Lesson 2
Topic
Observations & Experiences
Reading Material
RAW: Conveying minimally-mediated impressions of everyday life with an audio-photographic tool
1) What are the new terms in this text? How are they defined? Where do they come from?
- binaural sound recording: using two microphones to create 3D stereo sound.
- the title "RAW" refers to the unedited nature of the product.
- HCI: human-computer interaction
2) Who are the authors? Where do they work? Who do they refer to?
- Media Lab Europe: irish research institute, based on MIT Media Lab. Focused on innovation in digital technology & human-machine interaction.
3) What questions come to your mind from reading this text?
- How would the outcome change if the audio recording was only 15 seconds long?
- Why can't images/audio be deleted retroactively?
- Was the fact that they were recording declared to any subjects being photographed?
4) How does it affect your design practice? What applications do you see in your practice?
- Dont regard audio or sound as "secondary", give it equal importance to everything else.
- Everyone will use a tool differently, based on previous experiences.
- The slow reveal or "zoom out" as the audio starts playing is really fascinating, as it leads to a level of suspense while viewing the work.
Characterizing Interaction Design by Its Ideals: A Discipline in Transition
1) What are the new terms in this text? How are they defined? Where do they come from?
- soma design: focused on two pillars of the human condition, movement and bodily experience.
2) Who are the authors? Where do they work? Who do they refer to?
- Two experienced interaction designers from sweden.
1) What questions come to your mind from reading this text?
- How much of interaction design is an art form, and how much is a "hard science"
2) How does it affect your design practice? What applications do you see in your practice?
- the ideals of interaction design (at the time of publication): UX, still largely concentrates on interface between people and devices and the details of the interaction. "Designing interfaces for experience and meaning".
- the history of IAD: originated from HCI, started in the late 70s and early 80s, closely related to the evolution of computers (first as factory/professional work tools, then in homes and public spaces and as wearables). The first focus was "engineering interfaces for usability and utility", and later shifting the focus to "user experience and meaning making".
- the current challenges for the filed of interaction design are the emergence of AI, making interactions inherently unpredictable, the shift from screen based interfaces to hybrid physical/digital design materials, and the various ecosystems that a product has to be embedded in rather than being standalone, as well as various emergent properties that stem from changing environments.
- "interaction design is currently at a point where we need to start designing by orchestrating the interaction with ensembles of more or less autonomous components"
"Design Ethnography?" & "Field Research"
1) What are the new terms in this text? How are they defined? Where do they come from?
- Design Ethnography: "ethnographic qualitative research set within a design context", revolves around a multitude of aspects such as environments, actors, motivations etc.
2) Who are the authors? Where do they work? Who do they refer to?
- Designer, Creative Leader from California, focused on the overlap of technology and design and helping to shape new products for emerging needs and exploring the human impact of new technologies.
3) What questions come to your mind from reading this text?
- How does design ethnography differ from traditionall ethnography?
- What other tools exist to help visualize data and draw conclusions.
4) How does it affect your design practice? What applications do you see in your practice?
- Ethnography can be used to give context to creative work, uncover hidden needs, validate ideas, as well as study users.
- Ethnography is often "ad-hoc", and not very linear.
- The challenge lies with extracting the data from field research, and coming to the "correct" conclusions.
Brief Summary of Lesson
The lesson was hosted by Jo and Aron, and focused around ways of researching design topics, mainly observations and experiences. Aron started with a recap about the topic of design ethnography, and Jo followed with an interesting section about the "illusion of observation", in which she highlighted the pitfalls of biases and predisposition. She also mentioned ways to negate this issue, mainly to have a diverse observer team, multiple observation tools/methods,
The lesson ended with an exercise where we had to analyze a random object in pairs, discuss the intended and unintended uses, and also associations. The goal of the exercise was to shine a light on various biases that we might have, individually and collectively based on our personal lives and culture. Claudio and I analyzed a box of toothpicks, and it was interesting to realize that we both did not associate it with the act of cleaning your teeth, but rather with the act of picking up food.
In the end, Joëlle gave a couple of inputs regarding the structure of the lesson, mainly that some more pictures could help for more visual aid. She also mentioned that we are welcome to take a critical stance to wards the literature, and we should investigate the authors of the papers a bit more, because that adds valuable context about the surroundings in which the text was written as well as the biases surrounding the paper. Finally, Joëlle mentioned that future groups could use different settings such as holding the lesson outdoors, or completely over zoom.
New Terms
- Hawthorne effect: someone acts differently when they know they are being watched.
Takeaways
- have a diverse observer team
- you cant be unbiased, you can only try to midigate it by critically quesitoning things you might think are common sense.