isd ambience and atmosphere part 2

ARC8027 | Ambience and Atmospheres (Part 2) Newcastle University 02//2011

1 | UPDATE AND HOUSEKEEPING 2 | BEN SALEM: ACTIVE FORMS 3 | AMBIENCE AND ATMOSPHERES PART 2 4 | PROJECT: SITE ANALYSIS

UPDATE | HOUSEKEEPING

BLOG | Remember to Use Categories

BLOG |

BEN SALEM | Senior Lecturer in Experience Prototyping at Northumbria University School of Design

HOMEWORK | BEYOND AMBIENT COMPUTING

THEME 1 | SURFACE IN CONTEXT

THEME 2 | BEYOND THE VISUAL

THEME 3 | EMERGENT INTERACTIVITY

PROJECT | Site Analysis

GROUPS OF THREE

Look at the site like an interaction designer: As architects you are used to looking at spaces, observing people and how they interact with each other and the material world. As Interaction designers you will want to extend these skills. This week I want you to perform a site analysis of the Central Station and its surroundings - looking for interaction design opportunities.

Tip 1: Act like an ethnographer Imagine you are in an alien country (or perhaps alien world) and that you are observing strange ritual practices for the very first time. Take up positions in café or a bench and just watch. Take notes of what you see. Even things that seem routine or everyday can provide great insights. Don’t take anything for granted.

Tip 2: Look for slow and fast spaces Where do people pause or stop and where do they hurry. Where does the infrastructure create speed or stagnation. What sorts of interactions are appropriate in each context? Are there spaces which need speeding up or slowing down?

Tip 3: Look for slow and fast spaces The station and its surrounds are full of surfaces of different qualities and offering different opportunities. Some are mobile, some are static. Some are temporary and some are sacred (remember that parts of this site are listed). Which sites might offer opportunities for augmentation or enhancement. Which surfaces should be left.

Tip 4: Look for information spaces Where do sources of information collide with space. There are obvious places in the station like the departures board but what else is there. Where is information exchanged? Where do people gossip? Where do people people check their email? Where might information come from? Where might it become grounded?

Tip 5: Public and Private While the this new master plan is ostensibly about the public realm our use of technologies alters this relationship. We can be in an intensely private world whilst being on show. Think about ways in which you might map or understand when where and how people use there existing technologies. How much of this use is private and how much is public.

Next week: Bring plenty of notes, sketches, photographs, videos….and anything else you can think of. In this first design phase we will act as a single team and start to brainstorm our analysis and ideas.

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