The work done & reflection:

This is the last week before the final exhibition. As mentioned in the previous journal, since the prototype was formed, creating a portfolio website would be focused on in this week. The website contains seven parts: font page, background, concept, prototype, functions, design process, and outcomes.

An image of the prototype was simply placed on the front page because the goal of this website is to sell my idea to audience, so the first impression of the product is really important. Then, I took a picture of the product and placed it on the bottom left and using colour difference between the wall and the table to highlight the area that the product is in. Moreover, the reason I place it on the bottom left of the screen because I want to left an empty area to place the short description of the project as well as the title name. So, as you can see, the front page is properly balanced.

For the following sections of the website, I tried to make them smoothly connected and the content of each section is also gradually displayed on the screen. The reason for that is this website inevitably contains a lot of text-based information, such as project background, concept introduction, technology implementation introduction, reflections and so on. I have tried to put text-based content together but the overall structure of the website seemed really messy and they were hard to read, which could highly affect the user experience while viewing the website. I have asked my friends to view it, and they also provided negative feedback. I think, due to the nature of this project, it is inevitable to use text-based content. So, what I can do in order to reduce it is to show the information piece by piece, I mean show the content gradually rather than put all text-based content together. Then, based on this reflection, I did two things to achieve that. Firstly, removed all wordy information and kept the most important messages. Secondly, through using Animation to display these important messages one by one. So, through the scrolling on the page, audience would gradually understand my domain, concept, and prototype.

In addition, a concept video was created in order to reduce the effort to read text. Firstly, an overall video framework was drawn on a paper in order to identify how to communicate the concept more fluent and easy-to-understand. Then, based on each frame, the related contents were drawn and cropped.

After that, put related contents together to make a frame, and then took a picture of it. Finally, created all frames based on the draft, and made a concept video.

Although it was time-consumed and lots of things needed to be prepared, the outcome of the video was attractive and it amply and creatively communicated my concept to audience, which increased their interests to my concept. As a designer, it is important to consider how to help audience to absorb the complicated information so that they can understand your domain as well as the concept easily. I think one of most suitable and easiest way to communicate a text-based content is to convert it into a visual content such as images, animations, diagrams, and videos properly.

Work to do:

Now, I have created everything for the exhibition, including the prototype and the portfolio website. What I need to do next is to prepare for the exhibition, such as what is the most suitable way to describe my idea and demonstrate the product online, check everything such as the final product and internet is working fine, set up the product.

Work that inspired me:

https://www.etq-amsterdam.com/

ETQ website brings me some insights for creating a website. Through showing the image of the core product at the beginning, it can easily catch audience’s attention, and it is also an efficient way to tell audience that this is the product/feature we are focus on.

Moreover, it takes a very minimalistic approach to communicate their products. The overall style of the website is simple, flat, and concise with white colour which matches the colour of their products. It is also an efficient way to keep the focus on exactly what the user came here to see: shoes. In my website, I think the overall style should also be simple, clean, and concise because it involves a plenty of content on it. It would be helpful for users to identify each content. Also, the overall colour could be adjusted to match the main colour of the product.

The work done & reflection:

In the week, I mainly focused on the adjustment of the prototype based on the updated concept. Two things were done:

Firstly, the implementation of the new interactive game ‘Pass Bomb’. The physical prototype in terms of this feature was not changed; however, the code was adjusted in order to implement this feature. A variable was set up as the flashing frequency.

This feature was achieved through changing this variable between different devices. For example, the number is 2000 ms at the beginning, and it would decrease with the time. When the user touched the patch, the number would be recorded and send to another patch. The flashing frequency variable would be updated in another patch based on the received number. This is the overall logic for this feature. However, the most difficult part is how to flash the LEDs on patches frequently based on the current flashing frequency variable. I have tried to search any functions that could be used to flash LEDs frequently; however, there is no related information. So, I read through the library that provided by the neo-pixel ring/strip and tried to find some possible ways to do it.

Through trying different functions, I came up with an idea. I think it can be achieved by implementing 2 modes. One for activating LEDs, and another one for turning the LEDs off. So, through switch these two modes back and forth, it is possible to make it seems like it is flashing with a certain frequency. So, based on this logic, I implement it in the prototype. Specifically, once a patch is activated, it switches to the first mode, and LEDs all keep lighting in certain seconds based on the frequency; after that, it switches to Off mode, and all LEDs are turned off in certain seconds again. A while-loop is used to repeat it, and a pressure sensor is used to monitor whether to break the loop. So, it looks like the patch is keep flashing. Finally, it works as my expectation.

The second thing I have done for the finalized prototype was improving the appearance of the prototype. Firstly, additional Arduino Nano boards were bought in order to reduce the size of patches, and make them possible to be placed on clothes without too much connected jumpers.

Then, all sensors were transferred from the Uno board to it, and a 9V battery was also placed on the backside of the Nano board. Now, it looks much better than before. Then, for the appearance, I designed a cover for the patch. Also, in order to avoid showing the Nano board, jumpers, sensors and the battery to users, a ‘container’ was made to cover them; however, it might affect the user experience because users need to place the containers on the clothes as well. It is hard to be solved since it involves multiple functions, the provided materials are fixed in size (Arduino kits), and they are inevitable in the prototype. So, in order to reduce its potential affections, I tried to place attachable materials on the back of the container.

Work to do:

Since the concept and prototype were finalized, the next step is to create a portfolio website to display my overall work, including background research, concept, prototype related information, in this project. I broke it down into few steps:

1. Viewing some well-designed websites to get some insights of creating a portfolio website.
2. Create a draft for the layout of each section of the website.
3. Identify the required content and make another sub to-do list for completing those contents, such as videos, images, and icons.
4. Create each sections based on the draft.

Work that inspired me:

https://howtomechatronics.com/tutorials/arduino/how-to-build-an-arduino-wireless-network-with-multiple-nrf24l01-modules/

This website introduces how to communicate among multiple devices by using NRF24L01 (Data Transceiver module). Before that, I was able to send and receive data between two devices; however, based on the provided functions by the NRF24L01, I could not figure out how to communicate among three or more devices. This part is quite important in my concept since the system would gather users who have seated for one hour together, so if more users are involved, then the interactive game would be more interesting, and users’ willing to do it is much more stronger. So, based on this material, I set up multi-level of modules. As this figure, I marked the main patch as the base 00, and other users’ patches as Node01, 02, and so on. Then, setting up a network for them so that they are able to send data to a certain device, or receive data from a certain device. Specifically, for example, if a device 00 wants to send data to device 01, firstly, locate the device as a header: RF24NetworkHeader, then send data to the header through using the network.write().

(Retrieved from this website)

The Work Done & Reflection:

In this week, what I have done is the improvement of the concept based on the feedback of the report and the showcase.

There is an unreasonable design in the initial concept. User needs to attach the seating detect sensor on his/her legs; however, the following interactions such as moving around to find other users and the body stretch game does not need it, which only makes the overall process more complicated, and too much devices are attached on clothes, which might also negatively affect user experience. So, the first improvement is the seating detect sensor will be fixed on a chair rather than wear it on clothes. Moreover, reduce the number of patches to two so that to make it more flexible and easy to access.

I learned that If a user found it difficult to wear the devices, then the willing to use the product might be reduced. Moreover, all other interactions are based on the patches, which means if the they are not portable and flexible enough, then the related interactions might not be fluent, and it might be easy to make mistakes. For me, as a designer, the priority of creating a product is human-centric, and the product should achieve target audience’s requirements and needs, which aims to ease user’s life. If a product makes user’s life more complicated rather than moving toward a convenient life, then the design of the product is failed.

In addition, it can be paused for any circumstances such as meeting. Users only need to simply remove the patches on their clothes, then it would be paused. I have considered other ways to pause it, such as press the patch two times, and then it would be stopped. However, as a wearable device, flexibility, portability, and light weight are the core requirements and needs. No one wants to wear a device that involves complicated interactions. Moreover, for the users who use it for the first time, they might not able to know how to stop it. So, I would make it as easy as possible based on people’s existing experience. Then, I just simply make it as remove it then it can be paused. However, it might be simulated in the prototype since based on the Arduino materials, it cannot be achieved.

On the other hand, the body stretch game was changed. In order to motivate users to participant in the game, I made it more challenged with a punishment system. Moreover, a new feature was added, the patch would flash frequently once the game started. So, the new idea for the game is: an interactive game called ‘pass bomb’ that aims to stretch body would be activated: one patch among them would be selected and activated with a certain flashing frequency. The frequency would increase with time, and the 'bomb' would 'explode' when it reaches a certain frequency. The punishment is the vibration strength would increase on that user for 5 minutes, which aims to make it more annoying. So, they need to pass the bomb to other users before it explodes. They can do it through simply touching the activated patch. They are able to stretch their bodies while passing the bomb. Such as touching arms and legs. Users can back to work after the game finished.

Work to Do:

Since I have completed the improvement of the concept, the things need to be done for the next week is the adjustment of the prototype based on the updated concept. Specifically, there are three things.

1. Implement the new interactive game ‘Pass Bomb’ (coding).
2. Identify the simulated parts of the prototype, and make them clear.
3. Improve the appearance of the prototype, including reducing the jumpers, what extra materials are needed to make it wearable, how to hide the sensors, modules, and a battery, and the appearance of the patch.

This week I mainly focused on two parts. Firstly, putting all constructed features together to form a prototype of my concept. Secondly, simply list things I need to improve in my concept based on reviews.

Prototype building – put all features together

Last two weeks, the vibrating feature, LED ring activating feature, data communication, touch feature, and time counting feature were all achieved excluding the direction feature, which is mocked up in the prototype by simply activating certain LEDs. This week, they were all held together in an Arduino board.

As you can see, there are still many jumpers around the board, and since one user has three patches, which means the jumpers might affect the user experience. Also, it could be seen when I was taking video with a user, who thought the number of jumpers were many, and I could see his experience was a bit affected. It means it is necessary to make them wireless in the next prototype. As the use of wearable technology, it also important to make sure users are able to interact and use it without discomfort. Moreover, too much jumpers also means the prototype construction might be complicated, and it is easy to make mistakes, which could be hard to identified and checked. So, in order to ensure the prototype building is efficient without confusion, I think it is better to use short jumpers and clearly separate different features in the Arduino board.

Contact session & review

On the other hand, an online show-case was held this week as well, it was amazing to see how other students built up their prototypes and concepts. Some of them are quite interesting and fascinating for me. For example, the sustainable machine ‘Emily, which is used to identify the indoor, outdoor temperatures, and the use of energy-consumption related stuffs such as TV, air-con, and fan to see how efficient the use of these stuffs is by interacting with it such as touching and moving so that the user is able to form a better energy-using behavior. This idea is really cool because it combines with human emotions, through showing how the Emily feels to the user such as anger, discomfort, and sadness to connect with the user. So, it might be more efficient to bring its core ideas to the user, and he/she are more likely to behave sustainable and environmentally friendly.

I think it could be also a strategy in my concept. Since my concept ‘patches’ also performs like a reminder, it means it needs to remind the user his/her sitting time. The current idea is to achieve it through vibrating the user and create an uncomfortable feeling. Also, it is kind of everyday thing that user needs to use and interact with it every day, the user might feel tired or bored after using it for long time. I think if human emotion could be implemented in it, then he/she might be more easily to accept and use it. For example, using the change of vibration or the change of color to represent it is ‘alive’. Extra research and audience interview might be needed to further explore this feature.

On the other hand, I also got feedback of the concept from other students. There are a number of suggestions could be considered to improve my concept:

Easy-of-use:

• Instruction of using the product should be more clear.

• Put the seating detect sensor on the chair would be better since the playful interaction does not need it.

• increase the LED lights in frequency to indicate when another user is close by in any particular direction.

• It could be paused for any circumstances such as meeting.

Moreover, based on their feedback, some questions related to the concept and prototype need to be further explored:

• Is the wearable device complicated to use and wear?

• What if people find this uncomfortable?

• Is reward system suitable in my concept?

For the question 1 and 2, I would conduct a prototype testing session to explore them; for the last question, online research and literature study would be conducted to analyse, firstly, whether reward system is suitable/necessary in my case; secondly, it could be implemented in the concept through what ways.

Few things need to be done before the final show case:

1. Explore the questions above (literature research & interview).
2. Explore the use of human emotion in my concept.
3. Improve the concept based on the feedback of review.
4. Adjust the prototype -> based on point 1 and 2 & make it wireless.

This week, I mainly focused on building the prototype, and keep working on what I have planned since last week.

Prototype building – 1: Vibrating

Vibrating as the representation of bothersome feature in the prototype, it is really important to be constructed. The vibrating model is used to implement the vibrating function. Firstly, it was simply set up on the Arduino board, and it connects with ground and pin 2 as showing below.

Then, control and adjust it by sending data to the pin. For example, 130 means set the vibrating level to 130; and 0 means turn it off.

After that, I combine this feature with the feature I have created last week, controlling the LEDs through the pressure sensor. So, after all LEDs on the neo-pixel ring are activated (lighted up), the vibrating function would be called, and as described in the concept, it would start to annoy the user.

Prototype building – 2: Constructing another device

In addition, another device that is similar to the one I created needs to be built since the concept involves multiple users interacting with each other, so at least 2 devices are needed to show the concept.

An Arduino Nano was bought in weekend, and it was simply set up with a pressure sensor and a neo-pixel ring on it, which is similar to the previous device. The counting time function and LEDs displaying function are implemented in it. I think the nano is quite suitable in my concept because the patch needs to be placed on the clothes, which means the smaller device, the better user experience, and it would be more closer to the ideal product.

Prototype building– 3: Communication between two devices

Communication between two devices as one of core features need to be implemented as well. It is important in my concept because the playful interaction involves multiple users: the user touches his/her own patch with activated LED, then the light would ‘jump’ to another user, and so on. So, in order to achieve this feature, I have done a plenty of research about how to communicate between two devices. There are two ways to do it. The first idea is to implement a Bluetooth module such as HC-06 into a device.

Through connecting to a master device such as a mobile device to communicate between two Arduino devices. Specifically, one Arduino device sends the data to a mobile phone, and the mobile phone will capture that data and send it back to another Arduino device. The second way to do it is to use transceiver modules such as NRF24L01.

Specifically, a transceiver module needs to be installed in each Arduino device, and then they can communicate with each other through the same channel. Compared with the first way, the second way is much more convenient, efficient, and cheap. The reasons are, firstly, the first way requires a mobile device, and an App might need to be constructed in order to capture and send data. However, the second way only involves transceiver modules, which saves plenty of time. So, the second way is used.

Firstly, I set up two channels, one for receiving data, and another one for sending data.

Then, through open and close channel to communicate between two devices without interruption. Once a device needs to send data, it will open the sending channel, and close the receiving channel.

The data could be any thing like ‘0’ or ‘111’, what I want is just to tell another device another user has touched the correct patch. So, based on that, the system will activate another patch. However, after I built up the devices with the transceiver modules and code.

Only one way communication could work, which means device A can only receive data, and device B can only send data. I double checked whether the jumpers are connected correctly, and the code as well, but there is no mistake. So, I google it to see anything goes wrong in my design, and I have tried to replace the jumpers, change channels, check whether other features like vibration and LED rings conflict with it. But it still did not work. Finally, I talked about this problem with a tutor, and he recommended to check the power (3.3V/5V). So, I changed its power from 3.3V to 5V, and … it works but not stable. I was really confused because the official guidance requires the module to be connected with 3.3V. The tutor explained that it could be caused by many reasons, like the module’s construction, unstable power, and so on. In order to make it stable, an adapter is needed. I have learned that it is important to consider all possible reasons that contribute to the problem, and be patient when trying to solve it.

Prototype building 4 – failed: user directions

Since the playful interaction has been changed to multiple users involved in, users need to find each other to play a game. So, the feature ‘find other users’ needs to be implemented. I have thought about how to make it out for long time, and conducted research. Basically, there are two possible ways to do that. Firstly, using a tri-asix sensor to track the user’s moving path, then convert the path (x,y, and z directions) into a 3D model. Same idea for another device, and if they encountered in this 3D model, then it means they met in the same real space. I tried to build it with the sensor, it was able to get the device’s x,y, and z moving paths. However, the rest parts are hard to be conducted, especially for putting two devices into a 3D model because it means the space where two users staying in needs to be built and extra features are required to locate these two devices. So, it cannot be construct with only tri-saix sensors. I have tried to some other ways to achieve this feature, and the second way is to use GPS locators to track two user’s locations, it is easy to build but it has some drawbacks. For example, it works really bad at indoor space because it needs to retrieve data from satellites, and indoor environment can affect that. Also, if they are in short distance like 20 or 30 meters, then the result (location) is really inaccurate, which might cause showing wrong directions to the user. Since both ideas are currently not suitable in my design, this feature is mocked up in the prototype by drawing directions on paper.

For next week, I might need to keep searching about how to achieve the last feature mentioned above. If it is still hard to be implemented, then I would think about alternative features to replace it. In addition, put all features I created so far into a single prototype for next week’s show case. Also, trying to get some insights from other students’ works in the show case as well as reviews so that I am able to know which part of my concept should be improved.

Document and evidence individual work done

Domain research:

Observation

An online office observation was conducted this week, key works that relate to this domain was used to search something about office, such as ‘office workers’, ‘office’, and ‘office observation’. A number of useful sources are listed below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpUeKQl-s-8 -> American office observation (news reporter)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYIFefUXc_c -> software design company office

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAplyNf7uuE and some other videos

1. People stop sitting normally because they want to get water, print out files, chat with other colleagues, and go to restroom.
2. The offices are quiet most of time: It links back to the responses from interviewees. Office workers might need to concentrate on the work, and it is important to ensure that the product is workplace friendly so it would not affect others as well as their work efficiency.
3. Compared with private spaces such as home, offices involve multiple people working in the same space: It can actually be an advantage/resource that private spaces do not have. If multiple people can be connected to take same actions together such as walking or stretching, then users might be more likely to do light-activities, especially for users with introverted characteristics.

Based on these information, I made some changes to the concept mentioned in the previous journal

1. New annoying feature: The patch starts to vibrate instead of bleep constantly after long-time sitting. It aims to reduce the impact on work efficiency.
2. Multiple users (office workers) are involved: Two playful interactions (games) mentioned in the original concept were removed. A new playful interaction that involves multiple users was created.
3. A new relax and ease-of-use interaction: As mentioned in the concept on the front page, users will be gathered together, and one patch among them will be randomly selected and lighted up. The light can be removed by simply touch its surface. Then, the light would ‘jump’ to next user, and so on.
4. Extra changes for work efficient and easy of use: It can be turned off by removing the patches from the clothes. Also, reduce the number of patches to two.

Design principle

On the other hand, a design principle was searched and trying to implement it into my concept because the concept is designed for everyday life with playful and open-ended interactions. It might involve a series of interaction process, such as how the user explores, discovers, and adjusts it. So, it is important to ensure the user interacts with it without confusion. So, based on research, Valk, Bekker, and Eggen (2015) develop a model for playful interaction. It involves three stages, which are invitation stage, exploration stage, and immersion stage. The overall interaction process was checked and improved based on these three stages, and a number of improvement was made in the concept. For example, LEDs on the ring can easily get user’s attention and show the changes. So, they will be used to represent the changes of system state and interaction process. For example, all LEDs are activated means that the sitting time is long enough. Then, all LEDs will be turned off, and specific LED will be lighted up to tell the user the current step is completed, and to guide the user what to do next. Moreover, responses should be provided to the user every time when he/she tried an action so that the user is able to explore how to interact with the patches. For example, if touching the wrong patch, then the LEDs on the correct patch will keep flashing. Finally, while users are gathered together and interacting with each other, the provided responses from the patches should be similar and coherent in ongoing engagement. Specifically, the light’s color and brightness should be the same while passing it to other users.

Prototype construct:

In addition, I also started to construct the prototype for my concept. Two features were build. First one is to activate LEDs on the neo-pixel ring by pressing a paper. I formed an overall construction process for this feature:

1. Simply set up the ring on the Arduino Uno board to explore how to use the neo-pixel ring since I have never used it before, so I am need to get familiar with its basic functions and codes.
2. Then, try to write simple codes to activate some specific LEDs on the ring, which is a good warm-up for the latter part of this feature.
3. Thinking about how to activate the ring by pressing something.
4. Connecting the pressing function to the ring.
5. Add the point 2 to the feature so that it is able to activate some specific LEDs by pressing something.
6. Adding counting time function into this feature so that I am able to activate the LEDs every few seconds or minutes by pressing something, which is for implementing the feature that after sitting, one LED on the patch would be lighted up every 5 min.
7. Test the completed feature to see anything needs to be improved.

Arrange the jumper lines on the board to make it more clear and structured.

Detail:

A neo-pixel ring was simply placed on the board, and connecting to pin 2 for data input, ground, and power. After following the construction guidance online, a basic code to activate the ring was created. Then, I got a basic view of the ring:

Then, through exploring the code, I am able to activate specific LEDs on the ring.

After that, I took a look the materials I got, and I found that the pressure sensor could be used to detect whether user is seated or not. After press or pinch the sensor, the value would be read in the system. So, I think it is really helpful for my feature, and I can activate the LEDs by comparing with the value from the sensor and a pre-set value. Then, it is possible to detect whether the user is seating or standing, and activate the LEDs. After that, I combine the functions I created with the pressure sensor, so the point 5 is fulfilled.

Next, I used ‘delay()’ method to freeze the whole system for a specific time so that it is possible to activate one LED every few minutes. However, it caused a problem that nothing can be conducted during freezing the system, so if the user stands up during freezing, then I am not able to detect it through the pressure sensor. I have read through some projects, and I found that using two variables to track and count the time is a more flexible and efficient way to solve this problem. As the figure below:

Finally, I combine everything together, and create this feature:

I simply tested this feature by pressing the pressure sensor, and the LEDs are activated every specific time, so it was successful. Then, I rearrange the jumper lines, sensor, and led to make it more clear:

Things need to be done

Based on the concept, a number of features need to be constructed in order to form a prototype, which are code improve, vibrating function, construct another device, and data communication between two devices. I will work on them at the end of this weekend and next week as well. By the way, the appearance of the prototype also needs to be improved.

External source

https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/ingo-lohs/myadafruit-neopixel-ring-with-12-leds-unboxing-15c9d1

According to this source, I learned the basic structure of the neo-pixel ring and its code. For example, through calling Adafruit_NeoPixel to activate the overall functions of neo-pixel ring. Moreover, through calling begin, clear, and show to control the LEDs. Also, the combination of these methods can easily turn off and on the ring, which is quite helpful to solve what I have struggled in the feature. For example, I could not turn off all LEDs at one time, so I turned off them one by one. However, after I have read through this documents, I found out that the combination such as clear() and show() can just quickly and simply deactivate all of them.

Entry

What is my concept / individual focus / individual responsibility for the project? Include a text-based description and imagery to support (sketches, photos etc).

The concept is Four Strip Patches, which are targeted to people who have long-time sitting at home. This concept addresses the negative effects caused by the sedentary behaviour by providing a visual and playful indication, which aims to increase the user’s awareness of long-time sitting and reduce the sitting time by encourage the user to do light activities. They are four patches (8cm * 2.5cm) with display areas (fiber optic material) on the front and attachable material on the back (figure 2.1). The user is able to attach them anywhere on the clothes and remove them from the clothes, which aims to provide a more flexible and personalized way to wear the devices (figure 2.2). Moreover, they are easily accessible and portable so they can be used in different environments and places.

The patches start to count the time once the user sits down with patches on his/her clothes. The time is expressed as a percentage on the display areas, such as 0% at the start. Also, as an additional reminder, the display areas will gradually illuminate over time (figure 2.3). Patches begin to bleep constantly when the percentage of the time reaches up to 100% (55 minutes).

Based on the distance between each patch, after that, one of two interactive games below will be activated.

Case 1: When patches are close to each other (figure2.4).

It is similar to the game of Whac-A-Mole (figure 2.5). A patch is randomly selected by the system, and the lighting on this patch starts to appear for 0.2 seconds. Then, it is fully off and another patch will be selected. It is repeated until the game is over. The user is required to slap the patch, and the game is over when the user can successfully slap the patches for 20 times.

Case 2: When patches are far away from each other (figure 2.6).

The user is required to move/shake the body parts that have patches on the clothes constantly, and the percentage of the sitting time will be reduced gradually. For example, if the user sticks patches on the sleeves, then the user needs to shake his/her arms constantly until the number turns back to 0 (figure 2.7).

In order explore the problem space in different directions, reducing sedentary behaviours in office (public space) is focused as my design direction.

What is the ideal finished product? (not what you think you can implement, achieve, but what you would like to be if you had all the resources/skills you need?)

This question will be answered in the following part.

Individual work done & relate back

this week, online interviews were held in order to answer the questions identified in the previous report, such as how target audience think about the concept in terms of wearable technology, playful elements, and annoying features, their requirement and needs in terms of reducing the sedentary behaviours in office, the impacts of their characteristics on reducing long-time sitting in office, and explore the things in office that can be used in our concept. Five interviewees were invited. They are our friends and they are also work in office. The interview session were held via Zoom.

There are a number of key findings:

1. Introverted interviewees are more likely to be affected by the office environment, such as the colleagues around them, whether they can be easily seen by them, and whether the playful interactions can disturb them. Based on what we got so far, I think it highly affects the performance of the concept. So, it is necessary to consider the potential solutions to address them.
2. The concept involves some annoying features, such as the Beep sound that occurs after the user seat for long time, shaking arms/foot. However, introverted interviewees said they might disturb other colleagues so they could not accept these features. Especially for the Beep feature, although it is designed for creating annoying feature to users so that they can follow the guidance, some of them said they sometimes are quite busy and they are not able to follow it. For instance, a discussion session might be lasted for 2 hours. So, these features might need to be reconsidered.
3. Two interviewees reported that they just want to relax such as simple stretch when they have seated for long time, and the playful interactions might make them much more tired rather than relax. However, other participants gave a positive feedback to the interactions. So, we might need to further discuss about this feature within the team. On the other hand, a participant gave us a really good suggestion that users might feel bored after they interact with it for long time since the mode is not various enough. It would be much more better if it has enriched interactions and personalized interactions. Such as users are able to adjust, change, or even make the mode by themselves so that the open-ended feature could be highlighted, and users are more likely to accept it.
4. On the other hand, they also said that they don't want to spent too much time on the interactions since they might be busy. A more easy and not time-consumed interaction might be needed.
5. Summary and other requirements for the features: work efficiency, reminder, ease of use, supportive environments.

Possible requirements/strategies:

• Involving multiple users to engage in the playful interactions.
• Change the Beep.
• Focusing on relaxing.
• Would not affect other features including the wearable tech.
• Maintain work efficiency.

Current improved concept based on these information:

The improved concept is mainly based on the previous concept, and three features would be changed. Firstly, the number of strips is reduced to two from four. Secondly, it involves multiple users to interact with each other, and the annoying feature ‘Beep’ is also changed. Specifically, when multiple users are sitted for long periods, such as one hour, their strips will start shocking and light up with the same colour. They can only unlock the strips by touching other people’s strips with their own strips, which means they need to walk around and search the colleagues who have the same colour. Moreover, when they are getting closer to each other, the light will flash more strongly. It aims to guide users to find each other rather than walking around and wasting time. Furthermore, the playful interaction is changed. In the previous concept, it has two modes based on the distance between strips; however, they might make users much more tired rather than taking rest. So, a new playful interaction is implemented. Specifically, it is similar to the first mode, but multiple users are involved. After the strips are unlocked, a simply interactive game that aims to stretch body is activated among them. One of strips among these users will be lighted. The user who owns the strip needs to touch it, then the ‘light’ will move to another user’s one of strips, and so on. The game will be finished after few rounds.

The ideal finished product would be, firstly, a wearable strip with main functions can be built up rather than multiple components that implement different functions. Also, the strip’s appearance should be well enough. I mean there is no circuit or cables showing out of the strip. So, it reaches a basic level of aesthetics. In addition, users are able to interact with it without confusion, which means the overall operation and interaction are acceptable and easy to learn and use.

Next step

Explore a design principle, and implement it in the concept. In order to systematically and scientifically develop the concept/product, it is necessary to implement design principles. Since it is designed for everyday life with playful and open-ended interactions, which means it might involve a series of interaction process. For instance, how the user encounters, explores, discovers, and adjusts it. So, it is important to ensure the user is able to interact with it without confusion. Additional academic research is needed to discover which principle is suitable for the concept. The retrieval range can be the study of design cases in which an interactive, and open-ended playful environment.

Document and evidence individual work done

Project:

I mainly focused on the research and team report before this Thursday. Due to I have two other assignments due the week after the break, so I am going to focus on those works first, and I will keep working on it after they are completed. Based on what I have written in the last week’s journal, I gave up all individual ideas since they do not totally match the requirements from the relative works, and I came up with some ideas about how to make the flower more playful and interactive, for example, installing a movement sensor on the top of the flower to detect user’s movement so that we are able to ask the user to do some exercise and capture his/her movement. Then, we are able to implement some features based on that like unlock the annoying feature by complete the exercise. But based on Arduino research, it is hard to capture user’s movement by sensors, also, due to the size of the flower, if a movement capture sensor is implemented on the top, then the LED light cannot be placed on the top due to the size limitation. I also tried to think about other ideas, but it is not better than the team concept, so I decided to follow the team concept, and improve it based on my design direction.

Contact:

On the other hand, a Miro board experience session was hold during the contact session. The first task is to ‘Methods for Discovery’, where we are required to explore alternative approaches for user discovery. Same as most students, YouTube was selected as my research approach to observe the passengers on the train. I think online resource is an efficient and convenient resource approach under this circumstance because in-person research is now hard to be conducted. The video relates to an old lady have a conflict with a woman who puts her bag on a seat on a crowded train. Everyone is watching their conflict, and some of them are taking videos on their phones without expressions. No one laughs, no one helps, and no one says anything. However, I think YouTube is not a suitable platform to conduct an observation because most people upload uncommon things such as fighting that happened on the train. Since uncommon things can get more like and no one watches things that they can always see in their lives. So, it is hard to observe how people commonly behave on a train on YouTube. I think if an observation session is necessary in a project, then I would review other people’s online notes about passenger’s behaviour, and try to find insights from them or, do academic research.

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Things need to be done

The next step is to further study the target audience in my design direction. For instance, the target audience’s feature. Discover target audience’s requirements and needs in terms of reducing the sedentary behaviour. The relative works in the team report only reveal the key aspects of changing the behaviour; however, what they want and need are not covered in the research, and they are important to the design because it might affect the accessibility and acceptability of the concept and the final product. Also, it might bring us additional insights for this domain and the concept such as the motivation and barriers of solving the problem. So, it is necessary to discover their requirements and needs. On the other hand, as mention before, the target audience’s characteristics can affect them to take actions in offices. However, what kind of characteristics can affect it and how they affect it need to be more specific in order to discover the potentials to improve the domain problems in this direction. Moreover, the team concept is improved based on the analysis of a number of research, such as the implementation of wearable technology, playful elements, and annoying features. However, the target audience’s attitude to the improved concept is unknown. Whether it is interesting, annoying, and flexible needs to be discovered. So, it might be helpful for us to identify the current problems we have, and it might bring insights about our features such as the user’s acceptability of the annoying and playful features and wearable technology, so that we are able to improve them before we go further in this domain.

Moreover, how the concept can be built by the Arduino is unknown. It is frustrated if a creative idea is not able to be made because the related function is not supported by the Arduino. So, Arduino online tutorial and further discussion with tutors are important in order to discover potential ways to build up the concept, or looking for alternatives to some features. Slack can be used to ask questions that relate to the Arduino and the development of the concept. In addition, Arduino online tutorial can be found in YouTube.

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External source

“Idle Stripes Shirt - Ambient Wearable Display for Activity Tracking”.

The wearable technology can be implemented in different things such as watches, glasses and earphones. In this case, it is more unique to combine it with a shirt. Basically, it is similar in appearance to usual shirts but it integrates an ambient display in the neck area. Based on the user’s sitting time, the display gradually illuminates with different colors. There is no lighting on the display in first 15 minutes. After that, every few minutes one stripe will be lighted, and all stripes will be activated if the user sit at the desk for an hour. The strips gradually fade if the user starts walking, and it takes 5 minutes to totally turn off the ambient display. It aims to encourage the user to take a break or even light activities after long-time sitting, and to reduce the total amount of sitting time per day. So, it can improve the user’s health as well as the awareness of the time spending on sitting.

It shows a number of key aspects in this domain. Firstly, easily accessible, visible, and appealing things can be everything on a desk such as pens, books, or even lamps, but it can also be something necessary and important in people’s daily lives such as clothes and shoes. Moreover, compared with office supplies, they are more portable. So, it is easy for users to carry, control and get used to it. In addition, wearable technology fits those things and this domain. Since changing sedentary behaviour might involve light activities such as standing and walking, and as a reminder, it needs to monitor user’s sedentary behaviour. Thus, it is important to ensure the product is flexible and easy to use so that users are able to easily take actions without interrupt them after long-time sitting. On the other hand, there are various ways to notice people. For instance, the change of number, color, shape, brightness, images, temperature, or even vibratory can be used in design. However, we need to consider how it might affect users and the way to implement it. For example, in this case, the change of lighting with fiber optic material is used, and it is light and shape-flexible, which means it can provide the experience of aesthetics, flexibility, and surprise.

Individual work done:

This weeks, I mainly focused on searching existing strategies to figure out how the sedentary behaviour can be reduced. Also, a team concept was formed based on all collected information, and finally potential individual concepts were considered.

1: Existing strategies:

The improvement of physical environment is an efficient way to change the norms of use. The key point to change the physical environment is to focus on the redesign of the easily accessible, visible, and appealing things around people. For instance, stairwells with music elements can attract people to use stairs. The use of technology is another key role to reduce this behaviour. Recently, there are an increasing number of implementation of technology in our physical environment, such as wearable and mobile devices, computers, and interactive chairs that use to remind people the sitting time. On average, computer, mobile and wearable technology tools are efficient to reduce sitting time, which is 41.28 minuets per day. Moreover, he also points out that the most frequently used codes in those tools were “goal setting”, “self-monitoring of behaviour” and “prompts and cues”.

2: A team concept was formed:

Four Strip Patches

The Four Strip Patches are targeted to people who have long-time sitting at home. This concept addresses the negative effects caused by the sedentary behavior by providing a visual and playful indication, which aims to increase the user’s awareness of long-time sitting and reduce the sitting time by encourage the user to do light activities.

They are four patches (8cm * 2.5cm) with display areas (fiber optic material) on the front and attachable material on the back. The user is able to attach them anywhere on the clothes and remove them from the clothes, which aims to provide a more flexible and personalized way to wear the devices (figure 2.1). Moreover, they are easily accessible and portable so they can be used in different environments and places.

The patches start to count the time once the user sits down with patches on his/her clothes. The time is expressed as a percentage on the display areas, such as 0% at the start. Also, as an additional reminder, the display areas will gradually illuminate over time (figure 2.2). Patches begin to bleep constantly when the percentage of the time reaches up to 100% (55 minutes).

Based on the distance between each patch, after that, one of two interactive games below will be activated.

Case 1: When patches are close to each other.

It is similar to the game of Whac-A-Mole. A patch is randomly selected by the system, and the lighting on this patch starts to appear for 0.2 seconds. Then, it is fully off and another patch will be selected. It is repeated until the game is over. The user is required to slap the patch, and the game is over when the user can successfully slap the patches for 20 times.

Case 2: When patches are far away from each other.

The user is required to move/shake the body parts that have patches on the clothes constantly, and the percentage of the sitting time will be reduced gradually. For example, if the user sticks patches on the sleeves, then the user needs to shake his/her arms constantly until the number turns back to 0.

It relates to the theme because, for instance, the strips can be placed anywhere on the user’s clothes. So, a number of combinations can be made, and the styles of clothes can be more personalized. Moreover, since they are light and can be stuck on cloths, they are portable. They all aim to attract people to use them with different options. Two interactive games were created in the concept in order to redefine traditional light activities such as standing and walking, and through implementing the playful and open-ended elements, we want users to rethink and explore how sedentary behaviour means to them.

3: individual potential concept:

Flower

It is an artificial flower with a flower pot (see figure 3.1). basically, the petals are displayed as a transparent electronic ball on the top. a touch sensor is installed on the ball’s surface, and a LED is placed inside the ball. moreover, the stem is a pole where electric wires are placed inside. The whole circuit is installed inside the flower pot. It has several functions: firstly, it starts to count the time once the user starts to use the laptop or computer. The stem gradually curves over time, and the colour of the ball (LED) also gradually fade out with flickering which aims to create a feeling of breath. The breath is getting weak if the user is keep sitting. Also, it aims to create a feeling of withering. The flower will start to make the sound of crying. All of these is to personalize the flower, and trigger the user’s compassion, and let the user stop sitting on the chair, and save the flower. I have thought about the way to interact with the flower for few days, and there are no any good ideas. I was thinking about touching the ball will let something funny happened, such as changing the colour, asking user to do exercise. But they are not interesting enough. I also think about the flower can read the current weather by connecting to the internet. If it is sunny, then the user is required to place the flower under the sun to get sun light, and the stem will turn to normal. Or if it is raining, then the user needs to water the flower in order to ‘save’ it. But all of these only involve simply walking and standing, there is no playful elements in it.

Things need to be completed for next week:

based on what I and the team have done so far, now I am thinking about I should form an individual concept or keep working on the team concept. I quite like the team concept actually but I am afraid I cannot make it out because I have searched on the internet, and it involves a number of extra materials and knowledge that I totally don't understand. So, if I keep working on this concept, then I might need to change some features of it so that I am able to make it out based on what I have learnt so far. For the another option, individual concept, I have come up with some ideas but compared with the team concept, I totally do not satisfy all of them, like they are not playful enough, the interaction is not funny enough, or the idea is not interesting enough. Actually, it is a bit hard to combine fun with this domain since people are working on their works when they are sitting, it might negatively affect the work efficiency if they interact with the product. However, the team concept perfectly solve this problem, and this is why I like the team concept. I have tried to think about how to make the “flower” concept more playful and interactive, such as touching the ball and changing colour, but they are too simple for me. So, I might keep thinking about possible ways to make it more interactive during these days, and whether I am able to make it out. If no idea comes up, then I might need to focus on the team concept. Then, finishing the individual report before the due day. For the team session, the report is almost done, what we need to do is to review the overall report, find out something need to be improved with extra resources, and correct the grammar. Also, we only need to discuss our individual directions like what each one of us is going to focus in this domain to ensure it can be explored broadly and deeply.

External source:

“Rotating, tilting, bouncing: using an interactive chair to promote activity in office environments” https://dl-acm-org.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/doi/proceedings/10.1145/2468356

It is an interactive chair that aims to reduce sedentary behaviour. Its appearance is same as common office chairs. However, it offers the opportunity to physically interact with the computer without using the keyboard and mouse. Basically, it has three types of gestures. Leaning or rotating the chair enable the user to switch to different applications; the forward and backward tilt can be used to control the scrolling of the screen; moving the chair up and down can be used to reload pages and confirm or reject actions (see figure 1.2).

Although the purpose of this product is to reduce sedentary behaviour, it does not require walking or standing after long-time sitting. Conversely, it requires users to do light activity while working by rotating, tilting, and bouncing the chair. It brings me insights of this domain: since the awkwardness of standing might negatively affect office workers to take actions, frequent and simple physical interaction such as motion and gestures can be used to substitute standing and walking. Moreover, it is efficient if it can be implemented with things that are frequently used in office, such as chair, keyboard, mouse, earphones, and pen, because it means the user needs to do a light activity every time when he/she wants to use the stuff. Furthermore, the implementation of the gesture interaction should be based on the feature of the things. For example, in this case, the design of the gesture interaction is based on the basic operations of a chair, such as leaning, rotating, forward and backward tilt, and moving up and down. Adding novel ideas on it so that it is easy for users to operate, learn and accept.

The Work Done & Reflection:

Concept forming:

In this week, the domain we are going to focus on is decided, which is helping people to reduce sedentary behaviour. Based on the information I found, most of us have this behaviour. For example, sitting for 3 hours while playing computer games or, sitting to study or work at a desk for long time. on average, it occupies around 9 hours per day for adults, and it could be longer for some occupations such as office workers and call centre workers who spent around 11 hours/day in sedentary behaviour. long-time sitting or lying can increase the risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancers, and poor mental health. So, it is necessary to change the sedentary behaviour.

An initial team concept was formed. “The nagging cushion”, it’s similar in appearance to usual cushion but the main purpose of this cushion is to remind people to stand or walk after they have seated for long periods, which aims to reduce the sedentary behaviour. Specifically, the cushion starts to count the time after the user sat down, and the semicircular particles on its upper surface will be raised and move after sat for one hour, which aims to create an uncomfortable feeling to the user so he is not able to keep sitting on the chair, and the state will turn back to normal in five minutes.

In addition, it has a playful and annoying feature: when a user has seated for long time such as 2 hours or, ignore the reminder, the voice system inside the cushion will talk to the user such as ‘You have seated on my face for two hours! That hurts!’, ‘Do not throw me away just because I am annoying’, and ‘Do you know how heavy you are?’. They all aim to divert user’s attention and remind them they have been working for long time so it is the time to take a break for a while. In order to make sure user is standing or walking, user is required to carry the cushion. The cushion will then record the number of steps or the change of the height. If the system did not detect anything, then it would say something like ‘Hey, come on, just few steps’ or ‘I knew you gonna be lazy again’. On the other hand, this system can also read the current time and user’s daily plan set on phone. So, it will remind the user the upcoming plans, as well as daily routine like lunchtime.

Obviously, the target audience are people who need to sit for long periods for study or work. Such as students and office workers. Also, it is suitable for people who often sit and play video games for long time. In addition, one of the features they have is they dont take regular breaks to stand up or walk around after long-time sitting, maybe it’s because they are too busy so they lose track of time or, they just don't care about it. and now they want change it.

Presenting the concept:

In addition, I considered how to show the concept to all other students properly in the video. I think drawing and animation are the best ways to show it because in the current stage, no prototype has not been created yet. So, the most suitable way to show my concept is to convert the long text into clear, simple, and obvious drawings and animation. In this case, animation was selected because the show case could be more fluent and it is much more easily to highlight what I want to bring to users. Also, it is something I have never tried before, it is kind of challenge for me. Firstly, I created a basic outline and framework for the animation.

Then, through using the drawing mobile application, I draw all features I need on it.

Then, I spent few hours to learn how to make it as an animation by using Adobe After Effect, which is used to make videos, and it is suitable to be used to create animation for videos. Then, based on the basic framework, I created animation for each part of the concept, and here is the final video:

I have learned how to make animation by using this software, and it is quite helpful for me to improve my knowledge as a designer, since designers need to share their ideas visually. So, in the future of my work, I am able to create bettwe quality materials to support my concepts/ideas.

Show-case feedback:

On the other hand, we got some feedback from the showcase. Firstly, many feedback indicated that they expected more encouragement from the product, in other words, positive stimulation. Others expressed the desire to get more comfortable warnings. These feedbacks brought us a lot of discussion and confusion, that is because our design theme is "Bothering", it is difficult for us to find a balance between "Bothering" design and a comfortable experience for users. After seeking advice from the tutor, we decided to keep the product as much playful as possible to be the primary direction. In addition to finding a balance between "Bothering" design and product comfort, the feedback also mentioned the balance between "Bothering" and make user angry, if the user is in a special environment when using the product, for example, a work that needs to be highly focused, or being in a meeting and does not want to be disturbed. In these cases, "Bothering" that usually does not cause too much trouble is easily considered as irritating, as a result, users are very likely to give up using the product. The feedback also mentioned the lack of interactions between the product and the user. In our opinion, this will be a very serious problem and may totally change the current design. In the current design, the cushion will only passively accept information and give feedback, but the user cannot directly interact with the cushion.

Work to Do:

Based on the feedback, additional research is needed, and I made a research plan for the team:

1. A deep background research of sedentary behaviour, including why it widely exist in people’s life.
2. The research of existing strategies that have been used in real life.
3. Case study of real related products with physical computing.

Work that Inspired/Interested Me:

(Retrieved from http://static1.squarespace.com/static/540b9875e4b08e28fe49c8f5/t/56c56e342eeb81548d4df6ae/1455779393464/Yue+Huang+Defense.pdf)

It is a little machine that used to remind people how long they have been seated on chairs. The designer added human emotions into it. So, based on the sitting time, the machine’s ‘facial expression’ will change. Such as it cries if the user have seated for long time, and he/she still keep seating; it will be a happy face if the user leaves the seat. It inspired me because, firstly, it is portable with a tiny size which means users are able to easily carry and use it anywhere they want. Especially for office workers, sometimes the limitation of the office space is one of the reasons restrict people to stop sedentary behaviour. In addition, it creatively implemented the human emotion feature into the concept. Since reducing sedentary behaviour might take really long period of time. The designer tried to make it interesting by using this way so the user might feel that someone is also staying with her/him. A kind of companion along with the user.

individual work done:

Bothersome Design is the project our team is going to focused on in this semester. This is the first stage of the design iteration, and we need to form a concept for this project. So, each member in our team has been asked to form a number of initial ideas so that we are able to choose the most suitable one for this project.

I have done some simple research. Firstly, I asked some of my friends and neighbours few questions such as is there any thing that makes you annoyed but you need to do it every day. Their answers are mostly related to something like they wake up lately, or other daily routines. Also, there is a funny answer which is he’s annoyed to the notifications on his iPhone, the red dots on the top right of an app’s icon. He really does not like those dots, and he has to update those apps in order to make them disappeared.

Based on how I understand this project, I think the design should make people feel ‘annoyed’, and help them to change something. It can be bad things like bad habits, good things, or maybe something they don't have. The experience it created is related to something negative. For example, make them feel uncomfortable; do something they do not want; make them awkward; force them to do something; create an unsafety feeling.

Based on all information above, I come up with some ideas. For example, transfer the red dots on iPhone to every day’s life. Let’s imaging that there are lots of red dots showing on your coffee table, kitchen table, study table, and toilet with notification sound when you wake up. All of these dots are trying to remind you things you need to do today or you haven’t finished yet. That’s really annoyed. The second idea is Tricky Alarm Clock, which is if you cannot wake up at the set time, then the clock will automatically trigger a phone call on your phone, to one of numbers on your contact list, which aims to change habits by creating an awkward feeling to not just users, but also people around users.

Studio:

There are two activities in the studio this week. Firstly, a guest was invited to share ideas about how he prepared for the job hunting, and what we need to do before/after graduation. Few things are quite helpful to me. For instance, a small activity that asking us to write down why we are unique. I almost could not write anything on the paper, and I realized I need to enrich myself with extra knowledge or something else. Also, be confident is really important when seeking a job or even in daily life. On the other hand, project theme sharing session was hold in the studio, we share our ideas and also get new insight from other students’ ideas.

to-do:

During weekend, our group collected all ideas we formed, 12 ideas in total. We hold a simple voting session, which is asking people around us to vote out the best 2 ideas. We collected 12 people’s feedback based on how it is annoyed, playable, and interesting to them. Then, we hold a team meeting on Sunday, and we mainly focus on how to implement the idea based on what we have learned during these years; can it create an annoying feeling to users; does it meaningful to them. Each member shared opinions, and we made a lot adjustments based on the initial idea. The initial idea is a shopping cart with a tiny screen. People scan stuff, and the system will count the current amount of all stuff. When the total amount is higher than the budget, then the cart will stop moving and giving out a noisy sound until a support staff coming to the user. We talked lots about this idea such as how to connect the wheels to the system, and what are things need to be done in order to implement this idea, and how they feel when they use it. We got lots answers, like it involves lots of coding such as scan system, count numbers and displaying numbers on the screen, draw and print out the shopping cart 3D model, wheels design and connection with the system. So, we might not be able to finish it before the deadline. Then, we talked about how to make it more easier without stopping the cart, and we came up with some ideas like a cover on the top, which control whether user can place stuff inside the cart. However, the size of the cart is too large, we think maybe it is easier to implement the idea on shopping basket.

Finally, the ‘Smart Shopping Basket’ is selected based on whether it is playable, involving physical computing, and bothersome. The structure and appearance of the Basket are similar to the Baskets in Coles/Woolworth. The difference is there is a closed cover with a small screen and a sensor on the top: users need to upload the list of stuff they want to buy; then, when a user wants to place something inside the Basket, the user needs to scan it over the sensor. If the stuff is in the list, then a green tick will show on the screen and the cover will be opened and user can place it inside the Basket; if it’s not, then the system will say “this is not the stuff on the list, r u sure you want to buy it?” user needs to answer the system, “yes”, for example, then the system will keep asking questions like “are you really sure?”, “Do you really need it”, which aims to make people uncomfortable/annoyed/awkward. After asking few questions, if the stuff is not related to the stuff on the list, then the system would say “I give you 2 min to think about it”. So, if the user really wants to buy it then he/she needs to turn back again after 2 min. The idea aims to stop people to buy sometime they do not need through repeatedly asking questions to them, and let them rethink about whether it is the stuff they are looking for.

A to-do list is formed in this meeting for the next week:

1. A pitch to share the idea (including draft sketches, pictures of the process of how to use it, maybe role play can be added).
2. Things involved in order to build it up:
• A sensor that used to scan stuff’s barcode, the system is able to read the information of the stuff such as the category and price.
• A rectangle cover with a tiny screen, and the cover can be opened and closed by the system based on the stuff’s category.
• A voice system that receive user’s speech and talk to user.

Idea Sharing in Studio

This week, two activities were done. Firstly, all posters were presented in the class. There were a lot of interesting and impressive ideas, and one idea gave me new insights into this assignment and my idea. The ‘Your shoes’, which is a pair of shoes with sensors and LED implemented. It detects a user’s emotion based on the his/her pace. Then, it would play the music that is most suitable for the user’s current mood. It impressed me because this idea makes everyday things and activities intelligent with lots of fun, which links back to the project background ‘everyday things’. Actually, it takes time for people to learn something they’ve never used before, and it really depends on lots of things like age, culture, and habit. However, if a product is created based on people’s everyday things, then it is more easier for people to get used to it, and the acceptability of it might be higher than other products. Such as Smart phones, Intelligent watch, AI ring and glasses. They get into our daily life and change our behaviors without noticing us. We may never even know they are changing our life but they make lots of things easier, more convenient, and smarter than before. That is the most interesting and powerful part of HCI and Internet of Things.

So, how it could affect my idea? I think there are two parts. Firstly, my idea is a small machine with five emotion bars, and people can place any items on the bar that represents their current emotion, and users’ photos on the phone would be played again to retrieve their memories. Is it possible to integrate it into people’s life rather than using the ‘small machine’? like an App on IPad, Smart Cup, or Smart Shirt, something common in our life so that users would be easier to get fun with it and they are more easier to learn and accept it.

On the other hand, emotion adjusting is a common feature in both ideas. She links it to music, and I combine it with photos. However, she makes standing, walking, and even running much more funny and playable, but it is not that much playable and reasonable in my case.

Her idea: shoes -> walking, running -> different pace -> some people like to listen music while they are walking, running -> different music based on different pace -> the change of mood/emotion

My idea: photos -> different memories -> positive memories offset negative emotion -> place items to determine the emotion?

So, the problem is how to make it more playable and reasonable. It is better to links it back to people’s daily life.

Soldering Induction

On the other hand, the soldering induction session was completed this Tuesday. The basic information about connecting a LED device on a circuit board, components of the welding, and soldering were introduced to us, and we had a chance to build up a tiny LED device. It was quite interesting, and I have learned a number of things. For example, the connection of components should be clear and clean so that each component would not affect each other. Also, it might involve multiple teammates working on it together, so we need to make sure what we done would not confuse other teammates. In addition, failure could occur because of a subtle mistake, so checking the connection of each part frequently is necessary.

DIGPHOTO

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Description:

Most of us have photos on our smartphones. Based on Gigaom’s research (2015), each person has about 630 photos stored in smartphone, and people take 150 new photos and 6 videos during a given month. These photos contain a number of memories: touching moments, beautiful things, unpleasant fragments, and enjoyable stories. They record the past and present. However, how many of us would revisit the photos again we took few months or years ago? Actually, photos are helpful for people to recall their happiness memories (Rubin, 2013), and positive memories can reduce the risk of mental illness such as depression (Harmelen, 2019). So, what I want to do is to alleviate negative emotions by retrieving positive memories from photos in smartphone. I formed this idea called DigPhoto.

Assume that user’s photos in mobile device have been stored in this machine. As you can see on the bottom of the poster, it is a rectangular machine with a screen on the top where has five emotion bars. Each one of it has a corresponding colour and a name on the surface. Based on user’s current emotion, he/she can place any items such as coins on the corresponding emotion bar. The weight of the items placed on the bar determines the intensity of the emotion. For instance, if a user feels depressed, then he can place something he has on the bar with depression. After that, all emotion bars would be invisible, and based on the selected emotion and its intensity, the filtered photos/videos (e.g. pleasant moments) would be displayed on the screen, and trying to reduce the feeling of the negative emotion. When his/her emotion is getting stable, he/she can gradually take out the items, and the style of the photos/videos would tend to be more relax and stable. Finally, the screen will back to the initial state after remove all items on the bar, which means user’s emotion becomes stable.

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Research links:

https://gigaom.com/2015/01/23/personal-photos-videos-user-generated-content-statistics/

http://theconversation.com/recalling-happy-memories-can-reduce-depression-risk-in-vulnerable-teenagers-new-study-109742

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/photographs-can-boost-your-happinessb3210947

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/12-trillion-photos-to-be-taken-in-2017-thanks-to-smartphones-chart-2017-8?r=US&IR=T

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Poster:

Hi, my name is Zebing. This is my third year of information technology. I am taking user experience design and software design.

I took two DECO courses last semester, and I knew physical device building such as microcontroller and hand tools is one of important parts in user experience design. However, I am still unfamiliar with physical device building, so, I hope I have more chances to learn it in this course, and by the end of this semester, I hope I would form a basic knowledge of how it could be done/ implemented in different cases. Also, this course is the last course in user experience design, and it involves the implementation of all knowledge we have experienced/ learnt before, so, I take it as a challenge that to check whether I have formed a series of knowledge for the UX and UI design such as user research, investigation, prototype design, programming, testing, and evaluation. So, I hope I can figure out which part also need to be improved in order to achieve a strong foundation of this major. Last thing is to improve team cooperation/work. I hope I have more chances to interact with team members with different knowledge background and culture background.