This week we did our presentations of generated concepts and critiqued others in a positive and constructive manner. These presented concepts will then be used in week 3 to further generate ideas which groups will use for their overall assessment. There were a lot of good ideas presented, with some standing out as distinctive, creative or disturbing (Smoking Baby, although it probably didn't even have to be named) with the those I liked the most being;

• The Handshake door lock, for being super creative and a simple idea that could be applied in many other scenarios or attached to other concepts
• Thinker Painting, using texture is a simple idea with 3D spaces, yet it is unexplored or could be a whole new way of working with touch that hasn't been used yet
• Mort. Using a smart stuffed toy to teach alone is a great idea, but morse code is applied so well to the toy too in a smart manner that made it charming and creative
• Naomi, turning the mundane everyday sounds you hear into music sounds both fun and creative and is something i'd be interested in doing

Written Critiques

After the presentations, both on Tuesday and Wednesday, most students attended one of the inductions, whereas the rest stayed behind to sort the presented concepts into themes. Given that I had previously completed all my inductions, I attended both the Tuesday and Wednesday theme sorting sessions.

During these sessions, we used post-it notes to write down possible themes and what ideas could fit under that theme. I expected most of the categories we generated throughout this session, as some are repeated in other courses as well, such as Sustainability, Social, Health, Learning etc. See images of my post-it contributions for Tuesday here.

While some people kept on writing post-it notes and other people just stood around talking, a group of us started to put it all down on butcher’s papers. I took on the responsibility of writing down the themes that emerged when some of the other’s brought in the notes. We put the post-its down side-by-side and discussed which ones to combine to form broader themes to place on the paper. At the end of Tuesday’s session, we ended up with the themes: Emotion, Health, Learning, Change, Stress, Game, Music, Accessibility, Fitness, Physical, Negative Reinforcement, Smart, and Sustainability.

As for Wednesday, we started off doing the same as with Tuesday’s session, writing down themes that the new presentations could fit into. However, this time around, I tried to form more specific categories than the previous day, as we had to split up the broader themes to form more specific ones. After having done so, we started to collect the themes on butcher’s paper as we did the day before. This time around, I focused more on creating new themes rather than sorting through them on the butcher’s paper as I did the day before.

Following this, we started breaking apart broader themes to create even more specific categories. Here too, I took the job of writing on one of the boards. A couple of us discussed through the various themes from the butcher’s papers and how we could break them apart or make them more specific. The themes we ended up with was: Negative Reinforcement, Sustainable Visualisation, Negative Reinforcement for Behaviour Change, Supportive Fitness, Technolgy for Security, Bothersome Tech, Shadow as Input, Promoting Social Interaction, Social Awkwardness, Emotion as Input, Technology for Conative skills, and Centering Emotion. I believe the lecturer came up with the last one, Life Beautification.

Looking back to the presentations, I would say that the general level of concepts pitched was superb. It was interesting to see all the different ideas people had come up with being presented, and I have to say that most of them were delivered understandably and comprehensively. Moreover, only a few, in my eyes, did not meet the criteria of being a novel, playful everyday interaction.

As for my presentation, I believe I was able to convey the concept both through the pitch, poster and blog entry. With that said, I would have liked to simplify the idea to more easily be able to communicate the concept given its complexity at the time I presented it. I did find it a bit confusing what the poster was supposed to include as the brief didn't specify it and there were some contradictions as to whether it should be a simple sketch or a fully-fledged poster, so I tried to go somewhere in the middle. I wouldn't change my idea much based on what I saw, but it would be nice to specify a use case to focus on as screens with touch functionality is a vast field.

Although many concepts were interesting, I didn't get much excited by anyone project as many were quite vague. If I were to pick a couple of ideas that I found most appealing, I would choose either Artificial Conscience, the smart wardrobe concept pitched on Tuesday, or the Chroma concept which teaches colour theory.

Work Done

In Week 2 I practiced my pitch and printed my poster out. I also provided critiques for my peers for their project pitches.

On Tuesday afternoon I completed the soldering induction where we learned the safety protocol for handling the soldering irons and practiced making a circuit with a battery, a switch, LED and a resistor. I previously had experience with using breadboards from CSSE2010 and DECO2300 but I was very confused about how to incorporate the switch into the circuit. Luckily the tutors were really helpful and I got to help my peers after I managed to figure mine out so it worked out in the end.

After the pitches were given, we brainstormed the themes that were salient amongst the concepts and listed the relevant concepts underneath the name of the theme we came up with. Throughout the pitches I noticed a lot of shadow concepts, music concepts, and environmental concepts.

After this process, we then tried to think of more niche theme names that would give 11-20 themes. Then we gathered the posters to place them under those themes. A lot of people had to attend other classes afterwards but I did my best to locate the majority of the concepts mentioned in the themes. I think there were around 10 posters left on the table when I had to leave.

How it relates

With printing the poster, I made sure it was ready to print before Sunday so I wasn't pressured for time about how long it might take to print or where I would print at. I like that I managed my time well with this and I hope this continues on in the semester.

The soldering induction was useful because it is likely that my team would use the soldering iron at least once in the semester. It was also really cool to see the soldering wire drip onto the board. I have an arduino kit in my possession too, so it was good to have a bit of a refresher on circuits/batteries and stuff.

Giving peer critiques is always helpful, not only for my peers but to help me hone my soft skills of communication. This has been pretty useful with the graduate application season!

The theming will be used for the World Cafe activity next week.

Work To Do

For Week 3, I need to go and get my acrylic cube glued up and also glue the light to the switch panel. I have completed all of the induction sessions and I'm anticipating a lot of discussion due to the world cafe activity happening next week.

I also want to comb through the feedback left for my concept. I read a couple of comments during the theming phase that were sticky-noted onto my poster but I plan to read through the critiques tomorrow (Monday) before the world cafe activity.

Work That Inspired/Interested Me

Design Society UQ had its first event of the year on Friday. We had Matt Luscombe, Stephen Viller, Peter Worthy, Momoka M-Park and Kyra(?) on a Q&A panel and it was just very reassuring to hear that uncertainty is inevitable but finding comfort in that uncertainty also develops over time. The non-UQ staff people had just recently graduated so it was nice to hear that they are living their best lives and hopefully I can also do the same when I graduate. I gained a lot of helpful advice that included stuff like how to market yourself as really employable, the great aspects of the UXDes major that are unique to the major, and made more friends. I highly recommend joining the society (although I may be a bit biased since I am the secretary). I also liked that they all recognised how much design covers and that it's not just one niche field.

In Class

This week, we had our 2-minute Project Inspiration Presentations in class. I had fun listening to everyone presenting as it was interesting to see silly and quirky ideas that I would never have thought of. I thought that it was nice to limit them to short 2-minute presentations because if it was longer, we would have all gotten bored.

We also had critique sheets to write down our opinions and comments for everyone's presentation. It did a good job keeping me focused on the presentations and made me reflect on each idea.

Inductions

I had both the Soldering 101 Induction and the 78-207 Space Induction this week.

It was my first time soldering. I was fine following the diagram to connect all the parts to the breadboard as I already learned this in DECO7230. However, for soldering, I had more trouble. I had to position everything properly to be able to fit it in the box. Positioning the switch on the other side, the height for the LED and the distance between each part to make soldering easier. I also had to use wires to connect to the battery as there were not enough battery holders for everybody.

After soldering everything, I showed it to Ben and we found out that the LED is always on even if I switch it off. This was because the solder was all touching each other. I had to separate it all and made a mess to make it work.

The Work Done:

This week was quite big and required a bit of thinking to get my first ideation inspiration out. I sat down on the weekend and really did some brainstorming on different topics, concepts, technologies and what products are out there already. I attached a few of my mind maps to the first concept post, so that can be viewed there.

This week I also finished the bulk of my inductions completing the soldering and space induction. I have now completed my box and light and it has come together quite nicely.

How it Relates:

I had my pitch presentation on Tuesday morning, and I think it went alright. My concept was quite different to others and it received some mixed feedback when going through the critiques. Some things I did not take into account the concept of promoting violence and hitting. I saw it more as a fun, playful interaction as the Smash Rooms were quite cool to look at. But maybe the age group we are designing for this may not be a thing. Below are some of the critiques I made.

I participated in the theming session on Tuesday. It was quite interesting to see that alot of the themes that came out of the exercise were stress, mental health, education and overall wellness. I guess these are HOT topics in today's society and are very important for overall happiness.

Work to Do:

Over the weekend and before next week’s session I am going to think about some pitches that stood out to me and how I can turn them into a cool project idea. I think this will help me go into next week's World Cafe session.

Work that Inspired/Interested Me:

This art installation inspired me this week. I came across it on my Pinterest feed. Its called “Giant Lite Brite For School Project Gallery”. It's a really cool installation that uses different coloured light on a massive wall to create imagery and artwork. It's made of acrylic and it is quite easy to make. I think it would be really cool to see this incorporated into one of the colour theme inspiration concepts. It has physically movable pieces and intereactions. It can be used to show emotion or encourage play. Could even be used to educate colour theory as one of the pitch’s this week mention that.

Relfection

In today's session, we were inspired by other ideas presented to us by fellow peers. Although each presentation was succinct, most who presented today conveyed their ideas and concepts with clarity.

I noticed a trend in ideas whereby emotions, shoes and music were hot topics regarding individual concepts.

Tasks completed in the session

Feedback

It was very useful and effective in completing these critique forms as each student presented. This was an effective way to ensure we were engaging in the presentation and also providing an opportunity to provide valuable feedback.

Idea Explanation

Concept - SMART BEDROOM

Utilising the most recent AI and heat-mapping technology, it will allow the SMART BEDROOM to map emotions in the body.

The bedroom will respond to the human’s emotion accordingly. Responses by the AI incorporate all 5 senses to help better the emotion/situation.

CONTEXT OF USE: Retirement Home - BEDROOM

Motivation

In today’s society, there is a constant battle to help those who are battling with mental health, and in particular the emotions of the elderly and children. In today’s society, there is a contestant emphasis on ensuring the quality of life and healthy personal well-begin.

Emotions originate in the brain but can manifest as physical feelings throughout the body. Given the demographic, accessibility and university access is a major factor to consider. As a result, this does not require conscious human interaction, rather the AI will detect and action accordingly.

Affective computing is an essential part of current HCI. This technology allows for automated human affective behaviour recognition. This type of recognition is provided by means of the capture and analysis of implicit information about the user, such as vocal and facial changes, alterations of body movements and gestures, and so on. Recognition of affective behaviour is a part of effective interaction where a computer approaches the emotion, mood, attitude and personal preferences of the person. Adding the ability of emotional intelligence to computers makes them more coherent to the humans who interact with them. Light and colour are omnipresent environmental factors which influence the human being.

Light and colour are ubiquitous environmental factors which have an influence on the human being. Hence, light and colour issues have to be considered especially significant in HCI and fundamental in affective computing. Affective computing aims to integrate issues dealing with emotions and computers.

Inspiration

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Smart Kitchen

A3 Sketch of Concept

Description of Idea

Cooking in the kitchen can be a mess of preparation and multitasking, getting everything you need from every nooks and cranny, hiding in the shelves, cupboards and racks. The Smart Kitchen is a simplified and streamlined experience where everything that you would use in the kitchen is both compacted into a manageable work-space while also being put online and able to respond to your beck and call.

This project incorporates all kitchen appliances and drawers into a compact system which extends from the main body, opening doors or sliding out a bench-top, allowing proper work-space when in use and neat storage when packed away. The whole system is online and voice activated, allowing users to call for their oven, microwave or a spoon and the system opens and even operates the selected command. This will be paired with an app for remote capabilities incorporating features such as:

• Saving or Creating presets for certain meals or functions, like a Ramen Setting, Morning Coffee, Nanna's Cake or more
• Editing or creating commands which will open the set drawers, benches, and spices while pre-heating the oven, warming the hotplate and any other simple task, all of which can be added to the presets created
• Voice command edits or changes for custom lines that suit users tasks or to have fun saying catchphrases like 'set lasers to stun' to start the microwave at 50% power
• Upload or download other's presets for recipes to make finding a favorite meal even easier

This will make users interact with their kitchen in different ways which they find most useful and fun, while condensing the usually large room of a house, making way for more compact designs needed on watercraft, spacecraft or even city apartment blocks in the future.

Links to Concept Inspiration

• Minimalist Shows trying to remove clutter and unnecessary things in homes, for example; Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on Netflix
• Bruce Willis' apartment in the movie 'The Fifth Element' was a major inspiration for storage with a bed that slides into the wall, and a fridge/shower/cupboard swapping section. This is the best link I found to show some of this off:
  .
• Rotating Car garages which move cars around onto different floors and when asked will retrieve the cars
• Adjustable Desks where the height can be changed to suit the user

See the concept poster here: Actuated Pixels.pdf

Actuated pixels' (AP) takes on the sci-fi concept of Iron Man's floating holograms and glass-based touch screens and combines them with recent prototypes in haptic interaction, such as the inForce concept developed by the Tangible Media Lab.

A noticeable issue with modern touch technology that sci-fi often don't have is the ability to reach out and touch the information in front of their person. Looking to our everyday life technology, it is mostly limited to flat 2D screens that offer little to none sense of physical realism upon touching the pixels on the screen. This issue is ever more present for vision-impaired or blind users who require additional assistive software such as speech interfaces to interact with the same technology most of us see as integral to our everyday life.

AP makes use of micro-actuators that pushes on a flexible screen to create an elevated area where its digital counterpart is located, such as text, braille (text for visually impaired users) or a button, allowing the user to see and touch the element simultaneously. In this way, developers can elevate their design to include how users not only see their front-end but also how the information should feel like on touch. With that said, AP's technology is not limited to screens only as it could easily be repurposed into other areas such as sensing electric wiring in walls or handheld devices allowing blind people to navigate streets more easily.

The playfulness of AP comes from the added dimension of sensing information using your fingertips and through allowing digitally generated physical representations that take shape of interface metaphors that are familiar to the user. AP can allow for a novel way of interacting with information that may very well become the new normal for a wide range of users.