Consideration
Tasked with designing, “...a concept that brings together users with different backgrounds, for their mutual benefit, thus showing how technology can empower through interaction,” it was natural to follow user-centered design methodologies for this 24 hr. challenge as part of the 2013 SIDeR conference in Aarhus, Denmark.
Methodologies
User-centered design process
Research (reflection, bubble diagrams, primary, secondary)
Synthesis (keyword organization, theming)
Ideation (evaluation, analysis)
Concept Development (interaction flows, touchpoint maps)
Refinement (user scenarios, use cases)
Design Process
The design process started with some reflection on the 24 hour challenge brief and some self-reflection. Before I felt I could start designing for empowering interactions for others, it seemed essential to establish my understanding first (1).
Next, to get some fresh perspective I reached out to some of my peers for their thoughts asking, “What do you think when you hear the word ‘empower’?” Respondents were from various cultures internationally including, Canada, USA, Sweden, Germany, Turkey, and Norway (2). Responses were grouped into three overlying themes: literal impressions of the word ‘empower’, positive connotations, and negative interpretations (3).
After considering the entire brief, including the remaining ‘mutual benefit’ part, four quotes were highlighted from the user input to guide the broad approach for this process. Keywords from these quotes include: liberty, encourage, power, ability, rights, and personal worth.
Next, secondary research consisting of online image search via Google on keywords ‘empower’ and ‘mutual benefit’ revealed imagery either political and feminist in nature or business and community driven, respectively (4,5).
Going back to the initial quotes from user research recalled the one uncategorized quote around feminism. After reflecting on next steps, it seemed significant to incorporate this into the scope of the project and the final guiding principles that would lead ideation were: ability, encourage, feminism, liberty, and rights.
Then, ideas emerged for each of the keywords and after some additional input from user research, the scope for this 24 Hour Challenge narrowed even further to: encourage, feminism, rights (6).
Each of the final three directions for this challenge were evaluated further. Interaction flows and touchpoint maps helped to establish the what and when of each idea. This helped to get a better understanding of the complexity of the system, opportunity for impact of the idea, as well as potential problem areas.
Concept
The final concept is the Rights Revealing Machine: A camera captures and ‘automagically’ recognizes your cultural background and gender to determine the human rights you have in your society. The result is rear-projected onto a mirror. Ideally, your reflected image in the mirror is complete—conveying you receive all human rights deserving. Otherwise, portions of your body will be absent in the mirror accordingly (i.e. Freedom of Speech; Freedom to Love).
It was selected because it was not only able to incorporate awareness of human rights for empowerment, it is also inclusive of the feminism elements from early on in the research. This concept has a much broader application across ages and nationalities—amplified impact. It addresses serious issues in an engaging, reflective, and empowering manner that can be shared with others for the benefit of all nations.
Interaction Flow
The flow of interaction starts when the person approaches the installation. There they are captured by the camera and using facial and cultural recognition technology, a reflection of themselves is rear-projected onto the two-way mirror. Depending on the rights they receive based on their nationality and current political system, certain parts of their reflection will be augmented as a result. This means that if you are not currently receiving freedom of speech for example, that portion of your body in the reflection may be absent.
At this time, the user has the option to go with their thoughts and be inspired to take action or further interact with the device. While standing in front of the mirror, the person can toggle between different political states and countries to see a visual reflection of themselves in that new context to see the variation in human rights that are received. A snapshot of them is then captured that is emailed to the participant so they can have the keepsake and point of reference to take with them when they leave. The image that was captured is also now available online. That means the person can login and compare and reflect not only on themselves in the context of human rights, but in the greater context of others.
Scenarios
Adolescent
Family
Elders
Touchpoint Map
Finally, elements of this system are represented visually here in a touchpoint map, where the inner circle represents when the person may interact with the Rights Revealing Machine in a city square or as a museum installation. For example, when told by a friend, serendipitously walking through the city, seeing someone else using the device and being curious. This map also describes what elements are involved including, a camera to capture the person’s body, rear-projection, mobile phone, self-reflection for understanding and identifying, and awareness to empower and inspire.
References
1. Bubble Diagram from research: http://digfut.tumblr.com/post/45288266712/after-reflecting-on-the-brief-for-a-minute-i
2. ‘Empower’ respondents: http://digfut.tumblr.com/post/45290756515/sider-2013-to-get-some-fresh-perspective-i-reach
3. Early synthesis and categoraization of responses: http://digfut.tumblr.com/post/45295307674/sider-2013-early-synthesis-of-input-from
4. Secondary research for ‘empower’: http://digfut.tumblr.com/post/45296953141/sider-2013-after-a-quick-google-image-search-the
5. Secondary research for ‘mutual benefit’: http://digfut.tumblr.com/post/45300700719/sider-2013-initial-visual-scape-for-mutual
6. Narrowing the project scope: http://digfut.tumblr.com/post/45338047528/sider-2013-after-some-rest-and-reflection-on-the
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