Final Project: PREPARATORY RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
After reading the article “Art, Interaction and Engagement” written by Ernest Edmonds, I get a deeper understanding of interaction. In my original understanding of interactive designs in my first blog, I considered that “there is no fixed definition of what interactivity is, whatever delivered, understood, and responded between two objects (including human and non-human) can be called interactivity. Particularly, the receiving part of the two objects may understand and respond to the deliverer uniquely based on their own experiences and features”. This is a rough meaning of interactive. But after reading Edmonds’s article, I realized that behind the overall definition of the word, “interaction” can be divided into different categories. According to him, there are four kinds of interactive art systems which include responding, varying, influencing, and communicating. I think figuring out which aspect of interactive design is a crucial part for me to complete my final project.
Also, the author mentions the importance of the “attracting” part of a particular interactive design. In my opinion, the “attracting” feature can be linked to the immersive experience. So the first interactive project I want to introduce is an immersive education by presenting the virtual world to the children.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTjgR3L_Dxg
In this design, the venue can be used to create all kinds of virtual scenes: rainforests, underwater, the sky, etc. The children can touch both the wall and the ground. When they touch a certain point, they will trigger special scenes or word descriptions that introduce the place or the scenery. I think this interactive design is a very successful one because it creates an immersive learning space and environment for the children. In the common classrooms, children might get bored with the exercise book or the 40-minutes-long classes. It is a better way to let them feel on their own when learning about new things. In such an immersive environment, children will be attracted to new items or images that they have never seen before, which will encourage them to touch or tap on the particular place that they are interested in. Then by providing information, the children will be able to absorb new knowledge unconsciously, which is a great way for teachers to teach them. I think creating such an immersive and interactive project will definitely attract people to give it a try, and will also improve the user experience of my own project.
According to “Art, Interaction and Engagement”, “Dynamic-Passive” is one kind of interactive product. In this category, the temperature can be an element of triggering the product. So the second interactive design that I choose is this non-contact temperature monitoring machine.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-COwOQpAKE
This is a machine that can monitor your temperature if you stand in front of it from a certain distance. After waiting for a few seconds, your body temperature will be shown on the screen. I think the use of the screen is really convenient for users to find the correct position in order to monitor their temperature. Also, it is easy for others to see the temperature if printed on the screen. I think this is also a successful design because, in such a pandemic season, it is difficult for people to stay close to each other. With this design, no people are needed to stand at the entrance. They can monitor the temperature through this design quickly and easily.
What contributes to a successful interactive experience?
First of all, as mentioned above, in my previous blog, I defined interactivity as “whatever delivered, understood, and responded between two objects (including human and non-human)”. I think the first important element that contributes to a successful interactive design is the communication between two objects. Secondly, from the experience of my midterm project, I realized the importance of an immersive experience. If the design is placed directly in front of the user and has no connection with other things, it is difficult for our users to figure out how to use it or communicate with it. So it is crucial to provide a context for our project and this idea can also be supported by the first example that I introduced above. Furthermore, after reading the article written by Ernest Edmonds, I realize that it is also important to make myself clear what category of interactive design I am going to produce. Combining these three aspects, I think it will be easier to come up with a successful interactive design.