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Individual Project | Installation Design | Interaction Design
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou-E-rLAPDo
Target Audience Teenagers and their parents who suffer from frequent family conflicts
Inspiration My relationship with my parents was often in conflict. I would vent my extreme emotions without considering the consequences and say very hurtful things on purpose. Even though we were face-to-face, we still held our own opinions and considered each other's opinions unreasonable. Even when the conflict subsided, it was not because of effective communication, but because the passage of time had calmed us down. After conflicts, I always felt regretful but had no idea what I was regretting. Through this project, I would like to use my design as a driving force to build awareness of family conflict among teenagers and their parents, to initiate a multi-generational dialogue by eliciting empathy through shared experiences.
Here’s a talk which brings me inspirations: “Straight talk seems so simple, and it obviously is effective. Why don't people use it as a matter of course? The main reason is that it is not as easy as it appears. In the course of growing up in a competitive society, most of us have learned how to protect ourselves by making ourselves relatively invulnerable. Thus, when we are hurt, we have learned not to show it. Rather, we have learned either to avoid the person who hurt us or to lash out at him or her with anger or ridicule. As we have seen, this will usually result in either a defensive response or a counterattack, and the argument escalates.” ——The Social Animal, Elliot Aronson(1999)
1. PRIMARY RESEARCH In a relaxed environment, I interviewed 20 people who quarreled with their family members when they had family conflicts. Meanwhile, they created paintings that express their minds at the same time. During the interview, I found that teenagers and parents often failed to understand each other because of their own opinions when faced with disputed topics. This led to the entire process not only failed in resolving the contradictions between the two parties, but also caused the deterioration of family relations invisibly.
2. RESEARCH ANALYSIS When conflicts occurred, some behaviors were recorded
Quotes Discussion lists: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
What caused your dispute? How do your parents/ kids perform in quarrel? How did the quarrel affect your emotion? How do you perform in quarrel? How did you reconcile?
Quarrel Bear Shame Stressful
Teenagers’ Keywords Parents’ Keywords
Shame Try To Discuss
Communication
Extreme Ignore Block The Words
Stimulate
Obedient Life Stress
Stressful
Work Pressure
When Talking About This Topic, A Teenager Interviewee Hid Herself From the interview, teenagers will use some extremely negative words to express their dissatisfaction. When teenagers quarrel with their parents, they often feel that their inner thoughts are not understood and cared by their parents, which results in the feeling of hurt. Parents, on the other hand, will more emphasize their life pressures and stresses. They all seems ignore others’ real thoughts.
CONCLUSION：Through interviews, I analyzed the inner thoughts and outer actions of the teenagers and their parents during the quarrel. Different ways of thinking are formed due to the different experiences of the two parties, which drive them to have different thoughts and feelings in their hearts, and thus provoke a dispute. At the same time, the two parties seldom choose to communicate directly. Instead, they are immersed in their own emotions, ignoring the other's feelings, and expressing their own reactions through actions, thereby further making the relationship between the two parties chaotic. 1
3. IDEA GENERATION
CONCEPT 1 illusion-sharps-explore-rebuild
MINDMAP
Due to idea conflicts between teenagers and their parents, one’s thoughts or behaviors might be hard to understand for the other.
When one party manipulates the device, the form seen by the other party through visual deformation is reversed or distorted. This causes the other party to hold a misjudgment of the situation and make a corresponding decision that it considers to be correct.
DESIGN CHALLENGES How to design an installation:
CONCEPT 2 crush-perspective-misunderstanding-rebuild
1. Create an atmosphere which is quite but impressive in a space to help audience calm down to consider the topic 2. Create an interaction which reflects the conflicts under family relationships and deformed and hurtful reactions
Teenagers and their parents all believe that their thoughts are reasonable during the quarrels. However, in the perspective of a third party, the collision of their ideas forms a puzzling result
Face to face, provide direct communication
3. Create an impressive experiences which encourage audience to listen to the family members’ true thoughts, encourage them to face up to the differences between people and to empathize, finally, to take off the armor and have the courage to express their true feelings
From misunderstood family relationships to optical illusions
From my mindmap, I came out with 4 Concept directions. Through summary, I find that the first two concepts can better express the theme of "reconstruction of broken relationship" that I want to explain. When people try to rebuild broken relationships, they always have a limited perspective and only put in their own ideas. In the end, even if it looks peaceful from some aspects, they can't really make up.
4. DESIGN DEVELOPMENT For atmosphere creation, projection and sound playback will be adopted. Pulling fragments and arousing emotions are the main interactive methods.
The participants only observe the shape of the installation from a specific perspective. They are available to adjust the coordinate axis to build up a shape that they think is correct. This makes it difficult for the blocks to be restored to a complete shape from a neglected perspective.
Till now, I have a preliminary design direction. I'm going to compare a parent-child relationship to a perfect ball. Because everyone's personalities are different, different areas on the surface of the spheres signaled different sides of the personalities represented by different people. In the rupture of the relationship, the sphere will shatter into many pieces. Participants will try to restore it, listening to different voices and thinking about the topic in an immersive environment with sound and light.
04 Voice-Distance 02 Colors - Emotions Emotions can be expressed intuitively through color. Heartbroken Color scheme: White - The tears are neutral in nature. Blue - It means that the person is in a sad state. Tendency to vent Color scheme: White - The silver-white light reflected from the broken glass. Blue & Purple - The cool tone renders sharp and cold atmosphere, as ruthless as the sound of the bump.
Aggressive Color scheme: White - Safe and harmless are the features of relatives we are willing to believe. Red - Hostile deliberate aggressive behavior is like gunpowder on the battlefield. It is burning and frightening. Helpless & Attempt to self-heal Color scheme: Green & White - Try the process of self-healing. Brown - It is used to compare the vines entwined in the jungle.
Each form will have a voice about parents and children in the family dispute. Because from user research, a lot of people don't want to listen to each other fully. During the interaction process, the restoration of the sound in the real quarrel environment will substitute the participants into an immersive experience. When surrounded by these sounds, participants could change the volume of the sound through a series of actions that adjust the position of specific objects. The final composition resulting from the actions will be retained. Voice of… Furnitures falling down the ground People speaking offensive words Glass falling on the ground Appliances being smashed Door being slammed People yelling Panting TESTS： PIR sensors can detect movement of human bodies, and then raise the sounds in the area.
03 Forms - Behaviors
01 Shapes - Personalities I created figures composed with four basic shapes related to participants’ personalities. Straight lines - Straightforward Wavy lines - Gentle Round - Introverted Triangle - Impatient The process of quarrel led to the decomposition and deformation of these shapes.
Based on the exploration of people’s behaviors, I created forms of four sentimental states during a quarrel. 1. Cry “The pouring tears flowed uncontrollably.” 2. Slam the door, throw & smash things… “The harsh impact of objects is a reflection of people's emotional manipulating power.”
motion sensor HC-SR501
Arduino uno
3. Higher volume, sharp discourse, yell… “These spikes that grow from closed people hurts more.” 4. Go back to the room alone, hug a pillow on the bed, rotate the chair unconsciously “Self-embrace is actually a kind of self-restraint.”
Buzzer
coding
testing 2
5. PROTOTYPES
shape development
The sphere that was once one was shattered by internal or external energies, becoming splintered pieces. This is a reflection of the negative impact of contradictions on the family. Due to the outbreak of contradictions, some bonds of the cell composed of family members are broken away, and the fragments are scattered around. Even when they are reassembled into a complete sphere and the tear is glued together again, the edges remain visible to the naked eye and do not disappear. Like reconciliation after a quarrel, even when the wound is healed, the scar left behind will always remind us of the struggle at that time. The sharp and fragile broken beauty of this form can fully reflect the theme I want to express.
Forms & Materials Explore the material of each shard.
Scale Model
Make 1:3 model to simulate projection visual effect
At the beginning
Arguments and Explosions installation initial sketch
I did a lot of testing on how I could interact with the device. I started with an ideal situation where the experiencer could change the position of each fragment directly by horizontal pulling. However, through practice, I found that in this case, the state of debris is difficult to maintain stability. Therefore, I made an improvement on this scheme. Referring to the working system of fixed pulley, I stabilized the fragments by connecting the two ends of the line with counterweights, and at the same time suspended wires above a single fragment to keep them in transverse relative positions. In this way, the experiencer can manipulate the fragments by pulling them lengthwise
EXPERIMENTS
3D projection allows viewers to see the projected content from any Angle.
Rendering: 3D projection effect simulates.
Interaction- Pull and pull
Sponge The sharp-cornered shape shows an aggressive feeling. Laser paper It reflects different colors, just like people's complex emotions. Mirror paper Images are deformed by reflection. Paper tape The feeling of bandage bondage. Ultralight clay Clay is easily deformed under stress and easily stained with dust and color. The children's purity and susceptibility are revealed. Flour Reducing the transparency of the surface of the transparent plastic piece reflects the chaotic and fuzzy state of people's thoughts and vision. Bubble wrap Pressing the bubble wrap provides a vent to people.
The ending
Installation Final Sketch 缺少部分照⽚
6. MAKING PROCESS
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7. INTERACTIVE PROCESS Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou-E-rLAPDo
Audience Photos
“I was shocked when sounds suddenly rang” “pull the string was interesting!” “now I have gradually increased the expression of my inner feelings to them, And have started to consider the whole problem from their perpective”
Colors Changed
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WEVE MARKET Individual Project | Architecture Design | User Experience Design Service Design | Product Design
1. INSPIRATION
2. OBSERVATION
Markets have frequently been a city’s life core. Many guardians would like to take their kids to the market not only for the foods, but also for opportunities offered to the kids to get in touch with the society in the market. Therefore, I would like to design a food market that is attractive to young kids that allows them to interact, learn, and play safely.
I conduct user observations in the market near the site for 2 weeks. Through my observation, most guardians choose to go to the market with their kids after 3:30 in the afternoon when the kindergarten and primary school ends for the day. Some other guardians would like to bring their kids to the market in the morning on weekends. The purpose of the observation is to find out the children’s behavior, pain points and excite point in the market.
Most market in the city are large communal indoormarkets
Young children like to touch different ingredients with their hands and feel different sensations, such as tomatoes and cucumbers. He also uses his sense of smell to explore the world, such as Onions and coriander. Parents also conduct educational activities in this environment.
Target User
Young kids are very dependent on guardians in a strange environment and might be eager to leave the market.
3-6 years old preschooler and their guardians
Introduction
When the kids are familiar with the market environment, they always run around inside the market looking for things of interest, such as observing the staff’s handling of the ingredients (eg. rolling dumpling skins and cut pork).
Many young children around me complain that they can't enjoy themselves at the market. And parents always like that their young children can take their first steps to contact society in the market. I tried to make the market a place to "play," so, I designed an interactive virtual purchase and exchange system for children and their families in an open food market and the public platform connected to it, and equipped it with a product suitable for children. This system provides children with virtual shopping interfaces installed on each stall in the market, helping them to recognize healthy ingredients as well as brings real experience of buying. The design of the space guides customers from the food market to the hub, where families can exchange the ingredients purchased by children into actual foods (juice, puree, ice cream, etc.).
SITE ANALYSIS I chose a car park by the Qinhuai River in Nanjing as my site with a greenway along the river next to it. People could not only get fresh river food, but also enjoy the beautiful natural sceneries. There are playgrounds and go-karts in the surrounding area as well. It is a place where kids living around might go with their parents to play in their daily leisure time. Rainfall is relatively high in the summer from June to August, which means there might be a risk of river tides during the rainy season. The temperature is comfortable, while the wind mainly comes from the east.
In China, almost all transactions are realized through virtual payment, which has caused many young kids to have no idea about physical currency. Many parents would be willing to encourage their kids to try trading and exchange activities in the market.
3. INTERVIEWS
USER NEEDS
In order to have a deeper understanding of the pain points of guardians and children, 7 groups of families in the community were interviewed about the family parent-child market activities, and here’s their attitudes.
ages 3-6
Pain Point (guardians)
Noisy Kids Cause Distraction
1
Untidy Environmen ts
I take my son to the market twice a month. I go to the market to meet the family’s daily needs, while the kid could go to watch fishes and small pets otherwise he will make a lot of noise. It takes about 10 minutes for us to finish shopping. I don’t like market (because it is )too dirty. (But I like )playing (in the market, such as )pulling marbles and rocking carts.
Pain Point (Kids)
3
2 Mrs Li & Son (Age: 3)
Untidy Environments
Hard for Grandparents To Deal With High Technology
I often shops online, but I decided to go to the market with my son at least once in 2 months to help him gain more life experiences. For this reason, the time we spend in the market might be slightly longer than the others, almost half an hour. Various types of vegetables and river-foods (interests me a lot). (It would be so nice if the market has )more shells on the stalls.
Feel Bored
I take my grandson to the market everyday since it’s just on my way to pick him home from kindergarten. We have 5 people living together in our home which means I might need to buy more ingredients than others for the whole family to eat. I often have recipes in my mind. Therefore, it would take only 10-15 minutes in the market. I feel bored. If there Ultraman stuff added would be great.
Unwilling To Go to the Market
I can’t see the vegetables (on the stalls). I like (bring) my (toy) bear (to the market with me which might make feel better). I don’t like the smell in the market.
Lack of Acknowledgement of Money
6 Mr Lu Son (5)
Mrs Yang Grand -daughter(4.5) I go to the market everyday with my granddaughter. I have to take her with me since there’s no one at home and the kid needed to be looked after. Then we go back home and cook for 4 people in our family. The shopping progress lasts within 20 minutes.
It Is Difficult for the Guardians To Restrain Their Kids, Which Will Affect the Main Task in the Market
Less Attractions for Kids After Times， Guardians Hard To Take Them Outdoor
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4 Mr Zhang Grandson (4)
Ms Chen Son (3.5)
Inefficiency Shopping Progress
Our family go to the market once or twice a week at the weekend. As a father, I encourage my son to contact with the social as younger as possible. Before, he has no idea about what is the money. But now he could help me buy the ingredients. I think that is a very big progress for a 5-year-old kid. I like watching staffs making the dumpling. My parents will give me money to get ingredients and changes will be my pocket money.
Hard To Integrate Into Social Activities
My daughter goes to the market with me once a week. I cook dinner for the 3 people in our family. The market is near our home and I would like to take my daughter there for a walk. This is important for the child to know ‘selling’ and ‘buying’. The whole shopping lasts 20 minutes. I love eating desserts such as cupcake and ice-cream in the market.
Feel Shy With Many Strangers Around
Mrs Wang Grandson (6) I go to the market every afternoon with my grandson. There are 4 people in our family. I like bargaining with the sellers during the shopping, while the kid often seems impatient and could not wait to leave. It mostly takes about 20-30 minutes for us to do the shopping. I don’t like to spend much time staying at the same stall. I might run around and find other kids like me to play with when I get bored.
Kids Running Around Might Cause Accidents
CHILDREN tidy & safe environment
Tidy & organized environment
Opportunities to familiarize the environment
Large range of products with good quality
7 Mr Zhou Daughter (5.5)
GUARDIANS
Efficiency circulation for consumers to complete their shopping progress
ENVIRONMENT (Architecture)
Less exposed waste Opportunities for kids to recognize the society
Help to understand responsibilities of various job categories. attractions during shopping process children- friendly
Clear Information
Attractive to the kids while all activities are within the sight of the guardian
SCREEN （User Interface）
easy- operated
Appease the kid’s emotions PRODUCT
Accompany the kids and have fun easy to hold 6
4. IDEA GENERATION
Idea Description In my design, I would like to build a market that could communicate children and the society, also brings them to natural environment and fresh foods. Constructed with efficient circulation and recycling strategies, the market, together with the cooking school connected to it, offer an excellent place for families to spend time together. The guardians would enjoy the shopping experience buying foods with large product range and good quality, while their children would be educated with basic trading rules through the attractive interactive system.
Design challenges 1. How to create a bright and more attractive market environment and attract children's attention 2. How to make the children willing to stay in the market and experience the activity of "buying and selling" when the guardian buys ingredients. 3. How to make the whole market experiential and educational.
introduce the credits exchange station/ guidance to cooking school
prepare/ sell/ recycle ingredients
STAFF
market area purchase ingredients
GUARDIAN
arrive at the stalls
CHILD ENTER THE MARKET
use INTERACTIVE TOY interact with the SCREEN on the stall
run around
chat with child
Leave the stalls
observe the ingredients：see， touch and smell
INTERACTIVE SCREEN AT THE STALL Inspiration The educator Suhomlinski believes that the reason why children are behind in learning is that they have not learned to think. The interdependence between various things and phenomena in life has not become the source of children's thinking. Letting practical things teach children to think is an extremely important condition for children to become smart, witty, diligent, and curious.
CREDITS EXCHANGE STATION ARCHITECTURE DESIGN： MARKET & COOKING SCHOOL RECEPTION HANDHOLD INTERACTIVE TOY
Because the height of young children is relatively short, the difference between their visual height and the guardians’ is obvious. When standing in front of the stall, the sight range of the guardian and the child is different with little intersection. Considering the design of an exclusive interactive experience system for children, in the market, I designed an interactive screen at the lower position of the stall. Therefore, children could experience the process of purchasing products through the interactive screen.
arrive at cooking school
bridge use INTERACTIVE TOY interact with billboards ： SECRET GIFTS
hub
company and help child to get the rewards
interact with CREDITS EXCHANGE STATION：check credits and exchange drinks or snacks provided by cooking school
watch guide videos on INTRODUCTION SCREEN
exchange recipes from staffs
After understanding the redemption rules on the introduction screen specially designed for children on the station wall, children would be able to match the types of fruits and vegetables collected by themselves in the market for dessert. Then the internal machine in the station will make the selected products on the spot. In addition, the station has set up an artificial service desk, where children could purchase creative peripheral snacks by actually communicate with shop assistants.
5. ARCHITECTURE DESIGN
OVERALL VIEW 7
6. INTERACTIVE SCREENS
Exchange station perspective drawing
concepts
Hub
Interactive stall
Ergonomics
7. INTERACTIVE PRODUCT
3d modeling the idea 2 in Rhino and 3d print it.
Concept 1
Concept 2
Children use super light clay to shape their favorite shapes
Because the final "transaction" will take place at the Hub, so the idea 2 was inspired by the shape of the hub's roof.
Market Area
Interactive screen explosion drawing
Codes Tests Instead of cards or virtual accounts, the product will be used to log in, earn credits, spend credits and store data. In order to attract children to explore the market environment, some secret gifts will be distributed on some billboards in the market. To do this, run a program test. When sensing the relevant secret area, the product will glow in order to attract children’s attention. Also, interacting with screens will light up the product.
Arduino uno
MFRC522
Built-in NFC sensor luminous stickers, light up when touching the NFC sensor area
Translucent shell on the surface
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8. STALL SCREEN DESIGN
1
Signing-in and signing-out are marked with red FC1786 and blue B9D6FD process is marked with green DBEEE2 so that children can trade by color.
83B6FC, and the purchase
COLOR FC1786 FED75C
Icon Design
69B3FC
Logo Design
DBEEE2
The inspiration for the logo came from the sketch of the streamlined structure and translucent texture of canopy above the market. The curvilinear body with lovely eyes is attractive and impressive while maintaining a simple visual sense.
5CB17E
If No If Yes Try Again
TEXT Comic Sans MS
User Tests
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1
1
Most of the kids could understand the process of the service easily and thought this was interesting. They wanted to buy something like their parents but did not have a chance. Now with this device, they could do the simulated purchase.
10. FUTURE PLAN
9. HUB SCREENS DESIGN
1. Know where your child is “Sometimes, although I know my daughter is here, I will still worry about that she will run to somewhere I don’t know .”
Most of the parents thought the service was great because it could not only solve the problem of being impatient for their kids, but also teach them about basic concept of money. They suggested that it would be wonderful if this contains more knowledges.
1
so, I add a screen to give some introductions: Hub Screen Ui—Introductions COLOR FC1786
1
That is feedback from one of the parents that I interviewed after all. Today, although the security of the society is getting much more better, but there are still child traffickers appearing in the public places.I took the feedback from the parents as the inspiration for the future development. For the future development, I want to add the tracking function on my product. Parent could track the position of their kids on theirs phones based on the products their kids bring with them. This could not only guarantee the safety of their kids during the whole service, but also enhance the possibility of getting supply from the government in the future route to the market.
FED75C 69B3FC
2 Introductions to tell the exchange steps
Hub Screen Ui—To Exchange Drinks
Knowledges about ingredients
DBEEE2
2. Public advertisement also for famers
5CB17E
In addition, the interactive screen can also play public service advertisements during the time period when no one is using it to spread the information of missing children. Users can increase the points that can be used to redeem goods by watching advertisements.
TEXT Comic Sans MS
2 3. Recycling materials to be used Many plastic wastes, such as rubbish bags, are usually generated within current food markets. The degradation of this non-recyclable plastic waste is a necessity to deal with the ubiquitous pollution. Various recycling technologies have been developed to deal with the plastic problem and can be utilised in this market to recycle plastic waste and as a raw material for the interactive product. In addition, upcycling can also be adopted, which aims to dig out the embedded value to incentivize large-scale valorisation of plastic wastes. 9
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