Documentation & Reflection

Week 2 - Reflection

Liony Lumombo - Mon 9 March 2020, 12:42 am

After seeing the inspirational presentations from classmates, I concluded that in general, the ideas they put forward were related to everything that was "smart". And the second most is related to mental health which in my opinion lacks understanding of the problems taken, so some ideas will actually make users tortured.

I have seen feedback on the ideas I put forward and I appreciate the additional suggestions that will be very helpful for improvising these ideas. These blocks are limited to one side only as a marker so it is not complex, which can then be developed into all sides to be more interactive. And some suggestions related to puzzles remind me to add them as a challenge. An interesting game has a competition so users can get better and better. Therefore there is a need for the high score. I found this in one of the feedbacks. Nice advice.

So, I am interested in something related to learning and games. I hope I can find a group that has the same interests to do the adventure in that area.

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Soldering Tutorial

I have no experience at all with this, so I have been confusion in making my LED light up. I focus on making the lights turn on, without realizing that the lights cannot be turned off because the melted wire is connected to the entire circuit. I fixed it and I was having fun to learn something new.

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Week 1 Catchup

Timothy Harper - Mon 9 March 2020, 12:31 am

The work done

Week 1 we began classes by looking at our expectations, fears, aspirations, questions and rumours we've heard about deco3850. We wrote all of these down on different whiteboards around the class and Lorna went through each of them

For rumours, I had heard from DECO2300 that we are using ARDUINO! This kind of scares me a little as for that course, I explored VR instead of Arduino, but I'll happily add onto aspirations that I'm keen to learn how to do build and code it. Speaking to other students, I have a better understanding that setting aside another 10 hours on top of the 10 contact hours is really important if we want to succeed in the course, so I've set up in my timetable a schedule to accommodate this.

We went through the Studio outline. We have our weekly journals, the project inspiration in Week 2, team project from Week 4 - 13, Exhibition on May 22 and portfolio and critical reflection due in the weeks following. Looking forward to the final products.

After running through the course outline, we began our project inspiration. I looked for ideas using Instagrams

hashtag features, searching up tags such as #physicalcomputing, #interactivedesign, #futuristicdesign, #tangibledesign.

I found some interesting things to do with touch and lighting, such as lighting which turns on and off with a tap, and graphical lighting that is generated when you play a note on a piano.

We then continued looking for examples of physical computing that either did or didn't fit the brief and posted it on slack.

For the Wednesday, our homework was to explore one of the seven HCI Grand Challenges. These are challenges for the future of Human-Computer Interaction Design.

My challenge was #7: Social Organisation and Democracy.

This challenge explores how HCI can benefit 'smart societies' and tackle problems such as jobs, poverty, environment issues and equality.

With the issue of sustainabilty, HCI should seek to be environmentally friendly in regards to what it is used for, and what the tech is made out of in a world where natural resources might be limited.

With the issue of social justice, technology should be designed to be as inclusive as possible, and not just to benefit one social class.

This extends onto active citizen participation whereby all citizens can use the technology. How to engage the citizens in impactful participation and encourage long term participation and inclusion is another challenge without overloading citizens with too much information. People within minority populations and low social classes also have a risk of being excluded.

Democracy is another issue that is explored and touches on the issue that the internet actually filters our ideas and shows us what we want to see, as opposed to getting views from the other side of the coin. We are prone to getting caught in a 'bubble'. If algorithms outside of Facebook were doing this, we are on a slippery slope to strong censorship and fake news. We want to maintain a diversity of views and insure AI can facilitate this.

Awais' Experiement

Awais has made an experiment to help us come up with ideas for the project inspiration. Using a pack of playing cards and a cipher, we had to come up with some pretty wack ideas. The cards are associated with a sentence. A spade = Design to/for. A club = Place. A heart = Interaction Mode. A diamond = Interaction Quality.

Some ideas from the table we were on. You can see the sentences we made and from their ideated from

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The cipher and cards and their corresponding meanings.

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I actually found the experience quite fun and useful. I made up some things that I would have never even thought of before. We had a few rounds, the first few being individual and then as a table coming together and discussing our favourite ideas.

The first sentence I made was Design for DEBATE in a BICYCLE using SING with the quality FOREVER

I came up with a musical synthesizer that turns your voice into song, which is powered by a dynamo as your are riding on your bike. The song is actually a debate you undertake with other riders, and you can playback said recordings forever.

A different take on it is to upload a set of 16 words / responses and having to debate using only those responses to satisfy the FOREVER quality as the responses cant be changed.

Another take is to have music from top 40 debated on a stage powered once again by a bike dynamo. As sustainabilty is a topic of FOREVER, and using a bike is sustainable, it satisfies the quality.

Changing the design from DEBATE to OBSCURING, I came up with this You obscure your real voice by song through bike power, and this becomes your new voice forever, like how darth vader speaks through his breathing mechanism.

For the sentence Design for OBSCURING in a PARK using SING with the quality FOREVER

Hide treasures in the park under a water display (similar to what you would see out the hotel in Las Vegas). The shooting jets of water are timed to the sound of song and hidden under the waterfall, you throw a coin and it is forever hidden.

Obscure your identity in a game where others have to find out your heritage. Select some songs which represent your background and enter this contest in an open environment, the park. Get up and sing, challenge fellow passers by and encourage them to sing. Meet new people and have a talk to them about their heritage and their FOREVER origins, whilst hearing some good music.

  • Design for OBSCURING in a PARK using SING with the quality TRIBAL*

A public tribal performance that obscures the harsh realities of history to suit the needs of people with an agenda.

Round 3 - Multi

Some of the ideas from the table included

Design for training in a kitchen using a sound with the quality playful.

Pivoting on playful - each time the bin fills up, it plays a song that is dramatic. It could play - 'I don't feel so good' when the bin throws up some 'bad rubbish' that was put in the wrong bin.

If the compost was placed in the compost bin, it would play a happy sound. It can track who puts all the rubbish in the bin - who ever wasted the most has to empty it.

Another idea - a knife that talks to you. It has geometric and voice capabilities.

How it relates

I think this course extends our thought process on top of our work in DECO3500 (ideation), DECO2300 (where we did journalling) and DECO2500 which got us in the process of posing the 'why' questions.

The work to do

Project inspiration

Work that inspired / interested me

I was inspired by the futuristic ideas and cipher game that opened up our thinking completely. When doing the cipher, I found that being restricted to certain qualities made me think about what quality would could generate more ideas in its place. So I ended up changing qualities from FOREVER to TRIBAL, to make the sentence Design for OBSCURING in a PARK using SING with the quality TRIBAL. I felt TRIBAL and singing had a good match

Week2 Reflection

Jianing Jin - Sun 8 March 2020, 11:54 pm
Modified: Mon 9 March 2020, 12:34 am

Ideation and presentation

Ideation process

I used music as my theme and started looking for inspirations. The reason I choose this theme is because I think music has become an essential part of everyday life and music plays a big role in regulating people's emotions. There are also many interesting interactive devices designed around the theme of music.

Based on this topic, I watched many examples that inspired me. I will list some ideas that inspired me most.

Interactive sound exhibition--Line

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP36xoPXDnM

The designer use lines to represent novel music instruments. People can interact with it by touching lines on the wall or hanging on the ceiling, stepping the lines on the floor.

Advantages: Easy operation and novel interaction mode

Limitation: Not very friendly to users without music theory, it is less likely to create pleasant songs due to unfamiliarity with musical instruments. People will lose interest in it because of uncoordinated melody created.

Inspiration: In my idea, I can consider the innovations that are user-friendly to the zero base users.

ARASHI Live Tour 2014 THE DIGITALIAN

https://www.bilibili.com/video/av5176824?from=search&seid=3752956218064935948

This is a clip of a concert, it shocked me a lot. The accompaniment of the song in the video was done through the singer's clothes. This coat can create different melody according to the state of the user's muscles and different vibration frequencies. When performing this song, the singer needs to adjust his posture to cooperate with the members to complete the unique accompaniment.

Advantages: Very novel way to interact with music. Every rhythm is a unique tune.

Limitation: Requires constant experimentation for team collaboration music creation.

Inspiration: Is there an interactive form that is easy to operate for more people to join in the melody creation?

Given the above inspiration I have come up with my idea which name is Melo Catcher aiming at create simple ways for users to diy their own melody. Detailed description of my idea can be found on the previous journal entry.

In-class presentation and reflection

In class, I conducted a 2-minute idea presentation session. I got inspiration from many interesting ideas in this activity. I also got a short evaluation after the presentation, which inspired me a lot.

Personal pitch feedback and summary are reflected in the following aspects:

  • The concept is a little off the brief. The interaction mode is simple and the rhythm performed by each handle is fixed which make the interaction less novel and playful.
  • People are not provided with the unlimited choice. As the music performed by each handle is fixed, users can only adjust the speed of the music which will make the machine less playful.

Inspiration from other work

Punching Bag Fountain

A really eye-catching idea to bring music and punching bag together. The installation share the same theme with me, that is, music. The interaction mode is novel and allows multiple people to come around to perform the unique piece of music. The usage of fountain to display the rhythm being created is romantic and eye-catching. If the installation exists I am very willing to have a try.

Also there are some concerns, the size of this installation, how users can control the quality of the cooperation, I mean, how to ensure that the music played by people working together is pleasant, because the discordant rhythm will reduce the user's favourability.

Works to do

In week3, I will make changes to my ideas based on feedback from the teaching team and inspiration from other students' presentations.

Also, I will do some background research on this theme to clarify what need to be done, what can be done, how can it be improved.

Soldering things

This week we learned how to perform soldering on circuit boards based on circuit diagrams. Here under are the works I have created in the class.

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I was exposed to do some soldering things in high school interest classes, so this event is not too complicated for me. Through this tutorial session, I found some key points in conducting the soldering process.

  • Safety-related problems

When the soldering rod starts to work, the temperature is very high. The correct use of the instrument when soldering seems extremely important. Always wear goggle and covered shoes to prevent possible damage.

  • Well-designed circuit

Make sure the circuit design is reasonable before soldering, as it is difficult to change once soldering is completed.

  • Think over before soldering

During the tutorial, the soldered circuit board could not work because of my wrong reading of the circuit diagram. The soldered work is difficult to change, and it took me a long time to correct it into the correct circuit.

  • The right amount of tin wire

Too little tin wire may cause disconnection of the circuit, on the contrary, too much amount will cause unnecessary connections and cause the circuit to malfunction.

Week 2 Reflection

Aizel Redulla - Sun 8 March 2020, 11:31 pm
Modified: Sun 8 March 2020, 11:33 pm

Work Done

In Week 2 I practiced my pitch and printed my poster out. I also provided critiques for my peers for their project pitches.

On Tuesday afternoon I completed the soldering induction where we learned the safety protocol for handling the soldering irons and practiced making a circuit with a battery, a switch, LED and a resistor. I previously had experience with using breadboards from CSSE2010 and DECO2300 but I was very confused about how to incorporate the switch into the circuit. Luckily the tutors were really helpful and I got to help my peers after I managed to figure mine out so it worked out in the end.

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After the pitches were given, we brainstormed the themes that were salient amongst the concepts and listed the relevant concepts underneath the name of the theme we came up with. Throughout the pitches I noticed a lot of shadow concepts, music concepts, and environmental concepts.

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After this process, we then tried to think of more niche theme names that would give 11-20 themes. Then we gathered the posters to place them under those themes. A lot of people had to attend other classes afterwards but I did my best to locate the majority of the concepts mentioned in the themes. I think there were around 10 posters left on the table when I had to leave.

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How it relates

With printing the poster, I made sure it was ready to print before Sunday so I wasn't pressured for time about how long it might take to print or where I would print at. I like that I managed my time well with this and I hope this continues on in the semester.

The soldering induction was useful because it is likely that my team would use the soldering iron at least once in the semester. It was also really cool to see the soldering wire drip onto the board. I have an arduino kit in my possession too, so it was good to have a bit of a refresher on circuits/batteries and stuff.

Giving peer critiques is always helpful, not only for my peers but to help me hone my soft skills of communication. This has been pretty useful with the graduate application season!

The theming will be used for the World Cafe activity next week.

Work To Do

For Week 3, I need to go and get my acrylic cube glued up and also glue the light to the switch panel. I have completed all of the induction sessions and I'm anticipating a lot of discussion due to the world cafe activity happening next week.

I also want to comb through the feedback left for my concept. I read a couple of comments during the theming phase that were sticky-noted onto my poster but I plan to read through the critiques tomorrow (Monday) before the world cafe activity.

Work That Inspired/Interested Me

Design Society UQ had its first event of the year on Friday. We had Matt Luscombe, Stephen Viller, Peter Worthy, Momoka M-Park and Kyra(?) on a Q&A panel and it was just very reassuring to hear that uncertainty is inevitable but finding comfort in that uncertainty also develops over time. The non-UQ staff people had just recently graduated so it was nice to hear that they are living their best lives and hopefully I can also do the same when I graduate. I gained a lot of helpful advice that included stuff like how to market yourself as really employable, the great aspects of the UXDes major that are unique to the major, and made more friends. I highly recommend joining the society (although I may be a bit biased since I am the secretary). I also liked that they all recognised how much design covers and that it's not just one niche field.

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week2

Week 2 Reflection

Peiquan Li - Sun 8 March 2020, 11:16 pm

Pitch feedbacks & reflections

During Wednesday's pitch, I received many useful feedbacks which will help me to generate some improvements. I picked up some comments and linked below:

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I summarized these comments into several points:

  • Privacy issue: I got some concerns about ethical issues that Naomi might record people's private talking. In the original idea, the device will only record sounds when people turn on the knob. Maybe the setting needs to be changed, like avoid recording human voice in software development.
  • Have common features with existing products: some comments mentioned about the connection with Google Glass. I admit that this idea is based on the Mixed Reality platform, so the interactions might be similar to existing products in the market.
  • Lack of physical interactions: I got some advice that it would be better for these sounds to be stored in a physical thing. I think that makes sense for this course's ambition, the original idea is relying on digital technologies and lack of physical constructions. And there is a comment about why using VR, music is about to hear and by hand. I admit that novel interactions need to be brought into my idea. In the following weeks, I will work on it.

During this week's sessions, I listened to others' pitches and got some inspirations from their ideas.

Melo Catcher

I think this idea has common design purposes as mine, a device for music creators. The most thing it inspires me is that it brings physical, playful interaction during the music creation process by using controllers and handles, mine is lack of physical interactions. Controlling soundtracks in a virtual environment does not seem to meet the brief.

Also, this idea allows multiple people to join this music creation journey together in real life, which brings more fun to this device, while mine only allows users to work together online, which reduces social activities.

I learned a lot from this pitch and the next step is to come up with some new ideas about bringing playful and novel interactions to develop this idea.

Soldering

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This soldering induction is a tutorial about basic soldering skills, we were introduced by a board as we have used in DECO7230's Arduino. And then use solder to build a simple connection board. Through this section, I have learned some soldering skills and hope it will help me in microelectronic area.

78-207

This section is about introducing some rules before using 78-207. I think this section is essential for using lab equipment for safety concerns. Now I know some general rules:

  • Make the lab clean, not just your area.
  • If you have any questions or doubts, make sure to ask tutors for guidance and support.
  • Before cutting woods, use tools to keep them stable and prevent from slipping.
  • If you have wire cross the path, use a cover.
  • Some basic instructions for some special tools.

Week 2

Zebing Yao - Sun 8 March 2020, 10:49 pm
Modified: Sun 8 March 2020, 11:02 pm

Idea Sharing in Studio

This week, two activities were done. Firstly, all posters were presented in the class. There were a lot of interesting and impressive ideas, and one idea gave me new insights into this assignment and my idea. The ‘Your shoes’, which is a pair of shoes with sensors and LED implemented. It detects a user’s emotion based on the his/her pace. Then, it would play the music that is most suitable for the user’s current mood. It impressed me because this idea makes everyday things and activities intelligent with lots of fun, which links back to the project background ‘everyday things’. Actually, it takes time for people to learn something they’ve never used before, and it really depends on lots of things like age, culture, and habit. However, if a product is created based on people’s everyday things, then it is more easier for people to get used to it, and the acceptability of it might be higher than other products. Such as Smart phones, Intelligent watch, AI ring and glasses. They get into our daily life and change our behaviors without noticing us. We may never even know they are changing our life but they make lots of things easier, more convenient, and smarter than before. That is the most interesting and powerful part of HCI and Internet of Things.

So, how it could affect my idea? I think there are two parts. Firstly, my idea is a small machine with five emotion bars, and people can place any items on the bar that represents their current emotion, and users’ photos on the phone would be played again to retrieve their memories. Is it possible to integrate it into people’s life rather than using the ‘small machine’? like an App on IPad, Smart Cup, or Smart Shirt, something common in our life so that users would be easier to get fun with it and they are more easier to learn and accept it.

On the other hand, emotion adjusting is a common feature in both ideas. She links it to music, and I combine it with photos. However, she makes standing, walking, and even running much more funny and playable, but it is not that much playable and reasonable in my case.

Her idea: shoes -> walking, running -> different pace -> some people like to listen music while they are walking, running -> different music based on different pace -> the change of mood/emotion

My idea: photos -> different memories -> positive memories offset negative emotion -> place items to determine the emotion?

So, the problem is how to make it more playable and reasonable. It is better to links it back to people’s daily life.

Soldering Induction

On the other hand, the soldering induction session was completed this Tuesday. The basic information about connecting a LED device on a circuit board, components of the welding, and soldering were introduced to us, and we had a chance to build up a tiny LED device. It was quite interesting, and I have learned a number of things. For example, the connection of components should be clear and clean so that each component would not affect each other. Also, it might involve multiple teammates working on it together, so we need to make sure what we done would not confuse other teammates. In addition, failure could occur because of a subtle mistake, so checking the connection of each part frequently is necessary.

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Weeks 1 and 2 Reflection

Kelsey Quinn - Sun 8 March 2020, 10:22 pm

Week 1

I was very nervous starting this course, because of it being 4 units. I think addressing student concerns and aspirations in the first session was helpful in relieving some of the stress I was feeling, and it was also encouraging to learn that most other students had similar worries to me. As a table we created a few lists based on what we knew about the course, what we were looking forward to, and what we were worried about.

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I was a bit surprised that we were starting assessment so early, but the ideation exercise in session 2 helped me start thinking of some possible ideas to present in Week 2. Mashing together unlikely scenarios using the prompt cards was sometimes quite difficult, and we often found that it wasn't possible to address all four cards in a single idea. But it was a good challenge to try and think of something that could address all the prompts, and working in a group helped make us more comfortable to share our silly and sometimes impossible ideas.

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Week 2

Most of my preparation for this week was focused on forming my presentation. I started by looking up recent news articles, and quickly decided that I was most interested in creating something that addressed environmental concerns and climate change. The main inspiration article I settled on was about a certain species of sea turtle being sighted in Tasmania, which was unusually far from the equator for them, and indicated that ocean temperatures were rising.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-28/sea-turtle-spotted-in-bicheno-waters-a-rare-sight/12009714

I then researched other effects of rising ocean temperatures, and used this as the basis for my concept.

I enjoyed the wide range of concepts presented in sessions this week. My particular favourite was the 'Punching Bag Fountain', because it was such an interesting way of interacting with the fountain, and I liked that there were many different levels and hooks for interaction, from the punching bag itself, to the ability to control the flow of the fountains, and even further to using the fountain splashes to create music. I feel these multiple access points would be very appealing to users of many different demographics.

Grouping themes was surprisingly difficult, and I'm not sure I really challenged myself very much with this. But I did find many similar themes among the concepts, such as music, exercise and personal fitness, mental and emotional health, and creativity.

Themes Day 1
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Themes Day 2
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Now that the themes have been finalised, I expect this next week will involve narrowing down my preferred themes and forming groups for the main project. This is something I'm a bit worried about, as forming groups for assessment is always risky. I mostly hope that I get a group who are all willing to put in the work necessary for this course. However, I know that my previous group experiences in other DECO courses have helped me learn how to negotiate and deal with group conflicts, so I'm feeling reasonably prepared for this next team experience.

Week 2

Bowen Jiang - Sun 8 March 2020, 10:13 pm

Reflection & Inspiration


In this week, all of us shared the idea and inspiration with classmates. There are lots of ideas are about the "Smart XX", which embeds AI technology into the daily necessities or normal objects, like floor and mirror to make a better life for human kinds.

As my original idea is more focused on training people's creativity rather than assisting them. Therefore, after the class, I tried to improve my idea with the new inspirations. From those pitches in the contact, some of them mentioned about the emotion detecting. So, I was thinking about how to combine that function with the shadow wall.

Plan 1:

This one might be a little fictional. Once the shadow of the user drops on the shadow wall, the shadow itself can have personal awareness. Thereby, when people feel anxious or lonely, even "shadow man" can't talk, it can turn itself into any shape of warming thing, likes a vivid puppy, a bloom, to comfort you.

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Plan 2:

In terms of the function that the shadow wall catches all the shadow on it, the new feature can be recording. The camera records video or pictures in purpose, but the shadow wall records the story unintentionally. The concept is when something surprising and meaningful happens, the wall replaces the camera to record the moment for you by the format of shadow. An accidental album to save the oblivious stories.

Soldering induction


In this section, we learned how to read a simple closed circuit and the basic soldering skill.

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Week 2 – Project Ideas and Critiques

Nelson Gregory - Sun 8 March 2020, 10:00 pm

It was a fun and enjoyable week this week in DECO3850, as it was project ideas and critiques week. It was interesting to see all of the project ideas, and the general themes evident within the presentations. A large majority of the ideas were related to emotion/mood and mental health, incorporating the use of light to visualise emotional information. Another popular theme were smart devices and how they can be used to improve daily tasks. There were some ideas presented which have already been solved with pre-existing technology. Perhaps these ideas can be discussed and altered to form a fresh idea.

My idea was titled DrumBeats and aims to teach drums in a new manner via the use of a lighting kit, similar to what’s available for keyboards/digital pianos. Reflecting back on the performance of my presentation, I believe it was sufficient, but it did leave room for improvement. Unfortunately, I forgot to cover some of the specifics of my idea during the short presentation. Next time I will be sure to have some notes with me to ensure I cover all bases. It would have also been beneficial to format the poster in a landscape orientation to increase readability during the presentation. Given my observations of the presentations and the feedback I received on my own, I do not believe it is necessary to change my idea or approach, but it would be great if I can find a way to make the interaction more unique.

The most exciting projects for me were the ones that offered different interactions with music such as the percussion glove and the musical bus. Having new ways to interact with and enjoy music is a very exciting prospect. Overall, I believe the quality of the presentations was high with some projects having great potential for the exhibition.

After the presentations, we were asked to categorise the themes within the project ideas. This was performed by the whole room. I believe we were able to successfully categorise the information and identify the themes present within the ideas. The themes will form the basis of discussion next week. There were definitely a wide range of themes categorised in the session, which will hopefully result in some interesting discussions and ideas next week.

I look forward to the World Café session and team formations next week!

week 2

Zhuoran Li - Sun 8 March 2020, 9:59 pm
Modified: Sun 8 March 2020, 10:01 pm

Reflection on My Concept

In fact, I didn’t get much reflection as I could only join the class remotely this week. But from the journal, I can see that at least some people are interested in my concept. The theme is music visualization, and the string is one form that I think could be suitable. But still, I believe there would be more possibilities.

My favorite point of this concept is that the shape of the string could match many things in nature, like the mountains, the waves, the forest, and the desert, etc. It not only makes the music visible but also makes the beautiful scene hearable. A bridge of our ears and eyes.

One thing I am thinking about is that the poster didn’t describe as much as I want of the concept. Actually, I didn’t think thoroughly about the concept. Many details were added when I drawing the concept. Thus, the poster might lose some of the detail and I didn’t realize it until I review it when presented. Luckily, I got a chance to talk more about the detail in my journal. Another thing about my concept is that I think it is idealized and hard for me to make it come true.

Other Interesting Idea

Melo Catcher

This concept has the same aim as mine, to encourage people to enjoy and create music. It allows more people to interact with it at the same time and the rotation generates different music. The interesting part of this concept I think is that it provides a chance for people, not two or three, I mean, a lot of people to create something together. This would be something they has never done before. And I could not stop but thinking about the possibility that this piece of music might be extraordinarily beautiful. Then the experience might influence their life.

However, I think it is important to provide people unlimited choices so that the creation would never reach the end. Thus, how could this concept give people choice as the only interaction is rotation? What’s more, the size of the box would influence how people would interact with it. The screen is also a part that we can do something about it. Like how the screen displays the music or maybe people can interact with it.

Running Hand

This concept really attracts me as I love 2d video games so much. Before I see the concept, I think the best way to play 2d games is the controller, but now I get something new to looking forward to. I would definitely try this if it can work. With a mini running machine, this concept would not require much space to play a game. But I am wondering how this would control the high of jumping.

This interesting point is that even this is just a simple beginning of control the game by a physical way, it can expand to many possibilities. In the game, there is not just running and jumping, players also need to fight, talk to NPC, operate some triggers. So, how these things can be interacted with could be deeply thought about.

Week 2 - Ideation Stage

Rine Marie Laegreid - Sun 8 March 2020, 9:42 pm

Ideation Process

Over the course of the last two weeks, I spent many hours trying to come up with a good idea.

Mass/weight childrens game

An initial idea was to use sensors/scales to have an interactive game where children had to use different items with differing weight and mass to match the game prompt, i.e. put 5 kg on the scales to make sure the animal can reach the top of the cliff. This would require the user to utilise math and physics to accurately problem solve, e.g. one item would be small and weigh 3 kg whereas another would be big and only weigh 2 kg. The purpose/rationale of this interaction would be to teach children problem solving whilst exploring math and physics.

I found this idea was lacking in novel interactivity, and so I wanted to have more instant system feedback/visual response. I also felt that the concept might not appeal to children as it would be too monotonous of a task flow.

Responsive shopping bags

This idea revolved around having shopping bags that would respond to what the user would put in the bag. For instance, it could sensor the temperature of the products/produce as it was added to the shopping bag and adjust the temperature accordingly to reduce temperature fluctuation from e.g. the store to the fridge. Furthermore, the shopping bags could change colour in response to how healthy the food or quantity is if the user wanted to become more aware of their food habits/intake.

I found this idea to be lacking in interactivity and playfulness, and hence I stopped iterating on this. As I came up with this idea, I found myself too restricted to come up with playful interactions. My scope was limited to what I have already seen exist as I was concerned with the idea of possibly having to deploy and create the concept. To expand my scope, I tried to look at online resources to find unconventional interactions.

Solar panel wearable

This idea revolved around behaviour change through positive/negative reinforcement. The concept was to have some solar panel wearable that would reward sun safety and punish irresponsible sun exposure. The solar panel could be embedded into a wearable item, e.g. a sun hat, and have a practical use as reward such as for instance charging devices or powering a music speaker. When the user had spent too much time in the sun or needed to reapply sunscreen (around 2 hours) they would be punished by disrupting the reward and possibly vibrating as a notification. The rationale of the idea was to raise awareness around sun safety and initiate behaviour change/nudge using technology.

As with the other ideas, I did not find the concept sufficiently playful. Additionally, I was unsure of the effect the positive/negative reinforcement would have as the lack of functionality when the user had exceeded the recommended time of sun exposure. I believe most users would find the negative reinforcement as more than a slight annoyance but rather a motive to discontinue using the device.

Butterfly colour game

This idea was inspired by the teamLab Borderless museum I visited in Tokyo as previously outlined in my journal. The concept was to have users creating different colours by applying pressure to pressure pads in the three primary colours. The system would prompt the users and/or display the colour to mix, and the user would then have to use their hands to apply the correct pressure to the pad(s) to correctly mix the colour. The pressure would correlate to how intense/dark the colour is displayed, e.g. light pressure would be a lighter colour and more pressure would be a more vibrant or darker colour. To add an element of playfulness and achievement, I wanted the colour mixed to be displayed on still butterflies which would ‘come alive’ through animation once the user satisfactorily mixed the colour. The rationale of the idea was to teach children/adults colour theory whilst training fine motor skills. Alternatively, it could simply be used as a creative outlet where users could play with colour.

Out of the ideas I had in the ideation stage, I found this to be the most fitting response to the brief. Furthermore, I found this to be the concept I was the most motivated to work on and further develop/iterate. I think the idea of seeing immediate visual responses to the physical interaction would be an open-ended, playful interaction that would be interesting to see created. I ended up favouring and presenting this idea, and I am eager to read and reflect on given feedback to further iterate on the idea.

week2-Project Inspiration&Critique Reflection

Yifan Wu - Sun 8 March 2020, 8:45 pm
Modified: Sun 8 March 2020, 10:14 pm

Idea Presentation

About the presentation on contact, I get some inspiration from classmates. Some of the ideas have aroused my interest,especially some musical ideas.

Musician

The idea of "representing the melody of music with the shape of a string" is great. This means that music has infinite possibilities. The operations "play/create/explore" is practical enough to implement it. The most thing I am curious about is showing the natural scene by the music. This idea is a good direction to develop and I also curious about the practical implementation method. In addition, crappy operations can be added to increase the difficulty of the game for advanced players.

Percussion Glove

The drum is a novel idea I never thought of. I thinking the author can get some inspiration from the game "Drum Master".A single rhythm may be a little bit difficult for the player to play with and may use fragmented music instead. This can slightly reduce the difficulty of matching the game and enhance appreciation.

Immersive Art Gallery

Nezha is a great Chinese animated film, and the magic scroll in it left a deep impression on me. I think that the author can set specific tasks in advance, and then set the vibration and olfactory sensor performance methods in advance according to these tasks. In this way, the implementation could be simpler. Of course, I also look forward to better ways to achieve the world in painting.

Reflection

About my remote presentation, I'm not quite satisfied with it because of the bad sound effect. Actually, the pre_recorded video is quite clear. I don't know what that sounds like to the field audience, but the volume on the zoom is really low. I sent my poster and the subscript on slack after the presentation and I hope all classmates can understand my concept.

Besides, the concept conveys by the poster is not quite directly. Vectors should be replaced by detailed pictures so that the concept could be understood more easily.

In addition, the specific implementation methods still need to be optimized. For example, the operation of pouring wine is too complicated to carry out. I need to ensure that the vibration, water sound, and visual effects are completed simultaneously, I cannot figure out some effective way to implement it. Maybe it could be changed to some other implementation plan. I will talk about it with classmates and get some suggestions from them,

About soldering

Since I only entered Australia on March 3rd, I was not able to participate in this workshop and experience the soldering. I have no experience in electric welding, but I have observed the general method of using electric welding by my friends. I will ask students who have mastered this skill in the next workshop.

Week 2

Kasey Zheng - Sun 8 March 2020, 8:42 pm

In week 2, two milestones have been achieved successfully. First, all inductions required to get access to room 207 have been completed, so I'm officially be ready to get the work done in that room. However, I believe I still need to lots of practice and help from the pro before I could confidently to build something. The other achievement is that I presented my concept idea developed in the past two weeks to the class.

Idea Generation Process

Since last Wednesday I had a rough idea of an "idea generator", I tried different angles to look at this idea, trying to find other meanings of this concept. Here’s the exploring and developing process:

Idea generation process1 Idea generation process2

Inspiration hunting


This process has been carrying on from the first week, the more existing projects I saw, the more I get understanding of the purpose for designing different physical interaction way rather than the digital interaction way. I find a few existing products similar to my idea, so I created a new category for them to see the common and difference between those ideas.

Inspiration wall in week 2

I'm the link to Qisi's Inspiration Wall

Research area


It starts from defining a certain research area, then dig deeply into it to see what I can get inspired to my idea. I was quiet interesting by the Learning and Creativity challenge from the 7 grand challenges. I went back read the paper about the new challenge in this area when digital technologies become ubiquitous in education and lifelong learning process. In this section, they point out that technology should be works as creativity supporting tools to support human creativity. It could assist users to develop their imagination and extend their capabilities in making discoveries or inventions.

I choose "little C" creativity to be the domain area for my concept. Compared to the "big C" creativity achieved by those geniuses to make huge, excelling, wonderful invention and changing movements, it is for everyone. "A behavioural and mental attitude or the ability to find new and effective solutions to everyday problems" which I believe is the key value of my concept. When facing the challenges, creativity, imagination and innovation would be the keys to help us overcome the difficulties.

Idea generation process3 Idea generation process4

In addition, I also tried to find the connections between value/ ideology I already known, to my current concept.

  • The concept of universal connection

Nothing in the world stands by itself, thus everything new appears in our lives has a connection with something we already know. They will combine together to generate something new, again and again, form a cycle. This gives me the idea to explore the connection between object and object, human and object, then try to generate new connections.

  • "Hygge" - a Danish lifestyle

This word means "something nice, cozy, safe and known, referring to a psychological state" in Danish. I really like this life attitude that to let people more focus on the moment right now. Try to make the daily life ordinary things extraordinary, to make the normal thing become special. This is the message I would like to pass to the user who's interacting with my equipment. In addition, it also about to make people become more open to each other and get much closer to each other.

Inspirations


The next step I took to dig deeper into my current concept is to divide it into two part as "inout side "and "output side" then do the brainstorming to find different possibilities for each of them.

I first narrow down the potential container to hold & process the items to two equipment.

Idea generation process5

  • "Gashapon" - the capsule toy machine

“Gachapon” refers both to vending machines and the capsule toys they spit out. When you crack open one of these plastic eggs, you’ll never know what you’ll get even though it’s part of a defined set of toys. They are, by nature, a "blind purchase"; people insert coins and hope to get the toy or figure they desire. Such an amusement element may become frustrating, as one risks obtaining the same item repeatedly.

  • Blender

Every time when I saw the blender machine in a store like Boots or Starbucks, I'll staring at the machine to see the whole process from the ingredients have been out into the container to they finally blend together pretty well and become a new colour of drink. This is the process to resolve the fruit into small element and then let them mix together to form a brand new stuff. Blender could be consider as another container to place the items people put in because it could simulate the process of extract the essential from the items. But it might be too cruel to see your personal items be chopped into chips...So I'll abandon this idea for now.

Next, I begin to search for the possible carrier of the "fortune" to let the user could read, store, and even be able to review the content later.

Idea generation proces6

  • Fortune Cookie

What if the fortune cookie has different flavours/smells, shape with entertaining context inside it? An identity fortune cookie generated based on your personal life experience and personality would be much more fun then the current one. A vague prophecy may works sometimes for somebody, but it is still too general. Different format such as a poem, a guess game, a myth from different cultures would be engaging text based content for the user.

  • Omikuji - a piece of fortune telling slip/paper

It is a kind of ancient wisdom to help people to make big decisions among different opinions. Nowadays people could find it easily at Shinto shrines or Buddhist temples in Japan. It usually includes the content to predict the fortune for the future, showing a person’s overall fortune and detailed categories including health, study, work, love, business, and travel. It will also give you some suggestions for how to improve the fortune. The fun fact is each Omikuji has different specialties and characters based on the shrine and temple it belongs to.

Personally I will go to draw one at the beginning of the year or when I'm struggling with something and need some third opinion to give me some guidelines. You could say it is kind of superstitious, but it did give you a new aspect to see your life. This "spiritual experience" is the another hing I would like to put into my concept, to give people some inspirational information when they interact with the installation.

Finally I decided to go with the Gashapon vending machine and to be the main body of my concept. Because most of us are familiar with it and may had experience it before. This would help my audience to get the idea faster and easier when I explain the new concept to them. The other reason is I want my audience to remember the feeling when waiting for the capsule egg come out of the machine. This would be the exact same feeling I want them to have when they imagine themselves using my fortune ball generator machine. For the "fortune ball" itself, I will go for the multiple sensational experience for the user. A capsule ball (will think of other shape of it later) including special smell, taste, different texture and format of the object to let people use their imagination to get the message from the ball.

Theming Sessions

During the end of contact session each day this week, I worked together with the the class try to find the common thing from each idea and category them into some certain themes. This process is quite challenge for me to bring back 50+50 ideas that have been introduced in the past 2 days in a short time. my strategy is to wondering around the table to search for concepts using the similar element under a big topic, then take out the most special thing of that idea to write down on the post-it. It getting more difficult on Wednesday session, because there’s more themes appears at the last sessions of the presentation. All in all, this is a good thinking progress to both get more understanding of others idea and try to figure out what is the theme most attractive for me.

Theming process and result

Presentation Reflection

During the contact session this week everyone presented their unique idea to the class. Some of the concepts are really surprising and interesting, they also gives me some new angle and aspect to reconsider about my idea.

I tried to give some valuable suggestion for everyone's concept, but it's difficult to come up with more than 50 suggestions constantly...So I hope I can give at least some of you guys good advice. If you found them stupid or unreasonable, just ignore them. I've really tried...

Feedback giving

I was a bit of nervous when I was giving the presentation, I can hear myself with shaking voice at the first sentences. And I know it wasn't a really engaging speech, I couldn't demonstrate all of the fun parts of my idea. :( But I shot all the important thing about how does it works and why people need it when I was preparing for the pitch within 2 minutes. I received 17 comments from the class after the presentation. Thanks for everyone who gave me valuable feedback :), I know it's hard to keep concentration for the last few presentations...Anyways,I tried to response all the questions and record the valuable suggestions form the comments.

Response to the feedback

Some questions are about the root of my concept. Since I didn’t introduce any of my inspirations context, it caused some confusion for the audience. Next time I'll remember to add simple pictures of the inspiration works in my poster to make it clearer. The other thing I would try to improve is that I might accidentally made my idea seems to be too "abstract" and spiritual. Because I saw some confusion faces during my presentation. I should try to use easier example to explain my idea to the audience (like some common knowledge everyone knows), my example be used this time is kind of too personal and vague.


Finally, I'll put the poter of my concept here again to help you remember what is ;) Also remind myself to do the proof reading every single time before submit it! Because I found several spelling mistakes and weried expressions after the pitch...

(submitted version vs fixed version)

Submited version Final version

Project Inspiration Critique Reflection

Kelsey Quinn - Sun 8 March 2020, 8:30 pm

My main concern before presenting was that I wouldn't be able to communicate my idea clearly, but afterwards I was pleased that I hadn't forgotten any part of what I planned to say, and the comments I received as feedback generally reflect that. I did feel a little awkward with the quality of my poster, as I'm not a very good drawer, and most of the other posters were of a much higher quality. I did receive some comments critiquing the quality of my poster, mostly that it wasn't easy to get a full understanding of how the device worked from the low fidelity of the illustrations. This is something I think I will need to work on in future, either through improving my drawing skills or becoming more proficient at using software to create visual representation of my ideas.

The main positive feedback I got from my peers was that most people liked that my concept focused on the environment and educating people. This was definitely the main motivation behind my choice and design, so I'm glad that this resonated with others. The main critique I received was that it wasn't clear how the concept fit in with the everyday. I didn't communicate this in my presentation, and it wasn't a concept where people could easily imagine the context of use. So I feel this is a valid critique of my presentation, and in future I need to make sure I address all aspects of the task and brief when communicating my ideas to others.

To address this now, I imagined this concept being installed in a heavily-trafficked public place such as King George Square or Queen Street, where people could stop and interact on their way past, or perhaps in a museum with a focus on educating users about the environment.

Week 2 - Presentation week

Marie Thoresen - Sun 8 March 2020, 8:19 pm
Modified: Sun 8 March 2020, 9:21 pm

Inductions

This week started with the soldering induction, which to my surprise was a lot of fun and I learned a lot about it. I had actually done some soldering before, but that's a long time ago and it was nice to freshen up the knowledge. In the end I manage to make a small light device with a working switch and battery.

Imgur

In addition I attended the space induction which was only a walkthrough of the room and equipment available in that room. Overall, I think I have done all of the required inductions and look forward into starting to make something physical for the main project.

Presentations

The presentations for the classes individual ideas were held this week on both Tuesday and wednesday. I noticed that there were a lot of the same basic elements too many of the ideas, especially the use of sound and different ways to display emotion.

My own presentation went well but in all honesty I'm not all that exited for my idea. In the end it felt a bit mixed with different ideas merged into one confusing device. The feedback that I got from the peer reviews was mostly good. The ongoing concern however was whether or not this was a good way to wake up in the morning where one said that is was a "brutal way of waking up" and that it might not be safe. Another comment was that there could be a different way to set the alarm other than using a smartphone. It was also a concern if people would care that the covers were removed and that it would have not effect. One person also didn't like the idea of using negative experience to change human behaviour.

All of the comments had a good point and raised concerns that I have thought of myself, especially the concern regarding the removal of the cover and if it has any effect. If the idea at any point would be considered for the main project all of these concerned must be reviewed before the decision to make this device.

presentations #induction

Week2-reflection

Jiexiang Xu - Sun 8 March 2020, 8:14 pm
Modified: Mon 9 March 2020, 1:17 pm

Work done

This week I had three activities, concept demonstration, soldering course and 78-208. In the demonstration, I not only received other people's opinions on my concept but also got some inspiration for improvement from other people's demonstrations. This has a huge effect on the development of my idea because everyone's opinions are very special and gave me a great shock.

In the soldering course, I used LED, resistor, breadboard, switch, and wires to make a simple light control device. Although I encountered some difficulties during the production process, these difficulties were all overcome. For example, the switch cannot control the light bulb (it was found that all the contacts under the switch could not be welded, but only two were selected); all components could not be inserted into the breadboard according to the circuit diagram (It's really simple). Although I have been exposed to Arduino in the previous course (Digital Prototype), because this is a long time ago, and in the previous course I did not understand some knowledge points, so I think it will be practiced more in the future and it is also a thing that requires a lot of time and energy to complete the work.

Imgur Imgur Imgur

Finally, in the 78-208 course, I learned something about safety and laboratory management such as laboratory rules and how to deal with emergencies.

Reflection on the pitch

Based on the feedback written by Lorna and my classmates on the paper, I found that everyone understands my concepts well and can accept them. This is one of the main purposes of the pitch. However, there should be more specific content after more innovative content. For example, according to the feedback of a classmate, similar items already exist in real life. Although I don't know which one he/she was referring to, it was clear that the idea was not appealing to him/her.

In addition, the same problem was found in the feedback of other students. A major problem is that their gesture interaction is not particularly new. And there is still a big problem with gesture interaction, the recognition problem. I also thought about the same problem during the design process, so someone suggested that voice interaction could be added. But I think that in addition to voice and gesture interaction, there may be more attractive ways to interact, such as using sound or temperature. In addition, how to pattern different recognized gestures is one of the difficulties in future design.

However, it can be seen from the feedback from classmates that they all think that this is a very novel way to express emotions and can be widely used. It can also be seen from everyone's comments that they prefer real buildings with lights over a building-shaped lamp or toy. When I first heard this idea, I was really shocked. It was indeed a more interesting idea. However, if the desk lamp in the concept is turned into a real building because the building itself is large, the interaction method needs to be changed (the crowd gathers downstairs, and the accuracy of gesture recognition is even lower).

I currently have an idea, according to the number of people around the building or they make some of the same actions, forming different levels of patterns or text on the building surface. At the same time, the buildings in the two cities can also be connected (the long-distance interaction across the city is a great point).

In addition to the feedback on the concept, I have some shortcomings about the poster and the presentation itself. The most important point is that I ignored the problem space in the lecture and journal. This is an important part of the design process. Under the premise of not consulting relevant materials, it is unreasonable to design an idea, and then add meaning to it. This process is very informal, and it should be avoided as much as possible in subsequent designs.

In addition, I also have some problems with the presentation. First, the timing limitation. During the simulation exercise, I was running out of time, so I accelerated my speaking speed. However, on the day of the contact, I saw the short descriptions of other students, so I deleted the original content again, so the speech time was too short. Although there is a comprehensive description of how to use this device, it does not give a comprehensive explanation for some information.

After thinking about it, I would prefer to add some descriptions of the scene to enrich the concept and content. At the same time, such a design can also allow the listener to enter the scene, thereby creating a stronger sense of identity, and also facilitating the communication and expression of the presenter.

Inspiration from other concepts

In other people's presentations, I was particularly impressed by a point of view. It is to install induction lines in the bus, passengers can control the different music according to heartbeat and body temperature. This view is particularly new, and it can make the whole boring class/work journey fun. But I thought about a few questions.

The first is security. The concert in the car will not distract the driver, and if the music is too loud, the whistle may not be heard, thereby increasing the probability of a car accident.

Secondly, if the line hanging in the air can be used as a handrail, how to involve the person sitting in the seat? And if a sudden braking situation occurs, the passenger's heartbeat will inevitably rise, how to control this sudden change in volume/tone?

Third, if everyone can control a musical element, but without the design of professions, the generated music may be very difficult to listen to. So how to ensure that beautiful music is produced instead of unpleasant noise?

But it is undeniable that this idea is particularly good. If it can be installed on a bus, I would be happy to try it. And this interactive way to control music based on heartbeat and body temperature is also particularly novel.

If I can add heartbeat and breathing sensors to my concept, then the shortcomings of the single interaction method will be complemented and more gameplay can be generated.

Work to do

In the third week, we will play the World Coffee game in class for further idea generation and forming group. So what I have to do in the future is to listen to as many other students as possible, and to choose a project I like according to my interests.

Week2

Sulaiman Ma - Sun 8 March 2020, 8:10 pm

Idea presentation

On Tuesday and Wednesday of contact, people presented their ideas. All of the ideas are amazing, and I found some of them are really attractive to me.

Speaking shooting game

It is interesting that turning sound into the bullet to play a game. That is a really novel interaction for me. And I think that would be a really attractive way for the child as well. So, it would be great to make it a language learning game for children. Children can shoot the monster by speaking the words on the screen, and the more accurately they speak, the more powerful the bullet will be. It will a good promotion for children to learn the language.

Percussion Glove

It is a fantastic idea which can allow people to make music by clapping hands. The most fascinating part of the idea is it is collective and no limitation of how many people enrolling in the activity. It can be a show at a big event, and it also can be a game on a social occasion. Music produces fun for humans, and when people create music together, fun can be doubled. And my idea is that we can add more sensors to the people's leg and feet, in this way, people's dancing can also produce music.

Secret Handshake Lock

This idea is pretty fun. It is very playful and novel. Since normally opening the door with keys is a boring and frequent part of human life. The handshake lock makes the interaction more fun and natural. Obviously, it enhances the experience of daily life, and also increase the well being. I thought it will be fun if adding some silly games to it, it can be a prank or Rock Scissors Paper game.

Reflection

After listening to different ideas in class, and checked the themes on the blackboard. The most interesting themes for are Musical Metrics,Body as controller and Creative Learning.

  • Musical Metrics* is an attractive theme for me because I am passionate about improvising and creative music. So if I can make a thing that can help people produce freestyle music, and can allow people to enjoy that, it will a good experience for the music fan. And according to Nicole Leatherman, music can help people relax, so I think it is meaningful for us to use music as the power to provide people a better world.
  • Body as controller* is another theme that I am interested in because I think for most of the students and working people, all of them are lack of exercise. So if body can be as a controller, the game can also be beneficial for people's health. And when using the body as a controller, it can produce double fun, one is game fun and the other is exercise fun.
  • Creative Learning* is also one aspect I am interested in, because more and more students get bored with the traditional study, so a creative learning method is in an urgent need for people. My idea is we can focus on students' interests and hobbies, and try to make students learn things from the activity or things they are interested to do.

Space Induction

In Space induction, I got some knowledge about the safety and rules in that room. And also some good tips for us. I thought a lot of useful tools and equipment in there, I hope they can help me in the future. Besides, the most important rule the tutor taught us is "Don't be dumb, ask the tutor". I thought it is a useful tip for me.

Plan for next week

Next week, I hope that I can get some inspiration from classmates and tutors, and I want to brainstorm some ideas according to the theme.

Reference

[1]N. Leatherman, ‘How Music Relieves Stress and Helps You Relax’, p. 5.

Week 2 - Idea feedback

Tuva Oedegaard - Sun 8 March 2020, 7:48 pm

Add on about the feedback

After the feedbacks written by my peers were posted I had a look to see what comments were written about my idea. There was a limited number of comments, but everyone tagged the idea to be both novel and clearly communicated. Some comments mentioned that this would be a cool idea, and that it could be interesting to add on several interaction types, not just holding and that would be it. One suggestion was to match the tunes/sounds with an existing song instead of composing a new idea, which could be an interesting take to it. Another comment questioned whether music would make people happier in a hectic condition. It would be an interesting take to experiment with different sort of emotions and purposes of the music - is it just to have a fiddle while being bored at the bus? Maybe it could trigger some sort of emotions, either enhance how they are already feeling or aim to do the complete opposite? A controversial version would be to intentionally trigger sadness/anger.

Week_02_Documentation & Reflection

Junxian Chen - Sun 8 March 2020, 7:33 pm
Modified: Sun 8 March 2020, 7:33 pm

The work done:

for this week, we mainly working on presentation and idea brainstorm. Also, there is a soldering introduction this week.

presentation:

in this week presentation, I found a lot of interesting ideas. At the same time, some of these ideas do not fully use design rules, for example, the PT.8. which is a robot to help people and provide suggestion while they are doing fitness. it is designed as smaller as it can, but why not just use the phone? the phone has everything function that PT.8 has.

There is also an interesting idea: voice control elevator, which sounds good but it may face the challenge of accent. On the other hand, in a general situation, would you prefer to push a button or speak out? For me, I think to push a button may be easier.

For my own design, I have designed a smart cup that will tell users it is time to drink. Unfortunately, I don't know this idea already exists. So now, I try to change my idea into an office system which includes as many office things as we can. And try to make every product be your pets, for example, the smart calendar.

brainstorm:

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In this week's activity, we collect every poster together and list the close ideas. When it is an idea only, it sometimes hard to compare it with a similar product. By this activity, I found it will easy to help to tell the weakness of each idea and the relation between ideas.

Imgur Imgur

soldering:

I also attending the soldering introduction this week. I used to repair my broken earphone with soldering, by learning this skill, I can image lots of interesting things that I can make in this course.

Imgur

How it related:

The lesson I get from this week's activity is, The new idea is always not come up by yourself alone, communication is necessary, even search through the Internet is also a single way communication. The result that not to communicate is the idea you spent hours to come up with an idea that already exists.

The next lesson I got is extending the idea may lead to a surprise result. For example, when I think about the smart cup, I try to think what if every item on the desk become smart product. which leads to the idea of smart pet family.

Work to do:

By the end of this week, we get a list of 17 ideas.Beautify the Self

Change through discomfort

Altered Landscapes

Enhanced mundane spaces

Everyday sustainability

Musical things.

Emotional totems

Musical metrics

Emotional intelligence

Sassy tech

Guided movement

Bothersome tech

Change through positive reinforcement

Digital sensations

Creative Learning

Body as controller

Ability-centric interactions

I can see some ideas that appeal to me. which I hope I can give more advice next week.

Work that Inspired/Interested Me:

The smart calendar. The advanced of this idea is this smart calendar will talk to you to make a plan, and it will give you suggestion that if your plan has crash with other plan or you may hard to attend meeting A after you just finish meeting B.

Week 2 Critique Reflection

Annan Yuan - Sun 8 March 2020, 7:24 pm
Modified: Mon 22 June 2020, 1:00 am

Peer Critique

This week is about the idea presentation, I was a little bit nervous when I did the pitch but still enjoyed the ideas sharing. I reviewed all the feedbacks and generally speaking, my ideas and requirements are consistent. Still, there are some questions about the recording parts, maybe showing where the records are is necessary from the comments. I'd love to do more research and even some user testing since I notice that I thought the process of looking for the records can be fun but it also can be a problem.

Feedback

  1. Some like it would be difficult to find the records.
  2. Digital only
  3. How do we know which area has a voice or not?
  4. Nice for a family get together, spend time with friends
  5. A very unique concept, almost like magic
  6. I like how it extends things that most people already have and use different physical interaction would be good.

Reflection

The feedback 4, 5, 6 are quite positive which bring me confidence in my ideation and also encourage me to go further, exploring deeper of the concept.

The feedback 1, 2, 3 are contributional suggestions. They point ou the limitation of my idea which can be improved. For example, feedback 1 and 3 are more user experience focused advise. They remained me to pay attention to what the users need, not only what I preferred since I am not the target audience that the concept is designed for. In this case, user testing is a necessary step in the design process through interviews, surveys, and so on. As this recording presentation is been mentioned, it can be an option to compare with the original one from potential users in the future.

The second feedback focused on the way of presenting the idea. It does shake my mind about the design of the idea. Is it a somewhat singular presentation? Is physical interaction insufficient? This suggestion let me think over my idea and find the space to improve my idea to make my idea be more enhanced.

I was also impressed by some ideas in this week's session. There are a few themes I am interested in, like things about emotion, etc.

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