Feedback and Considerations
To make sure that I hadn't bitten off too much to chew with the difficulty of this concept and the time restraints of the assignment, I touched base with Ricardo to get some feedback on what he thought of my initial Idea. I was already worried because of my technical difficulties and my lack of knowledge in robotics and so on and didn't want to have to invest half of my time learning a new skill in order to use it for just a single dimension of my design. Ricardo helped me see that trying to physically create this idea wouldn't be feasible with my current skill sets and time restrictions, however, developing and constructing this idea as a speculative design, as I had already planned to do, would work. As this was my first attempt at using speculative design to express my ideas I asked for some advice on how to begin the process and Ricardo gave me some valuable parameters to follow and explore to get started on the right track.
Some of the areas he recommended exploring were-
-Create a storyboard system (refer to the last blog post for picture of the system)
-Explore and engage in the reasoning behind why similar products have worked in the past.
-What is going to be the critical interactive points if this was made?
-Tests, Body storming, and feedback, (however because this is going to be a speculative design, physical testing is out of the equation, therefore, I'll be relying on feedback to help lead the development of my idea. ( I remember one lecture in the studio, someone was talking about testing a robot on the south side to help teach the students. The story kinda went off on a tangent but it was insightful because whoever was talking, starting getting into the importance of which questions you ask and how it's easy to prime someone into giving you good feedback which is what most people consider a good thing however good feedback isn't helpful for constructive improvements. Also, they made a point into the importances of who you test your products on, avoiding family members like your mother because they will just say everything is awesome. One final point that sunk in deep with me was that children are great test dummies because they are so straight up and honest and won't hold back on the criticism. So to cover all bases I'm going to ask as broad of a spectrum of people for feedback as possibly and expand the range of question I ask them, hopefully, this will lead to the best development of my idea.))
My first Guinea Pigs for testing
To provide clarity of how these feedback interactions went, I randomly asked if people wanted to provide me with some feedback on my project idea. I explained to them how it would intend to work if it was physically made explained one potential aspect of the project and then asked them what their thoughts on the idea was, I did ask them to be as honest as possible as well to help bring down the social convention of just giving good feedback.
One user liked the simplicity of only being able to receive photos, in contrast to being over complicated and orientated around a lot of different types of files at once. E.g sound, video, GIF.
The other thought it was a good idea, however, he brought to light a very important piece of information to which I wasn't aware. IT HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE BEFORE. (within reason) A critical part of the research phase he told me he practices was, before getting too far into a project is that it's a good idea to Google it first to see if it's been done before, and also to see what's out there that's similar in nature. Pretty simple and plain but I failed to do it.
The third person really enjoyed the concept behind the idea and compared it to the changing portraits in Harry Potter which I thought was a big up.
After taking a peek at what's already out there I found several products which could send and display pictures on a small LCD screen similar to my idea. They have even been made with transportability in mind and can fit into your pocket while retaining over 30 images at once! I began to get disheartened after discovering this and starting contemplating what my idea has to bring to the table and what is different about what I'm trying to create in light of these already existing products.
Clint provided me with a well-needed pep talk on some of the aspects he thought were individually attributed to my project and helped me see the differences between them such as;
1-The idea that it can fit into your wallet picture holder
2-That it's flexible and bendable
3- That it utilizes a closed network
4- That it confronts a personal issue I have with people taking their phones out to take photos instead of enjoying the moment.
The best and most similar product capable of performing the tasks I want the PEG to do is the Cevia Share(pictured above). So using this as the benchmark for comparison, I'll run through a few core principles that I believe differ from my PEG to this impressive digital photo frame.
In contrast to the core purpose of a digital photo frame of displaying photo's, the PEG has the core design pillar to "Act as a medium between the virtual and physical worlds" This means that its purpose is linked to more in-depth function and that it is defined by the potentials and capabilities of what it has to offer. I will continue to describe these attributes below.
While all of these digital photo frames make an effort to maximize their storage capabilities, storage is intentionally limited to one photo at a time with the PEG. The artifact will be able to cache the image in a temporary memory dump and will be able to retain them even after it has gone flat or left wifi range. Limited storage is a core design principle to the PEG as it means that every time a photo is taken and sent to be displayed, it's life begins. You never know how long this image will last and you will never be able to recover it once it's gone, thus the PEG acts as a physical analogy of the nostalgic impermanence of life and all it's unique and precious moments that come and go.
The ultimate direction I would want to take this idea towards would be best communicated by a visualization exercise. Imagine giving out 6-7 of these cards to your friends and significant other, constantly updating them in real time with a physical and virtual picture story of your life. Then imagine further, that you have a blank wall in your room which you attach all the cards you've received from your friends in a nice cluster.
You would be able to watch each individual's life through pictures updating and changing right in front of your eyes in real time while also retaining and holding the image until it’s updated again. You would be able to share your experiences with others to a new extent by taking their digital stories and transferring them onto a physical platform.
The PEG adopts the principles of a connected network while simultaneously adding a personal dimension to the field. Unlike Snap Chat where you can send photo's to a large group of people at any time and you don't really know whether or not the message is unique to you, the PEG operates on a closed network basis as it can only receive photo's from one device during its lifetime. This means that no matter where you are in the world, once you've given someone your PEG you can rest assured that no one else will interrupt your story because it's uniquely just for you. Therefore a collection of 5 of these cards means that every single PEG is a unique story which is being shared specifically with you like no one else's. This is how it touches on aspects of an instant photo because once you give someone an instant photo it's a captured memory that can be taken wherever you go, although in this case, the peg goes with you and the flow of memories that it displays only lasts momentarily creating a temporary window into the sender's life.
My next phase of exploration will be looking into what makes photo sharing Apps so successful and how I can adopt those same principles and entwine them into my project
