This week, we did world cafe, we moved around the room to different tables containing themes with ideas in those themes to work on improving, changing and iterate on those ideas to get a better image of what the space contains.

Table 1: Ability-centric interactions

For the first table I forgot to take an image before leaving so I won't have a reference image for it. For a large part of this table we tried to define the space a little, deciding what the space and the ideas were and weren't. We had some interesting thoughts around it, mainly that the space did not solve the actual problem but rather created an alterative or substitution. For example the ideas that helped guide vision impaired does not solve the problem of being blind but it helps guide the user through a different sense, meaning it does not fix the problem that the user is blind but giving them an alterative to seeing. the other thing we found is that there was one idea that made the user blind forcing them to navigate through sound based prompts, giving the sensation of blindness possibly showing the user what it could be like to be blind, possibly spreading awareness.

We also came up with a new idea by mixing actuated pixels with the vibrating shoes (the name of the idea escapes me). The idea is to create a suit with the same kind of pressure points, those points mimic the user's surroundings, this means that if the user were to walk towards a pole they would feel the location and size of that pole through their body, slowly getting stronger the closer they get.

Table 2: Musical things.

The group that came before us had explored different ideas on how to make music by other means, and had left a note on how music may be sensed. I came from the ability-centric table thought about how deaf people may gain the ability to sense music. Another idea spawned from this with the inspiration from the backpack that can be used to play beatsaber, a music game. This backpack lets the user feel the beat, creating more immersion for those that aren't deaf and creating a way for deaf and hearing impairment to enjoy the game as well by feeling the music, especially the bass. the idea was to use this technology to feel your surroundings, especially useful for the hearing impaired to sense where the sound is coming from, the more intense the sound the more intense the vibration notifying the user on any potential dangers, such as for example cars or pedestrians asking to pass. This could also be useful for non-hearing impaired, namely those who enjoy listening to music, using this they could be more aware of their surroundings. After we did find that this idea does not specifically fit the theme were in at the moment, but it was an interesting idea nonetheless.

Table 3: Enhanced mundane spaces

This was the first round where we changed to the different approach, talking about who we are designing for etc. We spotted on one of the sheets an idea on how to enhance solitary confinement. We then discussed what would change if we were designing for children instead (assuming that solitary confinement is meant for adults) This is how the idea of Kindergarnder Prison came. The idee then was built upon thinking about why we would design this. We figured that the reason could be to teach the children but in jail why they were put there and how they could change. One idea was to have a video of they're crime repeatedly shown to them so they really understood what they did wrong. Although this method is somewhat crude, the idea itself I would say is decent, using the prison more as a correctional facility, treating the problem with knowledge and understanding rather then basic punishment.

The Second idea came from driving, specifically learning to drive. We talked about different solutions to learning to drive, simulation and physical representations of driving problems to create a more interactive learning method instead of just theoretical.

We explored the idea of driving some more but this time focusing more on the actual driving part. We thought about the times when you drive and you become unaware of what you are doing, the times where you basically phase out for a long time, a thing that is quite dangerous. No actual ideas came to mind apart from mentioning the signs that are beside the road up to bundaberg keeping drivers awake through trivia questions beside the road. However, we came to the conclusion that safety would be essential here, having something that engaged the driver but no so interesting to draw attention away from the road so it would become dangerous again, a real tightrope to walk.

Table 4: Enhanced mundane spaces (Host)

After introducing the table on what we had talked about previously we expanded the idea of entertaining drivers to bus drivers, since we expected that the job may get somewhat boring. We talked about enhancing the way they get guided through their routes, to make in more visually appealing, but we came up with no ideas that wouldn't be distracting to the driver. Then we thought that we could make the act of stopping enjoyable for the driver. We considered some ideas t\but the one that stuck with me was the one where we would use note progression for every person tapping on or off, together creating a song for the driver. We did realise that this almost enhances what we assumed is the boring part of driving a bus route which is when nobody gets on and with this solution would mean little to no song. Our final idea came from shifting the entertainment towards the passengers creating the idea to have the seats in the bus light up based on the moods of the occupants so that if were not in the mood to talk to random people it would be visible and those that want to strike up a conversation could find each other.

Table 5: Musical metrics

During this group we got quite off topic, talking about ideas about music but far from user metrics. However, we returned to metrics towards the end and came up woth some ideas to create music using metrics. The ideas we came up with were to create music from alcohol blowing tests. We then talked about making music for students and staff on campus, then we came up with the idea of making a song for every course after the semester, making the songs from the final grades everyone had, making it a happier song of the average was high and more sombre of the average was low.

Table 6: Creative Learning

Now we were supposed to refine the ideas on the table. We thought the Chroma idea was interesting and decided to expand on it a bit. Although we liked the idea we thought the interaction could use some enhancement. So instead of simply applying pressure, we came up with the idea of using a platform like this just much bigger. It would represent a colour circle and users would have to balance together to find the correct colours.

We took the idea of mort and instead of restricting it to morse code we figured that it could be used to teach grammar and sentence structure using some of the same mechanics that would have been used on the mort, we did not really reach any real conclusion on how we could make it interesting for the users and motivate them.

Table 7: Body as controller

At this point I think most of us at the table at that time were running a little low on energy so it took us a little while to get going properly. I don't remember where the inspiration came from but we came up with the idea to use a users shadow in a variety of different ways using blob detection technology. The first idea was that a user could stand in from of a wall and use their shadow to reveal parts of an image. The second idea was that multiple users had to work together to navigate a maze, one controlling the thing traversing the maze and the other revealing the maze, more people would mean more roles like revealing the maze, revealing traps etc. In hindsight, this round was far from as productive as the other rounds, not entirely sure why, it could have been lowering energy levels or maybe people getting tapped for ideas and inspiration.

Table 8: Emotional intelligence

This was the last round. Here we talked a little bit about the potential moral problems with the idea about punching away frustration. Creating that opportunity to release frustration is probably effective, however, it does not solve the core issue. The fact that someone becomes that angry and frustrated that they have to punch and hit it out is quite serious and I believe that this solution does not approach this problem in a healthy way. Although we did not come up with any healthier alternatives I still think that it could be worth exploring due to the fact that a healthier solution would be better in my opinion.

We did come up with an idea for an expansion on the DigPhoto idea, instead of just seeing images we figured experiencing them in 4D could have a bigger effect on the user, sensing the calming image with all senses instead of just sight, escaping the world for just a little bit.