Work Done & How it Relates

World Cafe

Round 1: Exploring the theme/domain

Round 2: Audience/Context

Round 3: Refining a concept

I should have taken more photos but from the top of my head, I was at Enhancing Mundane Spaces(also host), Musical Things, Creative Learning(also host), and Body as Controller. I think the tables that most excited me were Creative Learning and Enhancing Mundane Spaces because we came up with some really cool concepts.

One of the concepts was finding a way to make grocery shopping less boring and Mario-Kartifying the trolleys was proposed. Another concept was a 360 degree see-saw plaything which was adapting the Chroma concept to help children learn how to work as a team and achieve a specific colour. We played with the scale of it and exhausted the idea so moved onto refining another concept. We then looked at how Mort could be improved to not just teach morse code. I thought Mort might be a great personified grammar helper that would teach children proper grammar and sentence structure by instructing them to produce a sentence with a Subject, Verb, Object, or sayign a sentence and telling the user to pull a specific leg when the word is a Noun, Verb, etc.

In Musical Things, there was a lot of talk about showing music as more than just sound so having it as a vibration, visual effects, and having music as a community experience for all to enjoy and not just professionals. The main experience that influence my thoughts in this space was when I got out of high school (I was a band geek) and realised I couldn't join a band unless I was studying music professionally or doing the music courses at UQ as an elective (in addition to auditioning).

There were some really awesome discussions during the World Cafe and I liked that we could visualise the idea on the paper even if we couldn't find the words for what we had in mind. I noticed there were some rounds that were a bit quiet at the start but once we had a spark flowing it was very lively. The conversation dying down was a pretty good indicator that we could probably talk about a different concept or prompt-question.

At the end of the World Cafe, we put our preferences in and waited for the results of teams to be announced the next day. I put my preferences down as

1. Creative Learning
2. Enhancing Mundane Spaces
3. Musical Things

I know at the start of the semester I was keen to move away from the "educational" theme of my previous projects but I think I have to accept that I'll always be passionate about helping others realise that learning is enjoyable. There were also a few people in each theme that I was keen to work with and I didn't put my preferences down immediately because I wanted to kindof scope out who else was interested in the same themes as me.

Bash Isai - Guest Speaker

On Wednesday morning, Bash Isai zoomed in from London where it was 11pm there. He told us some really useful career/life advice about selling yourself as a very hire-able employee and being the one that can lessen the stress of the person hiring.

We completed an activity which involved describing ourselves in 50 words, then crossing them out gradually until it got down to one word. My word was analyse. I think it represents me best because I like to gather information before making decisions regardless of whether it's work-related or in daily life. I am the type of person that will watch 27484473 review videos of the thing I'm considering buying, and I tend to straight up ask my friends what they want for their birthday instead of taking the risk that they won't like what they get.

This activity was pretty useful because I did another video interview the day after and I was able to pivot my answers better as an employable candidate. Still scary and terrifying to do those recorded video interviews but I guess it only gets better with practice and over a long long period of time.

Team (Four)mation

Team allocations were released after the morning break and I ended up being in Team 4 with Nelson, Summer and Rhea with the theme of Creative Learning. We spent until lunch getting to know each other and writing up our team agreement. Our skills are spread out and I'm looking forward to working together to create something really cool. I said I was good at documentation and we all agreed that communication is really fundamental. It was helpful to talk about our past group experiences and the issues we faced in them, as well as discuss our work tendencies and productive periods in the day. We all like when goals are met and like to have the motivation and pressure of milestones and deadlines with the flexibility to change depending on circumstances and factors (which is where communication plays a vital role).

Lorna went through the methods and what we needed to do for next week, then we went off to lunch.

After the lunch break we finalised the terms of our team agreement and thought about possible concepts we could explore in the space of Creative Learning. I told them about my two ideas of Mort as a grammar/sentence structure buddy and Chroma as a 3D interactive seesaw thing. Summer had a really interesting take on the pressure feature of Chroma where students could have a pressure sensitive button that they could press to help the teacher understand how confused they are about the content in the classroom. If the student presses harder, they are more confused. It would reflect the cognitive pressure on the student without "outing" them to the class, thereby helping shy students who might not be brave enough to raise their hand and ask for help.

We also signed up to present 2nd on Tuesday. Our team name is still yet to be determined but we joked about keeping it as Team 4 or calling ourselves 3+1 (because it equals 4, and also because that's how many girls and guys we have).

Since there wasn't enough time to discuss all the concepts we wanted to, we set aside some work to think of some concepts and discuss them on Monday. I thought of an Art Abstraction concept where 3D shapes are magnetised and can produce "real life" images when the user combines the shapes and sees them through an AR lens. Initially this meeting on Monday was going to be on campus but Rhea suggested doing it remotely due to the CoVid-19 situation so we've got a Zoom link set up and our Google Document for the Idea Discussion.

Gluing my box together

I decided to grab Weldbond Universal Adhesive from Bunnings instead of braving the grounds of UQ Innovate to glue my box together. The main factors that contributed to this decision were my wariness for going to campus more than necessary and the non-toxic aspect of the glue. I did do some research into the best glues for acrylic, which mainly said acrylics require solvents to chemically bond the acrylic pieces together. For the purpose of this box, which is now nicely adorning the TV unit, I figured that the universal adhesive would be fine.

Work To Do

• Team Meeting (Monday 12PM through Zoom) to discuss concepts and finalise one for the concept proposal in class on Tuesday Session 1 (9:30)
• Team name! and charter (which is 98% complete, just needs signatures)
• Sketch/props to be gathered and brought
• Proposal & critiques of other team concepts

Work That Inspired Me

I first came across this designer through a documentary series on Netflix. Her work inspires me because she puts a lot of effort into making sure kids keep their creativity flowing and imagination growing. I like the way she thinks and how she doesn't just target a specific gender or way of thinking when she designs the toys.

I've gone through the feedback (both Peer & Staff) and it gave me more perspective on features that could extend the concept and problems that it might face. For example, there is already technology that exists to show trying clothes on and standing in front of a mirror isn't very physically interactive. Maybe a way to improve this aspect would be to "humanise" the wardrobe so that the interaction isn't passive?

Another interesting point of view was that suggesting outfits might actually constrict creativity. Some people find joy in trying on outfits themselves and experimenting with that, so offering it as an option rather than a default might be more helpful if the concept was targeting a larger audience.

I think the core focus of the concept lies in its roots of slow fashion and sustainability. I didn't get to elaborate on how the wardrobe would count the number of times an item is worn in my pitch and I think this made my peers doubt whether the concept had a variety of novel interactions. Maybe voice and facial expressions would be better input to teach the wardrobe how the user feels about specific outfits or styles of clothing. If the wardrobe learns what materials and colours the user likes (using surveying and statistics) then it would be able to take that into consideration when reevaluating the user's wardrobe and suggesting which items could be donated and which items the user might want to wear after a while. I'm envisioning a situation of hangers having weight/motion sensors or the user's clothes having unique tags on them. Perhaps in a prototype it would just be barcodes or QR codes.

I think there is a lot of existing technology that would be able to prototype this concept really well since the sensor part of it could borrow tech from large scale department stores that have to keep track of inventory, but it still has a lot of potential to explore the unknown.

Hopefully in the world cafe activity tomorrow I can flesh out some more improvements not just on my own concept but on all the other ideas.

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.

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.

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.

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.

On Friday morning I set aside some time to come up with ideas for my Project Inspiration Pitch. My approach was to use pen and paper so I could sketch if I needed to, but I mainly wrote down descriptions and justifications for my ideas.

In this session I came up with the smart wardrobe, an assistive shower cubicle, a desk chair, an annoying coffee cup, an improved steering wheel, and a conversation table. I feel like my ideas were mainly driven by the environment I was in when brainstorming, which was at home with a view of my desk, dining table and wardrobe. I don't drink coffee but there is a normality of being addicted to coffee in university and in the hobby groups I'm in. The steering wheel idea was likely from a culmination of my frustrations with morning traffic.

In the end, I chose to pitch the smart wardrobe because it has a lot of potential for cool features to implement and a good purpose.

The Smart Wardrobe

A wardrobe that keeps a record of how many clothes a user has and how many times each item is worn. It profiles each item with the composition of the material and an estimate of how many wash cycles it can endure. The mirror has an AR feature for users to see what they look like in different outfits before grabbing them out of the wardrobe which can save time. It can suggest outfits based on the time of day, activity and dress code. The wardrobe will help users to appreciate all the clothing that they own and alerts users if an item has not been worn in a long time to prompt them to either donate the clothing or sell it to someone else. The main goal of the wardrobe is to encourage the users to embrace slow fashion and work towards a circular economy. If users intend to throw clothes away, the wardrobe can educate them on the length of time it takes for their clothes to break down and users will move away from synthetic fabrics to more durable and sustainable fashion.

My inspiration for this wardrobe came from The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Kondo & Hirano, 2014), the Slow Fashion movement (Jung & Jin, 2014), and the Low Impact/Zero Waste Movement (Cleanlink, 2019). For the mirror AR example in my poster I used the Lily Story app on Android. There are already mobile applications out there that keep a log of different outfits, but it would be fascinating to explore this space with an environmental approach.

References

Franco-García ML., Carpio-Aguilar J.C., Bressers H. (2019) Towards Zero Waste, Circular Economy Boost: Waste to Resources. In: Franco-García ML., Carpio-Aguilar J., Bressers H. (eds) Towards Zero Waste. Greening of Industry Networks Studies, vol 6. Springer, Cham

Jung, S., & Jin, B. (2014). A theoretical investigation of slow fashion: Sustainable future of the apparel industry. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 38(5), 510-519.

Kondō, M., & Hirano, C. (2014). The life-changing magic of tidying up: The Japanese art of decluttering and organizing (First American edition.). Berkeley: Ten Speed Press.

Štefko, R., & Steffek, V. (2018). Key Issues in Slow Fashion: Current Challenges and Future Perspectives. Sustainability, 10(7), 2270.

Berggren, M. (2019, September 6). Fast Fashion Vs Slow Fashion – Difference & Advantages.

Retrieved from https://wearandsmile.com/blog/fast-fashion-vs-slow-fashion/

Cleanlink. (2019, November 23). Entertainment Company Sets Zero Waste Goals.

Retrieved from https://www.cleanlink.com/news/article/Entertainment-Company-Sets-Zero-Waste-Goals--23231

N.d. (2020) Ultimate 48 in. W - 96 in. W White Wood Closet System.

Retrieved from https://www.homedepot.com/p/Closet-Evolution-Ultimate-48-in-W-96-in-W-White-Wood-Closet-System-WH19/311040600

Tuesday

We brainstormed what our fears, hopes, questions and expectations were in the first part of the day. My main concern that I contributed was cost of material and time constraints because not everyone can use the machines at the same time but we all have the same deadlines.

I forgot to put my expectations for the course in my previous post so I'll put it here instead because it's easier than editing my post and more transparent that way. I'm anticipating a lot of stress but also a lot of relief as well in terms of feeling like I'm ready to graduate and go out into the real world. I expect to encounter a few learning curves depending on the project I do. Especially if it involves woodworking, laser cutting and printing, but this also really excites me because I'm grateful that UQ has these facilities available for us to explore.

The other part of the day was focused on looking at examples of physical computing projects posted in the Slack channel and discussing why they might have been put as an example. We also tried looking for examples of our own. The example I posted was a wearable popcorn eating machine and I had the justification that while it was more of a set-and-forget type thing, it had the potential to be interesting if the hand only moved towards the person's mouth at a filler scene or during more loud bits where they don't have to pay close attention. It could listen and monitor the volume of the video or pre-process the video so it could forecast to the person a good time to take a bathroom break/get more popcorn etc.

Wednesday

HCI 7 Grand Challenges

The first part of the day involved discussing the readings of the HCI Seven Grand Challenges paper that we had to complete before class. I was assigned to Challenge 2 which was about Human-Environment Interactions and we split off into two tables to discuss our interpetations of the challenge we read, anything we'd like to add that wasn't in the challenge, and to come up with a short description. Photos of these can be found below:

Project Ideation

The next part of the day involved some really cool project ideation using a set of playing cards and a list of words where it would generate a sentence to prompt for design ideas. First round was group brainstorming, second round was individual ideation and the third round extended an idea from the table. We went with Lachlan's prompt and concept which can be seen in the 3rd picture.

I will be working on my project inspiration ideas tomorrow and I think my ideas tend to either lean towards being educational or environmentally conscious. This isn't necessarily a problem but I do think it would be cool to explore something more abstract. I'd like to step out of my comfort zone more and not limit myself to things I know already.

I went to the 78-207 Space Induction in the afternoon. Some people kept trailing in after 1pm and that was a bit frustrating because every time someone new came in, Ben would have to go and open the door and check that they had the right shoes and no food or drink, then Steven had to repeat what they missed. The rest of the induction went well though.

I'm in my final year of a BInfoTech(UXDes) and BArts(Linguistics) program and I hope to hone my skills in development both with producing something physical and improving my skills with programming/web design. In past projects I've contributed best in the fields of user research and evaluation.

I am pretty organised, which lends to my skills in project management and planning. If I can help it, I schedule my workload so I can avoid doing all-nighters because I love sleep. Nice to meet you all!