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Approaches of Interest
In listening to the first two lectures of module one and chapters 1-4, the approaches that have struck me as relating to my own values and interests include:
✴ problem solving approach
✴ structural approach
✴ strengths perspective approach
✴ feminist approach
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Ngo, H. (2020, December 23). Frameworks for social work practice- part 1 [Video]. Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pey7blqWSaQ
strengths perspective approach
[1] Integrated Post
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Drawn as a mountain to climb, rather than a pyramid of ‘perfect’ doing which I personally associate a clean-lined triangle with. I think that this in some ways illustrates how getting your needs met can be rocky and difficult to navigate at even the best of times. In some ways though, I find this illustration and concept limiting as it suggests conceptually that you can not have, for example, love and relationships without having your physiological needs met. This is an oversimplification of what the theory is suggesting, as physiological needs are base or foundational requirements to happiness or being content. But to think on more of a spectrum is a better way of looking at needs, in my opinion, as I think it is a more accurate depiction of what life is really like. You can have some of these ‘levels’ of needs met while not having others, and still be searching or looking to fulfill them. Regardless, I stand by my symbolic intent of a mountain to climb, while being simultaneously critical of hierarchical thinking.
Note: I wish I put little flags on here maybe, or rope ladders that show some are burnt away on one level but not another, to further convey my thoughts visually.
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Ngo, H. (2020, December 23). Frameworks for social work practice- part 1 [Video]. Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pey7blqWSaQ
DU™️ #Repost @moduleone_music ・・・ Module One - Movement (live rehearsal). Glad to see my friends who stopped by to hear some new jams from me ❤️ #moduleone #liveperformance #aprodyssey https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz7KbSyFKW6/?igshid=1q542sjp7e0t3
This article is taken from New York Times and was published in 1859. It compares many resturants and describes Delmonico’s as, “the cookery, however, will be superb, and the attendance will good.” This atmosphere and good wait staff is also described in the podcast, Case 12: Dinner at Delmonico's.
This song is from a musical, however it says, “We'll see the shows at Delmonico's / And we'll close the town in a whirl.” This song relates to the article by Joshua Stein, Amid Delmonico’s Gilded Age Splendor, Diners Party Like It’s 1899. The song highlights the prestige of the restaurant, just as the article does.
implicit interactions overview
SHOW N’ TELL 👀 Pulled from the readings and through tinkering, what really stood out about implicit interactions was that they were unobtrusive and invisible. Implicit interactions are designed to be in the background and do not require explicit and direct comments. They are not conscious. It follows a system flow; it collects the contextual data of the user and takes that input and information and transitions it into the foreground. We came up with a set of attributes to reference and to guide us through our tinkering, mediated and uniformed. Mediated as in the user doesn’t put much effort into the interaction since it’s int he background. Uniformed, in the sense that the interaction must be natural and intuitive to the user which would usually mean sticking to common interaction patterns that the user is already accustomed to for a natural flow. So we took this system flow and the attributes and used it as a framework for our sketches.
(Emotion Camera) Like most teams, we started with a system that takes an image of the user’s smile and shares it back to them. The lifestream data is hidden, the system tracking facial data is in the background collecting input and the user’s emotion then triggers the snapshot image. Finally, the system reveals the image to the user. We quickly moved away from that and came up with colour blindness detector.
(Colour Detector) We really struggled with the context of this colour detector for people suffering from colour blindness, we weren’t sure how to make it implicit since the user was explicitly scanning items with the camera. We definitely were stumped with this and after developing it we realized that we had to take a step back and figure out whether or not we were wasting our time. This helped us gather our thoughts and brainstorm more ideas while realizing that context is extremely important when designing implicit interactions.
(Brightness Camera) Using the pixel demo, my partner started tinkering with a brightness camera that tells you to turn the lights on when it is too dark. Once there is sufficient light, the system sets a timer to take a snapshot image and then it reveals it to the user. So like the emotion camera, the system in the background takes in the amount of light as the input and once it has the lighting is at 70%, it triggers the set timer for the photo and brings it to the foreground by revealing it to the user.
(Art Installation) So from there, we came started to play with a few other ideas like a deep-learning shopping cart that scans items for its users, but I quickly realized that I was thinking too conceptually. To move away from that, I wanted to play around and explore the idea of an abstract, interactive art installation. It maps out the user’s emotions using the emotion tracker to generate a live stream colour map. So, it takes in input in the background of the user’s face and transitions it into the foreground in the form of shapes and colours. Different shades of a certain colour are based on the values. Something else I struggled with here, was collecting a certain colour with the right emotions since it’s very subjective. We tested it with different people by placing the computer in front of them without letting them know what the colours meant. What I wanted to do was explore and bridge the discrepancy between the emotions we show and the emotions we are actually feeling. To do that, I wanted to try and catch the user by surprise since usually, that is when emotions are most vulnerable and authentic.
Critique Notes How feelings get expressed and how do we work with it as individuals? Situalizing the material? Socially constructed idea on the criteria of sadness. What is sadness? What are emotions? How to keep it a sustaining interaction? How to keep it ambiguous and how to add depth to it? Am I the agent or is it an agent on its own?
Reflection With this module, I think what I struggled the most with was moving away from concepts. Back home, we are so focused on the overall product we create that I haven’t had the chance to take a step back to just focus on the microinteractions, and to just build and explore. It took awhile for me to wrap my head around what “building knowledge” meant and how to continue from there without a direct end goal. It was definitely nice to get out of my comfort zone and to see where it takes me.
During the critique, I thought it got a bit philosophical at the end. As designers, we must always take in the emotions of our users so we must be aware of how feelings are expressed and how to translate it. I believe that emotions are part of intuition and a healthy way for our bodies to process information. I feel that although the criteria of sadness could be socially constructed, it is based on the majority of the human population and how they express themselves. Whether or not we as designers want to focus on the majority or the minority would be based on the context of our designs and their target audiences. I think that as an art installation somewhere, it could remain ambiguous and sustainable. However, even if someone was to figure it out, I think it can really give the users the upper hand in finding out a bit about themselves and how they express their emotions. They can take into their own hands on what they want to do with it and how they interpret it. I think it depends on the user on whether or not it can be sustainable. I feel that it doesn’t have to remain ambiguous for it to be effective.
Something else I came across while tinkering and also, from Jens during another group’s presentation was the ethics in implicitness. While combining implicit interactions with camera vision, not only was it a struggle to make implicit, it also made me question whether or not systems taking camera acquired input in the background is at all ethical. Is any implicit interaction that involves the system to take in user data without the user’s awareness ethical at all? We want to design technology that perceives human activity making it more efficient for the user, but where do we draw the line on the information it collects? How do we make things implicit, yet not violate the privacy and security of its users? I think that it is definitely an issue that we as designers must take into account during the design process.
