Thesis: Vernacular Interfaces

outside advisors

i've contacted Sigi Moeslinger who will be my outside advisor in the experience design arena. i want to have a more substantial prototype before meeting with her.
i have also approached Amit Pitaru who is my instructor in Code and Me. i am using Processing for the visualization portion of my thesis project and besides asking for technical assistance, i am also requesting his feedback from a designer's point of view. yesterday, i met with Amit and got some advice on how to proceed. Processing is a tool that is used to make java applets using more simplified coding methods. it is more intuitive to use for artists.

prototype: using processing

i have decided to use processing for the digitized visuals of this project.
a sequence of images that will be shown from one illustration using processing.
scenario: user grinds mortar and pestle to achieve a clear view of illustration.

using 'china series' as a platform

the feedback i got in class yesterday was mixed. i felt that most classmates got a better sense of what i'm trying to achieve. i have narrowed my focus but eric says i have to provide yet more context. so what am i trying to do here? i have continual iterations in my head but i feel i can only prototype bits and parts. prototype. prototype. i am anxious about doing the physical computing part which i have not yet begun to tackle beyond getting the basic parts that i anticipate needing. (pic chips, an accelerometer, a fsr, touch sensors). however, i don't feel quite ready to do that technical part yet. more important is to design the experience. what i did for the presentation was not the best prototype i could come up with but it was all i could produce considering that i was thinking and rethinking what my thesis should eventually become. i've been contextualizing. i spent one summer studying vernacular architecture in china and work from that period or based on that time are simply part of the "china series". one's work is often based on life experiences. so often we hear "my work is my life" or someone's life's work. this is a short part of my life experiences but one that left a deep impression and one in which i was artistic. i would like to depict the inspiration for my work. i want to do this through objects native to that region or else ones that compel the type of primitive human interactions that have been performed for centuries. using people's natural instincts to touch as well as intuition about historical objects, i want to create an experience where they develop an awareness about that region of China (Yunnan) while consciously exploring or using this vernacular interface. besides being the birthplace of my ancestors, the region i studied evokes elements of a simple life. it is rustic. the objects i select are more real than the digital devices that engulf us in modern society. in my mind, i recall images of villagers's routines...all of it terrifically tactile:

-the woman who goes through life with a load tied around her head.
-old musicians who play ancient chinese instruments
-mahjong - the fluid motion of hands over tiles.."washing" them before stacking
-the women washing clothes in the river
-the woman chasing after us, urging us to touch her fabrics for sale
-the run-down house with a mortar and pestle in the kitchen for grinding up herbs/medicines made of stone from that region, Dali....
the Birds and Flowers Market where many reproductions are sold.
(the first of several vernacular objects to explore)

and on and on...

it is through this experiment that i also want to explore how emotional and cognitive design experiences go hand in hand. these behaviours are reflective by nature. do they generate emotions and an implicit understanding simply by the process of going through the motions?

thesis prototype 2

what?

my initial prototype is based on the idea of 'mortar and pestle'. a primitive tactile action by the user on a vernacular object in which the force generated by the grinding evokes images from a period of my work in china. work consists of photography and illustrations.

a very basic representation of what this mechanism will accomplish

contextualizing

after meeting with eric one on one on sunday, i realize that i need to contextualize my thesis even deeper. yes, this "thing" i'm endeavoring will be a tactile entity. it may even be a series of things but if they don't have a meaningful association, then what is the point? eric gave some ideas for me to ponder. after much deliberation over the long weekend, i think most interesting would be to think of this for a gallery space. building an environment that is self-contained in which the viewer manipulates an object to evoke some images of select work will be an interesting challenge. i already mentioned that i was inspired by mariko mori's wave exhibit. i love intimate spaces that take you away to another "world" while allowing you to be a subtle contributor of that space. so my thesis has grown and developed into a rather different beast. it is tamer and i'm glad. i've decided to take some work i have done during a very personal and meaningful period in my academic life as a subject matter (although a totally different body of work could have been used). it is not this work that my thesis will be focusing on but rather how the user interacts with certain objects that brings up these images from my history.

i haven't begun to really prototype yet.

emotional design

"i feel". i think that's the best way to describe it. intuition is in my nature.

right now i'm reading "Emotional Design" by Donald Norman which i feel is a tremendous book for designers.

the social psychology of objects

interesting writing/work by Hugh Miller

The Social Psychology of Objects

"People use objects to communicate. This is covered by the traditional 'non-body' aspects of non-verbal communication, and also, in a slightly different way, by dramaturgical theorists like Goffman (1959). People use objects to establish meanings about themselves and their lives This is the area that Dittmar (1992) discusses, and also Csikszentmihalyi (1991), though Csikszentmihalyi is also making the point that meaning and 'artistic quality' of objects derive from the choices people make - the 'social construction of visual values' (p.33). "

back on track

ok, so the previous post was a bit of a fluke. an extraneous thought. i'm back on track as to what i really want to explore here. i want to write them down so i can look back each time i get distracted again...

interests:
~rapid design through physical and virtual prototyping
as an undergrad i did some research in this area and want to continue. i helped design a children's exhibit that taught how mechanisms work. i discovered a knack and appreciation for intuitively understanding how people experience things.
~psychology of things and how people relate to objects
~sense of touch
~smart/sensual materials
~getting to know someone through their work by physically feeling around in their curriculum vitae - if work defines who we are in some way...we are respecting others' work if we give it more attention

the environment

it occurred to me today that a cool installation would be to show the number of superfund sites in the U.S. this after remembering that a colleague is doing environmental representation for her thesis. having studied environmental engineering a bit in college, there's a part of me that would like to still be involved in the practical and useful work in the world. i'd like to make people aware that there are still many acres of "brown" sites that need to be cleaned up for future generations. so is what i'm doing too frivolous?

superfund sites by state

even tech needs a rest

i was recently accused of not being a geeky techie like most people at ITP. no, i don't talk excessively about computers. and it's odd because i came from one of the most technical schools in the country. yes, i'm all for advancement, technology and innovation, but my disposition leans towards the vernacular. one of the reasons i chose to design a new user interface is because "touch" matters alot to me. i'm very sensitive to it as i suppose many people are. even though i possess the sense of sight, sometimes i'd rather feel my way around in darkness because i like the recognization of an object through touch. everything is transient and i guess part of exploring the depth of an object is also knowing that it helps to trigger a memory because you have a physical attachment to that moment in time.

a touchy feely day

i spent the day looking at and touching stuff - deciding what i like, what i don't like and what i think will work in relation to my project. in this experience economy, i also looked at stores in soho that project an inviting ambience.

i heard about this spa a while ago because of it's innovative interior design. Frog Design created a video installation that used water ripples to reflect people as they walk across the room. the entire theme of the space was based on 'feng shui' - one of my favorite subjects. amorepacific.
for some reason, i was reminded of mariko mori's waveUFO installation which i saw this past summer.

some other stores i visited: DOM, KidRobot, Enchanted Forest (of touchable toys)

many things (that are interesting to me) have smooth contours and grooves or involves sticking something into something else.

more exploration of touchable things. for a tactile experience, head to chinatown. i know i want my interface to have curves instead of being blocking which seems like the natural shape for hands. one thing interesting that i saw was a blind man (who else relies more on the sense of touch?) who had a stick. at the end of the stick was a ball and he rolled it along the ground to feel his way along the crowded sidewalk. up until now, i have only seen regular sticks that are used by tapping up and down, left and right.

exploration of color and texture. lots of yarn at Purl, a knitting shop on Sullivan St. i like activities like knitting and arts and crafts for its sensual nature. i hit a few fabric stores that were uninspiring. i'm also looking at beads for its natural ability to attract touch. i think about rosary beads that are used by certain religions. in buddhism, some beads are made out of a type of wood such that the more they are fingered while saying prayers, the faster they turn a subtle shade of red.

"my heart is in the work"

this quote by andrew carnegie is the motto of my alma mater.
and it's something that i think everyone should aim for and hopefully be fortunate enough to achieve.
i think this is somewhat the base of my project in its simplest form.
when you're doing work that you are so absorbed in.. when you have the "flow"... when you are so passionate about your work that it becomes akin to meditation. it is the product of this energy that i would like to show and compel the viewer of your work to have a higher level of involvement. effort in seeing efforts. at the end of it all, my hope is that my heart is in this work.

some research materials i'm looking at:
-"Designing Pleasurable Products: An Introduction to the New Human Factors"
Patrick W. Jordan

-"Emotional Design: Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things"
Donald A. Norman

-"Material and Design:
Michael Ashby and Kara Johnson

thesis pieces

today in the thesis seminar as we discussed each project in more detail, i talked about the form of my product. it's still not absolutely defined but i have some basic criteria in mind. i was reminded that kentaro started off with a rubik's cube idea as well. i remember seeing him work on it at the start of last spring and told him that i've always wanted to do something similar. to understand my obsession with the rubik's cube, you have to go back to my portfolio coming into itp. i basically used a 3d model of one as an interface that animates while taking the viewer through different aspects of my work history. i've gotten good feedback on it and that was my initial thought for a physical prototype. but now i realize it wasn't a good idea after all. it might be easy enough to find java code for the visual portion, but to make the physical computing part would have been a nightmare. and i wouldn't even know where to begin to make it so that each face of the cube, when completed, would produce a new visual on the screen. instinctively, i had already decided to go with a more organic or as eric puts it, "holistic", approach. i want the users to be able to use this while seeing someone's work and not be so engrossed in the actual puzzle itself, that they forget what the point is. the way i see it now, i have three big challenges to contend with and lots of research to do:

1) materials and product design
what should the look and feel be so that someone can hold this object and in essence, stroke it, explore it in such a way that doesn't distract from the work being presented on a screen?

2) fluid interface
how do i present the software in such a way that it's not so stiff and linear in showing the work?

3) purpose
how do i show that the two, when integrated and communicating with each other, provide a deeper sense of understanding about that person to the user?

is this even necessary? a thesis is a proposal and often i have already begun wondering if others feel a need for this. isn't popping in a cd or dvd enough?
should i go beyond and look at the entire experience? perhaps the room where this is taking place? i listen to what others in class talk about and everyone's idea is so different. mine doesn't have strong political convictions behind it, or years of thought about the topic. i could have easily selected some other things i am interested in but i chose this one because i know it will allow me to work on the most subjects that i like and will have most fun doing and address something that we all can identify with. as we graduate from itp and begin sending out resumes, i wonder if most of them will just get a cursory glance. my target audience is art/design professionals so typically they will look at portfolio of some sort in a digital format. would a physical interface help in that process or hinder it? in developing an interface for looking at personal history, perhaps i should go beyond work history and incorporate others...family history?

brainstorming

i've been doing alot of thinking about the object in my TUI endeavor. i have some amorphous ideas of what it should be. i look at what everyday people in the world around us do as well as simple "classic" games.
using the MIT tangible media website and also looking at projects at such companies like IDEO, i have been getting a feel for what my object would look and feel like. various options come to mind and while they all have different appearances, their basic concept remains true throughout. i have also been reading "the Design of Everyday Things" as reference since i want to explore the synergy of objects, memory and human behavior and it has a chapter devoted to this. what got me excited as it is relevant to my project is the phrase "precise behavior can emerge from imprecise knowledge". this is what i want to research more about. an object seems ordinary and vague but manipulated in a certain way, it can show you different elements of a person's work. however, this doesn't seem to be the main focus anymore but a secondary one. it can actually show anything except i want it to be for showing work since i still hate the flatness of a resume on a piece of paper.