Prototyping Journal

This blog is dedicated to the Physical Prototyping course in IxD at Malmö University

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Short reflection on the showcase of video prototypes

It was so exciting to see all the video prototypes of the class. A few thoughts I drew from watching the videos:

One thing that was quite common: groups not reading the brief or just ignoring what it says, like demonstrate user value.

Following this, a lot of videos completely lacked a storyline, though one of the requirements for the video prototype task was to sketch out a storyboard. I wonder how that works for just one scene showing actions.

Many projects focused on making the prototype rather than making a good video that enhances the qualities of a lo-fi prototype. I feel the main point of doing a video prototype is the way it allows by using video tools, such as smart cutting, to make the prototype act/work in a way that is not yet possible (or it is too early in the design process to go for high fidelity).

Not setting the scene and context for the video: filming just one space in class or demonstrating the prototype on a table.

I guess the task that the teachers give us have a particular goal, and even though there might be an urge to do something that is fun or just what we want, we should stick with the brief and fullfil it. Misinterpreting briefs is something I still see in the programme, something we struggled with since starting it.

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Anatomy of Prototypes

Prototypes are primarily meant to be learned from, they are tools for discovery and design refinement right from the early and up to the final stages. Contrary to beginner’s mind, prototypes are not to evaluate the present success of design outcome, but rather targeted towards design practice and the process of designing. In this article I liked how the authors put it that prototypes should be "problem-setting rather than problem-solving" (Lim et al., 2008,  p. 2).

Also, learning about the Fundamental prototyping principle was interesting: in turns out to be, a prototype should in its simplest form filter exactly the qualities that designers want to test (Lim et al., 2008). This was useful to take in consideration when we were prototyping for the video: in fact the video prototype itself was the focus rather than a good prototype which is to be depicted in the video. Therefore, we had to demonstrate "various ideas for interaction techniques without determining other qualities of design” (Lim et al., 2008,  p. 3). Meaning, while prototyping the flexible device, what we were interested in was the possibility and ways to fold it as well as the user-friendliness of the folding action. At this early prototyping stage we didn’t think about the materials or UI: we let ourselves imagine the possible use of the device in users life minus the technical qualities, using the prototype as playground rather than a tool to sell our idea.

As the authors of the article sum-up, "the designer screens out unnecessary aspects of the design that a particular prototype does not need to explore” (Lim et al., 2008,  p. 3). Dimensions should be taken into consideration: material, fidelity and scope of what the prototype seeks to explore.

Moreover, the Economic principle of prototyping states that design idea can be visible and measurable with a prototype that is simple and efficient.      

This article gave an idea about what prototypes are in their essence and provided with arguments on why a low fidelity prototype can be equally valuable and, in many cases, much more valuable than a high fidelity prototype.

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STORYBOARD for Video Prototyping

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Engaging Others (Monday, 18th Feb)

Today we got a short prototyping exercise: to prototype a situation, where foreign tourists end up in a place where they understand neither the language or signs and no brochures are available in their language. The purpose of this was to let an imaginable design team experience the situation and frustrations that a tourist might have in a foreign country where they are limited to communicating with the locals, ask for help and find that help themselves.

Below is a sketch of a map pointing to a destination where the tourist wants to go. The destination name is written in made-up characters. The tourist doesn’t know which direction and from which busstop to go in order to get there. We tried to simulate the situation where two students were speaking their native languages and it was in fact difficult to establish any understanding between them:

A part of our group tested giving directions to each other in a language that the receiver doesn’t understand and then switching to emojis in order to make it easier, but an interesting thing happened: emojis differ in color between iPhone and Android, therefore the message was interpreted incorrectly. Meaning, the green emoji was sent to say “I am in a green cubicle”, when the received blue emoji was perceived as “it’s a snowflake, she is outside”:

This gave some valuable insight to the importance of avoiding any ambiguity from signs and how challenging it is actually to depict something that will be perceived the same way by people from any cultural background.

Another part of our group imagined the tourist to be in a museum and they made a little audio prototype as an audio guide about museums exhibits. Students listened to several languages that they don’t understand and tried to make sense from the information from some words that they might grasp.

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Video Prototyping: Filming (Sunday, 17th Feb)

Finalising our prototypes by adding UI screenshots from popular platforms like Spotify, Netflix, Foodora website, Facebook Messenger:

At first we intended to attach the earphones to the back of the cardboard, but we figured they will “plug” into the cardboard equally well as to a real device, which was an amazing thing to discover:

Behind the scenes. Attaching the prototype in newspaper-mode to make it stand on the table:

Prototype of the device in TV-mode on a coffee table:

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Video Prototyping: Prototyping a Flexible Device (Saturday, 16th Feb)

For the video prototyping our group decided to make a lo-fi prototype of a flexible screen device that could be used as a tablet, smartphone and laptop-sized TV-screen. Here are our sketches of the prototype and storyline for the video:

First rough storyboard:

Sketching out the way to make one piece of cardboard fold to 3 different devices – TV/laptop, tablet and smartphone – and also make them stand on a surface when user needs it:

We made several cardboard versions to imitate the device in the video prototype being able to fold into smartphone as we figured we can’t actually fold a cardboard four times, but it will be possible to show our idea by using different forms in the video by cutting the story in the right places as it would allow us to change between the different prototypes:

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Dissecting Prototypes (Friday, 8th Feb)

How can we prototype with PURPOSE and direction? Be clear about what you can get out of it and how do you get the knowledge from your prototype.

A major problem is how to be resourceful in prototyping in a commercial context, often it is problematic to prove clients there has to be emphasis given to design research.

Always ask: What KIND of prototype is this?

With every prototype decisions and a certain level of commitment has to be made. There’s a sudden shift from abstract to concrete in a particular direction. However is it worth to constrain from specifying a form, keeping it open, making sure you don’t fall into the trap of making a decision for a final solution, try to be more fuzzy and abstract.

The grade of refinement for the prototype as well as level of fidelity must be considered. Sketches are sometimes even better than something super specified and complete.

Prototypes on the other hand, are made of SOMETHING, they are decoupled from the abstractions that we might think about, talk about and sketch. They can bring you to the realisation that something is not possible. Dialog with the material cannot be left until the end, so you are not forced to rethink the whole concept from the scratch. Engaging with material and exploring can help avoid fixation.

Play with material: limitations vs. opportunities. The material you choose to prototype with might limit from what you want to test, when ultimately the final product will be made from a completely different material.

Prototyping with purpose: Having a purpose is making a stand. Think that you prototype particular aspects rather than the complete thing: choose which dimensions you want to filter.

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Video Prototyping Workshop

I had no idea what video prototyping is before Monday’s lecture. It was eye-opening to realise video prototyping can take an idea beyond physical prototyping and project a near-to-reality vision of a sophisticated concept without having to use physical materials and making the prototype work. On the other hand, I guess, video prototyping is a demonstration of an idea lacking the important purpose of a prototype - the possibility to test it on users. One can only watch and judge/assume from what they see whether the portrayed concept would make sense in the real world.

However, what concerns the lecture topic, there was a bit of repetition on the use and purpose on prototypes, also my eye twitched a bit hearing such basics like the rule of three thirds, the golden cut, or how an object shouldn’t be centered to make an interesting composition. I loved the examples though and that we discussed a little why they were good/bad.

I really liked the Netflix gesture exercise: We got to think about which gestures would make sense to control the Netflix interface and how to make the video self explanatory thus keeping the storyline and timing logical.

Though we didn’t have much time to do make the video prototype we got quite a lot of critique on it’s features (like picking the right movie/show) which seemed a little unfair, having in mind the short time for this exercise, but oh well. It was interesting and we got to test what video prototyping is like, so I think that was was a positive experience after all.

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4th Workshop (Friday)

More processing today! We were learning how to separate data lists with David and after lunch we got a brief for our group project: we had to create a physical interactive object with timer and graphic interface for a specific space. This time again, we got to work in groups of 3: two IxD students and one product design student. Our group drew RESTROOM as our space, so we decided to make something would make sense in reality, but a little silly and funny as well. We had around 3hrs to finish our project, so we needed to be quick and first sketched for a couple of minutes. The idea was to build a system for washing hands that would enforce one to wash hands for at least 45 seconds: one had to stand on a plate that starts running water and a timer on the screen. Should the person leave the plate earlier, the doors wouldn’t let them out of the restroom and they should start over washing hands:

First of all, for us it was tricky to make the timer stop at 0 and deliver a new message to the screen, it took quite a while to figure this bit out. I reused a part of my previous code for the Pinball game to connect two buttons. The most difficult for us part was to connect the Arduino code with the Processing code, because we had to tell the computer to start the timer when one steps on the plate. I got very frustrated, because I couldn’t figure this out myself and we have already asked teacher’s assistance to help us set up the timer. We got very close to the deadline and then we decided to leave this as it is and present as much as we managed to build. Now I see that the epic failure of the project was my fault, because I wasn’t proactive enough to ask for others help as there were so many groups that needed help, also I didn’t want to take the short time that other students had for their projects.

This is how our unfinished project looked like:

Moreover, I think another problem was that once again we were under pressure of time to do so many things: create two pieces of code that fits together, build a physical object and make a graphical interface. It felt like I lost my motivation even before starting, because I always want to deliver something valuable, something that is more thought out. I am absolutely not a competitive person, and it doesn’t play a role for me if the teachers say it is going to be a competition and we will pick THE BEST project. Maybe quite the contrary – it puts me down if I am told to race and compete, I get anxious, feel uncreative and unworthy, I want to give up before I even touch something.

I guess we also needed an opportunity to get to know each other, ideate for longer and plan our time. I got so annoyed, because the product design student jumped right into building the physical thing and even used the laser cutter to make a sign, which was nice, BUT it all went to waste, because our code wasn’t working, and personally I felt very much on a pressure from their side to finish the code and basically I was blamed for being frustrated and not making it work. I felt so sorry I couldn’t make it and just sad after the whole workshop. To make things worse, I was pushed to present the project, though it wasn’t working and felt incredibly embarrassed in front of other students that really did a great job, though we didn’t really need to present our unfinished project.

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3rd workshop (Wednesday)

Today we were introduced to Processing software by the Processing Foundation, David told us about the community and how we could join it. Personally, I am very stoked about learning to create using processing as I am a highly artistic person and I see I could have some potential in this field.

It was a productive day with live coding – something that helps understand how the code builds up, the logic and the sequence behind it – I loved it. Live coding is what we truly lacked during the Programming I course. Also, David’s lecture was much easier to follow since we have coded before and Java syntax is similar to what we already know. A screenshot of one of the sketches we did:

The overall feeling of working with the Processing program is that it seems much quicker to achieve something like the example above (moving random size circles in random color and random places) than trying to achieve the same outcome with JavaScript, but it sure does take experience to create such a code from scratch.

More exciting things are coming up: on Friday we will have a crazy hackathon due to the Processing Community Day followed by interesting talks! 

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2nd workshop (Monday)

On Monday’s workshop we had a couple of hours time to finish up our projects. I have been working on our Arduino code throughout the weekend, to fix the loop and add the spacebar. Apparently the reference to spacebar was missing in the keyboard library documentation, but I did some research on the community forums and found the right substitute. However, we needed some help from David to fix the code, as I didn’t realise that every if-condition needed to be separated in curly brackets, that’s why my loop was failing, but I am happy I put several hours into coding on the weekend as I found different solutions and could easier understand David’s explanations as well, so yay to that. This is how our final project looked like:

The weight of the ball (clayball wrapped in copper tape) resonated with the metaphor of throwing it, but only later I realised we could have built a tube with the insides of it covered in copper, so that one could put the ball in the tube thus closing the circuit and bringing the prototype closer to the pinball metaphor.

Also, I was absolutely amazed and inspired by all the other prototypes that other groups have created: they we’re all so different, creative and unique:

Looking forward to another prototyping marathon on Wednesday!

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1st workshop with David (Friday)

The first workshop in physical prototyping focused on some interesting design examples using data and processing to create interactive art as well as David showed the possibilities that Arduino boards open for easily creating different kinds of interactive devices. I will come back to his slides later as I got inspired by several of the projects. We got our Arduino Micro set up and tested a few short codes with LED lamps and a button.

Later we were working in groups with product design students to create our own keyboards that are programmed with Arduino libraries and then use those keyboards to create interactive games. Our group took the very simple old school game Pinball and managed to connect two controllers (via left and right arrow keys) as well as a way to release the ball (a space bar) using two Arduino micro boards.

We used a cardboard surface with copper cover as connectors to the left and right controller, having in mind that two different players would control each side. The surfaces are meant to be hit by a cardboard “drumstick” to close the circuit and call the left and right keys to work. A new ball is released to the game by touching a physical ball (with copper tape) on another surface that would help close the circuit and act as the space-key. We are very excited to present our finished prototype on Monday.

I was, in fact, very much positively surprised by how easy it is to prototype in Arduino, especially as there are libraries with simplified code for countless of functions, so its easy to make things come to life without having to spend many hours on coding. 

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Introduction to Physical Prototyping

Today was an exciting introduction by Johannes to our Physical Prototyping course. He encouraged us to take notes, pictures and videos as well as sketch during the lectures/workshops and upload them to this journal to keep track of our design practise. Johannes stressed that we should dare to fail and fail a lot, learn by doing and be bold.