Thursday, 8 May 2014

Active Forms (Tangible User Interface): Product Evaluation and Self Assessment

Product Evaluation

I believe that the final concept I created for the Active Forms project was highly successful for a variety of reasons, mostly based on the ways that it is interacted with by the user as well as the use of form to provide an enjoyable and satisfying user experience.

The product is visually similar to many existing contemporary household ornaments and so is able to be placed in a household environment without being intrusive. The use of fairly neutral styling combined with a minimalist design would allow it to be used in any room in a house without looking out of place. Just the right amount of surface texture and features provide an interesting aesthetic without clashing with any existing styling or theme of room decor. Sitting on a shelf or windowsill, it could easily be passed off as an interesting looking vase rather than a highly sophisticated tangible user interface used to control a room environment.
The device is also intended to have a low level of disruptiveness. As the interaction is quick and easy to perform without even having to look at it in great detail, the room settings can be adjusted with minimal concentration. It will therefore not have a significant impact on the user’s activity and so they will be able to carry on with the task as they did previous to the interaction.

The product provides information regarding the environmental settings of a particular room by either increasing/ decreasing in height and changing the intensity of its internal LEDs to represent the brightness of the room, or tilting left and right whilst changing colour to represent a change in temperature. Feedback and interaction is logical and is based on common knowledge and assumptions in modern day society.
The use of commonly known and understood gestures in combination with physical affordances built into the body of the product allows it to be intuitive and easy to use. Upon inspection of the device, the visible gaps in between the moving sections immediately communicate to the user that they are separate parts and probably move relative to each other. This then causes them to think about the ways in which it may require them to interact with it in order to open the sections. The use of a hole feature on the top of the device will, again, suggest that it is something for the user to interact with.
If a user places their hands near the device, they will immediately see a reaction in the form of the device moving away from their hands. The proximity sensors in the shell detect the introduction of another object and then cause the servo motors to react by moving in the opposite direction to the side that the object is on. This applies to both the change in height and the tilting action. By learning from past experience, the majority of users will understand that if they push an object, it will usually move in the same direction as the action of their hand. This logic is applied to the movement of the servo motors so that the device can be manipulated as expected by the user, without actually having to make physical contact.
A change in room brightness is represented by changing the height of the product. As the height increases, the gaps between the shell sections also increase, allowing more light (from the LEDs) to be seen by the user. This is similar to opening curtains during the day and so the same logic is applied to the device by the user. The light intensity is increased by a movement resulting in increased height and so the idea that both are moving in a positive direction is also logical.
The temperature is changed by moving the device either left or right. As the movement to the right resulting in an increase in room temperature, matches a positive increase on the X-axis of a graph, again, the interaction is logical. The commonly accepted idea that red means hot and blue means cold is also used here as the colour changes with the movement. This provides another, more visual and easily understood form of feedback.

As the device is easy to understand due to it being intuitive and logical, the user interaction will be a positive experience. The use of fluid motion and a quick reaction to the users input will show that the device is working correctly and will confirm that they are interacting in the intended way. As the reaction can easily be understood; both at the physical level as well as in a metaphorical sense, the user can easily make adjustments to their input in order to modify the output and therefore tailor the room environment to their needs.
The lighting and temperature functions are independent and can be operated simultaneously providing a quick solution to the user’s requirements. As the device can be manipulated so that it is in any combined position between the limits of the two variables, and is controlled solely by the user, they will feel empowered as they can fine tune the room settings in a fun and unique way. They will therefore feel satisfied with the interaction. The music on the other hand, although being able to be turned on and off at will by the user, is controlled by the settings of the lighting and temperature. The genre or mood of the music is determined by the position of these settings and so will provide an easy way for the user’s activity to be matched to an audio track that aims to enhance the experience.


The product provides an entertaining way to control the environmental settings of a room. This is achieved through the efficient and intuitive interaction and feedback methods as well as the aesthetics. The use of LEDS, which change colour and create moving patterns provide an interesting visual aspect which can be either relaxing or stimulating. They also help to create the impression that the device is alive; something which fits in with the overall appearance of the design and also ties in with the theme of “Health and Wellbeing”. The shell is also designed to aesthetically appealing and can be used as an ornament to decorate a house whilst also being a functional product.

Self Assessment

Overall, I believe this to be one of my most successful projects to date, as I not only created what I feel to be a well designed conceptual product but have also learnt many things regarding design and the interaction between user and product. I have also developed many other skills that will be useful during the actual process of design and in real world applications.
Early on in the project, through discussion and annotated diagrams/ sketches, I provided many ideas about the direction in which the group should take the product. These proved useful later on as even the concepts we didn’t choose to develop had relevance in terms of interaction and so could be applied to the chosen design in order to improve it. From these activities, I improved my sketching ability as well as how to make the most of concept generation techniques.
I had significant input during the development stages and helped the group make important decisions regarding the logic of the interactions and the methods of implementation of feedback. This is reflected in the final design which takes much inspiration from both my initial concept sketches as well as the diagrams I produced to help explain my ideas about the internal mechanism. By doing these tasks and researching electronic components and mechanical systems, I learnt a lot about mechanical and electronic engineering and how it is integrated into products to provide functions.
I helped to create two physical prototypes. They helped the group to visualise the design and imagine it being used in a household environment.  This allowed us to then make decisions about the dimensions and shape, choice of components as well as the configuration of the parts and the internal mechanism.
As the final design took a lot of ideas from my previous work, I created a CAD model on SolidWorks in order to demonstrate the component configuration and method of assembly. This was then used to create final product renders and with the help of the other group members, animations demonstrating the functions. By doing this, I discovered some features on SolidWorks that I didn’t previously know about as well as understanding some of the ones I initially didn’t know how to use.
By creating the final product storyboard diagrams, I developed my skills at using Adobe Photoshop. I learnt a lot about enhancing hand-drawn sketches and how to use the various tools to create lighting/ shading and 3-dimensional effects.
Being assigned the role of group leader, something which I haven’t experienced much in previous group work, showed me the amount of work and dedication required in order to manage a team of designers/ engineers in order to design a product. In order to meet deadlines, as well as putting in a lot of effort to complete my own work, I also had to assign tasks to other group members based on their strengths and distribute the work load efficiently. It was especially important to communicate with the other group members effectively, something which was achieved through the use of a Facebook group. It was here that all individual work was set and uploaded, in order to keep it organised and keep track of what tasks were still to complete. Regular group meetings allowed me to ensure that all group members were on the same page in terms of the direction of the design.

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