minutes, way over the 5 minute time limit.
For each part, we will point out areas for improvement, such as ``You should say this bit more'' or ``Just gloss over that bit.''

Before we knew it, it was time for Tono-nii-san to have a pre-demo experience, and without another rehearsal, it moved on to the presentation time for the whole group.

Since we were the third team to present, we listened to the other teams' presentations first.
Not only were each team's prototypes interesting, but the way they presented them was also very creative and individual. Some teams even made videos to promote their products, starring and editing them themselves.

The Marginal Village team, a group of three perfectly organized young people, presented their product " Kome-dori Post, " which turns "I'll come again" into "I've come again." LINE messages are delivered to the recipient as analog letters (printed on a printer), and handwritten letters are delivered as LINE messages. In addition to the prototype, the elaborate promotional video also brought excitement and laughter.

To convey the appeal of doburoku, the Doburoku team presented their AR app " Dobu Fan! ", which shows the fermentation process. When you hold your smartphone over the label, you can see the fermentation process. Their lively and cheerful presentation left a strong impression.

The Shopping District team presented " HOP ," an app that lets you meet locals who can talk enthusiastically about Tono. Both tourists and locals can voluntarily publish their real-time location information and then meet and talk with them. This was also a humorous presentation by the three presenters, who were perfectly timed and got the crowd excited.

The last team was the Satoyama team, which included Takeda from our company. They presented a " Visualization Map of Land Use in Specific Water Areas, " focusing on the "river" that connects the mountains and the villages. When you click on a pin on the map, the use and proportion of land within the river's water area is visualized, showing the current state of the Satoyama.

It's finally time for our Team Humulp to make an announcement.
The structure of the presentation

• Thoughts and history leading up to development
• Prototype Description
• Design Description
  

This is the flow.
Perhaps due to nervousness, the session went even longer than the rehearsal (apologies to the secretariat).

Now let me introduce the app that we, the Humulp team, have created.
This is the beer log app "HUMULUPU." (For the prerequisites for the prototype and the information obtained from fieldwork, please refer to the first part and the " Recap of the previous article " at the beginning of this article.)

A total of 11 screens were designed, including list, details, timeline, and my page screens. The images are simple mockups with button areas and links set. Created with Adobe Experience Design.

By facilitating the flow of information about beer, we hope to provide hop farmers with evaluations of hops.
To achieve this, we devised the Beer Log app, which allows communication between consumers (beer fans), stores (beer pubs), brewers, and hop farmers.
We provide evaluations of the hops used in beer by extracting them from consumer reviews as well as direct feedback from brewers who use the hops.

On the other hand, the app also aims to create a movement to increase the number of beer fans and raise beer literacy.

To achieve this, we 1) considered how to create a route that would connect consumers, stores, and beer makers, and 2) how to encourage people to record more reviews.
Regarding 1), in addition to general SNS functions (timeline, messaging, etc.), we will also provide a suggestion function for discovering beer, shops, and people in a more unconscious way than searching.
Regarding 2), we added a "check-in" feature to make it easier to log reviews, lowering the barrier to reviewing.

In addition to that, we have envisioned various other functions to suit each user experience, but we hope to be able to introduce these in more detail on a separate occasion at the time of the actual release.
( Click here for the introduction on the Innovation Tohoku website)

This is a screen of a prototype with actual functions (design not yet installed). The screen shows a report screen for hop farmers. It displays reports such as hop evaluations based on natural language analysis of consumer feedback.

The opinions received in the commentary were as follows:

• We hope that the four parties (hop farmers, brewers, restaurants, and beer fans) will be able to share information through the app in the future, which will lead to further data analysis.
• It would be nice to be able to design a market where high-quality hops can be distributed in small lots.
• There is potential because beer lovers are highly motivated to share information.
• I'm looking forward to seeing how they effectively present qualitative data.
• It may be possible to provide feedback beyond just "It's delicious" and about things that the individual cannot put into words.
  

All of these opinions were very helpful and we hope to make use of them in the future.

After the presentation, there will be a demo time at each booth, where the public will be invited to demonstrate prototypes, give explanations, and answer questions.

The Marginal Villages team (left) demonstrating the "Kome Dori Post" and the Fermentation team (right) demonstrating the "Dobu Fan"

This is our Humulp team's booth.

Ms. Isezaki (left), also known as Tono Niisan from the Satoyama team, passionately explaining the "Visualization MAP of Land Use in Specific Water Areas," and the Shopping District team's booth (right)

What are each of the Tono stories?
A social gathering to look back on the past

After the presentation there will be a much-anticipated social gathering.
We've been working really hard for the past two weeks. This isn't the end, but we can all enjoy a moment of relief, right? So let's all have a toast.

The glass we toasted in was filled with "Freshly Picked Hops Ichiban Shibori," a beer made from fresh Tono hops. When we think that the hops that Yoshida and other Tono hop farmers worked so hard to produce are packed into this beer, it tastes even more delicious.

All participants and stakeholders raised a toast after a greeting from Tomomi, the owner of Innovation Tohoku!

The printer they brought with them was not working properly, and the Marginal Village team was unable to demonstrate the " Kome Dori Post " during the presentation time. They didn't give up, and tried again at the social gathering. They finally received the printed letter, which was met with cheers from the crowd.

During the meeting, each person gave a talk about what this story of Tono meant to them.
For me, the biggest story was about meeting people, especially my meeting with these team members, so I focused on that.

Humulp members talking about "My Tono Story." From left: TM, Shinobu, Mizu, and the author.

Left) Satoyama team. The comments from the three of them show how the team is starting to work together...
Right) To everyone at the secretariat. Thank you for your hard work from morning till night.

Afterwards, each participant will share their own story of Tono.
It was a relaxing evening with everyone listening to each other's stories.

After the social gathering, we forgot about our tiredness and went to the after-party... The night in Tono continued to deepen.

Field Hack TONO and then

The day after the presentation.
We were enjoying the liberating atmosphere until late last night, but at 9am we started our meeting in the hotel lobby to discuss future plans.
We also discussed future developments with hop farmer Yoshida (Tono Nii-san) and Tamura from Next Commons Lab .

Yoshida, Tamura and the other Humulp members begin a meeting in the hotel lobby.

During our discussions, we decided to aim for the first release of this prototype in the spring of next year (2017).
Another challenge for the future will be how to combine online and offline elements to move the project forward, while also incorporating the VR bar* known as "Tono no Mado," which was not possible in this prototype.

*A VR bar is a place outside of Tono where images of Tono's hop farms are projected onto walls and other surfaces using projection mapping, allowing people to communicate with each other not only through video chat but also by adding interactive effects to the images.

It seemed that other teams besides us were also having meetings that day about their future plans. What should we do to make this event not the end, but something that will lead to the next event? I think that's what all the teams were discussing.

The most valuable thing about this Field Hack was the connections I made with people.
This is true of the people of the town of Tono, but above all, I believe that my encounters with my teammates are truly invaluable.
Working passionately towards the same goal, on a project with people I would never have met in my everyday work or life, I was able to spend a short but intense time with them, which will be a great asset for me in the future.

Our team is still working on the project, and our meetings (or rather, beer study groups) are still ongoing (laughs).
As a result, I'm excited about the new possibilities that are opening up as I make new acquaintances and learn about initiatives in other regions.

This is what Field Hack is all about.
Our team's efforts have only just begun.
If there are any new developments, I'll let you know.
See you next time.