Server issues

This week the team and I needed to make sure that the server was up and running before the exhibition. Sigurd and Thomas had already made the sever work for their prototypes but it was important that it worked for all of our team members. However, as we tried to send the colour values over the server it became apparent that something was wrong and it just refused to cooperate with us. After several hours of trying to make it work we simply had to give up since other tasks were more pressing

Later this week while Tuva was trying to make it work it suddenly just did. What was initially wrong and how we fixed it some a bit of a mystery but thankfully we managed to make it work.

I also learned this week that Sigurd's prototype is broken, so for the exhibition we will only have 3 functioning prototypes. This shouldn't be a problem but it would have been ideally if everyones prototype could be displayed on the exhibition.

Website

This week I became mostly finished with the websites design, the only thing that remains is writing the content which I find to be the boring part of building a website. However, I must say I became very pleased with the header image I created for the website. I was inspired by the sketching tools for arduino and created it to look like a breadboard etc.

In the end, I though this project was fun and I learned a lot about the theme and creating prototypes using Arduino.

Additional feature

This week I added the final interaction to the prototype. Based on the feedback I had gotten on the prototype demonstration I decided to add a way for the users to delete the message instead of sending it, if that is something they wish. During the prototype demo I also got confirmed that the throwing interaction was an appropriate metaphor, based on this I decided that the delete metaphor should be the opposite, namely drop the ball instead of throwing it upwards. This, however, turned a little more difficult than anticipated since it required the accelerometer installed to know the difference between a throw and a drop. By studying the output values registered when performing these various task, it became apparent that they behaved differently from each other. The throw slowed down at the top of the throw before it falls down again, while a drop has only a quick stop of the acceleration. In the end, I managed to make it work.

Because of the time restriction and the restriction I won't be able to conduct a user testing to confirm if this last interaction is the best way to delete the message. A different metaphor might be even better than the one I have chosen but hopefully it will be easy for the user to understand and interact with.

Next week

Since the prototype is almost finished, I will start to make the website for the exhibition. I have already some ideas of the design that I want to create for the website and hopefully it will turn out as good as I have imaged. Building a website is just fun in my opinion so this is something that I look forward to.

Team meeting

This week my team and started with having a meeting to go through the feedback we had gotten and discuss what the next phase of our development would be. The feedback we had received was mainly positive and gave us confident that our concept and how we displayed it in the video was good and that people thought it was exciting.

Everyone of us had asked questions in our videos in addition to a series of team questions that asked around the overall concept. For my prototype I got confirmation that the trowing metaphor was appropriate for its functionality. In addition, many expressed that a way for the users to either replay the message and/or delete was something we should include so this will be taken into further consideration.

At the team meeting we decided that we would have a physical meeting on Friday to see if we were to put the prototype together as one.

Friday Meeting

The team concluded that we would try to assemble all of the prototypes into one so that each and every ball could perform the entire interaction flow. While Thomas and Sigurd managed to put their prototypes together fairly easily, me and Tuva met with some additional issues. Firstly, we hadn't used the same libraries on our prototypes so we had to decide on which one to use. Tuva tried to install the one I used, but for some reason this didn't work and so, together with a tutor, we decided to scarp it all together. A new library that was available for both me and Tuva was found so we decided to use this one. Since most of my code had been based on the last library I had used meant that I had to rewrite most of my code. It took my a while but I managed to make it make it work finally. Secondly I was tasked with merging mine and Tuvas code. However, as we expected the accelerometer couldn't distinguish between a shake and a throw so it was decided to add a squeeze in-between to "lock" the colour and starting the throwing state of the ball. This worked perfectly and so now the interaction is as follows:

The inside of the ball looks currently as a hot mess but everything works perfectly. However, because of the new pressure sensor the schematic was even more difficult to look decent. Hopefully people can make something out of it.

Going forward

Based on the previous user testing the team also discussed some additional feature that we could add or try separately. For my part, most of my users wanted a way to delete the message instead of sending it. I was thinking of adding some code which registered when a user dropped the ball instead of throwing it upwards and that this could be a good metaphor for deleting and resetting the ball. This is however something I will have to look into closer at a later point.

This week we finally presented our prototype and the individual parts that we had been working on. Making the video for both the team and myself took a lot more effort than I had anticipated but I was quite satisfied with it in the end and was eager to show it and get feedback. I also managed to deliver in good time before it was due which always feels nice.

Writing the appraisals

On Tuesday we first had some administrative information before we could start on the appraisal. After, my team and I decided to go right ahead and start so we could be finished as soon as possible. We organised it so we first watched the video together and then read the document for that video. After, we discussed everything together and wrote bullet points with feedback individually. Everything we could think of we wrote down. After we had finished the first team we divided the videos between us and wrote a summary of the bullet points. After working for approximately 5 hours we had managed to see all the videos for 2 teams and written 3 summaries. However, at this point, some of the teammates (especially me) had lost a bit of motivation and concentration so we decided that we would do the rest at our own pace as long as we were done by Thursday. I finished the last 4 videos and wrote the bullet points later that day. When everyone had gone through the videos and written their bullet points I wrote the final two summaries that were assigned to me. Overall, I think I spent 7 hours doing the appraisals when I add the ones we did together and the ones I did alone. This took a lot longer and more work than I anticipated but both me and my team wanted to be thorough and give full and constructive critique to every individual from every team.

The Miro board looks full of feedback and comments

Reflection

When it comes to the videos and prototypes themselves they were very different from each other in terms of how much each team member had done, how easy it was to understand and interpret and overall quality of the video. After some of the videos both me and my team was only left with a huge question mark since we hadn't understood the concept and what it was they were trying to display. Often the document helped to answer with some of the initial questions but where we felt there was a lack of communication to the audience we had to include it in the feedback.

Overall, I was impressed with many of the videos that we reviewed and how much work some of our classmates had been able to do in such a short amount of time. It was really fun to see what people had been working on and how they solved the issues that had occurred along the way. I'm excited to see the fully developed prototypes in the exhibit and hopefully will be happy with the one I will be presenting as well.

Video editing and document writing

This week I've spent writing the prototype document and editing both my own and the teams video presentations. It took a lot more effort and time than I anticipated, but its mostly because I wanted it to look and feel professional so I spent extra time adding elements to improve the overall experience. I started with filming the parts that needed live footage from both the building and interacting with the prototype. I then made some animations in after effekts so illustrate what the narration was talking about. I think my video ended up being pretty good at least I'm quite happy with it.

Going forward

I've been thinking a lot about what kind of improvements I can add to my prototype after the presentation on Tuesday as I've concluded the basic intended interaction + added some additional features. As mentioned before I conducted a user testing which provided useful feedback. Not only for my prototype but also for the the concept in general. Several additional features was suggested and some could be relatively easy to add and will increase the user experience. What I think is the most important element to remember is to keep the concept user friendly.

I hope the presentation on Tuesday will go well and that my team and I will be able to write good appraisals relatively quick since there are a lot that will be happening going forward.

This week has been a slow week since I've been sick most of it and had to take some time off to recover. I have, however, been able to add some additional functionality to my prototype. Originally, the only indicator the user had of whether or not the transmission had been successful after the action had been performed was that the light within the ball turned off. After some user research I discovered that this in itself was not enough as it could be confused with just a reset of the ball and not necessarily an indication that it was a success. I decided therefore to add vibration to the mix to further enhance the feeling of a successful throw. Overall, the new version of the prototype now vibrates after the throw(when the ball has landed in the users hand again) that is a sure indication that the data on the ball has been sent to the server and the other user soon will receive the recorded message.

Next week I will focus on making the video and the document for the prototype delivery the final week.

This week has been focusing on the physical interaction of my prototype. My team decided to divide the prototype into different parts and I was distributed the part where the user throws the ball into the air to send the audio recording previously made and stored within the ball. As mentioned in a previous post, I was also distributed with making the server and client that would make communication between the balls possible, but this was a separate part of my tasks.

The part in the process that I was building comes right after the ball has been shaken and the user has chosen a colour. When the user is satisfied with both the message and the colour to represent it, the user throws the balls upwards and catches it, which tells the code to send the message to the connected user on the other end.

My team and I purchased some components ourselves which was delivered to us last week, among the components we ordered was an accelerometer which was bought especially for my part of the prototype. The first challenge that I came across was the fact that I needed to solder the accelerometer to the pin thing(the one that you need to fasten it to the breadboard) as it wasn't able to get enough contact without and therefore didn't work. After talking to the tutors they were able to provide me with one that was already soldered so I met up with a tutor and got a different one.

Second challenge was the sensitivity of the accelerometer on its own. I used a tutorial which showed me the raw data the chip made but as it turned out it even registered gravity and the reading that was displayed varied constantly even when not touched. Aften finding a tutorial that showed me a library that made more sens of the reading I could code it to react when exceeding a specific number (when I threw the ball up). As I'm inexperienced in this tech I might have understood it or explained it a bit wrong, but as far as I gathered that was the initial problem I experienced.

Since I'm basically done with my part of the concept I'm looking at other ways of interaction and how to make the experience more complex. It is also something that I will discuss with my team in the nearby future.

Finishing the proposal

The last week before the break, my team and I manage to finish the proposal. The week before we had finished the team part of the writing so this week I wrote my individual part. It was much harder than writing the team part because of all the uncertainty and lack of knowledge on what you are doing exactly and what you need/expect to happen.

Starting on the project

My team decided to go for the first option on how to divide the project which was working on the one concept just divide the different part between us. The part that I was allocated was creating a server to which the devices will upload and download the content on the balls and also develop the upwards trow which indicate the sending of the information currently stored on the ball. During the mid-semester break I managed to create a server on UQCloud which was more challenging that I anticipated. I have made zones before, but this time I only needed a server and not a webpage so I decided to install an image (Ubuntu) instead of the regular one, but what I didn't know was that neither npm or node was install on this one so it had to be done manually through the terminal. There was also some concern on whether or not a vpn had to be used every time one accessed the server but this was later revealed to not be necessary. To create the server I used socket.io which was a request by one of the team members who had some previous knowledge on it.

The next following weeks I plan on finishing the prototype and developing the throwing motion with Arduino and also conduct some user research and maybe starting on the video for the presentation.

This week has been mostly focused on finalising the idea within the team. After receiving various forms of feedback from students, tutors and users we finally decided on a concept that I think everyone one the team was satisfied with. It has been a difficult process due to lack of inspiration and a theme that turned out to be more difficult to design for than anticipated but in the end we manage to come up with something that I personally is excited to work on.

My team had meetings on both Tuesday and Thursday and where we went through the feedback and finalised the idea. It was decided to work on the team section of the proposal over the weekend and be done by the team meeting on Monday at 3pm. Overall, I think the team has done some good work and everything seem promising for the future of the project.

Zoom workshop

This week we had our first zoom workshop which turned out to be a long team meeting instead. We received some feedback from the tutors which helped in our process to conclude what we would be working with. The online solution is still not the most ideal way to have a workshop since it basically requires good equipment from all part and a stable internett connection which I don't always have, but it'll do.

Going forward I'm exited to start prototyping and working with the project.

This week we had our first online lecture which went better then I anticipated. It was of course not better than a real lecture, but it will do. As long as the course is not cancelled I'm happy to be honest.

Pitch

On Tuesday my group presented our concept for the class. We decided to record the presentation beforehand and just add it to the youtube list which I'm glad we did since it removed some of the nerves. I think the presentation went well and we got lots of useful feedback on slack. Mostly the feedback said we needed to include some interaction with the output of the concept, find a more specific target audience etc. As of right now the concept is not something definite and my group are still working on the details.

Group meeting

In order to go through the feedback and come up with some specific details around our project we had a group meeting on Friday over discord. We managed to go through all of the feedback and also decide on a target audience and what we wanted the end result of the project to be. Hopefully next week we will have the concept finalised so we can start writing the proposal.

Last week we got grouped into teams. My team turned out to be with Tuva, Thomas and Sigurd with the theme emotional intelligence. Already the first day we had a meeting since the pitch was supposed to be the following week. Since I was not at school that day due to a sore throat(yes I called health services and I'm safe) we had a meeting online where we determined some basics and the time for the next meeting. The following Friday we had a meeting where we did some ideation and came up with our concept. The idea surrounded a display of emotion with the users actively doing something which then would be displayed in, for instance, a colour. Also in the meeting we drafter a power point and decided who was gonna do which part. I volunteered to make some sketches and draw up a storyboard.

Because of the resent development caused by the corona virus the presentation was delayed and also made digital. I therefore recorded my part of the presentation so that my team could assemble a short video presentation instead.

I was scared for a moment that the course would be closed and that I wouldn't be able to finish my degree this semester but thankfully it is going to be made digital instead. But this also means that a lot more of the work will be done individually which means that for a lot of the part forward I will be working alone. I had some initial ideas that I could work further on that was not taken into consideration when we discussed this in the group meeting, so I do look forward to that actually. I'm both nervous and excited to see what this course have to offer in the nearby future and hopefully will be even as exciting as it seemed to be at the beginning of the semester.

World Café

This weeks first contact was organised as a world café. The previous week all of the different ideas had been put into themes and this week we would explore them even further. This was a fun exercise and gave the class a good opportunity to understand and develop ideas beyond what they already were. The first round was definitely easiest as everything was blank and it was up to the table to start each theme exploration. As time went by it became harder and harder to reset your mind for the new theme and catch up to what the previous groups had discovered. Also, since the butcher papers were rarely well organised it was difficult to read and understand what was what. By the last round some of the previous notes was so weird that my group had difficulty starting the discussions, so we decided to kind of start from scratch.

Because there were so many different tables and themes it was impossible to explore every theme that was available. I tried to have a quick overlook as I ran around finding out which table I wanted to sit by, but in the end I ended up just sitting somewhere I hadn't been before. The themes that I got time to explore were:

• Change through discomfort
• Enhanced mundane spaces
• Emotional totems
• Emotional intelligence
• Sassy tech
• Guided movement
• Body as controller

(Might have forgotten one or two)

In the break I got the chance to go to each table and look at the themes and their descriptions. In the end we were asked to choose three themes and arrange them from 1-3 of which one is the theme you want to work with the most and three is the least. After considering all of the themes(mostly those I had discussed) I chose these three:

1. Emotional intelligence
2. Change through discomfort
3. Sassy tech

All of the themes above gave me inspiration and was the easiest for me to contribute in the discussions since they almost immediately gave me new ideas. Overall, a good and productive day.

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.

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.

A3 Concept Sketch

Description

Getting up in the morning is one of the hardest tasks of the day for many people. Especially those who are night owls and enjoys staying up late. Getting out of bed will never be easy or comfortable when you really don’t want to so a solution could be to make the bed environment less comfortable. In order to find out what makes the bed so difficult to leave one must ask themselves what are the factors that makes is so. One elements is the bed cover, it’s what keeps you warm and comfy. If you take that away the idea of staying in bed becomes less desirable.

The idea is based on a device that is attached to your covers and that when the alarm goes off rolls up the covers to a mechanical roller. However, in order to force the person to get up the cover cannot be unrolled before the alarm is turned off which acquires the person to repeat a randomised order of light of a matt of the floor. This ensures so the person cannot simply drag the covers back over themselves and also forces them to physically get up in order to turn off the alarm. The device can be connected to a screen of their own or the users phone i order to set the alarm.

Inspiration

The inspiration behind this idea comes from a cartoon that I'm well familiar with that is shown on TV every Christmas. In this clip Donald has to wake up and get ready and has an alarm clock that rolls in his covers and then smack him on his feet. This is the kind of "old" version of the idea with the use of an old type alarm clock and also that the alarm turns it self off. (Go to 2:17)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPlY3a7dMU

Who am I?

My name is Marie Thoresen, I'm 26 (soon 27) and at my last semester of the master of interaction design program. After I graduate I aim to work with web design and graphic design since this is something that I've been passionate about for a long time.

What I hope to learn/achieve in PhysComp

Since this is my last semester I'm aiming to get better in areas that are connected with future employment. Programming is something that I've never been good at so this will be my main focus this semester. Especially programming languages who are related to web design would be a major plus.

I'm also looking forward to make something physical since I enjoy making things with my hands with various materials. If I had the time and money I would probably engage in more DIY projects so this course is a great excuse to do just that.

Lastly, I hope to achieve a good grade in this course and make something that I can add to my portfolio at the end of the semester.

Week 1 activities

The first week we spent getting to know the course and what to expect. I must admit that at first I was a bit sceptical as to if this course would be something that would peak my interest or not, but after the first two lectures I must say I got excited for what the coming weeks have in store.

After the first lecture we were tasked with reading a chapter in a paper. The chapter I was allocated was about ethics, privacy and security which is a bit funny since this is exactly what my thesis projects is about. Because of this I knew a lot about the topic from before which made it easy to join in on the discussion. I felt the discussion went fine, except that it was mostly just three who discussed while the other sat on their phones/computer and didn't contribute much.

In addition, we got to do some ideation for the main project by using a card deck and some notes which allocated different locations, design etc to those cards. This exercise turned out to be very difficult since there were many factors to consider and the different cards woulds always match one another.

The ideation went for three different round where, the first the group would come up with ideas together. In the second round we would come up with ideas alone and in the last we would change one idea from the first round.

These were the ideas I generated from the second round:

Design to embrace a ruin from different dimensions in an aggressive way

• Make life like scale of ancient ruins so people can interact with them however they like without the fear of permanent damage
• Idea above using holographic means instead of building materials
• Idea above only making the ruins as they were like before they became a ruin (from another time).
• Idea above using cameras or holographic to show the decay of the ruin from its prime to current standard
• A smaller scale remake of the ruin that shows the entirety from the bottom and up so people can see every single detail of the building process
• An invisible shield surrounding the ruin so people can interact with it as closely as possible without damaging it.

Design to embrace (in) a hot air balloon by sliding it in an aggressive way

• Instead of having the hot air balloon as a high-altitude device it can be used to get people from A to B by sliding it with a rope etc. that pulls it.
• Using a hot air balloon to surf
• Couple therapy air balloon where they won’t be allowed to slide down before they have resolved their dispute.
• Force people to hug by sliding the air balloon so they crash into each other. Blind dating air balloon.