Re s p o n s i ve Environments Environments Re s p o n s i ve
A dual project by Edward Allbutt and Bethany Cheyne
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Product Design Year 2 Icebreaker
19.09 to 23.09
Redux
26.09 to 28.10
Fringe
14.11 to 9.12
Responsive Environments Live Project
9.1 to 3.2 20.02 to 24.03
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Contents 6-7 - Chain Reaction 8-9 - Brief Synopsis 10-13 - ‘Mundane Moments’ 14-15 - Gates 16-17 - Visual Inspirations 18-19 - User Analysis 20-23 - Design Concepts 24-27 - Experiential Mock-Ups 28-29 - Storyboard 30-33 - Refining Product 34-39 - Final Design 39-41 - Reflections
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CHAIN REACTION
Chain Reaction: A week long project familiarising ourselves with the programme Arduino, as well as the Teensy Motherboard. An short education into programming for physical movement, As seen here, the objective was to successfully link a series of movements in an electronic chain, each section programmed and constructed by a group of 3. This served as a fitting introduction in the ‘Responsive Envirnoments’ project, in which we would use physical ‘inputs’ to trigger reactions and create beautiful and interesting interactions
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Brief Synopsis Working in pairs, you are asked to build on the knowledge and skills acquired in the week-long project - Chain Reaction: Cause & Effect - to design and build a functioning ‘responsive environment’ prototype, the experiential output of which will be determined by the convergence of a selected context and appropriate input. Your task is first to identify a pre-existing ‘mundane’ moment from everyday life (washing the dishes, taking a shower, making a cup of tea), and then add value to this everyday task or moment through the application of responsive technology (some kind of input/sensor) by converting this input to an output of some sort. The final outcome of your project will be a functioning prototype of a responsive environment, but this does not necessarily have to be built at full scale - some concepts might be best expressed in the form of a functional scale model. The success of your project will depend on how creative you can be with both the input and output within the given context. Your final presentation will include not only a functioning responsive prototype but also a representation of how this experience might become manifest in the context for which it is designed - this might be a fully functioning ‘hacked’ space within the studio, a scale model, a short film... be inventive, resourceful and intelligent in the way you sell the value of your proposal.
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Mundane Moments Mundane moments are difficult to identify as they’re so easily and purposefully forgotten. Chores; they invoke a feeling of dread in having to be completed routinely Taking glass to the recycling bin is a moral choice.
Fixing shoes, bags and coats to be ready and presentable to continue the commute on foot,
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Climbing the stairs
At the station, waiting for a train
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Petrol Stations: filling up the car and waiting for the fuel
Organising rubbish in fast-food restaurants, splitting for sake of recycling
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Opening and closing gates; passing through thresholds
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Chosen Subject:
Gates
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grandeur security power familiarity ceremony
Visual Inspirations
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User-Centred Design
EMPATHY MAP Key human insights and needs articualted by empathy map
Empathy Map
THINK AND FEEL Keys unlocking the door
Creaking of gate hinge
‘I look at my front door and I want to cry’
What’s for supper? I’m tired
Busy street behind them / beside them
Voices/appliances inside the house
HEAR
The front door beyond the gate
Traffic Clicking of gate latch
A garden between gate and door
Wind/rain
Footsteps
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SEE
SAY AND DO 1.Walk up to gate, lift latch, open gate, walk through 2. Walk up open path to door 3. Find keys, open door, walk through, close door “Honey, I’m home!”
Gain
We spent a good amount of time considering the human experience of using a gate. By being a necessary action of the day it becomes a mundane event. We were looking at the surrounding contributors to consider exactly what built this experience to be so mundane.
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The guardian, the gatekeeper, a persona protecting the barrier of a threshold This fence-topping character would behave as security, opening a dialogue with the home owner or even the passer-by; playing on the traditional garden gnome model This design reacts to the human desire for recognition and personability, proving loyalty to a home and a historic allegiance.
LittleLittle manman on the fence on the fence
“Welcome Home!�
Concepts
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Buddhist Wheels
the fence Buddhist Buddhist prayer Wheels
wheels Buddhist Wheels
me!”
An important insight first identified by the studio ‘Greyworld” exploiting the delight derived from running a stick along railings. Similarily, this design would exploit a similar natural movement, further involving sound and motion.
Metallic cylinders lined with text, used in the act of prayer. These differently sized and weighted with bells, as independent entities collectively weaving a soundscape, creating a therapeutic environmental tone.
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Bamboo Threshold Bamboo Threshold With this, we were attracted to the concealment of a bamboo forest. A collection of bamboo stalks build up a texture and layer or barrier to overcome. In our research we had been very interested in the gate being understated, a hidden part of the fence disguising itself as a passageway. This plays on the idea of a secret entrance. Tapping in to the chuldlike excitement of being one of the few in the know. Our research proved to us the visual language of a gate had become standard and this attempts to challenge that.
Bamboo Thresh
Bamboo Threshold
Bamboo threshold
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Bl
Blooming Garden
Blooming Garden
This idea sees the garden bloom before the viewer’s eyes. Alike to a secret and dream-like forest of magic, this concept would see the flowers and plants bloom on the entrance of their familiar owner This, again, plays on personability and loyalty to the homeowner. Like a dog rushing to the door to greet its owner, the garden coming to life and blooming to meet its familiar user.
Blooming garden
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Experiential mock-ups
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Flowers Blooming
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Flowers Blooming, ascending from set pot
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Buddhist prayer wheels constructed with K’nex for sake of tabletop iteration
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The Home Owner
The Passer By
Two Constrasting Experiences
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The Gate Story
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The Bells Idea
This concept centers on a need for ceremony while encompassing the moment of delight. With these spinning cylinders, the act of unlocking the gate through turning becomes more ostentatious. This pairs with an unexpected moment of delight for the passer by.
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•Cylindrical bells act as the electronic switch •Each cylinder corresponds to musical layer/ instrument •Entire metal gate constant electrical circuit.
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Assembled Model
The cylinders would rotate subject to human touch on a fixed spindle
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Mild Steel, cut into individually measured strips and welded together over two and a half days.
A pedestrian would interact with the gate in moment of passing
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The Final Design
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Doan The term for the entity facilitating the beginning and end of meditation, an invitation to transendence. Doan is a soft, passive word, undemanding of attention yet full of meaning, as is our product
Our product is one which not only marks the division between public and private space, but also reflects it for the delight of the everyday user. For the home owner, the gate is opened by a set combination of activated spindles, each of which sets off sounds of the approaching garden: birdsong, a doorbell, feet on a doormat, the sound of windchimes For the passer-by, in the slightest accidental touch the spindels accordingly sound the noises of the public street: a car passing, a can clattering down the road, the ring of a bike bell or the dinkling of an atm.
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Capitalising on the natural, innocent movement of running hands along a railing while walking past, these spindles rotate under the human touch
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An alternative and more fulfilling motion for opening a gate, these spindles enance the mundane everyday experience of re-entering a property
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Reflections This project benefited from having two people working on it rather than one. With Bethany we made a strong team with a solid communication process and broad design capabalitites. This resulted in a thorough design process with a strong base of design concepts and a successfully made and realised outcome The difficulty came in programming the system to work. We experimented with Arduino, Ableton and Max MSP, as well as both Arduino and Teensy boards. These were all new experiences and time consuming in trying tweak the systems to work confidently. Towards the end of the project, countless hours were spent on the digital side of the project while the physical was more enjoyable. Despite this, it was an incredibly steep learning curve and a good introduction to these new pieces of software, to be used in later projects.
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In a broader sense, this project was begun with the foresight that its finale would be only a few days before our mid-year portfolio review. As a result it demanded a great amount of work generally in order to have everything suitably prepared for the review. I myself was unable to work on any creative pursuits other than from the curriculum, as all available time was spent either on this project or on portfolio preparation. I look forward to the next term, where we will be studying languages, as well as live project with a unique client. I anticipate it will be far more free and a relief from the intensity of this term.
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ev i s n o p s eR stnemnorivnE Re s p o n s i ve Environments 44.
Edward Allbutt Product Design Year 2 Glasgow School of Art 2016/17