World Cafe Activity

Today we all participated in the world cafe activity. It looked at the various themes developed along with inspiration concepts attached to those themes. The first part of the exercise looked at sitting down at a table with a theme and discussing various aspects of the theme with the others at the table. I first sat at the table with musical things. I found this theme interesting because it took the physical interaction of playing an instrument and invoking it with another physical action. It was interesting to see that the inspirational concepts were divided into public and individual interactions. I quite like the boxing pad and the fountain idea. I thought this idea involved both exercise and music and that it an engaging activity to have. This idea could be a new fad or exercise regime which can encourage people to make music while working out, learning how to make music or workout to a beat.

This musical things concept could also be used in an educational situation. For children trying to refine their motor skills or learn about different sounds. The music box would be great for this as it had leavers which children could turn and create sound. It could also be gameified to ensure engagement.

Another theme I sat down at was the Ability-centric interactions I found this theme quite interesting. One of the ideas that came out of the Part 3 activity was a maze that the user has to go in blind (without the sense of sight) and navigate their way around the maze. The group I had also suggested obstacles and tasks the personal would have to complete without that particular sense. I found this would be an engaging physical interaction to have and can be used in so many different scenarios.

I found this world cafe activity very helpful in understanding and fleshing out the various themes I was interested in. By being able to talk to others asking their opinions on ideas, target audiences possible realisation for the idea to come to life was useful.