Meeting Froukje and Walter
Since I was in the Netherlands for my moving, I had the opportunity to do a coach-chair meeting. Here are the notes I made during the meeting.
The provotypes should be integrated in the daily life of the users. Why is provocation over time that important? One moment of intervention could make all the difference. For example the pink blockage at Rotterdam central station works very well. It makes you think about who is working on it, who is doing the construction. On top of this was a guy in a #1 suit running over the station making people aware that some tracks are closed.
The reasoning about the time aspect should be improved and supported, because this is what makes it unique. There should be something about learning by doing over time, to reflect on its usage.
Possible room for Confusius?
What I hear I forget,
What I see I remember,
What I do I understand.
Philips has a prove/probe department that is working on future concepts. It is could be inspiring to see how they are working with provocative prototypes and their usage in big companies like Philips.
Comfort has a strong relation with culture. For example the amount of light that is being perceived as comfortable during dinner is different. An Italian restaurant in Italy is very light in contrary to an American Italian restaurant where the lighting is very weak.
Philip Ross did a research about how people organize their home environment for his home atmosphere controller. This could be interesting to look at because comfort is what people make and how they arrange their life inside of the home.
The focus of the project lies on the theory about how to get the best provocation. Don’t lose it out of sight. The IC project is just a carrier for this. Try to get feedback from the business partners on the outcome of the study, otherwise there is no use for the method. Try to ‘defend’ what the use is of a multi-interpretable object in the fuzzy frontend.
Froukje gave me a copy of Ianus Keller's promotion thesis, which also has a chapter about the usage of prototypes in the design process. Thanks again for that.
Meeting Walter Aprile 25th of Februari
Provocation has to be extreme, otherwise it is not provoking. For example Dunne has made some very practical devices but they are quite ugly. It is a sort of satire to make people think, like for example a caricature.
How to prevent people from reflecting on the provotype as if it is a product
Make it clearly not a product!
- Box model – research cubes
- Art model – shells and bricks
For example with food tests you only want to review the taste, disable other senses. However this is not a very realistic situation, because food is also served on a plate and the visual sense is also relevant for the taste in real life.
Inspiration
Victor Vina – Boxes (IVREA) 2003
Victor Vina - BOXES
(Picture used from http://tdd.elisava.net/coleccion/25/gordillo-en)
With this project he tried to make a set of tools for designers to create prototypes that only focus on their behaviour. He made different cardboard cubes with only one function. For example one had a button and one had a speaker as can be seen in the picture. The neutral material and shape make these properties blend in the background. The only point of interest is the input or output that is provided. They are connected by radio signals and can be programmed in a visual programming environment for endless possibilities.