I’m done with exhibition day!

Leading up to the exhibition day, I was feeling very overwhelmed that I had to explain and answer hard questions about my concept and approach. I was afraid that users might react very negatively towards my idea, but I think this was just my anxiety acting up. Reflecting on this past week, I was very happy with the outcome of my prototype and the overall experience of having this course being offered online. Initially, I was dreading having online courses, and the fact that my entire group dropped the course in week 5 was very demotivating. Despite contemplating on dropping the course, I’m happy that I didn’t and that I pushed through despite being very stressed about joining a new group at such a late stage. I was very blessed to have found a group that was exploring a similar problem space which made it very easy for me to assimilate myself into this new context. A huge plus that my new team was super friendly! We had an enjoyable time every week not only discussing course content but also chatting about really random stuff.

After the exhibition we had our final discord call as a team to discuss the form of our team reflective report, outlining what we wanted to write about as a team, going off individually to word out individual sections before coming back together to integrate each component together. Surprisingly, we finished up the report relatively quick meaning that well have a full break on Friday to relax!

To the teaching team, thank you so much for all your hard work and support throughout the entire semester! Replying to slack messages 24/7, helping with very last min technical issues, having to speak to an entire class without response, and having a podcast with very few students isn’t easy! So, thank you so much for making the transition to online learning as smooth as it was. I rate this course 11/10 😊

Concept

Live Demo

Description

OMA is designed to help children deal with stress within the context of the classroom during break times or in between classes. The main focus and goal of the concept were to help children develop stress management skills by invoking a sense of calmness and peace through colors and sounds, utilizing a natural interaction paradigm where users would use the sense of touch to interact with the concept.

Ideal

The initial and ideal concept that was developed involved a large play mat that is pressure sensitive. Children would be able to apply pressure anywhere on the mat and a different musical note would play corresponding to the location and amount of pressure that was applied, allowing a multi-user experience where children are able to produce music together. Ideally, though multi-user interactions and functionality described above, the concept would also promote self-expression that might positively influence self-confidence and creativity along with the main intended goal of improving emotional intelligence.

Work done

This week was all about getting stuff together, the prototype I have been working on for the past few weeks was looking to be on track for the exhibition but there were a few minor components that I had to fix up. One of them was the circuitry of my board, whilst prototyping I did not care too much of the physical form and presentation of the final delivery so I spent some time working on tidying up the wires, wrapping them up with electrical tape and securing them neatly on my main board. Besides that, I worked on securing all components together and edging my board with tape to provide a more finished outcome, ready for the final presentation.

As part of the final delivery, an individual website portfolio needed to be created to outline the development of the concept. A large proportion of this week was dedicated to pitching 13 weeks of content into a concise yet insightful document for potential readers to explore. The main challenge for me however was coding the HTML pages. I recently had an assessment piece that utilized PHP for web dev so I had to switch that part of my brain off and utilize pure HTML to code this portfolio. I also consider myself to be a pretty plain and uncreative individual which made it hard to apply some of my flare to the individual portfolio. In the end, I decided to follow a very simple and minimalistic design throughout my webpage that utilized a lot of white space as content dividers and to make the page look less cluttered as there was a lot of text that was included. I tried my best to be as concise as possible without losing the value and insights I gained over the past semester but we will see how that goes.

In the next week, I aim to be done with the major components of the final deliverable by Monday, allowing time for small changes over the next two days before the exhibition. I have already tested the prototype and it works for now so I am planning to leave it alone in hopes that I won’t break it before the exhibition. Besides that, I plan on repositioning my desk and computer to prepare for the demo on Wednesday to help with reducing clutter in my background.

Inspiration

the design of my website was inspired by the designer Sean Halpin(http://seanhalpin.io/) as I liked his simplistic yet fun approach to web design.

Work done

Unfortunately, I was unable to spend too much time on this project this week as I have a major assignment due for my other courses, this meant that my prototype took the backseat as I needed a break from coursework after all my submissions. Despite putting off work for a bit, I was still able to investigate the suitability of using processing to output sound. Based on resources from slack I followed a guide to connecting my Arduino code to processing code, programming in Processing, however, is quite confusing as its sort of JAVA but not really, meaning that I had to spend some time understanding the documentation. Using the Minim Lib in Processing, I was able to play audio on processing by feeding an mp3 file into an audio player. I was also able to read from the serial port to which my Arduino was connected but I had to figure out and refractor my Arduino code to send information to the serial port when pressure is sensed. Utilizing concepts from button states, I had to figure out how to send information based on which button was pressed to the serial port which was the tricky part. This took a lot of time debugging as I was trying to send a variable “play” to the serial port to trigger playing audio, however, I realized that my variable had a /n newline element that I could not see in the console, this took me a while to figure out and I found it was best to trim the variable to avoid time-consuming bugs in the future.

my buggy code fix:

By the end of this week, I was able to test that audio is able to be played using Processing but I am yet to figure out how to refactor my code to be constantly sending information to serial only when button states change. This is more of a logical challenge as I’m not used to processing programming, I think it would be best for me to ideate a solution on paper and execute it to improve the efficiency of my codebase, speaking of the codebase, I’m quite pleased that I found a bug in my original codebase that caused a delay in displaying lights, this was due to the code structure I had implemented. Looking back, it would have been better if I had worked more on the musical element of my prototype instead of mocking it in the previous submission as the main theme of my concept is musical things, it would have been better to solve the big issue of outputting music first and then move on to color theory, based on suggestions, I was able to explore Ableton as well but it might have been too complicated for me to understand.

Plan for next week

Looking forward, I should be on track to completing my portfolio in the coming week, I should be starting on condensing my process and concepts to be included in my final portfolio along with documenting my work through imagery. knowing my skills in HTML I'm quite concerned that my website would be looking quite plain as im pretty bad with CSS but ill cross that bridge when I get to it.

inspiration/tutorial I found helpful

Work Done

This week, I worked on concept iteration. Based on the feedback gained from the studio activities and suggestions from the teaching team, the prototype should encourage interaction. Instead of one pressure sensor, I decided to include more pressure pads that would trigger different light sequences, I was able to construct these pads using the same theory as before but utilizing copper tape instead of foil as it's just easier to construct. I included a foam layer to avoid accidental connections but this made it hard for the pads to connect as it required too much force to connect. This meant that I had to redo the pads by cutting the opening of the foam to be larger to increase the sensitivity of the pressure pads. This unfortunately took a lot of time and crafting work.

Besides that, I worked on outputting audio from the computer when pressure was sensed. I was working on incorporating unity to help solve this problem as I was mocking the audio output in the prototype submission. However, I wasn’t comfortable with unity as I have not used it before, I found it easier to try a different method utilizing serial to play music. Looking to see how would this work over the next week.

Plan for next week

Based on the feedback and what I have left to complete, my priority would be adding the music element as its pretty core to my idea and problem space. The great thing is as we're still in lockdown, ill have plenty of time to explore a new alternative to output sound, in the coming week, I would be focusing on getting the components together and incorporating music through Processing.

Tutorial

Instead of using Veloster, as per Lornas suggestion, I utilized foam to make smaller pressure pad as compared to what I had initially.

Work Done

This week was all about putting pieces together to complete the prototype, leading on to this week, I had developed the prototype based on different separate components such as the pressure pad, led code and the musical element in order to ensure that each component is well developed and in a working condition before I combine them all together. Putting the concept together wasn't too difficult but just required some patience as I was trying to solder each section together, daisy-chaining the led strip and ensuring the wires coming from the pad were secure and tidy. Having said that, soldering took up a lot of my time as it was quite difficult to solder in my living room, I spent a lot of them trying to get the connections secured and finally taping them all together using electrical tape. Personally, I felt that I did well with the physical built of the prototype as the components were secure and rather durable.

During this week, I was also getting my document and video presentation done. Regarding the document, I wasn't sure what I should be including in it as it had a word limit to it, I focused more on my design process and interaction with the prototype rather than the background research I had conducted. Similarly, in the video I produced, I focused more on the purpose of the developed concept and skimmed through my background research. Reflecting on this, I might have benefitted more from the team appraisals if I had spent more time talking about the research that has gone through in developing the concept as I realize that some users might not know the true aims and motivation when developing my prototype, it is however still difficult trying to fit 10 weeks of work into a 10-minute video.

Work to do

Despite being satisfied with my work, there are still a few things I need to work on. For example, moving forward, I would like to have my prototype tie in music seamlessly and have more interactions with the prototype such as swipes or tapping to the beat as I feel like that would promote self-expression among young children.

Final Outcome

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This week in-studio classes, we were asked to review our fellow classmates' prototype documents and videos. As a team, we were able to utilize studio hours to watch each of our assigned videos through zoom. After each video, we would then review their concept and appraise them according to what we felt was positive points and what we felt needed improvement on. Collectively, we would then jot down dot points on a shared google doc to outline all of our individual thoughts and suggestions. This made it easier for us to have a collective appraisal for each of the teams, where we went off constructing all the dot points into a readable state.

Having said that, we were very intentional about what we said and how we said it as we thought it was important to give constructive and actionable suggestions to the teams we reviewed. We noticed that it is crucial to set the tone of the appraisal by highlighting what the individual has done well rather than going straight into what they could have done better as we realize the tone of written comments is drastically different to in-person discussion, we then provide suggestions that we thought might add value to their concept. We tried to be intentional in giving critiques relevant to the individual's stage in the design process and steered away from appraising the individual's research into the problem space as we understand that you can't possibly fit 10 weeks of background research into a 6-minute video as we noticed a few critiques were based upon things other than the interaction of the prototype.

After reviewing 12 different prototypes, I had the chance to reflect upon my own prototype and design process. I realized that my prototype lacks direction, I realized that in the midst of developing this concept, the main overarching theme and problem space is to build a concept based on learning through musical things. Having said that, I would need to reflect upon what it means to learn emotional intelligence though my concept? How would music relate to colors? How would my concept promote self-expression? Knowing what I know now, I will be building off my concept to focus on "Promoting emotional intelligence though musical things". A few actionable aspects I can focus on now are:

1. Relating colors to music
2. Colour association
3. Adding interactions to promote self-expression
4. How would stress corrolates with the inability to learn

What is your concept?

My main focus and direction will revolve around how sounds and color would affect our target audience’s moods and focus. The direction I intend to explore relates back to our core focus on having sounds and music in everyday interactions to promote learning, predominantly in a classroom setting.

Relating to that, my concept would consist of a playmat that can be used by children that omit calming music and colors based on color theory to help children relieve academic pressures and stress or simply to entertain them.

As our team management strategy was to develop four different concepts that fall under the same domain, my responsibility for this project is to develop and prototype my own concept while sharing ideas and research with the team, as we are all working on sounds ad sensor-based technology, we would be able to share resources and user feedback as a team.

What is the ideal finished product?

Ideally, my concept would be of a larger scale, an actual playmat sized prototype that is able to detect pressure and omit light throughout the mat and not just on certain pressure points.

My concept would also be more refined, with the possibility of using more sensitive pressure pad and slimmer Flexi led pads that will refine and reduce the thickness of the mat so that children playing on the mat will feel more comfortable. Ideally, the led strips will also light up at the pressure point, having the lights follow the child when they are interacting with the concept.

User Testing

In order to design my concept to accurately reflect the needs of the target audience, I drafted some questions to be answered by potential system users. However, it was difficult to find willing participant that fall in the specific age group I am designing for in these circumstances. Responding to that challenge, I decided to then include parents, educators, and anyone with childcare experience as research subjects. I was lucky to have some mutual friends in education to respond to a set of questions outlining how children react to technology use in classrooms, color, and music associations. These interviews were conducted to have a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

results can be viewed here :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P-88CwLs07s8fiTsA6cLBqv-gTZ115bI/view?usp=sharing

Studio activity

This week in the studio, we were able to catch up on what everyone has been doing over the break. it is interesting to see what other students have been coming up with, some having already completed their prototypes. I was quite concerned when I heard some students being so far ahead with their developments, this, however, did not last long as I realized that most of the students and my team members were in the same boat as me - still figuring out the best way to approach the situation.

For me, I only worked on prototype sketches and product research other the break, I wanted to ensure all the components I purchased was Arduino compatible and as my prototype could be executed in many different ways, I wanted to solidify one model that I think will be the best approach and stick with it, allowing me to buy components for it and continue on my development process. In hindsight, I should have put more time into the project during my break but instead, I spent most of my time binge-watching tiger king- which I thought was well deserved after my 2 big submissions.

Concerns

The main thing I am concerned with at the moment is reaching our target audience. initially, I thought to post questions online and in Facebook groups were going to be easy, however, no one really takes time out of their already busy days to answer interview questions from a stranger. most of my attempts were ignored- which is completely understandable, but it makes the SDLC very very difficult as I don't have a base of user testing to iterate changes on my prototype. as an alternative, I've decided to reach out to my parents to help me identify potential users for me to contact lol. Hopefully, it will go better than having questions post online.

Project wise, I am still quite concerned that my idea is too simple. having students trying to build robots and really cool stuff made me self conscious but bless my teammates for always supporting my idea and giving me feedback as to what I should focus on, which is focusing on a good idea that fits the brief despite me thinking its too "simple".

This week

This week, I'm working on using components in the kits I've received to build something that can act as an MVP before all my other components get mailed to me. I will also be working hard to get hold of a few potential users for me to interview. instead of targeting exactly my stakeholders to be interviewed, I have expanded my testing audience to anyone who has experience with children before, I understand that the raw data will not be as accurate but in these circumstances, it might be my best bet.

Aside from taking a break from online learning (yay) and spending some time away from the screens, I intend on spending some time during the teaching break to:

1. Work on Arduino

As I am not super familiar with how Arduino works, I hope to spend some time looking at Arduino documentation and example projects so that ill be able to be more comfortable with the hardware before executing my own individual concept. To help me with this, I will be referring to the guide book supplied in the kit and also the document written by ben.

2. Sort out technical specs for my individual project

During the break, I also hope to work out a technical sketch and figure out the best way of implementing the project with the tools I currently have. Having close to nothing to work with (material wise) ill have to figure out the best way to reuse and creatively refurbish items around the house. Having a plan and sketch would also help me determine the technical components I have to purchase.

3. Order materials

After determining the right materials, ordering it online would be the next thing I would like to get done. I am still deciding if it'll be worthwhile going to jaycar in-person to purchase components.

What we did

In the studio classes this week, we were able to work on overcoming restriction hurdles. During our studio session, we were able to play around with miro, learning how to utilize it as a tool to streamline teamwork. We started off by using it studio-wide thinking about methods of discovery.

The activity that was conducted required us to answer a few questions on miro, sharing ideas as a large team. It was interesting for me to read responses from other students as it gave me a better perspective on how to conduct my personal project moving forward. I realized that I am limiting myself by only focusing on "real life" user testing and research when there are many different alternatives that could potentially yield better results.

Team Activity

Following that activity, Team Garfunkle was able to create our own flow chart and workspace on miro. We were able to use the tools provided to answer relevant questions regarding our theme and ideas, having broken down specifics, I personally felt that it was easier to write the proposal report as all team members had a clearer idea of our team audience and main focus areas. We followed the guidelines set by Lorna and completed our mind map by the end of the class. After the studio class, we scheduled a team zoom call to update each other on our progress in writing the team proposal report that was due soon.

What we did

in the past week, we were able to finalize our approach to implement the team concept, our team decided to work on individual sub-concepts under the umbrella theme on Musical Things. Besides that, we were able to discuss our team submission and separate out team sections to be done by each team member.

we realized that it was more productive for us as a team to be working on the report/project during workshop hours with zoom running and it helps as an accountability check, sort of like a study group where you have to be working as you assume your teammates would be doing the same. we would work for 45 mins to an hour and have a chat for 15 mins, that way we were able to ask questions and get clarifications on the spot if we were unsure of a report component.

also - I got my Arduino kit in the mail so I'm excited to be playing around with it to familiarize myself with the program and components.

what we will be doing

In the coming week, we will still be working on our documentation and proposal report to be submitted before the Easter break. We will be having a few team meetings this week to discuss team components and the team direction moving forward. It's nice having the assessment due before the break as I would be able to work on other assessments from other courses over the break, focusing my time on other courses before diving into prototyping after the break.

Unfortunately, due to the transition to learning fully online, my team has decided to drop the course before the census date. Sad to see them go as we've worked on our projects for four weeks now. Due to the offering of this course being online, my previous team members thought that it might be worthwhile deferring the course for a semester to fully experience the process of this course, which I fully understand.

Despite having thought about the possibility of dropping the course myself, I decided that it wasn't the best idea to defer a semester as new courses weren't accepting new students and it might be hard to catch up on two new courses. This also means that I can graduate on time!!!!! yay.

After looking through all the pitches and my options, I'm grateful and excited to be working in a new team with four other girls! Thankfully our projects were in similar domains of music and touch, meaning that I will be able to contribute my findings from the past four weeks instead of starting from zero. Although it is sad/stressful having to deal with not having a team, I'm happy that it all worked out and am able to start on the projects soon. yay!

I’m not going to lie and say everything is great because I’m feeling quite stressed about this new transition as I would need to reexplore this new team domain and I definitely would not want to make my new team feel like I’m just leaching onto their already done work. I’ve spent the majority of this week being very stressed and concerned not only about my team but as the deadline for the team report came closer, my academic grades might be negatively affected due to this new and sudden change. Thankfully, I was able to speak to the teaching team in resolving some of my concerns and it really made me feel a whooooole lot better knowing that the teaching team was able to provide support and had an understanding towards the difficult position I was put into.

Feels a little weird to be studying physical computing -online. During the week I had the change to have a good think about how this impact would translate to the work we will produce by the end of the semester.

• How would be able to collaborate?
• How is user testing going to be conducted?
• Will I be disadvantaged if I do not have tools/materials at home?

I am still on the fence about staying enrolled in this course as I was most excited to work collaboratively and participating in the final exhibition. Having to learn this course online might defeat the core purpose and aim of this course and I’m not too sure if I’m keen for that. Additionally, there is still a lot of uncertainty with how the course will be conducted, I predict that we won't have much access to workshop and UQ innovate tools which I have already had to spend time getting inducted for. For now, as a team, we have heavily relied on slack and zoom to conduct team meetings and have conversations on how we will move forward to a more individual-based project, from splitting up the project into smaller components.

Regarding individual projects, I am concern as to how well I can produce a physical prototype with my current skillset. As I am more familiar with web dev and information system, it would be quite a challenge for me to translate my skills into ideating a concept to producing it. Lorna mentioned that we are still able to work as a team but I’m not too sure how my teammates feel about this in regards to social distancing guidelines. Going back to the team to discuss our approach to the concept and its execution would be a good place to start in the next studio session.

Preparation

During the pause, we were able to work on refining our concept and conduct more background research to support our concept. The research domain I focused on was how colours relate to mental health and how it evokes emotion. I found it interesting that colours have social associations to them, for example, the colour green evokes peace and calmness. It is interesting to read about colours and its emotional value. We found that having colour/sound interaction in an environment where commuters 1. have time to interact with the concept 2. is likely to feel social pressure as they are going to /returning from work or school would be beneficial as colours and sound could calm and re-center users focus, perhaps enhancing work/schooling environments.

Pitch

The pitch we gave as a team was pre-recorded. My team mate Laura was able to edit the video really well! I personally thought the message/concept was presented very clearly. Having pre- recorded sessions definitely helped as zoom was being iffy all morning for me.

Link to video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2r3FQcjyH0&list=PLhvozOmj2M0Or2bBb-oGxtO7N8g60dR4q&index=11&t=49s

Reflection

Things to think about after feedback was given

• Will sound be disruptive
• Will having crowded trains be an issue
• Maybe having headphones will be better
• More research on colours having multiple meaning
• Maybe instead of a screen, have something that you could interact with throughout the trains
• Depending on the time of day and types of people on the train this might be annoying or distracting eg. work people
• Accessibility issues
• explore facial expressions rather than hand gestures
• using footsteps instead of gestures

What to do next?

The feedback has given me a lot to think about, I think the next step for me is to incorporate the feedback to our concept to improve it. as a team, we would also have to discuss which approach is the best moving forwards as some feedback contradicted each other, in doing so we might also have to conduct additional research to inform our design decisions.

Playing card activity

As part of the studio activities, we were able to conduct an ideation exercise that would hopefully help us think more creatively. we started off this activity by conducting it in a team then moving on to ideating individually. after that, we came back together as a team to further discuss and refine our ideas.

How it works

Each student was handed a random card from four different suits, we would then have to match each card to an index that would generate 4 different action words and we would have to generate ideas based on those words that we were assigned to.

My idea

The idea I came up with was a street lamp indicator where a street lamp is programmed to be lit up in a different color when a QR code is scanned (the QR code will be stuck on the side of the lamp). this could be used in multiple ways but my main idea was for it to be used by tourists. the idea came about the fact that most people walking in the city often look down at their phones which might be a social indicator that they do not want to be disturbed, making it hard for visitors to ask for directions if needed. by having a lamp light up, passersbys might see the light flashing and be encouraged to stop and help them.

Thoughts

Personally I thought the activity was very helpful in forcing you to ideate by encouraging creative thinking. Forcing yourself to be creative with an added deadline of presenting it to your table is surprisingly a great way to ideate new concepts. Despite it being a fun activity to conduct, I don't think we followed through with any of the ideas we had.

What did we do?

In studio this week, we had the opportunity to pitch and present our ideas to the class. There were many very interesting ideas combining playful aspects to digital computing which was very interesting. After the presentations, we were able to spend some time theming all the ideas into more abstract groups in order to visualise what themes were most popular among the studio class. Based on what we did, the most common themes were creative learning, bothersome tech and fitness/mental health.

Personal faves

Personally, I really enjoyed all the ideas based of negative response in order to promote behavioural change and creative learning. I enjoyed projects like Chroma as it incorporates learning into sometime interactive and interesting, I think I would enjoy playing around with colour theory targeting children as an audience.

Projects such as the Kitchen Kriminal was also very interesting as it adds a playful element into what would be a boring task. added onto that, it could be used by children anf the elderly as a safety measure concealed in a fun game like tool.

Reflection

Reflecting on my own presentation, I realise that I should have had more fun with my idea and think outside the box when it comes to idea generation. Moving forward, I am keen to think more creatively not only for idea generation but also to solve problems creatively.

Planty Pot!

According to studies, about 59% of Americans report experiencing symptoms of digital eyestrain. This problem could be curbed if people pay more attention to resting their eyes during long working or schooling hours. Overhead lighting could also cause glare that might strain eyes further. According to OPSM, a 2-3 minute break should be taken every 45 minutes of screen time.

How it works

Planty has a built-in timer that goes off to remind the user to look away from the screen by turning the screen off. Panty will notify you before doing this by pulsating light through its leaves so the user can give their eyes a break.

Planty also senses light. If the overhead lighting is too strong, Planty will dance a little dance to let you know.

If the user is busy at that time, the user can stroke the plant to please it and postpone the exercise.

However, Planty gets sad and wilt if you postpone it too frequently.

Research

https://www.opsm.com.au/eye-care/tips

https://www.thevisioncouncil.org/content/digital-eye-strain

Other areas to explore

1. The green color of the plant might help with vision
2. soothing pulsating light and plant movements could be used to calm stressful environments

Poster

Hi! my name is Jen and I'm in my third year of pursuing a Bachelor of Information Technology, majoring in information systems.

I am excited to get starting with this course and be working together in teams to build something fun. I am hoping to learn more about teamwork process and how to solve problems efficiently in stressful situations. Besides that, I am looking forward to engaging with more physical materials through construction or electronics.

In this course especially, I am concerned that I do not have enough skill to contribute to my team in the area of creativity and ideation. However, having these first four weeks to dive into creative thinking would hopefully be a gateway to ease myself into being more design-oriented.