DSDN 112: Project One

Research Stage / Week Two

For our second week for this paper, we were asked to bring 2 objects in to our lesson. We needed to bring 2 objects that had a good "user" interaction. One that is very functional and one that is fun or interesting to use. For my functional object I chose to bring an Xbox 360 controller. The reason I chose to bring this object is because it is designed for one purpose and to suit those who use it. It fits perfectly into your hands and you immediately get the feel for it, meaning you learn how to use it fast. My next object which is the fun one, is one of ties. I brought a tie because it has an interesting way of interaction, the way you have to tie it up to fit etc. Also it is visually fun. Ties come in many different shapes and sizes and colors. Its more of an emotion thing to what tie you wear, so generally it fits the interaction of most people these days. After showing off our interesting objects and talking about them, we got into pairs and filled out a chart to identify each "group" of object e.g. Kinetic/Visual/Sounds etc. Yes as you can see we came up with some pretty interesting things..

From this lesson, I had an idea of what I could do for this project. I chose the sense "TOUCH". I plan to relate it back to the controller that I brought along with me. One thing I realized when people are gaming and using the controller, is that they get so into the game and don't even realize that they're holding it! (that is unless they're "raging" at the game) So my plan was to design my own controller, with each button having a different texture to it, so people realize and get a new experience from holding it. So far I've researched the present and past controller designs for the famous gaming platforms. I've also gathered together some materials that could be a possibility to work on:

Clay (to build the base and core of the controller)

Sandpaper (I bought different roughness so you'll be able to tell the difference between each one)

Tin foil (it has a unique surface to it, still undecided about this one)

Wood (different wood that I could look into, include balsa and MDF)

Wire (wire mesh could work well but I'm afraid it'll be too expensive)

This is just a brainstorming stage for now, but if I can pull this off it should be a pretty successful project to go with. Here are some of the controllers I have researched.

DSDN 141: Experiment One

Contact Sheets: Experiment One

I started experimenting with several different materials to see which one showed up the most effective. I wanted to show mainly the positive attributes of the certain materials I was looking at, along with the negative outcomes that came out, showing them with high quality photos. 

DSDN 142: Creative Coding

Processing Introduction


For our first class in creative coding, we were introduced to the program that we were to use throughout this whole semester. Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to create images, animations, and interactions. Perfect for designers like myself, since it's free and great to use. Our first lesson we just learnt the basics of coding. We made a blank canvas, and drew some shapes and lines. We then learnt a little about variables and how to color in shapes etc. Nothing too difficult for a start but it'll get more complicated later on. 


These are a few that I have made just for practice. The first is just a basic traffic light, made of 3 ellipses all color filled and 3 rectangles which are color filled as well. Making the shapes were easy it was just finding the correct position that was hard to do, practice makes perfect I guess.


The following 4 images are just an experiment using "beginShape" an "vertex". I drew 6 vertex's in the image and made the last vertex as a "mouseY" movement, which means wherever your mouse cursor moves the art point moves. But as you can see with the first one I didn't put a background color in "void draw" which meant it didn't maintain the color it had throughout the whole interaction. The last three images show the fixed one that I made with the movement on it too.

DSDN 112: Week One

So...another semester begins! Showing up to my first class of DSDN 112 (Introduction to Interaction Design), I hadn't a clue what to expect. We chose our own groups this time round, got assigned a tutor and we got introduced to our course outline and first assignment. We have to build an object to do with one of our 5 bodily senses, that someone else can interact with. Ideas are flaring!..


Our first studio was quite a chilled out and relaxed one, we ate Oreos to discover the relationship between our senses on how we see it. I didn't see anything since I just ate it in one bite.
The next one was something that was interesting though. They prepared "shots" of milk, one was normal colored and the rest were blue, green and yellow. We all had to have one of each color and guess what flavor they were. Of course I immediately thought that it was just milk, with food coloring...was I right? Yeah. We'll leave it at that. Right, so the next one was a funny looking red liquid that looked like kool-aid. There was this funny little contraption that you put under your nose to make it smell like raspberry, but when you drink it you're hit with a very sour taste, which can only be lemon juice. Yes, very deceiving..


So nek studio...


We were asked to bring 5 objects that represent something to do with each sense.
Mine were:


Taste - Jaybees! (I bought a packet of Jaybees because the colors of each jellybean is misleading. Plus the texture changes completely once you reach the center, with the flavor changing to a bland and boring taste. Oh, and it has my name.


Smell - A box of matches was my first choice, only because when you first light a match you get a big whiff of the flame/smoke that extracts from it. My second was my cologne, simply because who doesn't like the smell of a highly rated branded scent?


Touch - Sandpaper. Black sandpaper that is. I chose this color instead of the normal "sand" colored (wow) sandpaper because it looks smoother. Yup, mislead again.The black sandpaper that I brought was actually rough as ...rough. 


Hear - I showed 2 interesting apps from my iPhone. The first was a sleep aid, where it plays soothing sounds to people who find it hard to sleep at night (certainly not me). The second was what grabbed peoples attention. It was called Hearing Test. It emits a frequency from low to high to test what age of hearing we had. Tested it, we all had a hearing of a 30year old..apparently.


See - I brought a big plastic sheet that's actually a magnifying glass. This just gave me the idea of certain materials that we look through, which changes our vision wildly depending on what we're looking through. A good example would be a pair of prescription glasses, which are solely designed for one person's eyesight. If anyone else ever looked through it, blurry/dizzy life ahead..

DSDN 142: Precedents and Research

Our first class session involved going into a website which was www.openprocessing.org. We were told to browse around through the processing sketches that other people around the world have created, using the program Processing. I was fascinated by the level of creation and sophistication that has gone through each process. I chose the following 2 examples of processes that people have done since I was interested in following something like these throughout my project.

The first one is called "harmony_web_remake" which starts off as a blank white sheet. It involves users to interact with their mouse by holding down the left-click. By doing this we can create a digital web, as I have explored below. The link to this is:

http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/8168

The second one that I found interesting was called "ink splatter" which again starts with a blank page and requires the user to interact. By clicking on the sheet, an ink splatter colored black appears on the page. What I liked about this one is that no matter how many times you click on the page, it never generates the same style brush stroke as the others. It ranges from sizes, which also includes a wet-paint style drip down the page. After awhile, the ink starts to "dry" out and turns into a grey color, similar to real black paint or indian ink. This java script can be found here:

http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/65438

This course Creative Coding (DSDN142) is completely new to me, speaking to a few students in the first class we agreed that it is almost like learning a whole new language. I myself is very inexperienced at this and will be interested to learn more.