Interface Studio: Project I

a group project -- team of two -- with Justin Jordan -- parsons

Project:
Pick one reality from Einstein's Dream or Invisible Cities. Design an object that help the people in the story express their personality. Incorporate the form of (a) cube(s) in the object. Be aware of the needs of the people in the story.

Story:
In this world, people have no memory. Everyone fills out his/her Book of Life at the end of each day when memory is still in the head. The next day, people forget their past. The only way for them to know themselves is by consulting their Book of Life.

Ideas:

We thought about using different media to create self-portraits for the people in the story, including mirrors, kiosk, memory cubes, etc. Then we thought about what are the NEEDS of the people in the story.

How-Why Chart

Here is a list of needs we identified:
- portable (so people can record anytime, anywhere)
- easy access (to solve the problem of flipping through the book)
- intuitive (user friendly interface b/c people have short memory)
- large storage (to solve the problem of thickening book over time)

First Iteration:

A digital memory cube was our first choice, but it is not easy to carry. Then we got the idea of having the cube sitting virtually in a flat screen.

Here are the initial sketches of the design:

Here are the mock-ups in computer:

The design is a virtual cube with 6 sides. The users turn from side to side by sliding their fingers on the screen, just like what an iPhone user does. Except one side being the setting menu side, the rest 5 sides are all configurable by the users. This is to allow maximum flexibility.

Second Iteration:

The 6 side design was kinda complicated. As the designers, we knew how the thing worked as a virtual cube sitting in the screen. However, when we try to imagine using it as an end user who knows nothing about the design, the interface was a little confusing and we got disoriented after sliding from side to side both vertically and horizontally. In the second iteration, we tried to simplify the interface and put in more efforts on the mechanism design of the device as a whole.

After rethinking about the fact that the users have no memory and their need to have intuitive interface, we decided to set up the sides by default, not letting the users configure everything. In addition, to solve the problem of getting disoriented by having 6 virtual sides, we decided to have 2 sides fixed and the cube only rotates horizontally.

Here are the sketches of the improved design: