Week 9: PRESENTATION + Concept Rejection

Below Is Our Presentation for Week 9:

These show our Product - Scenario - Interaction and how we plan to integrate all three.

Product: A Self Organiser which helps works communicate with superiors and manage tasks
Interaction:
Scenario: A highly structured highly

How we percieved "sensing the news": Simply the transfer of information in a hierarchical manner, from a manager to staff.

Feedback:

Tutors and LifeTec experts believed that the Scenario and Product were satisfactory and were ready for product. However, it was believed we lacking in the interaction element. The product interaction was believed to be too complicated and lacked a solid interaction. This will be sorted out for concept approval after/during the mid semester break.


In the tutorial, we deliberated and tried to consider another concept for approval, in order to proceed with construction planning. However, the idea was half-baked, rushed and sloppy

Week 8: Our Concept Moving Forward and Building a Presentation

Week 8 involved an explanation and understanding of Interaction Design by Lecturer Jared Donovan. A leader in Gestural and User Experience Design who outlined some key Theory on Two Types of Interaction, Semantic and Action-Centred Design Approaches.

Semantics involves physical representations of concepts, interactions or information. These physical representations can be manipulated and moved around. The gestures however, are minimal, the users movements and actions generally dont inform or influence the interaction. Also, from examples seen, many values with an the interaction produce discrete responses. For example, the most things are either "On" or "Off", this is due to the aforementioned lack of human interaction which is naturally varied

Examples of Semantic Design:

1. Music Cube:
As can be seen below the small balls are physical representations of a musical note. This icon is arbitrary and when it is placed at certain point above the air pressure device, it creates a certain note. The value of the interaction is discrete and does not respond to specific behaviour of a user.

An Action Centred approach, on the other hand is based within the physical. The interaction with the product is based on how the user moves. Unlike Semantic Interactions which are based in a physical representation.

1. The LightRail

As opposed to the previous semantic designs,  the light rail  is the oppositie. Overall, it is a great example of action centred design. The project effortless creates a dialogue, a system of interaction and feedback, with the user. As the dancer moves, the lightrail responds to her touch. Values are not discrete as the level of light output as well as the location of the light depend subtle interactions with the user. Finally, the user themselves is the key input into the interaction. Rather than a arbitrary icon, the design is operated by the user. As you can see, it responds to her movements

2. Zygote Interactive Music Ball

http://vimeo.com/802394

Note: this video may not work on final blog post. Please Follow link above for the original source.

The Zygote Interactive music ball is, I believe, another example of an action-centred interaction design. The ball responds to the natural human movements of the user as people play with device in a giant crowd. The ball facilitates an expression of human emotions through the concert. Once again, the human touch is the input on the interaction and the device responds to continuous data from the user

However, what I find fascinating is that this design does not simply react and interact with one user. On the contrary, the design is a tool which facilitates interaction with a whole crowd of people. Also, the product facilitates interaction between a crowd AND performer/main event. Personally, this really opened my eyes to the potential scale of interaction design. Previously, I believe I had got stuck in the way I was thinking about a one on one, person to product interaction. This design creates an interaction from one product to a variety of different people.



Group Concept Development:

At Present, we are still grappling with creating and resolving the "Triad" of design elements for this project. We have a hierarchical communication tool which is used to translate information from a manager/superior to an employee.

Some group concept sketches can be seen here

However, what I'm finding difficult to process is that anything we come up with in this present context already exists in a better way out in the world. I believe that we are going to have to rethink our context and solutions in the future.

Week 7: Semester Project Progression and Preparation for Week 9 Presentation

An Analysis of Universal Design and Interaction Design

After visiting LifeTec, it became paramount to consider Universal Design in the overall design and application of Interaction Design. This became obvious to myself when I looked into gestural design. Much like most design work, if some people become excluded by the application of gestural design, the design is inherently flawed. However, at the same time, gestural design, as opposed to traditional product design, I believe this concept is quite difficult. This is because gestural design, from what I understand, is heavily rooted in a specific context. This is so the specific gestures have meaning are work within the context.

An Example of Universal Design and Interaction Design Working Together....
From what little knowledge of interaction and universal design I have as an undergraduate, I believe that the two would best work together when there is as little physical interaction as possible. This would allow for less needed consideration of physical ergonomics as opposed to a heavy physical interaction product. Also, another option is to try to reduce the amount of physical movement involved in the interaction, however, this also produces it owns potienital problems. For example, if a gestural interaction becomes so small and minute to accommodate a physical disability, it could be easily misinterpreted or unintensionally used by everyone. The gesture could also lose its meaning within the context.

I Believe When you lose this physical barrier, the interaction has the potienital to become universal.

This is think is demonstrated in the concept above. Although the Interaction is relatively innocuous, the user only needs to physically move around the space. No fine motor skills or fine manipulation of objects is required, the person only needs to view and move. The user also recieves instand feedback




And An Example of it not.... 
I'm finding it difficult to find a failed experiment of interaction and universal design. As I have already mentioned many times, I think the blending of the two is quite difficult and will only work in a specific context with specific users.


Interaction Design and Universal Design: Accommodating a Mental Disability 
After Thinking and Researching for information on the topic, I've found it difficult to find resources of the application of interaction design and mental disabilities. Potientially, I think that enhanced physical interaction would be beneficial as people with mental disabilities may be able to psychically modify interactive devices as opposed to relying on a mental model

Week 7: Lifetec Exploration and Thoughts

Through Week 7, the design team and class attended LifeTec solutions for an exploration of universally designed products with a particular focus of the human interaction with each design solution.

This exploration was brilliant. It allowed for clear and undiluted use of devices that rely on obvious physical manipulation.  This will help in the design of our interaction design project.

As can be seen in the pictures below, by simply playing with objects around LifeTec, we were able to see interaction in the flesh, and get realistic ideas of just what we could do as well as how you could use devices..

LifeTec Home Page



LifeTec Activity:
At LifeTec, we were asked to contribute on a interesting design activity which aimed to explore these universally designed products, yet at the same time, help us understand and explore interaction strategies. The task involved taking a well designed assistance device available in the LifeTec and redesigning it, with the aim of making it better (i.e. adding features and functionality) and improving the interaction element.

What We Did and Our End Result:
The product we had to redesign was a Homecraft Claw Reacher, an assistive device which is designed to help users reach, pull, twist and otherwise manipulate objects. The device is to be used in a variety of situations, in a variety of contexts.

Homecraft Claw Reacher

Our Redesign:

Our Redesign 

Our redesign involved taking the concept of "universal design" to the next level. We envisaged a claw that would ensure that everyone could use this product, regardless of many disabilities. This is best shown, by analysing the current design. By looking above, it is pretty obvious what this product does. The person simply holds the claw and by squeezing the handle, you can grip and release objects.

However, this movement requires a relative amount of physical strength and dexterity in the hand, but at the same time movement and strength through the arm, shoulder and back. We thought, how could someone accomplish these tasks while having even less or no mobility? (i.e. even more restrictions on a persons mobility). Also, at the same time, we thought how could we also enhance existing interactions and add features/functionality. 

We believed we accomplished this by adding new technology into the device. The device would be operated electronically and mechanically without the need for any physical strength to help pick things up. The interaction would also ensure a perfect and solid grip on a product. The product could also rotate and manipulate objects on several different axises. This would allow for the completion of more complex, specifics and exact tasks.


Other Team Members Work:

As you can see, other group members also enhanced and focused on the functionality of the product, while also incorporating elements of our interaction design studies into these ideas. An Interesting example included the "medical reminder system" which included an LED indicators and other interactive elements which improved the design.

Week 6: Reflection and Some Interaction Design Concepts

After Beginning the semester project, I thought it was important to investigate and understand several key concept related to said project. These include the concept of sensing the news as well as understand gesture controlled interactions. The following Blog post hopes to show some of my exploration into the topic.

1. Children's Intuitive Actions
Before we get too far into it, this research is an older study, some details may be out of date. However, what makes this topic great is the concepts and themes that it covers.

The study itself shows how to go about synthesising qualitative data from potential users and turn it a standardised tangible interaction. This is shown below

This shows how the children have a common understanding of a particular interactions. Once the common understanding is gathered, the interaction within the video game can be created. This process of understanding interactions and synthesising them into a product is a good example of how to achieve this product. 

2. A Research Paper into the Topic

Gesture-controlled user interfaces, what have we done? and what's next? 

by Moniruzzaman Bhuiyan and Rich Picking

This document helps outline what advances have been made in the history of guesture-based interaction design, but more importantly, what research and advancement needs to be done next. 

The article itself, is critical on the research and development on gesture design so far. They authors believe that too much focus has been based on hand and head gestural interactions as apposed to the myriad of other behaviours and motions humans generally make. 

The article also says that research into gestural interaction in the past was focused on generic users. However, it complimented that research was moving further into accessibility and enabling easier use for those who need it. This universal design principle is allows suitable interaction for everyone!

3. Example: Gesture  CubeAs this project centres on the topic of gestural  interaction, I though it would be interesting to investigate a project out there that claims to be leader in gestural interaction.

My first opinion of this product is the use of mapping and understanding gestures in three dimensional space. This, I believe, will enable a better "interactive quality, as interaction data is transmitted in a continuous way, rather than a discrete or On/Off Manner. 

Secondly, I believe this product is well designed to help in the transition from standard to gestural interfaces. I think this works well because the product is designed as a box, with interfaces on all side. The fact that this product is a tangible object that sits in obvious three-dimensional space, intuitively suggests interaction. This is in comparison to several other concepts out there. which just use camera technology and interaction with the user from one side. 

This is also displayed through when the user flips through pages on the Gesture Cube. The user had to lift the "pages" up and across in space, while some gestures include a rather less intuitive swipe across a interface, which can be confused when performing other interactions. 

Thirdly, the product is will be successful as, from what I can, it is a well designed product. The product doesn't lose usability and features for sake of interaction. Eg. how the cube locks when you pick it up. 

4. An Example of A Company Using These technologies at Present.
Mechdyne:

Mechdyne represent a company currently producing real interactive design solutions.

These include a variety of 3D and 2D walls, portable options and tiled electronic walls. These interactive displays may not be perfect, but they're real proven concepts. These are controlled through gestural interactions. 

Week 6: Concept Bombs and Explanation.

As a group, we undertook a "Concept Bomb Session"

Individual Bomb 1:

Concept Bomb One related to the idea of shopping and remembering cool or interesting products that you might see in store. The concept is a wristband which interacts with an RFID chip in product packaging. The device is to serve as a reminder when you go to a store and see something interesting yet cant buy it instantly. You can log what the product is, where it is, how much it is as well as check if its still in the store (i.e. has it been bought yet). Companies can also use the data, to see if people log in yet dont buy an item to help improve marketing activities and sales techniques. This concept hopes to take advantage of natural hand behaviours in the collection of data. 

Individual Bomb 2:

Concept Bomb Two centred on the idea of constant communication between people. What I tried to do was design an interaction between two people which allowed the feeling of emotion across spaces. The device included a fairly futuristic idea. When one users presses a button which represents the sending of a "hug", the other feels warm heat run through a shirt to simulate the hug. Ridiculous, Stupid, but was trying to be something different. 

Individual Bomb 3:

The Final Concept Bomb was a message delivery system for a hierarchical workspace. The phyiscal interaction involved a "manager" who could phycially "pick up" digital files from workers and the beginning of each morning. This design aimed to facilitate human interaction between workers for a healthier and happier workplace.

Groups Efforts:
As can be seen below, all other group members produced concepts. We used these to come up with our draft scenario, product and interaction.

Team Members Hard at Work...

Moving Forward and Where we are going:
At the end of the concept bomb session, the group decided on a combination of Phillip's and my own concepts. This combination will be based around the scenario and product of Phil, while my design will contribute to the interaction element.

We device will be an organisational tool, capable of showing a timeline/countdown time till the end or due date/time of a task, with the "news" being simply the transmission and reception of information. The device will alert the user at increasingly regular intervals during the task to help keep the user on track. The scenario will be a highly hierarchical office context. At this point, information will be presented through collections of LED lights.