Client: Method / Public project
My Role: Interaction Design Lead / Project Lead / Workshop Coordinator + Moderator
Team: Daniel Nacamuli (IxD), Tim Meador (Creative Technologist), Flavio Carvalho (Visual + Industrial Design), Ian Bach (IxD)
Awards: FastCo Innovation by Design Award - Finalist
Context
On February 10th, Method hosted a workshop for the IxDA15 Conference at our San Francisco studio. We were challenged as a group to design a workshop that breaks the boundaries of traditional conference workshops while pushing the attendees to expand their thinking beyond typical workplace processes. After initial brainstorming, it was clear we could use this opportunity to solve a set of problems and roadblocks that have inhibited us from designing non-screen based products in our own practice.
One of our Lead Interaction Designers, Daniel Nacamuli, has had prior experiences in his work where he realized the need for a tool that shortens the distance between making, experiencing and reflecting in the design process. Building off of that prior experimental work, a tool was created for the workshop that takes this opportunity and builds a tool that extends the initial prototype into a tool that would allow any designer a mechanism to tighten the design process loop. The team lovingly nicknamed to box ‘Henri’ (Hardware Enhancing a Natural Responsive Interface) which is accompanied by a desktop interface that enables designers to record and play back patterns on the box.
Approach
My role involved guiding the box design through the lens of its application, project management, parts production, workshop development, planning and moderation. We approached the design with an understanding that the focus should fall on the results rather than on the form factor. Henri needed to be a well designed, non-distracting form that showcased the team’s work. The behaviors being tested needed to be fun and instantaneously rewarding. The team accomplished this by using light, sound, color, rotation, and pulse to engage several senses simultaneously.
Defining the workshop was an exercise in framing the tool and its potential application in the real world. It is a device that in concept and practice allows you to visually express an idea so that both you and your teammates can experience it together. Designers no longer have to rely on ideas in abstract terms. Henri shortens the loop between having the idea, experiencing the idea, sharing and reflecting on the idea. This quicker feedback loop allows for much more iteration.
Outcome
The final design of the workshop took six teams of six people and assigned them an ordinary object. Each team was given a fully functioning Henri and instructions on three behaviors that they had to give their household object, building an exciting narrative story to be presented to the entire group at the end of the workshop.
The workshop successfully saw teams work together in a very short amount of time; most participants had never thought of infusing personas into an object. They began to think from a unique perspective where the product needs to communicate more information to a person than just on, off or idle. What if it was angry, sad, or excited? Henri allows those concepts to be tested real-time, and enhance the overall capabilities of both the designer and the product. It helped people literally think outside of the box, and be productive while playing.
Method is working now on next steps for developing the product further. Please refer to method.com and our Facebook and Twitter pages for status changes.
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