Week Eleven 'Consolidating Our Concept'

Consolidating Our Concept 

The User

The gaming industry projects digital product behaviour like no other, therefore incorporating a physical interactive product that relates back to this digital world may result in everyday use outside of the gaming realm. As gamers have multiple sub categories ie; first person shooters, MMORPG’s (massively multiplayer online role playing games), strategy and action ect. It is important to target the specific user that will best be suited toward this interactive product. Research into the chosen demographic of computer gamers that of first person shooters, showed high levels of anxiety and reactive sensory viewed as competition. By Designing a product that integrates these factors the design will benifet the needs and existing problems for the chosen demographic.  

Within the gaming community reputation ultimately underpins your success. Based on status within any given game, gamers will project the need to be valued due to accomplishments or milestones reached. These Values and priorities form the online component for gamers as they can reach this status behind a computer. When interacting in a public arena social barriers are formed due to lack of face to face conversation confidence.

Current accessories in the gaming industry are vital to the development for the product, due to the stylistic and aesthetic approach. Through the use of a computer program ‘Steam’ refer to appendix 1, the concept was developed to tie this system into the physical world and act as both a benefit system and social system.

The Concept

The interactive product will consist of an awareness and situational dependence reaction. It is completely the user’s digression as to the utilisation of the product.  The interaction will be an everyday activity, dependant on the user and how much gain they wish to earn from the product. Whether it is for social benefits or steam community benefits.

Social

Situational variables will occur in any environment, however some of the user’s personalities 

will be that of a shy nature; therefore the product will offer these users a chance to interact with one another. An example may be a male catching the bus to work and continually seeing a girl he fancies. The interaction between the two will be through the products which will potentially lead to opportunity to for a relationship.

Users that want to use the device for a different approach such as networking for gaming purposes will also be able to utilise the social aspect of the product.

 

Benefit System

As steam is a community based environment and gamers typically want to be informed on new developments ASAP, a reward system based on the interaction and use of the product will be implemented. Rewards vary from; limited edition specials, early access to trailers, buying steam powered games and more. These specials will be negotiated with steam.

The combat log i have developed is designed through the existing profile navigation menu. The log will be basic incorporating bare minimum information. Showing the daily information recorded by the individual users product.

Week Ten 'Back To The Drawing Board'

Back to the Drawing Board

Our around table discussion proved that the tail concept was lacking the ability to be devleoped further. The overall concept of interaction between gamers in the public realm outside of the cyber real proved to be a strong point. As we now faced the question 'Where do we go from here' the group decided to have an open discussion on our thoughts.

 

Lourence proposed changing concept back to public place interaction as he thought more potential was their in regards to building an interactive model. We all considered this strongly however realised that all we needed to do was to do a larger scale research probe into gamers and narrow down our user group to discover.: 

• Metaphors through interaction
• connection of form 
• habits
• needs
• latent needs
• priorites
• existing trends.

Our conversation with Leonardo

Leonardo spoke to our group in regards to solidifying our context and user. Firstly he spoke of defining steam and what it gives to the user. Secondly identifying a specific gamer within the gaming genre.The advice in a nutshell he gave us was to be more specific, because we could design a product that would ultimatley incorporate relevant form, aesthetics and interaction. I myself personally found this advice helpful as it became the anchor for the remainder of the studio. 

 

Week Nine 'Concept Presentation'

Around Table Discussion

Interactive Design

Steam Tail

The image above is the result of the Steam Tail Design concept. As you can see the visual aesthetic approach was to have a smooth accessories feel. Much alike existing products on the market such as smartphones, usb's ect. The size of the tail had changed from previous weeks due to practicality. Not many people want to walk around wearing a tail dangling from their waste. And if they do they are a minute population. By re scaling the size of the tail it was possible to connect to your belt car keys ect.

Through the around table discussion we quickly learnt that the gamble we had taken was not about to pay off. The feedback received from both Peers and Teachers was that the demographic of users was too broad. As the concept related specifically to steam user's we needed to find a large population within this community that would be best suited to the concept and desired interaction.

Using Exisitnig steam interface to build the 'Steam Tail Log'

The nature of our product is to get gamers to interact in the physical world leading to friendships and social benefits. As the product interacts with others it will record the data and profile of other users. At the end of the day the gamer will be able to access this information through their steam profile. Simply by plugging the product in through a USB connection that will also be used to charge the device. The Steam Tail log will offer users to contact others they may have met through interaction of the product. Giving an opportunity to capitalise on the connection between the online platform and a physical product. 

Marianella spoke to myself about how this log will be easily integrated with another product as we where not pursuing the tail form. The Log will be able to display information and communicate the relevant news to the users.

Week Eight 'Guest Lecture'

Guest Lecture ' Jared Donovan'

 To some up the lecture Jared spoke of the semantic approach and action centric.

The semantic approach focuses on a more desired input and output. It acts as a planned behavioral series of interaction.

Action centric focuses more on randomised series of outputs defendant on the level of interaction. The programming does not have a sequential order.  

Group dicussion

After listening to the lecture our group needed to solidify our concept for the following weeks presentation. Our concept stems off the following weeks concept generation. To have an interactive tail communicating series of information between users. The tail will be integrated within the existing online platform 'steam'. As our users are gamers, metaphors in the form of interaction and visual aesthetics will be crucial design elements. 

The designs OBS aspects contain of the Object being the interactive tail engaging in a social environment for gamers. The tail will communicate data to then later be accessed by the user via steam. The behaviour will be gestures communicating directly to the function.

Conversation with Yasu

Our conversation in today's Tutorial involved the interaction aspect of the product. Yasu mentioned that the tail was a nice idea but was unsure of how it related to gamers and exactly the way in which it will be used in a social environment. The concept of gamers and steam was exceptional in terms of linking an existing platform back into the physical realm. However Yasu mentioned maybe a tail was not the right approach. As our user group was a broad demographic, the tail didn't relate to a specific genre.

The decision was made to continue with the tail concept as we felt our ideas were not communicated properly during the tutor. We decided to present the concept in the direction we where heading and figured it was early enough in the project to take a risk and run with our original idea as Kiu was passionate about the tail form and we believed the interaction would suit the user demographic. 

Week Seven a visit to 'Lifetec'

Introduction:

Upon arrival at Lifetec we congregated in the conference room to listen to the introductory lecture on the organisation and exactly what they do. Lifetec is a non for profit organisation that deals with assistive technology for the disabled or unable population.

Assistive technology is a device or system that provides people with practical solutions to everyday life activities.
Assistive technology can help people to:

• Look after loved ones by assisting with showering, dressing, and eating
• Make mobility safer and easier
• Open jars and turn taps on and off
• Make computers easier to use and screens clearer to read
• Ensure personal safety by using personal alarm systems at home
• Make recreational activities much easier
• Plus countless other ideas

Retrieved from:  http://www.lifetec.org.au/home/default.asp 

Group activity:

The activity was to collect one item off the shelf at Lifetec and re design it as we see fit. As a group we wanted to select and item that was non mechanical and was an everyday pratical piece of equipment.

Used for gardening this tool is specifically designed for assisting in the lifitng of pots. The problem we found with the design was:

• Materials slection
• Metal componant has limited leverage and dependant on weight
• no adjustable height mechanism for variety of users. 

Implementing minor design changes improves the products functionality in the desired user interaction. By adding the wheel users will have the option to roll heavy objects rather than carry. The wheel of coarse would have to be large in surface area to accommodate the terrain it would be used in. As mentioned above a simple adjustment for the height would be incorporated along side the adjustable clap for the metal element to grip the pots.

What our group took away from the site visit:

Designing in such a framework as assistive technology really opened our eyes to go back to basics in terms of ergonomics and usability of interactive products such as the one above. For our semester project these considerations will be met and design through the users perspective will be enhanced through the remainder of the project. 

Week six workshop 'A cold Turkey approach'

Introduction:

This weeks studio was the beginning of the concept initial brainstorming and thought process in regards to the semesters project. As the lecture came to an end the class was addressed to conduct three concept bombs based off provided design briefs.These design briefs held unique attributes that had three similar desired outcomes; scenario, object and interaction. The desired outcome was to get us thinking about the semester project possibilities and interactive design suggestions.

Concept bombs:

This is one of my three concept bombs, the design brief stated to help communicate users with family and friends whilst inside their home. The design must be incorporated into an everyday item to tie the users together. My design focused on what the possibility could be if you where sitting in your living room watching TV and wanted to interact with someone whilst watching a program. The design showed interaction with the users communicating and discussing on information in front of them (TV,movie ect).

 More concept bombs:

Observation of the Concept Bombs:

As a group we walked around the class and observed the other students work, a mark was given as to which design we believed was the best of the three. The activity was very engaging and it was great to see what others had come up with in regards to the brief we where given.

Our chosen Design Direction:

The image above is one of the designs that our group member 'Kui' came up with "Tell Tale". It is a wearable device that is shaped like an animals tail. The user programs it to sense anything he desires, and they will feel the "tail" wag when  the tail senses an object nearby. As the user gets closer the mechanic changes, the tail starts to wag faster and more violently indicating that the source is getting closer.

From further discussion as a group we picked apart the vital elements of the design concept. We realised the input could change and be a possible adjustable element depending on the users need. The design was thought to be a target for computer gamers specifically. This was due to the fact that one of our group members is connected within the gaming community and is under the impression that this device would appeal to the market. As well as this the environment and habitual trends indicate that gaming users would benefit from this device as it could communicate information and even possibly replace current information communication such as emails, facebook ect.

As one of our group members is not familiar with the gaming industry and has no understanding of the habits and environmental scenarios surrounding the topic, we suggested for next week she undertake a research approach. Through this understanding of environmental influences, habits and user preferences would be discovered to help develop the design and push it forward to a formidable concept.

Week four Design workshop 'Interactive Model'

About the Design

This week our team focused on putting our skills and acquired knowledge from the previous workshops together in order to produce an interactive model. This model did not specifically have to be a master design piece, rather show and input leading to an output and the reason for these sequences.

After much collaboration on last weeks class and building further more on the idea of designing for a gambling environment our group came up with an idea to re design a roulette table. This table would directly interact with the user and give them feedback as to how well their individual bet was going.

Similar to the table demonstrated in the video above, our goal was to incorporate a noise experience, taping into the users emotions such as anxiousness and excitement. However this idea was quickly scrapped as we began to understand that the interactive aspect had nothing to do with the user actually causing the interaction. Therefore we went back to the drawing board and explored one of our initial ideas in terms of the user environment.

Public spaces

This particular environment provides opportunity to design an interactive product that can fill in time and add to the way everyday people interact within public spaces, in particularly pedestrian crossings.Our group decided we wanted to add something to the void of time people spend everyday waiting at traffic lights. The interaction between complete strangers doesn't happen often therefore we decided to introduce a game that you can compete against any random in the street. Simply the input is the individual person punching, kicking or using any kind of force to hit a surface which will the measure speed and strength. Simply the person that wins will be shown where the output of the green or red man is to cross the road. (For more information refer to final video at the bottom of this post).

Here are some images from the process that our group undertook in the building stage of our model.

 Reflecting on the Model

The model came together nicely and surprisingly withstood a lot of pressure for numerous amounts of people testing it within a public space. For now i will provide the link to my gorup presentation as I am having trouble uploading it.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bwskb6a0Nubda0pEcTBrY1lubms/edit