Designing the Future of Experience

The DesFi Approach- Designing prototypes for future contexts Other Project and Teaching Blogs by Dr Deb Polson Colliding Dimensions | Abstractions | Design Fictions | Augmented Realities | ECOS Sim | Hybrid Cinema folio debpolson.com | twitter debpolson

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DesFi 2017 - Student Project

Part One - Context Analysis and Design Proposal

Above are screenshots of two recent student submissions by Madeleine Perrin and Taylor Joppich. So far I have only looked through a small portion of student submissions... and will post more examples soon.

The 2017 Brief: To propose and mockup a micro-solutions for the future of retail experience... based on

Observed interactions between people, place and things in context.

advances in emerging technologies (digital and mechanical) and

related case study research (innovations in retail).

The Context and Industry Partner: Wintergarden and ISPT

The DesFi Approach: Students are to imagine future scenarios and build testable prototypes inspired by science and technology. Whereas Science Fiction is to imaging the future and build contemplative narratives. I have developed a number of workshops to help students understand the context (in this case retail), to generate ideas, develop solutions and refine UX and UI models demonstrated through mockups. In third year these students are then challenged to modify and build working prototypes of such solutions

Context Analysis Forensically study a given context (in this case Wintergarden) paying attention to the interactions between people, places and things. Further considering the causal and contingent dynamics of the social, cultural, temporal, technical, spatial, environmental...dimensions.

Micro Solutions: The students are asked to first look broadly at a context and then focus on discreet areas of opportunity for design innovation that is future focused and potentially feasible.

Submission: A document that presents a design mockup supported by context analysis, technology review and case study research.

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SciRy and DesFi

Celebrating New Scientific Realities (SciRys)

NASA announces the discovery of the most Earth-sized planets found in the habitable zone of a single star, called TRAPPIST-1

https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/trappist1/

https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/resources/2159/?linkId=34784370

What an amazing time to be alive.... new worlds discovered, new experiences imagined. The ultimate SciRy DesFi mashup... this poster reminds me of Michel Faber’s ‘Book of Strange New Things’, Philip K Dick’s ‘We Can Remember It for You Wholesale’ (Total Recall) and Kim Stanley Robinson’s ‘2312′... oh and Total Recall and so many more wonderful SciFi

Our next DesFi challenge will be to prototype interfaces that facilitate new human interactions and experiences onboard a multi-generational space craft: Pre-boarding, On-board and Arrival.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-telescope-reveals-largest-batch-of-earth-size-habitable-zone-planets-around

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The Power of Physical Prototyping

Today I took the Final Year cohort of QUT Interaction Design students, to visit J Block Fabrication Lab to learn about how they can expand their design folios to include physical prototyping with various materials using a multitude of machines... and exploiting the generous support and expertise of on-site technicians.

Some examples from working with paper to creating design spaces:

Basic paper prototyping with POP https://popapp.in/features

Custom Interface Devices https://www.pddnet.com/news/2014/10/interface-designs-benefit-specialist-support

Experimenting with wearables https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fin-wearable-ring#/

High-Fi tinkering http://www.adriancher.com/physical-prototypes

Design Spaces http://www.urbaninformatics.net/projects/instabooth/

By building an idea designers are challenged to "build to think" and thus gain deeper insights.  https://dschool.stanford.edu/groups/k12/wiki/f53d6/Physical_Prototype.html

From Mark Billinghurst, Director at HIT Lab NZ:

 Wireframe - Low fidelity representation of design - What UI elements, where UI are placed 

Mockup – High fidelity static design - Visual design draft  

Prototype - Medium to high fidelity - Supports user interaction

[laughingsquid]

Codex Silenda, A Handcrafted Puzzle Book With Pages That Must Be Solved to Unlock the Next One

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Laser Cutters are Cool

We have some terrific machines and technicians here at QUT!

https://www.facebook.com/JBlockDesignLab/

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Sprint One - ‘Know thy user, for she is not you’

A masterful quote from Miaskiewicz & Kozar (2011, 429)

Today our Interaction Design cohort joined the Architecture students for a special presentation by Prof Laurie Buys on the topic of ‘The New Old’.

Prof Buys completely transformed how we later discussed the Future of Senior Living... shifting our focus for context and user analysis from ‘health’ and ‘independence’ to ‘productivity’ and ‘participation’.

“Health is not a destination’ Prof Laurie Buys (top left image)

Other terms: challenge, excite, reciprocity... engaged lifestyle...

“When you change the way you see the world, You can change the world you see” - Prof Buys quoting Microsoft (referring to innovations in AR with Hololens)... Microsoft Hololens - You Tube Channel

After the presentation we returned to our studio to:

Share personal stories collected over the last week

Find patterns and core concerns/concepts from the stories of experience

In groups, formulate and visualise sample personas and their near-future lifestyle... by combining the analysis data from week one, personal stories and Prof Buys’ insight.

Bottom images are from Hannah, Ryan, Scott, Kristie and Jordie - a photo collage from images found on the web to represent a ‘near future lifestyle’ for  ‘Flora’.

Special thanks to Prof Laurie Buys and Assoc Prof Rosemary Kennedy for inviting the Interaction and Visual Design (IVD) students to this terrific presentation...

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Welcome to the Cohort of 2016

This cohort are final year Interaction Design students undertaking a unit in Integrated Experience Design...

In Semester 2 we will be focusing on the Future of Senior Living.

Sprint One: Initial Context Overview (research and analysis)

In groups we mapped out the 'people, places, and things' that might be associated with Senior Living as a warmup exercise 

We then reviewed the QUT Draft Document outlining themes for innovation in the sector and discussed what various stakeholders might value the most

We looked for any possible/obvious 'controversy' (friction/issues) in the field to discuss possible opportunities 

So... before next week...

Investigate current SL services on offer as well as review the QUT SLI doc in more detail

Collect a personal story (from someone they know and care about) to provide insight (attitudes/emotion/expectations) into the data 

Bring your story and response (initial design concepts) to class next week

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Congratulations to the semester one 2016 cohort of Masters Student who undertook this Studio Program.

Our Industry Partner for this cohort was http://www.urbanutilities.com.au/

Led by Professor Marek Kowalkiewicz, PwC Chair in Digital Economy

And myself, Deb Polson, QUT School of Design

The brief was to consider a future micro product/service to support sustainable practices around water and waste:

All groups responded to a very broad brief with energy and skill... 

http://yutonglalala.wix.com/ecotopia (top image above)

http://froont.com/sirona/sirona (bottom image above)

http://www.queenslandsafewaters.com/

http://intolet412.wix.com/intolet

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Sprint Five: Concept Visualisation

On June 1 we will be presenting our Seven Projects to executives from QUU: 

Intolet

Little Drop

Water Warriors

Sirona

Shower Shadow

Ecotopia

Smart Shower Head

Although this has been an exercise in designing micro solutions for future scenarios... all projects have responded to the very real and present limitations and opportunities associated with the provision of water and sewerage in urban and/or remote environments... treating such provision as a part of a complex ecosystem..

Each team has considered the positive and negative implications and causations of human activity and the potential impacts and influences of many inter-related dynamics - the social, cultural, environmental, spatial, temporal, economical, pedagogical... 

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Presentations and Lab Visit

Teams presented progress they had made over the last 2 weeks on their DesFi projects... and discussed how they planned to submit their designs and prototypes (cartoons, animations, documentation etc)

Then we took a trip to the QUT Viser Lab, where Adam Siliato demonstrated some interesting technologies and projects.

The Viser lab do amazing projects with the latest technological advancements... including 3D Projections, Virtual and Augmented Reality, and various Motion Tracking Systems. This was a wonderful opportunity to see some of these technologies up close and hear all about how designers and developers are working with them.

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Sprint Four: Concept Refinement

I joined each team for a lively catchup on their concept development.

These groups accept and respond to feedback in a very positive way... balancing a real keenness to improve designs with a confidence to defend ideas intelligently...

Some teams stray comfortably between pure DesFi (fictional solution) and Viable (immediate uptake)... it has been an interesting exercise to modify concepts for something in-between, such as a ‘near future’... by adopting emerging technologies that will feasibly be available ... and in some cases, imagining mashups of multiple future tech to solve a present ‘problem’ with a future ‘opportunity’ 

We will share details of each project on this site soon... so excited by the diversity of response to the DesFi Brief we developed for Marek Kowalkiewicz, the PWC Chair in Digital Economy http://www.chairdigitaleconomy.com.au/the-chair/ representing a client, Urban Utiliites http://www.urbanutilities.com.au/

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SPRINT THREE: Rapid Concept Development

Each Masters student took 5 minutes to present a concept based on ‘concept clusters’ derived in Sprint One.

Followed by a analysis of emerging and common themes

Then the cohort arranged themselves into Seven Scrums to develop a specific concept or to combine concepts into a larger one for further development

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SPRINT TWO: Future Imaginings and Idea Generation

Guest Masterclass Facilitators - All the way from London!

Ben Stopher:   Program Director of Interactive and Visual Communication at London College of Communication as well as a a designer and studio partner at Inventive & Co,

Tobias Revell:  co-founder of international research consultancy Strange Telemetry and one half of Haunted Machines

@strangetele scenario cards workshop, designing through distopic thought with @tobias_revell @debpolson   https://twitter.com/benstopher/status/709972355049721856

After an inspiring presentation form Tobias, Ben arranged our cohort into small groups and the groups were lead through a thought provoking exercise using an inspiring deck of cards designed by Strange Telemetry.

The session left groups with surprising, and mostly dark, imaginings of a future world with random yet strangely appropriate problems to be considered that may have implications for how we practice as designers in the here-and-now.

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A Trailer for a SciFi short film that presents a Augmented Reality future with the increasingly common visual interpretation of the muted neon lines and curve angled boxes, spinning circles... superimposed on the physical world... inundated yet unhindered?

LOST MEMORIES 2.0 A film written and directed by Francois Ferracci A sequel to the award winning short LOST MEMORIES  (2012)

...not quite the ‘Zero Interface’ we discussed in last weeks session... more the cluttered AR imagined by many of the corporate makers of Design Fictions such as Corning, Samsung and of course The Microsoft future of NFL DesFi from February this year: 

I sourced this video from a terrific SciFi short film website: http://www.monstersaliensrobotszombies.com/videos

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Industry Context: Urban Utilities

Water Supply

Sewerage Management

Innovation Opportunities:

Help remote communities become self sustainable

identify new business/product/service opportunities with smart meters

SPRINT ONE: ANALYSIS

After forming our new SCRUMS (diverse teams of 4)... we analyse and map the client context...

Approach: Game-Design Thinking Scoping the environment and considering potential assets of the entire client ecology

World - People Places and Things

Play - Action and Interaction within the world by PCs and NPCs

Progress - Motivation and Mastery for PCs

Listing, categorising and mapping all of the assets of the ‘world’ to better understand the opportunities and contingencies for concept development (Sprint Two)

Ouput: Concept Clusters

By grouping assets from across the PEOPLE, PLACES and THINGS categories, we can experiment with micro-scenarios for micro-solutions!

Farmer + Dam + Smart Meter = Opportunity for Micro-Solution concept!

This cluster is an interesting scenario regarding remote communities and smart meter exploitation.

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WELCOME COHORT OF 2016

We will be creating Design Fictions (DesFi) using a game design approach to develop and demonstrate micro-solutions within complex systems... considering human experience, advancing technologies, environmental impact, resilient business models...

Design Fiction is the deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change http://www.experientia.com/

Some of our favourite DesFi examples:

Bruce Branit, World Builder: https://vimeo.com/3365942

Microsoft: https://youtu.be/oKqzeoMCU0c (attached video)

Scanadu: http://www.scanadu.com/

Sumsung: https://youtu.be/XyIvSIY0MTM

Corning: https://www.youtube.com/user/CorningIncorporated 

Smart Design: http://smartdesignworldwide.com 

Our Industry Partner for 2016 Marek Kowalkiewicz: PWC Chair in Digital Economy http://www.chairdigitaleconomy.com.au/the-chair/

Our Industry Context Urban Utiliites http://www.urbanutilities.com.au/

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CONNECTING THE DOTS BETWEEN WHEELCHAIR RAMPS AND SCI-FI.... inclusive design, it begins with studying overlooked communities, ranging from dyslexics to the deaf. By learning about how they adapt to their world, the hope is that you can actually build better new products for everyone else.

CLIFF KUANG 02.17.16  http://www.fastcodesign.com/3054927/the-big-idea/microsofts-inspiring-bet-on-a-radical-new-type-of-design-thinking

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New teams have gathered and are planning the development of their HiFi DesFi prototypes... very exciting.