Interaction Lab Midterm Project Report

Maintaining a Sustainable Life?

Riley Susser, Professor Margaret Minsky, Interaction Lab Spring 2023

 

  1. CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE

In my personal definition of interaction I wanted to create a project whose output would reflect the user’s unique input and how they interact with the project. I remember researching Lauren Lee McCarthy & Kyle McDonald’s ‘Unlearning Language’, which checks the same boxes: each user’s interaction with the project is unique and authentic to them. I also wanted to convey a meaningful message through my project rather than just a game, for example. 

 

  1. CONCEPT AND DESIGN

While brainstorming our full design for this project we struggled at first with how exactly the user was going to interact with the project. The concept and outcome was clear, however the physical interaction between the user and the project was not. The first idea we landed on to alter the speed of the windmill was using a scale. We planned on creating some type of basket or alternative holder that with greater weight would slow the speed of the windmill. However, we wanted a more visually interactive approach, for this, we ultimately decided on the pressure sensor with the open box we created. By inserting the cards we thought the directness of the interaction was better conveyed. 

 

III. FABRICATION AND PRODUCTION

For the sake of our project being as self-explanatory as possible, before user testing we had no writing in our project besides the question prompts that formed part of the interaction. During user testing however, some of the most significant feedback we received was the lack of a message being conveyed. On the one hand, we had realized that because of the specificity of the message of our project, we inevitably were going to have to incorporate a short message of the meaning of the interaction. More specifically, some of the feedback we received was that ‘nothing happened’ if a user did not insert enough cards into the box. However, this was in fact part of the design. The message we wanted to convey was how much someone’s daily actions negatively affect the wellbeing of the environment. By someone not committing these harmful actions however, they are not positively impacting the environment, they are simply creating a net zero effect. For this reason the people who did not insert any cards, or only one or two cards, did not have an impact on the windmill’s speed, because likewise they do not leave an impact on the environment, negative or positive. In regards to design, the user testing process made us realize we wanted to create a more organized structured interaction. Some people in user testing placed the cards in the wrong end of the box, others placed the cards into the box all at once upon finishing reading the questions rather than progressively interesting them. For the final presentation we designed the project so that the instructions were much clearer by placing each piece of the project in certain places, separating each question, and illustrating visually how the box and cards were meant to be interacted with.

 

Specific personal contributions I made include the original project idea, the idea of using the flex sensor, creating the question prompts, and sorting out the instructions for how the user was going to specifically interact with the project. In terms of constructing the project, e.g. the windmill, the card holding box, etc.. Shiru and I equally worked together.

 

*Initial principle idea of the project

 

int motorPin = 9;

const int flexpin = A0;

int motorSpeed;

 

void setup() {

  pinMode(motorPin, OUTPUT);

  Serial.begin(9600);

}

 

void loop() {

  

  int flexposition;

  flexposition = analogRead(flexpin);  // Input value from the analog pin.

  Serial.println(flexposition);

  motorSpeed = map(flexposition, 950,750,0,550); //

  Serial.print(“motor: “);

  Serial.println(motorSpeed);

  motorSpeed = constrain(motorSpeed, 0, 255);

  analogWrite(9,motorSpeed);

 

  

}

 

  1. CONCLUSIONS

We set out to create an interactive windmill whose speed demonstrated how sustainable someone’s daily habits are. Looking at our final product I feel that we have successfully constructed the project we had envisioned. As stated above, the message we wanted to convey was purely how much someone negatively impacts the environment. Even in the final presentation testing the users seemed a bit disappointed almost when ‘nothing happened’ as they did not insert enough cards for the windmill to slow down.  However, as the designer of the project, this was precisely the design: to demonstrate how significant, or nonsignificant someone’s environmental footprint is. If someone’s footprint is not significant, no effect will be had. Perhaps, we could have made this message even clearer though. From this project I have learned to appreciate user testing. Prior I had never gone through a user testing process, yet experiencing my product’s initial users’ interaction with the project served as a tool to be the project in ways that we wouldn’t have come to do otherwise Secondly, I am also taking away finding the balance of leaving just enough instruction for the user without over explaining.

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