This 8 weeks project from September, 2012 was part of the esSense design research projects group at the Technical University of Eindhoven Industrial Design department. The goal of the project was designing perceptive behavior in an artifact and engage people in a meaningful reciprocal interplay with this artifact, and whether we can rethink how we interact with products and space.
Dig_Mo is an artefact, designed for researching the influence of inherent components on augmented behavior. The corners of the top surface of the artefact sensing where it was touched and it reacts on that by moving its center of movement in that direction. Dig_Mo is always in motion, and its speed and responsiveness depends on how dynamically it was touched; therefore if it is touched frequently in different corners, its motion becomes faster and become more responsive, else it stays in position and slows down, meanwhile become less reactive to touch.
The artefact can express motion in two way; with its augmented light body or in addition to that it can move with its translucent disk as well; which is in a same level as the touch inputs and placed in front of the path of the light body, allows to be gently touch during the interaction.
The artefact can express motion in two way; with its augmented light body or in addition to that it can move with its translucent disk as well; which is in a same level as the touch inputs and placed in front of the path of the light body, allows to be gently touch during the interaction.
Explorations through Prototyping
I formed my research process in 3 main phases. First the Preparation, where I read the available literature on Perceptual Crossing, Embodied Interaction, phenomenology and explored technologies that might be relevant for the project; than in 5 weeks, 5 different prototypes were made and tested in order to explore material and emotional qualities in artifacts. Lastly a final hypothesis were defined through designing a final artifact, and lab experiment was set for qualitative testing.
Testing DigMo
To design interactive products and environments in the future, designers need to know how to design engaging and expressive interactions. This design research project demonstrates the effectiveness of physical ideation, working with experienceable scenarios, show it to people and understand how do they perceive the design and why.
In my case, I was triggered by the current consumer products, the analog and digital interfaces; and I wanted to know how people perceive a combination of analog and digital interface.
The results shows if for example I would like to design a game for children the combination of digital and analog would be perfect for a game where I would like to stimulate them to be more active and provide rich, expressive feedback with a combination of lights, sound and physical motion. In case if I am designing a serious, logic game and I would like to offer an engaging interplay with the toy I would focus on simple, subtle augmented feedback.
