I aim to shape products, interfaces and services that mediate meaningful dialogues between people, systems and their environments within everyday life.
Oct
06
2009
Torontonians came out in droves last Saturday for the 4th annual “free all-night contemporary art thing” that ran from sunset to sunrise. It’s spectacular to see such an event bring out so much people and liveliness out to the streets during the wee hours of the night to experience city-wide art exhibits. Projects ranged from the playful and participatory to the haunting and mysterious.
Of course, this type of creative happening also brings out spontaneous activities unplanned by the city: buskers with fire and chainsaws, collectives encouraging group gatherings in the middle of the street, and my favourite, an awesome 8-bit musician by the name of deadbeatblast performing electronic music using the sounds from playing GameBoy and Nintendo games.
Unfortunately in the 6 hour span I was out, I didn’t get the chance to see all the exhibits on my must-see list and completely had to skip out on an entire zone. It’s become a victim of its own success — meaning huge lineups and massive crowding. Some projects had up to 75 minute waiting times, such as the fantastic Space Becomes the Instrument (but quite worth it in the end.) In total I probably waited around 2.5 hours in lineups, which was a horribly inefficient way to spend my time.
Below maps the highlights of my evening from 10pm to 4am.
Oct
02
2009
Many elevators in Japan have two sets of buttons. One standard set and one set lower than usual, whether it be directly beneath the first or oriented horizontally right next to a vertical set. When I first encountered two sets of up/down buttons, I had to pause for a few seconds before pressing a button. I was initially wondering whether the different buttons mapped to different elevator shafts, but later I realized the lower set was made for handicap accessibility.
This consideration make reasonable sense, but in practice the design looks confusing and redundant. For the up/down buttons (pictured on left), why not just have one set of buttons placed lower? As for the floor number buttons inside the elevator (pictured right), I ended up using the horizontal panel more often as this was what I saw first walking into the elevator and it was more informative with a display of the current floor number. Thus, the vertical panel could be eliminated as well.
Sep
30
2009
The culture of cute is rampant in Japan, especially with the youth. One trend that remains ever so popular, and to which I myself have succumbed in my youthful days, is taking silly/cute/glamourous pictures with friends in pod-like photo booths. Back in the day, these pictures were printed out on wallet-sized cards or a page of stickers, but this time around I observed an interesting phenomenon of downloading the images to cellphones.
Considering the ubiquity and high-tech functions of the cellphone in Japan, it seems like a natural evolution of the “sticker booth” past time. Rather than printing out physical copies of pictures, you can now simply put your cellphone up to a screen at the side of the booth, and voilà, the images are available on your phone ready to be used as wallpaper or mass-mailed to your 100 closest friends.
Sep
28
2009
Experiencing a morning rush hour commute on Tokyo’s metro is a fascinating, albeit overwhelming ride. In a car stuffed with crushing bodies, just when I don’t think I can physically get any closer to a perfect stranger, more people take the plunge in at each new station stop.
In a city as dense as Tokyo, these cramped commutes are a daily fact of life. Imagine not even having the room to lift up your arm to hold on to a pole yet in the end not making any difference since the mass of bodies squishing against you seem to keep you in balance from falling.
A subway etiquette I appreciate over all of Japan is the restricted use of cell phones, which makes the ride unbelievably quiet. Unlike in Hong Kong, where everyone chats loudly on their mobiles, Japanese subways are filled with people busily texting or playing games on their cellphones. Just a tiny glimpse of everyday life in Japan.
Aug
25
2009
Source: http://www.good.is/post/transparency-the-best-and-worst-cities-to-look-for-work/
Now that I’m done with my masters program, it’s time that I start looking for a job. GOOD published an interesting infographic visualizing the unemployment rates in American metropolitan cities.
For myself personally, location is appearing to be a factor as to the kind of opportunities I can find relating to interaction design or user experience. For example, after living in Hong Kong I’ve come to realize that over there, design is not highly valued as a business strategy but still strongly perceived as simple re-styling or giving different physical forms. Toronto, on the other hand, is home to a handful of creative design firms, particularly in web, branding and advertising, yet I haven’t found many consultancies specializing in user-centered design, especially ones seeking interaction designers. It seems that the opportunities that appeal to me are more prominent in the US, especially San Francisco, NYC and Boston, as well as some cities in Europe, including London.
Let the search continue, wherever it may lead me.
Aug
13
2009
Electro-pop artist, Calvin Harris, uses bodies as a human synthesizers to create music using Bare Conductive, a skin-safe conductive ink. By applying ink onto the skin, a closed circuit can be created via touch, gesture and movement to allow electrical currents to flow through. Watch the making of video below.
Here is a video explaining more about Bare and the exploration of the technology through dance and movement.
Jul
17
2009
After 2 intense months, my Masters class finally presented and exhibited our thesis projects. It was wonderful to see everyone’s hard work come to fruition. I was delighted to receive such positive feedback from viewers and to watch them physically interact and play with the real models I had created. More details of the project is available here.
Jun
27
2009
I found a video from Microsoft Research envisioning applications for touch interfaces. What I found really neat was the similarity of the bowl idea to my marble player, in which media storage devices are thrown in and images are projected onto the sides (@1:30 in the video).
Jun
25
2009
I took apart a keyboard to figure out the combination of signals required for various different keystrokes. By connecting switches to trigger a certain combination, a keystroke can then be sent to the PC as input to be processed by the computer program.
Jun
24
2009
Bubblegum Sequencer is another inspirational tangible device allowing one to create drumloops by physically organizing gumballs a grid of holes.
Jun
23
2009
To implement a working model of my memory marbles as proof of concept, I looked into various possible technologies for the detection of marbles and transfer/reading of data. RFID and Bluetooth were the most common and appropriate technologies for an ideal implementation. I ventured out to the Hong Kong RFID Centre in Shatin to take a look at the various forms (tags and readers) and uses in real applications. It was quite interesting, but the smallest RFID tags were still too big to be used with marbles (1.75cm diameter). Additionally, since RFID tag and reader must be placed parallel of each other for proper data transfer, tags inside a mable may end up sitting perpendicular to a reader because of the rolling nature of marbles resulting in no tag detection.
Due to project time constraints, I have decided to simulate a working interactive model using micro-controllers and switches to communicate between the physical model and PC. Switches installed in the physical model will be triggered by marbles that are inputted, and signals will be sent to a keyboard interface to activate a particular keystroke. A program running on the PC will then receive the keystroke as input and output audio and visual displays.
General technical overview of the actual implementation versus the ideal implementation.
Jun
22
2009
I conducted further interviews focused on memory recording, organizing, and sharing. In one instance, my interviewee showed me all her memory devices – PDA, cellphone calendar, appointment book – but her problem was that she always forgot to consult them to check for important dates/appointments. Thus, I realized that a reminder system is another important feature for these Baby Boomers.
An interaction model of the Memory Marbles system.
I did some rapid prototyping to communicate my interaction concept and to give a better idea of the forms and scale of the model/system. Marbles can be carried and transported around in a pouch. On the memory player, once the marbles are enclosed inside the dome, the information can be read from the marbles and transmitted from the dome.
Likewise, to record memories from the PC to marbles, placing a dome over top the marbles will activate a wireless communication between the computer and marbles.
Jun
21
2009
In researching various forms of play, uses and applications involving marbles, I came across a nifty marble calculator. Not only does it really add binary numbers, the playful visualization and sounds make it a wonderful little contraption. Brilliant!
Jun
20
2009
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org
For the past few weeks I have been thinking about memory as my thesis project aims to design around memory recording, sharing, and recollection. Thus, it was quite interesting to read that scientists have just recently captured images of memories being formed at which point new proteins are created at brain synapses. This provides a step forward in helping to understand the mechanism of long-term memory as well as the memory-related diseases and impairments.
Jun
19
2009
In search of marbles I had to forage the streets of Hong Kong. Mainstream toy stores nowadays like Toys ‘R Us only stock the new, high-tech, “in” toys, but when I ask if they have simple marbles their automatic answer is “no.” I eventually found out about Tai Yuen Street, aka Toy Street, in Wan Chai that brings me into a bustling world of local street markets filled with the sounds of everyone trying to sell their wares. Lined along the sidewalk behind the street stalls are the toy stores stocked with old-style and simple toys like Play-Doh, wind-up robots and… marbles! The marble designs were quite homogeneous and plain, as opposed to all the wide varieties available to me as a kid (I remember boulders, godfathers, and peawees!), but nonetheless they were marbles I could use in my prototyping.
Jun
19
2009
Post-its are a versatile tool for designers for brainstorming and organizing thoughts. It also adds a little colour to an otherwise dull whiteboard!
A student from Savannah College of Art and Design created a fabulous stop-motion video using Post-it notes to animate. The Röyksopp song adds the perfect “pixelated” feel to the entire piece.
Jun
18
2009
Exploring marble games and contraptions and different forms for my Memory Marbles.
Sketching out possible interactions with Memory Marbles.
Jun
12
2009
I found two really interesting projects relating to my design concept: one dealing with small, tangible components that interact with each other, and the other dealing with memory capture and recall.
Siftables are tangible blocks containing digital information/media that can interact with each other wirelessly by way of gestural motions, physical contact and proximity detection.
reQall is a memory aid system/service allowing one to capture, recall, remind and share information using a wide variety of platforms (text message, instant messaging, email or voice) and applications. In instances when you cannot write something down or are on the road, you can simple call reQall to say the information and the system will be able to interpret the natural language and organize your information according to the context of the reminder.
Really cool stuff!
Jun
08
2009
To lose one’s marbles is an expression meaning to lose one’s mind or to forget. I play on this phrase for my concept direction. Baby Boomers are afraid of forgetting, whether through the natural aging process of inheriting Alzheimer’s Disease. Marbles harken back to childhood nostalgia; they can be used as playful, portable, tangible devices to store tidbits of memories for reflection, sharing and exploration.
Below is an slide excerpt of my interim concept presentation.
May
31
2009
The wonderful thing about the aging Baby Boomers I interviewed, as opposed to the current elderly population, is that they enjoy staying active through hobbies, sports and enjoyable activities. Another thing is their engagement in play to stimulate their minds as well as maintain social connectedness. I researched existing tangible, playful forms, and brainstormed ideas for possible design opportunities.
