My Thesis - The start and what's up so far...

so today, after some process and updating a google doc consistently, i decided to open this blog and share my work and progress with you.

so my first post will be a bit long since it will contain everything i've done so far for my final project in Domus Academy, Master in Interaction Design.

I will say in advanced thank you to Claudio Moderini and Nima Gazestani who guides and tutors me during this project.

So... What am i doing? (or what i was thinking i'm going to do..)

I did some benchmarking as well

And After presenting the idea and developing it, i got to three main ideas, which i will describe briefly:

The first idea was about getting a receipt with a ingredient from a recipe after eating somewhere during expo, and by that completing a whole recipe and  meeting other people to dine with.

The second idea was about using of the metro cards to create a playful way to discover and see the city (and mainly restaurants)

 

The third idea was an extension of the second idea but with the option to interact with different characters, each one had different functionality.

The last idea was changed and developed after the first revision:

27/5/14 - after first revision - change of direction, disconnect from food as a framework. more of an experiment and observation of what happens around the city (“live infographics”) in expo 2015 - or more general - what happens to a city and it’s people in a big event.

And then... that was created:

“the observers”

a series of different objects/”characters” distributed around the city in main locations to observe and record data of the city and it’s people. The data will be published live in a website/app, will create live infographics and with that provide another way to look at the city and it’s events.

The Objects:

- Record message with the object for the next person to come - should give some directions to people about what to say (website will present a continuous recording of the messages)  benches around the city in main locations like Duomo, parco sempione etc.

- amount of sound in the surroundings will represent how crowded a spot is (mapping sounds around the city, pointing out crowded spaces) - maybe object can change colors accordingly  popular bars and main touristic areas - Naviglio, Duomo, Castello etc.

- send tweet to object and it will print it out - only tweets that are recognized as located in the area of the object (will measure the length of paper printed and not content of the tweet) One object only in the center of the city/event.

- object that changes color according to color recognition, object should change color accordingly to the color it sees at a certain moment - maybe can give info such as “35% of people been here today wore red” (website will present the average color of different locations) objects spreaded around touristic areas of the city

- object that whenever water touches it plays song (maybe the object is creating a covered area so people will get close to it), the object will ask people to send it a name of a song they’d like to hear in a rainy day (the website will display a playlist) One object only in the center of the city/event.

- object that contains gps+camera in metro/public transportation that will monitor the movement and “what it sees” (the website will show the live camera and location of the object) - the object will invite the people to take it with them to see the city. several objects in the metro stations and trains.

-object that detects smiles  - measure “happiness level” around the city (will be presented as a number) objects spreaded around touristic areas of the city - entrance to places / next to famous paintings (where people have to look straight ahead?)

-object that detects movement and velocity in different areas (displays the average pace of the city in different times of the day) several objects in the entrance/exits of metro stations.

 I also started to think a bit about the interface:

The relevant “cards” will be pushed up when you are near one of the objects, and you will  be able to get more personalized info about your surrounding (e.g the color at doumo now is ____, and there were 20 smiles detected so far, the area is really crowded, 300 meters from here it’s less crowded).

the cards are adjustable: size and place can be changed (or removed if you dont want to monitor one / some of them), Once tapping a card you’ll be taken to a screen with more information, and view details about the object tracking that info.

*there should be a way to recognize which objects provide which info before tapping a card - a graphic solution probably.

3/6/14 - After second revision - previous step was too technical. should start with creating a “character” for the object (e.g. “shy object, paranoid object etc.), then understand what is the right shape for the object so people will interacted with it (is it soft? is it movable? etc.). Add more story, and then turn to functionality - if the object is sad because it’s not moving it turns blue etc.the website should display the information according to the storytelling “banana is sad now because it’s not being moved”, can also display more info like where did it go, but focus on the story first.

object	character	Shape	Interaction	Idle
Lazy Luigi (Eggplant)	Lazy. doesn't like to be moved, but like to be touched.	soft and can be moved but with limitation (heavy). can be some sort of bean bag.	Whenever touched- changing his color saturation, if moved makes sounds (“complains”)	when idle losing his color slowly.
Paranoid Piero (Pear)	Afraid of everything, don't like being touched or when people getting close to him. believes that if he can't see you, you can’t see him. don't like loud noises.	static, stiff material.	follows people’s movements with his eye and taking pictures.	-
Gossip Gianni (Tomato)	likes gossip but can’t keep a secret. whatever you tell him will spread around pretty quickly. Likes to be around people.	static, soft.	recording messages and tweets them under his own account (maybe prints?).	when it’s quiet around changing colors from red to yellow and then green.
Traveler Tina (Kiwi)	Likes to travel and explore new places. she takes pictures of every place she’s visiting. when not moving getting bored.	soft and portable. shouldn’t be too big.	has gps that follows where she is (people’s routes) and a camera that take a picture every 5 minutes and posts it online with the location.	when not being moved, makes a whining noise every several minutes.
The gloomy mozzarella family	bunch of mozzarella balls that like to be together, suffering from separation anxiety.	soft, movable- should roll. not portable tho.	whenever being separated or too far from each other starting to make noises that won't stop until at least two of them are close enough to each other.	-

So this is how far i got...would be always happy to get your feedback, and will update after tomorrow's revision.

-Hadar