The final week is finally here and we all made it through ! The exhibition went smoothly and we all managed to display what we have achieve to our visitors. At the start of the exhibition, there were some technical difficulties on discord and we weren’t to communicate with the visitor but we managed to fix this in the end. There were positive feedbacks did boost the morale of the entire team, however, due to the short exhibition time prevented us from getting sufficient feedback from the visitors. Further elaboration of the feedback would also be beneficial for our team. Overall, We would like to thank the people who have taken the time to visit our discord channels and looked at what we have achieved through out the semester.

For this week, I focused on getting the portfolio done. The prototype that Fardeen and I have been working on for the past few weeks seems to be coming together nicely. We did testing again for our prototype to make sure that it is ready for exhibition day. An individual website portfolio was needed to be created for exhibition day to show case to the visitors all the work that we have achieved thus far. The main challenge was actually coding the website because I was not really good at coding. I decided to use a simple design for my portfolio. In the next week, I aim to get some feedback from the visitors as well as improving my annotated portfolio done by next week. I will also be have a zoom session on next week to discuss on what needs to be done for the team report.

What did we do ?

Today I met up with Fardeen to discuss about on how we can incorporate certain features into or teddy bear(Itsy). Based on my previous prototype, instead of using the buzzing board game, we were thinking of using the colour sensor to detect colours and using voice output to give instructions to the user. The user will then pick something of the same colour and show it to Itsy. Itsy will then tell the user to choose the right colour. Today we went to Kmart to get a teddy bear and try to put our stuff inside. We cut the mouth of the bear and stuff the colour sensor in while Fardeen solder his buttons and attach it on both arms of the teddy bear. We then test to see if the colour sensor is able to detect different colours. Next we recorded our voice for Itsy so that it can communicate with the kid.

We did a test to see if Itsy is able to detect more colours and this time it worked. By changing the red green and blue frequency level of each, i was able to get the different colours.

What To Do Next ?

I will work on my portfolio soon after i finished the testing with this prototype. We will input the voice into Itsy so that it will tell the kid what to do.

What did we do this week?

For this week, we have successfully submitted all of our prototypes and I am so glad that we have managed to finish everything despite having tons of assignments. I was amazed to see all the cool and interesting prototypes that my classmates have produced, and we were tasked to give prototype appraisals for a few of the teams. For team critiques, our team decided to watch the videos together and discuss the strengths and weaknesses for each individual’s prototype and integrating our feedbacks together. Most of the videos were done pretty well, however, there were some videos that didn’t explain the concept in detail and luckily there was the prototype documentation to help us understand the concept better.

Reflection

I went through all of the commands for my prototype video and summarise what I think that is important to improve for my prototype. One of major concerns that I need to look into is how I can improve teaching concentration for my target users as I do agree with Team Twisted that my interaction mode requires users to work with precision and coordination. I will have to do more research regarding this problem and also getting more feedback from contextual inquiry. Having colour randomisation to ensure my target audiences learns about colour will be my main goal for the upcoming prototype.

• Positive reward that encourages them to keep going and that they are doing well (More audio feedback introduces to reward users when the user correctly removes the bees)
• Teaching concentration of young age is not really talked about that much
• Colour sensor is quite disjointed from the main interaction and ways to integrate the colour theory element seamlessly should be explored.
• Colour randomisation to ensure learning as opposed to memorisation
• Shapes could also be introduced to enhance the complexity and learning outcomes for users
• Different users could be assigned different tasks which could encourage teamwork and consequently enhance the user’s communication and problem-solving skills
• More of a concentration exercise rather than helping kids to learn about colours

What is my plan for this week?

• Discussing with my team on how we can integrate our prototype together

I use a cereal box for my buzzing game, i attached the aluminium foil on the inside of the cereal to establish the connection.I attached the buzzer with the aluminium foil and connected the positive end with copper tape and poking a hole on the side of the cereal box using a pin. I insert the negative side of the buzzer through the hole and attach it on the outside of the box using copper tape.

LED

I poked a hole through the top of the cereal box using a pin to insert the positive side of the led pin in the cereal box and the negative pin of the led pin on the outside of the box. I then attached both ends of the pin on the aluminium foil with copper tape

Tweezers

I attached the lithium battery to the outside of the foil using normal tape and connect it with the tweezers using copper tape

Construction of the box

I cut the shapes from the cardboard and fold the aluminium foil back up and through the opening and attach it to the outside of the cereal box using normal tape.

Colour sensor

For the colour sensor, i use cardboard to cover the surrounding of the sensor to prevent surrounding light from interfering with the colour sensor.

Completion of prototype

• Next week i will be doing some usability testing and complete my prototype document and video as well.

This week i manage to do some usability testing but due to time constraints, i wasn't able to improve on my prototype. However, i have gain feedback on what i should have improved on. This week i will be just working on my prototype document and video.

Conclusion of Usability Testing

Based on testing and interview with the user, Using the tweezers can be a great way to allow user to practice their fine motor skill. The mechanics of the prototype wasn’t as simple as I expected for the users to use as they were confused on how to use the colour sensor. There should also be more multi-sensory learning to allow the users engage with learning because my visual element wasn’t as clear and the user was having trouble understanding what to do when he accidentally touches the aluminium foil with the tweezers. Having more challenges could also allow the user to engage with the prototype more.

• Based on the feedback given from the user, i would like to implement more visual elements and more challenges to so that it will be more engaging for kids, instead of just using colour papers as visual elements, i will be looking at some of things that can attract kid's attention.
• I will still be using tweezers to let the users practice their fine motor skills.

TCS3200

Today I tried using TCS3200 colour sensor to detect colours. I was able to detect a red colour when i place an object near the sensor, however it wasn't able to detect that clearly due to the bright lights around the surrounding.

Characteristics of children that influence their motor skill learning ?

This research talks about the gender differences in throwing for distance. Researches evaluated the relationship between throwing performance and several biological and environment variables in 100 boys and girls who were 5 years old. Boys were able to throw further than girls and exhibited a more mature throwing form. However, one hypothesis about girls’ throwing performance lagging behind boys is that practice will produce a “Catch up” effect. Researchers evaluated five studies that trained young boys and girls (age 5-8 years) using meta-analysis techniques and found that girls gained slightly more than boys as a result of training, but the gains were not significant (Information collected was limited due to only 5 studies). These results suggest that the differences are difficult to overcome with training, however, it depends on the specific tasks that they are doing. Elite female performance has continued to become closer to elite male performance over the past 50 years.

I want to find out if there is a difference in motor skill performance for different gender. I found out that motor skill performance is more similar than different for both genders. This helps me gain a better understanding towards the motor skills of both genders.

Young children fail to use cognitive strategies to improve performance in many tasks including motor skills. When evaluating developmental cognitive features that influence motor performance, the lack of strategy use may be attributed to maturation or lack of practice (Cognitive processing views). The neoPiagetian model (Working memory increasing in a stage like way across childhood) was limited to explain why young child fail to use cognitive strategies to improve performance.

Limitations of Piaget’s Theory

Is motor skills development link to cognitive development

Optimum development involves early recognition and prompt intervention of motor skill abilities in a developing child. Making learning fun by including movement is an important element in teaching young children. According to research, 85% of school age children are natural kinaesthetic learners. Implicit learning (Learning through your body) is more powerful than explicit learning (Text, facts, and basic recall).

Motor learning, like learning in all other skill areas, is part of an individual’s total development. Educators are becoming more aware that motor development is linked to cognitive development. Both motor and cognitive skills may have a similar developmental timetable with accelerated development during childhood. This literature consistently reports that increased physical activity time in school have enhance academic attainment, executive functions, and on task behaviours in children and adolescents. Active children tend to have better health and cognitive outcomes when compared to their less active peers.

Conclusions

Conclusion : Depending on the tasks, there is not much difference in motor skill performance for both gender. Deficits in motor performance associated with cognitive function were more likely due to lack of practice rather than structural limitations such as mental space. Children’s performance must link with work on children’s cognition and motor performance. Repeatability of fine/gross motor tasks are beneficial for children’s health and cognitive outcomes.

Links :

https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/docview/861360500/5040AED4FE9F4CEEPQ/2?accountid=14723

https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/docview/218547044/5040AED4FE9F4CEEPQ/1?accountid=14723

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Piagetiantheoriesofcognitivedevelopment

My Concept

This prototype focuses on the incorporating fine motor skills to encourage kids to learn. For my concept I will be using this prototype to teach kids colour. There is a term called Learning Experience Design (LXD), where the goal is to help someone learn something in the best way possible. One of the most important parts of LXD is the UI that supports and enhances the cognitive processes of learning.The article also stated that it is useful to set learning in a real-world context, which is the learning experience Itzy provides. Having a real-world toy/object to interact with will help transfer the skill and knowledge to a real-world application.I want to find out if practising motor skills can be another way to help kids learn.

This was an initial concept that I have after looking at some of the feedback received from the pitch. This revised concept doesn’t require a laptop connected to the bear, the screen on Itsy’s belly will be used to show the colours that the kids are required to find. The kids will then bring the bear along to find the colours. Upon finding the right colours, the kid will scan the colour of the object by using Itsy’s eye. If the colour of the object matches the colour of the screen, Itsy will project a soothing voice that encourages the kids to want to learn more.

This concept will be improved by incorporating certain fine motor skills to help kids learn. However, this is just another way that I can think of to help kids to learn colours.

.

Encouraging kids to learn Colours using fine motor skills

I will be making a buzzer game when kids of age (3-5) will be able to use the twizzer to pick out the colour balls from Itzy. I was inspired by the board game (Operation) where players must remove organs from their “Patient” without setting off the buzzer. The buzzer is connected to a flashing alarm.

How it works ?

There will be a medicine kit and in the kit there will be different colour ball where kids can use the Twizzer to put the balls into Itzy to save him. The kid will be holding on to the colour detector (Which acts as a torch) to scan the holes, and a speaker will tell the kid which colours should he/she use from the medicine kit in order to save Itzy. This is my concept for now.

What will I need ?

For the board Game

• Led pins
• Vibrating mini motor discs
• Buzzer
• CR2032 Lithium Coin Cell Battery
• Cardboard

Kids Motor Skill Curriculum

I looked at the Kids motor skill curriculum to see if they are able to handle simple simple motor skill task like using a twizzer and at the age of 2-3, kids are able to grab things with their thumb and a finger. This piece of information if useful for me as i know that kids are starting to have the strength to grab certain things.

Link : https://childdevelopment.com.au/resources/child-development-charts/fine-motor-developmental-checklist/

Inspiration

Link : https://learn.adafruit.com/low-tech-operation-game/overview

Research

Fine Motor Skills : Involve movement of the similar muscle group in children’s hands, fingers and wrists

Fine motor skills are important for kids as they use it to do simple tasks like colouring, writing and other activities that help them succeed in school. Since my target group is age 3-5 years, I went to research on what kids of that age are able to do using fine motor skills

I wanted to be able to teach my target audience (Kids of age 3-5) colours and I want to know if they are able to recognise colours at that age. I came across a website that says that 18 months – 2 and a half years old is the generally accepted age for teaching colours. I then went to find out what are some of the things that kids are able to do using fine motor skills at that age.

Eye Dropper Tests

I looked at some of the things that are able to develop kid’s fine motor development and I came across something called Eye Dropper test. Eye Dropper test helps kids to learn about colours. It allows them to mix and match colours.

So how does this works?

Things that I need :

• Dropper
• Absorbent paper
• Water
• Food Colouring
• Activity Tray
• Cups

Simply add 10 drops of food colouring to a cup and mix in 4 tablespoons of water. This will make your ‘paint’ so that kids can draw up into a plastic dropper and drip onto the paper towelling.

For fine motor skills development, the kid will use a dropper to draw up the liquid and then pinching the dropper to allow the liquid to drop on the absorbent paper.

I also looked at kids vocabulary capacity so that the kids will understand what Itsy is trying to say when it ask them to match certain colours.Based on the chart below, kids of age 3-5 will be able to understand simple english and they can understand what Itsy is trying to say.

Link : https://laughingkidslearn.com/dropper-painting-for-kids/

Things to Do next

• Arduino Tutorials
• Looking at how i can incorporate this with colour sensor technology.

Upcoming plans for this week

For this week i would like to focus on learning arduino. As i am interested in helping kids to learn about colours for my individual prototype. I looked at some of the arduino sensors that can help to detect colours.

This uses a TCS3200 to detect colours.However,there is a much cheaper way to detect colours, which is through the use of RGB leds to identify colours. But this might require more work. I will try this method before deciding if i should get TCS3200. This is just an example of what i have found online, but i am going to learn how this works.

Contextual Inquiry

I plan to come up with questions for the interview i plan to do with parents. I want to find out more about kids learning behaviour. I also want to do some observation using youtube videos, for that i would need to come up with a list of things that i want to find out.

Methods for discovery

Today we conducted an observation with the resources we have at hand. I observed people walking from Oxford street to Carnaby street. This observation was conducted using a youtube video. For me I think the most important things to prepare before every observation is to find out the specific things that we want to know.

Throughout this exercise, I found out three observation methods that are more efficient at gathering information for the upcoming prototype that I am working on. I decided to used these methods because it is tough for me to go to a classroom and observe a bunch of kindergarten kids learning during this pandemic. Having an interview with parents or teacher will get me to understand more about how they teach kids or the behavioural pattern of kids.

1) Online Discussion Platform

2) Youtube videos for observational studies

3) Interviews with parents or teacher

We did all these activities on Miro. It was quite messy at first but it was fun and easy to use. It helps us break down what we know and what we don’t know. I find Miro helps us brainstorm our ideas more efficiently because we usually jot down our ideas and thoughts on butchers’ paper in class. This is just another way of jotting down our thoughts.

We used Miro to help us break down our thoughts for our group assignment.Based on the diagram, we managed to find out what we need to find out for our upcoming prototype. This is just a draft break down on what we need to find out for the upcoming weeks.

Missing Knowledge

• Types of interaction that interest the kids (Fine motor skills)
• Parent's Perspective when it comes to learning
• Kids behaviour when interacting it with a learning tool

Based on the missing knowledge that we have uncovered, i personally think that we need to do more contextual inquiry in order to make our prototype a more efficient learning tool for the kids to use.

Miro for discovering what i need to find out for individual prototype

After learning how to use Miro, i have decided to start using it to find out what i need to find out for my individual prototype. This is just a brief draft on what i need to find out for my individual prototype as well. I will continue to add more things as i find out more relevant details, or if i need to break down my thoughts.

Itsy

We just finished our pitch this morning and i believe that we tried to explain the idea of this concept to everyone. It was our first pitch together as a team and although i feel that there are few more things that we can elaborate on for our concept, i am still proud of my group mates. After today's pitch, ideas and feedback given to us was really beneficial for us to generate more ideas. This gave me an inspiration of what i should research on to further improve our concept.

Feedbacks For Itsy

We realised that having a web platform to promote learniing might limit the amount of interaction, many feedbacks related to "interaction" was provided on slack. Having a website for learning might be inappropriate for young children as they are unable to read a website properly. As a team, we do agree that this is something that we have to look further into. We will discuss more about this during this week to see how we can further improve on our concept!

Feedbacks for further discussion as a team

• Determine the age range of Australian learning criteria
• If its learning math, try using other tools such as blocks
• Looking into more learning topic
• Using voice output for the kids(Age 3-4 years old) as they can't really read
• Attracting children's by adding music or design a game.
• Twist, pull ir pushing the toy might be a little too brutal for kids
• Small touches to the bear like making it start growling or roaring happily when succeeding would make it easier for the kids to get attached to.
• Giving the toy a little bit of a personality to create a connection between the toy and user so that they are motivated to use.

Idea after today's feedback

Itsy will teach kids about colours by using a interactive screen that is install on the tummy of itsy. The screen will show different colours and itsy will tell the kids to go around the house to find the colours, the kids will have to scan the colour by using the colour scanner that is install on itsy's eyes.

Itsy will then tell the kids if they have found the right colour or not by using a voice detector. More discussion will be needed as a team before proceeding to implementation of this design.

Feedbacks for Pitchs

Pitch 1 : Fire safety using audiometrics

Using Extend Reality in a home-setup will create a more immersive environment, as users are more familiar in their own environment. It will be much easier

for them to practice fire evacuation plans.

Pitch 2 : EMS - Housework Thread

Maybe using sound to help users understand the ball movement would be a good idea.

Pitch 3 : Emotional Birds

Good way to measure emotions visually. Maybe incorporating other ways to improve a person's emotions through sound can make it more interactive.

Pitch 4 : Musical Points

It might cause some distraction due to the movement of people taking public transport. People might feel uncomfortable using this technology. Using colors to invoke other people positive emotions can

be an idea.

Pitch 5 : Team BrotherHood

Interesting Concept ! you can think of the possibility of how this pillow might affect people emotions when they are stress or angry. Maybe do more research on what are some things that can detect their emotions.

Pitch 6: Garfunkel

It might be frustrating to have all the mundane objects making usable sounds. Having sounds whenever users are doing something collaborative will be fun and interesting to look at. For example having collaborative sounds to make a tune when the users are close to each other.

Pitch 7: Team Twisted

Cool concept ! Maybe incorporating more fine motor skills so that it help kids to learn better.(Maybe more interactive movements like jumping, and moving your arm) and creating a pattern. This game might be difficult for kids to understand, having some tutorial to teach them can beneficial for them as well.

Pitch 8: Lome

Interesting concept to visualize emotion.However, think of how this concept can help people that are suffering from emotional stress for a long period of time.

Pitch 9 : Ninja Run

Interesting Concept to teach the kids on how to code, maybe you guys can look into how you can teach kids using specific teaching methods or finding ways to educate with kids with special needs.

Pitch 10 : Helping Hand

Interesting concept. Making something more portable for the user might be easier for them to carry around instead of wearing it around their backpack all the time. It might also have an opposite effect as this might draw more attention rather than preventing social isolation.

Pitch 11: Bad Skwad

Seems really fun and interesting ! Having multiple user interaction would be nice.

Pitch 12: Mobody

This seems rather similar to a kinect motion game. Maybe exploring more gestures and making this as an everyday interaction would be cool.

Pitch 13: Fitlody

Using different variations of music to pump up their intensity or using soothing music when they are about to cool down would help them.

Pitch 14 : Hedgehog

Really interesting concept.However,try to think of different ways of interaction and also make it become more portable so that it can be played in other places.

Pitch 16 : Team Triangle

Interesting way of interaction. You should also look into ways that can accomodate people with hearing disability as well.

Pitch 17 : CDI - Dancing Elevator

Exploring some other input methods instead of using a password could be fun. Maybe like a quiz or puzzle where you have can have multiple ways of interaction to complete the quiz or puzzle.

Pitch 18 : Team Hi Distinction

Having different materials will give a different feelings.

Today we had our official first meeting as a team. We have managed to come up with an idea that helps to create an interactive learning experience for children with learning disabilites.Due to modern technology these days, children are incorporating less motor skills to learn and play in their daily lives and based on our own research, we learnt that tangible interaction promotes the concept of engaging multiple senses as a medium for interacting with medium content.

Dicussion

We discuss on various design that might help incorporate motor skills to allow for a syncrhonized development of the brain. One of the design was a resemblence of a shape shorter box where it allows kids to learn how to put in the correct shapes into the hole. If they manage to put the right shape into the correct spot, the hole will light up "green" and the voice projector will say "good job!" where as if they put the shape into an incorrect hole the voice projector will say "Opps, try again!". We thought about it and find that this design is too mundane and it doesn't require kids to have a lot of interactive inputs, therefore, we decidedto drop this idea.

Main Idea

We wanted to create something that is cute for the kids to play with and we have the idea of using a teddy bear. The name of this is bear is "Itsy" and it helps kids to incoporate motor skills to learn simple math. We are trying to target kids in general but mainly for children with learning disabilties. Itsy will be connected to a web platform where math questions will be posted on the platform. There will be a voice projector on Itsy which will tell the kids if they got the correct answers. The ear of Itsy will light up "Green" for correct answer or "Red" for Wrong answer.Itsy will have different interactive outputs which will be a little challenging for kids but it helps them to learn better.

Challenges

We want to try to incorporate voice detection on Itsy it can detect kids voices. However, speech recognizer only recognize only up to a few numbers of commands. We might look into other means of interaction medium and also more indepth research on what kind of learning is better for kids with learning disabilities

Interesting Fact About the Brain

When we take on a certain task, one side of the brain will take on the task even if it’s not specialized for the task, and our brain will not switch to the other side of the brain, even if the task is better suited. It will just take the task and run with it. Our brain defaults to what it’s used to and the parts that don’t get to used atrophy.

Left Hemisphere Thinking: Practical, mathematical, analytical, scientific

Right Hemisphere Thinking: Creative, focus, intuitive

It appears to be common knowledge that each side of the brain have its own function. In reality, both sides of the brain handle both analytic and creative elements

Benefits of Whole-Brain Dominance

Shifting in hemisphere dominance (left-right brain dominance to whole-brain dominance) are likely to enhance mind-body integration and overall improvements in physical and emotional health. It is believed that during moments of whole brain synchrony, the reduction of cognitive anxiety is experience.

Brain Coherence creates homeostasis in our central nervous system and allows for more flexibility in thinking. You are able to draw upon the strength of your brain in both the analytical and creative sense, allowance for super learning and more energy.

Ways to Synchronize the Brain(I think that is helpful for our assignment)

1) Exercise & Movements: Using both sides of your body help to strengthen both sides of the brain improving coordination. (Might be useful for incorporating with motor skills)

2) Switching Up Your Routine: Variation in movement activates both sides of your brain. (Might be useful for incorporating with motor skills)

3) Binaural Beats & Hemi Sync Technology: Delivering sound waves of different frequencies through headphones into each ear to produce brainwave entertainment.

4) Listening to or Playing A Musical Instrument: Listening allows more engagement of the brain associated with emotion, listening, motor skills and creativity. Improves the amount of neural response to stimuli for increased coordination and sensitivity (Might be useful for incorporating with motor skills)

Link : https://consciousnessliberty.com/unlock-your-genius-through-brain-synchronization/

5 Categories of Brain Wave Vibrational States

Alpha: Oscillates between 8 to 12hz

Alpha brainwave promotes creativity, problem-solving and a flow state or “getting into the zone”.

Link : https://consciousnessliberty.com/5-brainwave-states-you-should-know-about/

Reflection:

Based on my research, this is something that I am really interested to find out more about. Which are ways that I can enhance intelligence to promote creativity learning for people. It came to my surprise that brain synchronization can actually help with cognitive anxiety and mental health conditions and there are many ways to do so! Right now, I am currently researching on Binaural beats and there are many brain vibrational states but there is one vibrational states that promotes creativity, problem-solving which is the Alpha brain wave. More researching regarding how binaural beats actually helped with creativity learning but this is a good start !

Meet and Greet

Today we get to finally meet our teammates, it was kind of interesting to see we can work together as a group and the best part was, I get to work on a theme that I am really interested in. Seeing so many students that are interested in Creative Learning, I am excited to see what ideas we can produce by the end of the semester!

What is creative learning to me ?

Creative learning to me is finding new ways to learn instead of learning something through the old fashion way, we can do something that is fun and imaginative to promote creative learning. I like to learn things using fun and creative techniques to constantly keep my brain engage.

Team Discussion

After the team discussion, we have decided to find out how we can incorporate creative learning using technology to help kids/people to learn and also to manage mental health conditions. The product that we are planning to design will help them to improve their motor skills and will enhance their intelligence through Synchronized Learning (Using both left and right brain).

This is the product characteristics that we are currently looking at :

• Plush toy
• Having similar inputs to the bop it toy (Motor Skills)

1)Pull it

2)Twist it

3)Push it

4)Flick it

5)Smash it

Motor Skills Inspiration : Bop it Toy

Inspiration from Bubbles the Helping Hand

Bubbles the Helping Hand

This product helps to detects the level of the child’s anxiety and it incorporates motor skills to help the children to learn. The eyes of the soft toy helps to scan text and read to the child and there is a touch sensor to help to detect the anxiety level of the child. It is cool to see how a simple toy can have functions that can help with children’s learning and manage their mental conditions.

What I plan to do next ?

• Finding more inspiration that is related to creative learning
• More in-depth research on synchronized learning
• Other ways to make a product more interactive that require motor skills

Today we did a collaborative exercise called World Cafe where we get to generate starting points for team projects and share our thinking and experience to the group so that we can connect ideas together to come up with new ones. This method is particularly useful for me when i want to explore a theme. This process not only helps me to break down my thought process but it has helped me make connections with new people.

Round 1 : Enhanced Mundane Spaces

Definition of Mundane

• Boring and dull
• Everyday things

Examples of Mundane daily things provided by the group

• Children packing bag the night before
• Children find it hard to play muscial notes
• Tying Shoe lace
• Sharpening a pencil
• Learning how to drive

Round 2 : Change Through Discomfort

Who are we designing for ?

• People With Bad Habits
• Introverts
• People who wants to change their habits

Experience we are designing

• Uncomfortable Experiences
• Forces to finish tasks

Where can we apply this ?

• Home
• Safe environments
• Public spaces
• Work environments

We looked at how can we design for people to change through discomfort and here are some of the ideas :

1)In School (Motivating people to achieve goals)

Using visual elements to indicate the effort of the user that has put in (Like a Pen)

2) Motivating people to wash a dish

Sensor to detect if the sink is full of dishes, if the sink is full of dishes an alarm will sound of to the neighbours.

Round 3 : Guided Movement

Problem Space

The standard hours of work for employees are either 8 hours a day(40 hours a week) or 7.5 hours a day (37.5 hours a week). Research has shown that spending too many hours sitting in front of a computer or at a desk will cause chronic back pain and unhealthy weight gain. 57% of people blame their sedentary office job for a decline in their health and fitness and 92% percent said they regularly have days where they spend most of the day sitting down. This decreases their motivation to have a healthy and balance lifestyle.

Possible Solution (Introduction to ElectroPlant)

To achieve a healthy and balance lifestyle, we should aim for at least 30minutes of moderate physical activity every day. ElectroPlant helps to reduce sitting time by having intervals of 5 minutes brisk walk throughout the day to increase employee’s motivation for a healthy and balance lifestyle.

It is a fun activity where everyone will be trying to maintain a healthy and balance lifestyle that can help to increase their focus and productivity in their work.

How does it work ?

The chair will detect the employee’s weight and will automatically set the pace and intensity according to their physical capability. The chair will have a small vibration and will sound off with a beep to notify the workers that it is time for their walk. Once everyone stands up ,the chair will automatically move backwards to allow some space for them to walk. The treadmill will then make a sound to signify the start of the walk. This time will allow employees to spend some time exercising as well as motivating their colleagues to achieve a health and balance lifestyle

Once the walk is completed, the treadmill will then make a sound and a to signify the completion of the walk, the chair will automatically go back to its position. The electrical output generated from the treadmill after every work will help to grow the plant.At the end of the day, employees can get to see how many workouts they have completed and they will be more encouraged to want to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Poster

Inspirations/Links

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/expert-answers/exercise/faq-20057916

https://www.livescience.com/61322-surprising-things-bad-for-you.html

https://my.hr.gov.nt.ca/handbooks-agreements/excluded-employees-handbook/hours-work

Tuesday

It was nice to be back at UQ attending classes again and meeting so many familiar and new faces that are taking the same course motivates me to work in a team. After the introduction of this course, we had to find examples of physical computing and i came across an example of a technology that transforms water droplets intro programmable, interactive tools for entertainment and communication. It was interesting to find out that we can actually turn almost anything from the physical environment into an interactive medium.

Link For Digitally Water Droplets

https://www.dezeen.com/2018/05/02/mit-develops-technology-digitally-programmable-water-droplets/

Wednesday

On Wednesday, we looked at the 7 HCI Grand Challenges and then discuss as a group based on the topic that was assigned to us. For me i was assigned to Chapter 7 of the article which was about learning and creativity. It was interesting to find out that there are many design challenges for using technology to enhance the learning ability of people even though the technology are designed to help them. In this chapter, we don’t just look at the technology itself but also taking into account of the learning system that are appealing to users of different ages, personalities, educational background and cultures. Although this is a brief summary of the article, I am really intrigued to find out how AI can build a smart environment for people to learn better or what other technologies can be use to cultivate people’s creativity and learning skills.

For the second half of the session, we were tasked to come up with ideas based on the card that we have picked. It was really fun and weird at the same time because we got random words and have to think of ideas based on the words that we have gotten.

Design to reuse gym by expanding with the quality high gravity ( This was what i have gotten and these were my ideas)

• Reusing the gym in space using high gravity exercises to expand the muscularity size of astronuats
• Reusing the gym for class by expanding size of the gym with high gravity for people with ADHD
• Reusing the gym for students to expand their knowledge on high gravity
• Reusing the gym for expanding research on high gravity
• Reusing the gym by expanding the gym for high gravity brewing (Producing beer with high alcohol content)

WHO AM I

Hi, my name is Sean and I'm currently in my 3rd and final year at UQ. I am currently studying user experience design. During my free time, I would spend time doing something active like working out in the gym or walking my dog around the park. I am someone who is keen on learning new skills and tries to perfect them to the best of my ability, so recently I have been trying to learn how to cook and hopefully one day I might be able to cook a proper meal for my family!

This is Bear

What I Hope to achieve?

Approaching this semester, I would want to learn more about design processes and create a human-centred design. I hope to create something that is current and is widely beneficial to our society. Being interested in guiding the younger generation, I am determined to design the ultimate product that will help teach and inspire them to do what I do!