Week 10: More model making! Mechanism time.

Only a short post today!

Our design freeze went really well. The tutors liked our idea and we feel confident that we can progress forward.

Over the weekend we had another model making day- this time to work out the mechanism that will ignite and de-ignite the lighters. Some vague sketches of the proposed mechanism can be found below, as well as an attempt of the mechanism itself:

Until next time!

Week 9: Narrative, Brief and hard evidence SORTED!

What a successful week! It was important that for my section on SCENARIO I had the narrative, brief and hard eveidence (backing up our theory and explanation) sorted BEFORE the design freeze this week. And thankfully, that actually happened! It actually got sorted, hoorah!

You can find a small brain storm on the narative, a drapht of the narrative and final of the narrative below:

https://www.dropbox.com/home#/Public::: (PLEASE REFER TO NARRATIVE)
The brief can be found below: (this still needs to be fixed up before the final submission, i guess you could say this is a draft)
https://www.dropbox.com/home#/Public::: (PLEASE REFER TO DESIGN BRIEF)
And lastly, below you can find the link to the hard evidence that backs up our theories of presence, motivation and movement when working in a collaborative team:
http://www.uam.es/personal_pdi/psicologia/carretie/grupo/PDFs/EBR06.pdf
There is a particular part of this document that proves extremely useful to our product:

"Present data shows that the cortical response to sustained emotional visual stimulation presented within indirect tasks provides information and influence on attention, motivation and motor-related biases that complement information obtained under experimental conditions"

This is extremely important and vital to why our product exists and will be deemed at useful.

There are also other documents that I researched which also pose of importance to the project which can be found below:
https://www.dropbox.com/home#/Public::: (please refer to the REFERENCE LIST provided for details on all journal articles sourced)

Furthermore, there was also some broad research I did on the topic of lateral thinking and collaboration which is highlighted throughout our design:
https://www.dropbox.com/home#/Public::: Please refer to DNB601 Burning the candle stuff
Until next time!

Week 9: Model Making Business!

Okay! So today we worked on some model making. We met outside of uni and decided to knuckle down a working model/video for our design freeze next week in class.
You'll find some photos of our progress down below:

Working on our reformed idea, we used tea light candles, an old fan from a power supply, balsa wood, plastic sheeting and string to express our idea.
Below you can find a video that we used in order to help show how it will work:

However, after further investigation, we have decided to make the fan leviatate using ARDINO MAGNETS.
An example of this can be found below:

 This is the result of a technical issue as this will allow for a frictionless spin on the fan. Further more, we have also decided to use an array of LIGHTERS which when close enough together (approx 12mm) will ignite automatically. Some sketches of how this may work can be found below, as well as general form solutions:

A challenge is to make the tangible mechanism that will allow the lighters to switch on/off in a safe environment. But this can be done AFTER the design freeze. We are planning another modelling day over the weekend.

Before the design freeze, I still have the brief to write up, the narrative to get down pact AND to research hard data to back up our theories. So still plenty of work to be done. Until next time!

Week 8: Nailing down our idea: adjusting to the SCENARIO and COMMERICIALISATION

Okay! So after much deliberation from the original candle burning idea, we've decided to tweak the idea to suit it more towards the scenario as well as commericialistion.There were LOTS of issues with the wax- dripping, maitenance, cleaning, and its basic perishability. As well as issues surrounding the candle. Having a standard candle that they buy to 'refill' the product would be ideal so originally we thought of a tea light candle, as these are cheap and accessible. However, this takes away the dynamic of the bobbing up and down. So we had quite a pickle on our hands!
As well as these issues, after much deliberation we decided to stick with our ORIGINAL SCENARIO of people working together in a collaborative effort working towards a common goal. However, this has, in turn, changed our product dramatically.
We decided that the SCENARIO, COMMERCIALISATION and the use of MOVEMENT, BALANCE and PRESENCE was essentially our focus for this product. Becuase of this, many changes were made to the product.
After much brain storming with my team members, we came across this idea:
"Christmas Candle Pyramids"

This is our basic idea, using tea light candles to generate the heat to move the fan. This indicates that the more people who are "logged on" the faster the fan will move, which is representative of everyones collective efforts. We would also like to look into the spinning of the fan, and possibly having it rather UNBALANCED when there are only two or three people working in a group, and then BALANCED when all group members are working on the project. This product is aimed to create INSPIRATION and MODIVATION when people need to work on a project together, but cannot physically be in the same space. This, therefore, creates a PRESENCE of "yes, I'm working on the project".

Below you will find some rough sketches of the form for the changed product, as well as general mind map and brain storming sketches of our NEWLY INFORMED product:

Now onto model making! We're planning to meet up outside of uni on Saturday to play around with a model for our design freeze next week, until then!

Week Eight: Workshop excercise, and deepening the concept to fit the scenario!

Today we broke into our workshop groups again so we could work further on our sections on the project.

The SCENARIO section worked on videos. Basically taking videos of a situation and then pulling them a part so we could decipher exactly how people react in these particular environments/scenarios.

The photos from the videos are as follows (this demonstrates the story and allows us to better understand the user group):

Yawning waiting for the order (it took so long)

Waiting some more!

Collecting the coffee (finally!)

chatting with friends whilst we all wait

ordering coffee

Until next time!

Week Seven: Pushing the boundaries of scenarios (again and again)!

Hello again,

This week we broke into 'workshop' groups and focused on our areas. Mine being scenario, it was definetely a busy week for it!

Unfortunetely before we move forward with the project, we really need to discover and cement what our scenario is going to be, so the pressure was really on!

Today we broke into groups and as I am working on the SCENARIO component in our group, thats what I worked on. We were given this little mind map and an example of a busy supermarket around new years eve in China, and we had to think of a correlating product that would suit this environment/scenario.

This proved a tedious, yet exciting excerise as it allowed me to break up the scenario into the different sections and really relate the scenario to a specific product.We then analysed our present scenario and expanded on the possibilities of what it may bring.

Need to discuss more with my group which scenario we will be moving forward with so we can nail down this scenario and continue on with the project, lots of work to get done and little time to do it in! So, until next time!

Week Six: Exploring the Scenario

 Hello there!

This week has been all about the SCENARIO! It's very important we get it down packed, as until we discusss what the scenario is, it will be impossible to move forward with the project.

With the thought of our project in mind "burning the candle at both ends" there is much that could be associated with this project, which include:

• Heat/warmth
• Light
• Movement
• Balance
• Presence

My job is to decide which way we are going to take the design and figure out exactly what element(s) is the most important to our product and consequently, scenario.

After doing a bit of a brain storm....

...we found that there are numerous amounts of scenarios this product can be represented in. This includes:

• Scenario option one: Work/Study (original idea), highlighting light, balance, presence and movement
• Scenario option two: Long distance Lovers, highlighting light, presence and warmth/heat
• Scenario option Three: Late evening arrtists, highlighting light, balance and movement
• Scenario option four: Competitive environment, highlighting movement
• Scenario option five: Problem sleepers, highlighting light, warmth and presence
• Scenario option six: Natural disaster victims, highlighting warmth and presence
• Scenario option seven: Case of emergency, highlighting presence

A more detailed overview of these seven scenario options can be found below, which include the process of how each of these would change the product, and hence how the product would work, as well as a storyboard and detailed considerations of each scenario. https://www.dropbox.com/home#/Public::: (please refer to BURNING THE CANDLE STORY BOARDS and DNB601 BURNING THE CANDLE STUFF)  

Hopefully we will be able to decide our scenario by next week as we have planned to nail down the scenario this week! Until next time!

Week Six: Concept selection and Brief distinction

Hello again!


After briefing with my new team, John Nissen and Michael Coleman, we have decided on our idea that we are going to continue on with for the rest of the semester.


John's idea was a "gesture reciever", where you could capture a gesture and send it to someone else. Here is John's blog: http://interactionthroughinteraction.blogspot.com/

Michael's idea was a "burning the candle at both ends" idea, that encourages late night workers to keep working when working in teams. Here is Michael's blog: http://dnb601-senseandsensuality.blogspot.com/


And obviously my idea, the mood helmet, can be found below in this blog.


After much deliberation, we decided to go with Michael's idea: "burning the candle at both ends". This idea is extrememly interesting, and will be very exciting to research and see if we can supply a working model by the end of the semester. The concept presentation of this design can be found here on Michael's blog: http://dnb601-senseandsensuality.blogspot.com/2011/08/week-5-concept-presentation-burning.html , as well as the original narrative/storyboard here: http://dnb601-senseandsensuality.blogspot.com/2011/08/week-4-story-boards-burning-candle-at.html


The project is broken up into three areas (Object, Scenario and Behaviour) with each group member taking responsibility for one of the areas. Our allocations are as follows:


John- OBJECT
John will focus on the technology and manufacturing and how we can physically bring this product onto the market in an efficient and cost effective way. He will ensure that we know which materials, technology, manufacturing methods, transmission methods, and ergonomics factors can be applied to our project.


Michael- BEHAVIOUR

Michael will be focussing on the behavious of the product and how we can design the behaviour of the product to influence or assist the behaviour of the user. Although each area (Senario, Object and Behaviour) are interconnected, the behaviour provides the link between the object and the senario in a tangible sense. He will be looking at how the mechanism works in relation to the behavioural interaction that we are designing and how we can use the technology that we have available to bring about the product's tangible interaction.

Myself (Kahlia)- SCENARIO

Once the senario is established I will be responsible for ensuring that we are well informed about the environment in which the product will be situated. She will be responsible for making sure that the product that we are designing is remaining true to the senario needs and requirements.

After selecting the project and deligating certain areas to the project, we made a project timeline which can be found here:

The blue slots show us where we need to be developing a deliverable.

The orange slots show important but slightly flexible deadlines

The red slots are deadlines that MUST be met in order to complete the project on time.

Key dates include the design freeze in week 9, design detais and presentation parts in week 11, and the final presentation in week 13.

Until next time!