What is NREL’s role? | An Interactive Explanation
World Events influence governments...
Government writes policies...
Policy creates environments...
Environment affects the people who reside within it...
People will make the difference.
Interaction Design | motion space time appearance texture sound
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Introduction This is a process book that documents an interactive design project. The project is a continuation of exploring ways to communicate an idea through new medias. The original goal was to give form to the complex situation like the energy crisis, and quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated. While each previous media has had its effectiveness demonstrated, this Interactive Design course was to engage the user in an interactive experience.
Though the visual designs have remained consistent through this work, the challenge becomes inherently more difficult as conventional tools give way to new tools and methods. Interactive Design is essentially designing for behavior. With considerations to motion, space, time, appearance, texture and sound, I’ve documented my process on how best to achieve an effective interactive experience. The results are projected through a sequence of steps in two scenarios which give a sense of NREL’s role in an ever increasingly complex and interconnected world.
government
world events
policy
environment
people
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The Visitor’s Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
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Table of Contents Design Brief Research Personas Scenarios Interface Conclusions Colophon
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Existing space that leads into the Visitor’s Center gallery.
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Design Brief NREL wants to inform new and existing audiences of their role in developing renewable energy solutions and how it affects their lives. The goal is to explain what NREL does, the complex issues surrounding renewable energy, and how these issues are interconnected. The next touch point of this effort would be an interactive explanation that would involve multiple viewers. The existing model to create an interactive experience that will be engaging, accessible and informative. Users should leave the experience and feel informed about NREL and empowered by understanding the nature of energy related issues and what their role is within them. Intended for the NREL Visitor Center, but would like the ability to reach new audiences as a possible installation piece. It should engage not only the single user but also have some multiple participatory component that allows others to observe and learn.
By creating an interactive experience that explains the NREL model, you should understand that this is an open ended model and that many perspectives and stakeholders are necessary for it to be successful. By interacting and watching others interact users will have a deeper understanding of the roles and functions of each area. The emphasis is on the interactive experience. They would walk away with an understanding of the complex issues surrounding energy and NREL’s role.
Should include: 1. Issues relating to each category (World Events, Government, Policy, Environment, People) 2. Scenarios of issues 3. How issues are related 4. Where people fit in Feature Set: An interactive experience At a scale that can be experienced by a group (10 - 20) people. An installation that can be experienced off-site. Be engaging and have an exploring non-scripted component Who are users? Students (age: 12 – college), teachers, community stakeholders, congressional aides. What are users needs? Engaging, quick, useful experience and informative How will users interact? By physically interacting with the virtual NREL model.
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I built a scale model to examine perspectives, traffic flow and prototype scenarios for possible solutions.
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Research I began my research by visiting the Visitor’s Center (VC). I wanted to walk through the building and experience it as it was. By walking through the building I gained some insights of the space and how I might take advantage of the existing structural layout. I interviewed the Director of the VC, the volunteer staff that operates and answers questions for visitors, NREL employees and visitors themselves.
The common links I found that connected all these perspectives was none of the exhibit material explained the big picture and what exactly does NREL does to help. I also looked for examples of interactive experiences. I was looking for large exhibits that would provide opportunities for multiple users at one time. I remembered Sigi Moeslinger and Masamichi Udagawa’s long wall of flowers “Power Flower” and began to explore similar technologies and interface possibilities.
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Research
World Events
Government
influence governments...
Power Flower
Bloomingdale’s New York, Häagen-daza Cultural Initiative, 2002 Interactive Public Installation Antenna Design This installation utilizes a long horizontal space by mirroring the motion of people walking by and lighting up as they move along side it. This was the first digital influence.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXbims0yPhU
Adobe Creative Suite
Virgin Megastore Union Square, NYC Interactive Public Installation This installation creates a sequence of images that paints up as you walk by. This led me to think of unique images that could appear as you walk by. The five NREL categories from the model would fit neatly into this scenario. Each section could light up and reveal the long sentence that connects them.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-NRdyUx8Lc
Policy creates environments...
Environment affects the people who reside within it...
Levono - Showroom North Carolina
A projection based interactive installation for Lenovo’s head office showroom in North Carolina. A large body of 3D virtual water is projected along the corridor’s wall. Visitors walking by are optically tracked and their motion is translated to ripples and waves along the wall. This display responded to individual touch.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ltp9nKKzsA&fea ture=related
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writes policies...
People will make the difference.
Research
Nextfest Interactive video wall
Interactive floor projection system
Ringo - Holographic Interface GUI
Responding to touch and motion. The grass responds to touch and I thought this could be useful to animate the sequence of sections.
Interactive floor demo using thermal detection? This projected display changed how I thought of the interaction. And how two people could interact at the same time.
A graduate project by Ivan Tihienko from Bezalel Academy of Visual Communications. This showed how two people could interact and change the experience from a scripted series to something more, organic and unique to the user.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3BJqSIK890&fea
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWcVk7ekNdI&
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0H1NNa6zXc
ture=related
feature=related
?? ????
Virgin Megastore Union Square, NYC Interactive Public Installation
Jerusalem, 2008
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Research
World Events influence governments...
Government writes policies...
Policy creates environments...
Environment affects the people who reside within it...
The Art of Dining
Detroit Institute of Art, 2008 Pentagram Pentagram created several exhibits but these two, in particular caught my eye. First, setting the table was an experience several people could participate in. Sitting at table added to the realism. The table was accessible and inviting to the experience.
I like how four people could be involved, but no one person was driving the experience. It is communal. More people could gather and watch as well. There wasn’t any interaction with the elements, but the experience of several people added to the demonstration.
Link: http://pentagram.com/en/new/2008/05/new-work-detroit-institute-of-1.php
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The wall silhouette was similar in that several people could watch at the same time. The scale of technologies is creating new opportunities for interactive experiences.
People will make the difference.
Research Interviews
Other sources of influence
Reading
Visitor Center Director Visitor Center staff NREL employees Visitors
Denver Museum of Science & Natural History
Sketching User Experience, Bill Buxton
Colorado History Museum Denver Art Museum The CELL: Terrorism Museum Detroit Institute of Arts Art of Dining installation by Pentagram Building miniature model of Visitor Center space
Designing Interactions, Bill Moggridge The Design of Everyday Things, Donald A. Norman Designing for Interaction, Dan Saffer Designing Gestural Interfaces, Dan Saffer What is Interaction? Are there different types? Hugh Dubberly Link: http://www.dubberly.com/articles/ what-is-interaction.html#more-199 Talk to the Hand: Dan Saffer and Gestural interfaces Link: http://www.core77.com/blog/featured_ items/talk_to_the_hand_dan_saffer_and_gestural_interfaces_by_andy_polaine_12522.asp
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Walking through interface scenarios
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Personas Developing archetypes of the people who will interact with the display give a greater sense of who will be involved. “Users,� suddenly become people. Design considerations emerge from this personas that would not have otherwise. The personas are a mosaic of the commonalities amongst people interviewed and observed. They can be diverse representatives covering ranges of age, skill, etc.
They are useful only if referred to and adhered to. Marnie, Kwon, Chris and Marla all seemed like real people, with real motivations. They aided my scenarios with a component of human empathy and stood in for particular issues. For example, Marnie’s image with her friends hinted at a real possibility that she may be distracted when interacting with the display. Questions arose on timing and how to engage parties of people instead of a single person.
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Personas| Marnie
World Events influence governments...
Government writes policies...
Policy creates environments...
Environment affects the people who reside within it...
Marnie Provenzeno 9 years old Lafayette, CO Marnie is a Girl Scout who wants the world to remain beautiful for all the animals, and people too. Goals: to stop pollution, use wind energy and save earth Tasks: see what NREL does, learn about wind turbines and see what she can do to save the planet
Marnie is learning about energy in Girl Scouts. She is excited about her troop field trip to NREL. She hopes she has fun and enjoys exploring NREL’s Visitor’s Center with her friends. She doesn’t like pollution and wants to know what she can do to stop it. She thinks wind turbines are beautiful and wishes she had one on her house. Her troop is visiting Saturday at noon and plan to have lunch there as well. They expect to be there for an hour.
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People will make the difference.
Personas| Kwon Kwon Sang 16 years old Golden, CO
Kwon is a high school student (Science Bowl Team Winner). He would love to have a job that involved science and applied to environmental concerns. Goals: reduce carbon emissions, learn how to prepare for a “green” job have a career as a scientist
Kwon recently won The Science Bowl Team. He’s been excelling in science at school and beginning to think about careers in the “green economy.” He doesn’t consider himself a tree hugger, but more of a realist concerning the environment. “It makes sense to use resources that are local and infinite,” says Kwon. He’s also learning about energy issues in social studies and now is going to NREL to learn about renewable energy. His trip is with the school on Monday afternoon and is for 30 minutes.
Tasks: find out what NREL does, see what sciences NREL advances, research renewable energy and related job fields within
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Personas | Chris
World Events influence governments...
Government writes policies...
Policy creates environments...
Environment affects the people who reside within it...
Chris Dulcamaro 46 years old Broomfield, CO
Chris is a community leader and city council member.
Goals: Tasks:
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live in a better environment, become a knowledge able speaker on renewable energy, adopt renewable energy in his city, development and implement energy efficient practices for his city seeking information on renewable energy so he can give presentation to city about NREL find out what NREL does
Chris read that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is researching energy efficiency in homes. He wants his community to adopt some of these practices and thinks it would be great for Broomfield to lead the way. He knows a little about solar and wind energy, but what he wants to know about is how scalable these technologies are to communities and homeowners. He’s going to visit NREL on Saturday morning with his son.
People will make the difference.
Personas | Marla Marla Mikalit 39 years old Bethesda, MD
Marla is a congressional aide assigned to environmental policies and provisions. She is influential to the decisions maker in Washington.
Marla is researching federal laboratories and their role in developing renewable energy. She’s been touring several labs in the western states. She visits the labs without a formal tour. She is traveling alone and has set aside Thursday morning to visit NREL, then she will fly down to Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Goals: Inform congressman and committees of efforts and initiatives the energy programs are achieving by visiting each lab Tasks: gather information on NREL, see what role NREL plays in energy solution, create report on each lab
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New solutions emerged through quick prototypes.
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Scenarios Scenarios are prototypes built of words. They help assist a temporal creation of situational possibilities. They are used like mini stories to conjure up the personas in potential environments and interactions. Each persona was run through, “what if” scenarios. Marnie’s persona brought up issues of multi people entering the visitor’s center and being distracted. Kwon’s persona has similar issues; Teenage boys unsupervised and more demonstrative can be its own distraction.
Both Chris and Marla’s scenario revolved around time and interest. They delved further into the model and time became a concern. To assist the scenarios, storyboards were created to help illustrate concerns as well. For example, positioning the interface for Marla’s height was not going to work for Marnie’s height. That lead directly to using motion to aide the various heights of users. To accommodate this difference the options would slowly rotate, making them accessible and various heights.
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Scenarios | Marnie
World Events
Government
influence governments...
Marnie walks into the visitor center with her friends. After a brief introduction by the volunteer staff, she and her troop is allowed to walk down the corridor and into the main demonstration area. As she is walking past the wall display her friends notice that a large display screen has changed. Then they notice how it has changed as they are walking by, and that it’s following their movement.
writes policies...
affects the people who reside within it...
The halo of words are actually issues that surround the icon topic. The girls read the words and engage each icon the same way. Then they walk away.
1
2
3
energy security carbon emissions
geopolitics
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creates environments...
The girls read the sentence out loud. And as they read the sentence because they have remained in front of the World Events (WE) icon a halo of words surround the WE icon.
They stop. Five icons have appeared and are animating. A sentence that appeared when they walked by begins to dissolve. One of the girls walks to one of the icons and the sentence that connects them begins to appear. Noticing that the sentence appears as she moves along the line of icons, she walks along all five and the sentence reappears. (!)
Environment
Policy
unstable
World Events
reliance
energy sources
World Events
energy security carbon emissions
geopolitics
unstable
reliance
energy sources
World Events
The first layer consists of the categories and a sentence that strings them together. Because of Marnie’s age and knowledge she would understand the first layer and some of the second.
People will make the difference.
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Scenarios | Kwon
World Events
Government
influence governments...
Kwon walks into the visitor’s center with his friends. After a brief introduction by the volunteer staff, they are allowed to walk down the corridor into the main demonstration area. As he is walking past the wall display he notices that the screen has changed. He noticed how it has changed as they walked by, and how it followed their movement. He stops. Five icons have appeared and are animating. A sentence that appeared when they walked by begins to dissolve. He walks towards one of the icons and the sentence that connects them begins to appear again. Noticing that the sentence appears as he moves along the line of icons, he walks along all five and the sentence reappears. (!) He reads the sentence. And as he reads the sentence because he has remained in front of the Government (GE) icon a halo of words surround the GE icon.
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writes policies...
Environment
Policy creates environments...
affects the people who reside within it...
The halo of words are actually issues that surround the icon topic. Below the icon a subtle hand appears which indicates that touching a word will reveal more info. He reaches for one of the issues. As his hand gets closer to one of the words it enlarges and then shakes as the other words disappear.
A paragraph below appears with the word chosen and explains how “leadership,” the word he choose, affects government and how NREL is influenced and can influence that issue. After he reads it, it disappears and the halo of words returns.
1
2
3
energy security
energy security carbon emissions
geopolitics
unstable
World Events influence governments...
reliance
energy sources
World Events influence governments...
carbon emissions
geopolitics
unstable
reliance
energy sources
World Events influence governments...
Meanwhile Kwon’s friends have selected another word in front of another icon. They all can read each of these separately. Then he walks away. And the display slowly reverted to the state it was when they first encountered it.
The first layer consists of the categories and a sentence that strings them together. Because of Kwon’s age and knowledge he might understand all of the information but still I thought, the third layer might be a challenge contextually.
People will make the difference.
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Scenarios | Chris
World Events
Government
influence governments...
Chris walks into the visitor center with his son. They walk down the corridor into the main demonstration area.
Below the icon a subtle hand appears which indicates that touching a word will reveal more info.
As he is walking past the wall display his son notices that the screen has changed. He noticed how it has changed as they walked by, and that it followed their movement.
He reaches for one of the issues. As his hand gets closer to one of the words it enlarges and then shakes as the other words disappear.
They stop. Five icons have appeared and are animating. A sentence that appeared when they walked by begins to dissolve. He walks towards one of the icons to see if it was motion activated. The sentence that connects them begins to appear again. Noticing that the sentence appears as he moves along the line of icons, he walks along all five and the sentence reappears. (!) They read the sentence out loud. And as he reads the sentence because he has remained in front of the Government (GE) icon a halo of words surround the GE icon. The halo of words are actually issues that surround the icon topic.
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A paragraph below appears with the word cho sen and explains how “world events,� the word he choose, affects world events and how NREL is influenced and can influence that issue. After he reads it, it disappears and the halo of words returns.
writes policies...
1
carbon emissions
Then they walk away. And the display slowly reverted to the state it was when they first encountered it.
Influence governments...
affects the people who reside within it...
3
energy security geopolitics
World Events
creates environments...
2
unstable
Meanwhile his son has selected another word in front of another icon. They read each of these separately. They occasionally look at what each other is looking at.
Environment
Policy
reliance
energy sources
World Events influence governments...
energy security carbon emissions
geopolitics
unstable
reliance
energy sources
World Events influence governments...
For Chris, he would clearly understand all the levels. For him, learning of NREL’s role within each one would be of interest.
People will make the difference.
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Scenarios | Marla
World Events
Government
influence governments...
Marla walks into the visitor center alone. She is greeted by the volunteer staff. She asks some questions and the guide directs her to the wall display. She explains the wall is interactive and some of her questions are explained here by choosing each surrounding each icon. She noticed how the display has changed as she walked by, and that it followed her movement when she walked by. Five icons have appeared and are animating. A sentence that appeared when they walked by begins to dissolve. She walks towards the first icon (WE). The sentence that connects them begins to appear again. Noticing that the sentence appears as she moves along the line of icons, she walks along all five and the sentence reappears. (!) She reads the sentence out loud. And as she reads the sentence stays illuminated because she has remained in front of the Government (GE) icon a halo of words surround the GE icon.
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writes policies...
Environment
Policy creates environments...
affects the people who reside within it...
The halo of words are actually issues that surround the icon topic. Below the icon a subtle hand appears which indicates that touching a word will reveal more info. She reaches for one of the issues. As her hand gets closer to one of the words it enlarges and then shakes as the other words disappear.
A paragraph below appears with the word chosen and explains how “world events,” the word she choose, affects world events and how NREL is influenced and can influence that issue. After she reads it, it disappears and the halo of words returns.
1
She walks away. And the display slowly reverted to the state it was when she first encountered it.
3
energy security carbon emissions
geopolitics
unstable
World Events influence governments...
She reads several of the topics and the issues within each.
2
reliance
energy sources
World Events influence governments...
energy security carbon emissions
geopolitics
unstable
reliance
energy sources
World Events influence governments...
As the world demands more energy, how efficient we use it, where it comes from, and how we secure it becomes crucial.
For Marla, she would clearly understand all the levels. For her, learning of NREL’s role within each one would be of interest. Contextually, it might bring up issues that she hadn’t thought of before.
People will make the difference.
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government
world events
environment
people
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policy
Interface The style had been established on previous projects. Even animation and motion was demonstrated on previous projects. But how to break the model into consumable chunks that users would choose to interact through hadn’t been done yet. I decided to divide the information in three parts. Level 1 would introduce the concepts as a long sentence. Level 2 would reveal the issues that surround each section. Level 3 would provide an explanation of a selected issue that addresses NREL’s role. There would only been one new element added to assist in forwarding to each level. A hand symbol. The hand symbol would appear and pulsate when an advance in a stage was required.
Level 1 Intial sentence introduces topics
Level 2 Issues surrounding each topic
Level 3 Explanation of NREL’s role in relation to issue selected
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government
world events
policy
environment
people
The NREL model will cycle slowly. This motion re-enforces the cyclic nature of energy issues but also arose during scenarios when comparing the users various heights.
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government
world events
policy
environment
touch topic
people
When someone walks by, a small hand symbols appears and pulsates. Below it reads, “touch topic�.
government
world events
government
policy
environment
touch topic
people
The user would select one of the topics that had be cycling.
world events
policy
environment
people
The selection would hightlight and the other topics would dim (as would the hand) to indicate a selection has been made. [Note: The display knows where the person is standing based on what selection they made and position it was selected in.]
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World Events influence governments...
Government writes policies...
Policy creates environments...
Environment affects the people who reside within it...
People will make the difference.
After the selection is made, colored feet appear on the floor directly in front of the display except for the one that corresponds to the selection just made. That would align with the position the user is in and form a circle.
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World Events influence governments...
Government writes policies...
Policy creates environments...
Environment affects the people who reside within it...
People will make the difference.
At this point the user would notice the colored feet and how where they are standing is a circle. If they were to move to another colored feet position, the circle they were in would change to feet and the colored feet they stepped on would changed to a circle.
new paradigms
Events
Government writes policies...
Policy
People World Events
Environment
creates environments...
affects the people who reside within it...
willinfluence make thegovernments... difference.
Government writes policies...
Policy
Environment
creates environments...
affects the people who reside within it...
sustainable
As the user is standing in front of their selection or onto a set of colored feet...
new paradigms clean
Events
influence governments...
Government writes policies...
Policy creates environments...
new paradigms
abundant renewable energy
touch issue
affects the people who reside within it...
People will make the difference.
economy
...a halo of issues emerge and float (orbit) around the topic.
alternatives
Environment
abundant renewable energy
clean
influence governments...
alternatives
alternatives abundant renewable energy
People World Events willinfluence make thegovernments... difference.
economy
Government writes policies...
Policy creates environments...
Environment clean
affects the people who reside within it...
People will make the difference.
economy
The conditions that arise with new paradigms will change the way you live with new technologies, new markets and new innovations.
The little hand symbol emerges and pulsates and reads, “touch issue.”
When an issue is touched and explanation of it is given within a context of NREL’s role. Choosing another issues replacing existing choice.
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government
world events
policy
environment
people
The NREL model will cycle slowly. This motion re-enforces the cyclic nature of energy issues but also arose during scenarios when comparing the users various heights.
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government
world events
policy
environment
touch topic
people
When someone walks by, a small hand symbols appears and pulsates. Below it reads, “touch topic�.
government
world events
government
policy
environment
touch topic
people
The user would select one of the topics that had be cycling.
world events
policy
environment
people
The selection would hightlight and the other topics would dim (as would the hand) to indicate a selection has been made. [Note: The display knows where the person is standing based on what selection they made and position it was selected in.]
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World Events influence governments...
Government writes policies...
Policy creates environments...
Environment affects the people who reside within it...
People will make the difference.
After the selection is made, colored feet appear on the floor directly in front of the display except for the one that corresponds to the selection just made. That would align with the position the user is in and form a circle.
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World Events influence governments...
Government writes policies...
Policy creates environments...
Environment affects the people who reside within it...
People will make the difference.
At this point the user would notice the colored feet and how where they are standing is a circle. If they were to move to another colored feet position, the circle they were in would change to feet and the colored feet they stepped on would changed to a circle. The circle indicates that the section is active and will begin its sequence.
new paradigms
alternatives abundant renewable energy
World Events
Government
influence governments...
Policy
writes policies...
People
Environment
creates environments...
affects the people who reside within it...
World Events
will make the difference.
Government
influence governments...
writes policies...
Policy creates environments...
People
Environment clean
affects the people who reside within it...
will make the difference.
economy
sustainable
As the user is standing in front of their selection or onto a set of colored feet...
competitive
future strategies
leadership
new paradigms
geoeconomics
alternatives abundant
direction
...a halo of issues emerge and float (orbit) around the topic.
competitive
innovate scientists develop
future
researchers
engineering
renewable energy
World Events influence governments...
Government commitment
touch issue
writes policies...
Policy creates environments...
Environment clean
touch issue
affects the people who reside within it...
economy
advancing
new paradigms
leadership
geoeconomics
direction
alternatives
explore
will make the difference.
solutions
sustainable
The little hand symbol emerges and pulsates and reads, “touch issue.”
World Events
touch issue
advancing
Government
influence governments...
researchers
engineering
renewable energy
strategies
People
innovate scientists develop
abundant
writes policies...
commitment Nations require affordable energy to be globally competitive. A new direction can begin with consistant leadership and a strategy to secure alternative energy sources.
Policy creates environments...
Environment clean
affects the people who reside within it...
economy
The conditions that arise with new paradigms will change the way you live with new technologies, new markets and new innovations.
explore
People will make the difference.
solutions
You can make the choice for our environment to be clean and sustainable by working together to advance alternative energy solutions.
When an issue is touched and explanation of it is given within a context of NREL’s role. Choosing another issues replacing existing choice.
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Affordances, like the pulsating hand symbol, indicate touching the display is invited/ required.
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Conclusions Other considerations included audio. I selected an audio track by Colleen titled, “Summer Waters.� This track creates an ambient scene that loops in a slow progression. It has a sense of wonder as it creates a contemplative, expansive and shimmering textural audioscape. Link: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=LbUG29uNYXo Selecting the pulsating hand would activate it to shimmer and also have a faint bubble sound. The reason behind the audio selections are to create a sense of wonder and openness. I want the user not to feel rushed or pressured. Soothing sounds will encourage exploring and learning and hopefully create a pleasing experience. Other visual cues to initiate or change behaviors was the foot prints. Once you stood over a set of foot prints, they would disappear, then a color circle would appear. This would begin the sequence.
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Credits Photography Jonathan Steinberg: Cover image, inside cover, page 12, inside back cover. Holly Canfield: page 18 All other images by Bill Gillies
Illustrations Bill Gillies
Design/Copy Bill Gillies | Interaction Design | Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design | Spring 2009
Typeface ITC Officina
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