This exercise comes from Teaching and Learning Aesthetics of Interaction by Sus Lundgren (2010).
Feel free to use and alter it according to your own needs and wishes.
For instructions, inspiration and more exercises, see www.ixdcth.se/teaching.
If you have any comments or questions, contact sus.lundgren@chalmers.se.
EXPRESSIONS OF INTERACTION
Task in short: To design interaction that appears in a certain way.
Aim: To explore how interactions express themselves, highlighting the difference between
interacting in a certain way and experiencing something in a certain way.
Prerequisites: None.
Time: Ca 6 hours since the deliverable is a physical item. As a consequence students should
be given access to different materials (typically what’s already in a design studio) or extra
time to look for materials outside school.
Organization: Since the task requires a certain insight it’s best to let students work alone, lest
they can just rely on their partner.
TASK
You will get a word, e.g. “aggressive”. It is SECRET. Your task is now to create a simple thing
(not using any electronics or computational technology) that makes people want to interact
with it in that way. So, if we watch a person interacting with your thing she or he should
appear to feel for instance aggressive. (Note that they don’t necessarily have to feel that way!
For instance beating a punching bag is an aggressive interaction but you mustn’t necessary
feel very aggressive when interacting with it!)
The easy way out is to make a device that evokes your certain feeling and then design the
interaction accordingly. Try to avoid this; challenge yourself and design an object that is
neutral in its expressions but still invites to a certain type of interaction (again, the punching
bag is the perfect example).
Start by figuring out what signifies “your” type of interaction. For instance aggressive
interaction is probably signified by hard grasps, harsh movements, a lot of force, etc. You
decide yourself if the object has some function, or if its only function is for people to interact
with it in that way. When designing your thing, you can use any physical materials you like.
You should make a physical prototype, so that you really explore physical expressions of
interaction. If you are not satisfied with your prototype, you can complete it with elaborate
sketches (including material descriptions and sound descriptions) and provide samples of the
materials you would like to use in your design, e.g. fabrics. Do also write a short description of
how your ting works, if it is not already obvious.
Note: Although this exercise may seem strange, it has some very real-life implications. E.g,
when designing interactive installations in for instance a museum you want the users to not
only enjoy them but also appear as if they are enjoying themselves, in this way encouraging
others to try. This can be hard since people who are concentrated, often appear to be bored,
dismissive or even angry.
This exercise comes from Teaching and Learning Aesthetics of Interaction by Sus Lundgren (2010).
Feel free to use and alter it according to your own needs and wishes.
For instructions, inspiration and more exercises, see www.ixdcth.se/teaching.
If you have any comments or questions, contact sus.lundgren@chalmers.se.
DELIVERABLES
– Your thing and a written description of how it works (but not why!).
– A design rationale that explains your design.
These two should be separate documents.
FEEDBACK: GUESSING C ONTEST
Note that part of the feedback session will be a guessing contest. This is why your word has to
be secret, I mean really secret!