150 days of learning on the CIIDpilot year! 15th September 2008-12th feburary 2009

Eilidh Dickson: Midway Exam, 12th Feburary 2009http://www.lovelearn.wordpress.com

actionscript, processing, brainstorming, scenarios, co-creation, arduino, metaphors, paradigm, mental model, affordances, data visualization, electronics, flash, physical computing, story telling, user testing, elderly people, rapid prototyping, experience prototyping, internet of things, networked objects, ubiquitous computing, team building, user driven design, body-storming, code, computational media design, concept development, design process, state diagram, flow diagram, design theory, user engagement, GUI, insights, interactive gestures, notation, observations, participant observations, cultural probes, physiology, product design, service design, social responsibility, software, user research, sustainability, systems, technology, touch-points, education, personal informatics, RFID, gestural interfaces, soldering, video prototyping, design hierarchy, laser cutting, gearing, cartoon house, mobile technology, play, digital data, sensors, TUI, user interface, UNdata, autonomy, need statement, storyboards, usability, functionality.

The start of

CIID

Another newadventure?

computationalmedia design

video prototyping

physicalcomputing

designtheory

userresearch

GUIdata

vizualizationTUIindustry projectIntel/DSB

servicedesign

Industry Project 2 Industry Visits thesis!!!!

computationalmedia design

video prototyping

physicalcomputing

designtheory

userresearch GUI data

vizualizationTUI

exceeded personal learning

expectations

didn’t learnanything new

technical and design skills

personal approach & development

Computational Media DesignBeing out of my comfort zone for the first block was great as it instantly challenged me and set my pace and expectations for the rest of the year.

Technically I gained a far deeper understanding than i had prior to starting the course. I can really appreciate how processing can be used for engaging screen based apps.

First week i had a steeper learning curve, when we were working on the interactive programs. The data collection exercise turned into more of a graphic design exercise, i think i would have technically gained more if i can chosen to continue working on the interactive programs. It was still fun making the flip books though!

Physical Computing‘Rock is the new swivel’ How can technology, which has been designed to heighten our efficiency and productivity facilitate break time. Via our prototype, the mundane everyday task of fetching coffee during a hectic schedule is transformed into an act of relaxation, a forced ‘quiet time’ that encourages you to use every coffee drinking opportunity to take a break, listen to some music, and simply chill.

This is acheived by networking a rocking chair to the coffee maker, only when you are rocking will the coffee start to brew!

Design TheoryApproach to the way i design, deepen my thinking about how someone percieves the experience and how they interact with it. Concentrating on the correct metaphors and mental models to use. Learning new mapping tools (state & flow diagrams) for systems and experiences, which i have used in every investigation since.

The cartoon house : learned a great tool to rapidly prototype ideas, narrating walkthroughs to trigger new thinking around technology and to tell stories/explain personas. Thinking about the whole experience, and the details that fit to

User ResearchAlthough i had used a wide range of research techniques it was great to have discussions with people from a diverse range of backgrounds to hear their views and other approaches. Doing research with elderly is something i have always been interested in, so it was great to have the opportunity to challenge this interest

This week was a massive personal challenge for me and a great learning experience. Engaging with people who had dimentia was really emotionally grueling and having a language barrier was frustrating as i couldn’t get as involved with the residents, but it is an issue that i will most likely have to deal with again.

“We are going to the Jungle not the Zoo”

GUI:designing for the elderly “Happy Mail”Our idea was based in the key insight, that recieiving a letter is a “wonderful experience” for an elderly person, checking their mail each morning is an important milestone of their day. As a group we felt it was a great shame that the elderly don’t benifit from the ease of communication through the internet like we do. So we set ourself the challenge of “how do you bring back the joy of receiving a letter in an email” We created this concept that strongly plays on the metaphor of recieving and sending letters. I loved that our idea was based on user research and that we had a hands on approach...building scenarios and prototypes, but the most valuable time was spent within the elderly homes, testing our ideas, this was vital to our outcome.

Looking back we should have tested our metaphors. We based them on wanting to use visuals that were familiar to the elderly person, where as far simpler basic icons/visuals might have been better.

GUI:data vizualization Before starting this course I was hugely daunted by it, but at the same time was intrigued by how you could make more of an impact with data that is normally quite visually boring, and make it fun and easy for someone to explore.

This course turned out to be what i feel us my biggest technical learning. By working with Sid who was at the same basic level of programming as me we really pushed each other to achieve our goals and learn at the same time.

During the project our sole focus was on the vizualisation, but looking back on it now i learned that i could have paid more attention to some of the more practical elements of the interface design, and the way people would interact with it, like we had learned in the previous GUI course.

TUI: ‘‘meet the food you eat”Our idea was an installation piece that took the form of a scale, that measured the environmental impact of a food product. This was calculated based on the CO2 emmsions produced during its transportation and then represented by the number of tree’s needed to offset these emmisions. The idea was inspired by the increase in RFID technology and the idea of everyday objects becoming networked, with untold amounts of information behind them. We wanted to take advantage of this technology and design something that would raise questions about the food we buy and the implications it has on our environment and society as a whole

Prototyping and user testing was vital to test the metaphor of the scale and check our direction.

We should have started prototyping earlier as initially we were over complicating and over intelligizing everything and ended up going round in circles!

When we started to prototype, we started progressing and soon swore by the saying “fail often fail early” At this stage wereally started to learn, from how to create the experience we wanted, to the affordances we needed to how to wire a motor to a driver board. We experienced a really broad learning process.

The open brief was great as we decided to choose something we were really passionate about, which in retrospect really helped me through the whole process, as when things wern’t going well, I was always driven by the determination of wanting to do well in something that meant a lot to me.

A big challenge for me was not having the initial starting point of user research, as this generally inspires my thinking, I soon accepted that we could base our idea on a very relevant and topical issue and opened up my eyes to a more experimental way of working rather than solely user driven.

Technically i gained a lot, some hands on, some knowledge on how to do things in the future. I realise this was faciliated by the nature of our design. The fact that we had to build a mechnical scale from scratch, with working gears and then add electronics to control it, challenged all of us. As a group we played to our natural strengths as we had a lot to acheive, but at the same time, we all had a grounded knowledge of everything that was going on across our concept and the building of the final prototype.

My Thesis is.......My golden ticket to learn who I am as a designer and to prepare myself for my future after CIID. It is an opportunity to explore a user group and context that will really challenge me intellectually and emotionally as a designer. I want my thesis to allow me to use my natural strengths of product design, service design, user engagement and prototyping, but also allow room for me to keep building on the technical skills that I have been gradually developing.

It is also hugely important to me that I give back to CIID and that my work will promote the correct ethos of the course. I feel extremely lucky to be part of the pilot year so naturally I want to do anything I can to help it succeed in the future!

I am inspired by......By the need to help people, bringing enjoyment to everyday experiences, even seeing someone smile. I strive to create solutions that will play an important and meaningful role in someone’s life.

I am interested in....An area that I am fascinated by and that i see to as an underlying theme throughout my project is…How do you enable people to reflect their identify and express themselves through the use of a service like they can by owning tangible products? How do you build a community around the people using a service and inspire others to be part of it. Essentially how do you create service envy?

(Below are more specific context areas I am interested in are)

Personal InformaticsIf people could access person information about their daily actions, and activities could it help them gain new perspective on the way they live. How can this practical information be communicated on an emotional level that would encourage people to change the way they live and the affect it has on society?

Elderly PeopleOur population is ageing, yet elderly people are still living in isolation. I am interested in how do you reconnect elderly people with their family and the community, help them make and maintain friends. How do you break the communication barrier between elderly people and younger generations and let them have “ageless”conversations rather than the typical “back in my day…”

Life Work BalanceWhen you are a workaholic who is in love with the work you do/your job (like me!) is there a danger of it affecting other areas of your life. How do you maintain a good life-work balance?

Education/Learning/ChildrenHow can interaction design help children to learn through play, tangible storytelling and creativity? How can we captivate their imagination to teach them about important social and environmental issues surrounding our society? as they are a generation that will have potential to make a difference.

Other User groups I’m interested inNurses, Elderly people (living on the own), grandparents, children in early stages of learning to read and write, primary school teachers, health conscious adults, Single Parents, diabetes sufferers, snowboarders, students studying abroad.

During my thesis I would like to challenge myself in…I want to challenge my design thinking, to a deeper and more emotional level. I want to continue my learning on the correct use of metaphors, affordances and appropriate use of technology that is friendly and makes sense to non-expert users. I will push myself to gain a more practical knowledge of electronics and programming. Where it is possible I will leave my comfort zone If it will have a positive effect on my learning and project experience.

Rapid prototyping of initial ideas through to building resolved final service touchpoints/products

scenario building,experience prototyping, video prototyping

service design tools: blueprinting, stakeholder mapping, customer/user journeys

design research methods: Cultural probes, observations,a day in the life.....etc

Ability to see the “big picture” of a user experience but also focus on the small details that fit together to

make it special

My lack of confidence in my

decision making

If i have to do more screen based

desgin (not a natural strength)

Programmingand electronics