Sampling the real world

Gunnar StevensHuman Computer InteractionUniversity of Siegen, Germany

#3b

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Agenda

‣Scribble sketching‣Sampling with camera‣Collecting images and clippings‣Physical collections

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Scribble sketching‣ Scribbling

‣ Drawing very quickly‣ Less attention to the detail‣ Very low fidelity

‣ Scribbling sketching‣ Focusing on the essence of the

idea to capture‣ Sacrificing all other details

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Capturing ideas in existing systems

‣ Exercise1. Look at the screen shot2. Create a scribble in 30

sec that captures a primary idea (e.g. the structural layout)

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Capturing ideas in existing systems

‣ What details should included?

‣ What details should abstracted?

‣ What should left out?

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Crude reminders‣ A beauty of scribble sketches

is that one could create them anywhere, anytime to have crude reminders of ideas that could come anywhere, anytime

‣ Example‣ Scribble sketch of a futuristic

control room created while watching Avatar

‣ Many lines are on the wrong place

‣ Yet, good enough to remind the idea later

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Practicing scribble sketching‣ Method 1

‣ Choose an applications, look on it and try to capture the essence of one idea of the application in 30 sec. Repeat this with other ideas of the same applications and with other applications

‣ Method 2‣ Search on YouTube or other places examples of innovative

interfaces. Watch them and scribble as many ideas that capture your interest without pausing the video‣ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sluIbE0cdcg

‣ Method 3‣ Redo Method 2, but without looking on the paper (trick: don’t

move your hand around)

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PHOTO SAMPLINGSampling the real world

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Sampling the real world Becoming a hunter and gatherer‣ Creating an repository that

inform and inspire design

‣ Using (digital) cameras to capture the world around you

‣ Capturing trigger moments‣ Capturing what you notice

‣ the positive and the negative‣ could be anything – a color, an

action, a sound, a mood …‣ could be anywhere – going to

work, sitting a bar, …

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Sampling objects that irritatesWhy sampling irritating stuff‣Part of becoming a good designer, is to

become a good design critic‣ Identify inspiring design – and could explain the

what and why‣ Identify inadequate design– and could explain the

what and why

‣Find irritating design and try to explain, sensitize you to spot on the world from a designer view

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Sampling objects that irritates Elevator Open and Close Button

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Sampling objects that irritates Automatic door opener

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Sampling objects that irritates Self-Serve Department Store Checkout

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Sampling objects that irritates Self-Serve Department Store Checkout

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Sampling objects that irritates Self-Serve Department Store Checkout

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Sampling compelling designs‣Take pictures, notes, etc. of design of what you

will be found great pieces of work‣Explain the what and the why ‣Getting more consciousness about

‣possible strategies to solve a problem ‣your own taste and style

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Sampling compelling designsMagic power cord connector

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Sampling compelling designsMost visited pages

Why only for the Google Chrome, not for example for the MS File explorer?

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Sampling things that inspires‣Take pictures of objects and situations that

tweaked your mind in some way

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Sampling things that inspires‣Enrich one of your photo samples by taking the

idea and find 20 samples that follow the idea

A guess of the trigger idea could be?

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Sampling things that inspires‣Taken the camera and ask a question with it.

e.g., how to use fog as material to design light?

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Summery‣ Lessons learned

1. Photo sampling can provide a rich source of ideas

2. Some of these hold clues about what to avoid, other gives inspiration, or clues to solve a problem

3. Photo sampling is a good practice for observing the world around us

‣ Tips‣ Make Photo-Sampling to a habit

‣ Take 20 photos a day for the next week that capture designs and situations that irritate you, inspire you, or just pique your interest

‣ Make a found design blog‣ A good strategy to make the habit

sustainable is to create a blog shows off photos (or sketches) of found things.

‣ Make a choose from your quantity oriented sampling and turn it to quality

‣ Train your design critique, add the what and the why

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You are a hunter – pay attention to the world around you

Both the positive and the negative are useful

You are a gatherer – collecting what you find

will enrich your sketching process

You do not have to be sure – if something made you notice: collect it

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Developing your collection‣If your collection is growing, you also need to

develop a habits about how you store your collections

‣Common ways for storing collections

‣On the computer‣In shoe box or physical folders‣In a Sketchbook or Scrapbook

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Developing your collectionOn the computer‣ Since today almost images

are digital, the computer seems to be the natural place to store them

‣ Yet, some drawbacks‣ Easy to store, easy to forget‣ Simple file folders does not

support annotations‣ Using digital sketchbooks like MS One

note

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Developing your collectionIn Shoe Boxes or Physical File Folders‣ Make a printed copies the

images in a shoe box

‣ Some features‣ Maintain a loosely organized,

medium sized collection‣ Printing copies is typically

accompanied with the task of reduction

‣ Quick and easy way to store image collections

‣ Yet, less quick and easy way to access them

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Developing your collectionIn Sketchbooks or Scrapbooks‣ Collect images in the

sketchbook or maintain a separate scrapbooks as visual journals of the found images‣ Cut out exactly the part of the

image that interests you‣ Paste it into the book‣ Add graphical and textual

annotations if needed ‣ where the images come from‣ what and why is the interesting issue‣ which part you like/dislike‣ Draw/write directly on the image if

needed‣ Include any thoughts/ideas you have

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Developing your collectionIn Sketchbooks or Scrapbooks‣ Try to add to it daily to make it

to a visual journal

‣ Beneficial features‣ The simple act of printing,

cutting and pasting often involves a deeper study of the image, including exactly why you would like to look at it again

‣ Any annotations – no matter how simple – will be very rewarding in the future

‣ Reviewing images is easy, especially if it is part of the sketchbook you carrying with you

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Sketchbooks as visual journalsExamples of collections

Page contains an image showing three colored rectangles atop of the photo.The designer use it to captures the idea by layering translucently colored information, where annotations are included in the layers

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Sketchbooks as visual journalsExamples of collections

Further use the annotated layering idea to sketch the problem-solution pair she working on

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Sketchbooks as visual journalsExamples of collections

Paste of two screenshots of a data flow visualization.

For the person, these images inspired a new research project

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Sketchbooks as visual journalsExamples of collections

Assembling of images from the body of related research work

Annotations highlight important aspects of these images

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Sketchbooks as visual journalsExamples of collections

Scans from a book

Note: While scans ensures a high reproduction quality, for the sketching purpose often digital camera pictures are sufficient

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Summery‣ Lessons learned

‣ Hunting and gathering is a continual activity

‣ Any image you encounter in your work and/or leisure activities are of possible interest

‣ Develop your own collection and organization habit‣ You know it works, if it encourage

you to constantly hunt and gather materials, and if you review those materials regulary

‣ Collection references‣ Usability

www.useit.com/alertboxwww.useit.com/alertbox/film-ui-bloopers.html

‣ Information aesthetics – where form follows datainfosthetics.com

‣ Visual complexitywww.visualcomplexity.com/vc

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COLLECTING PHYSICAL STUFFToyboxes and physical collections

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Hunting and gathering physical objects‣ The world and our embodied

experience, full of inspirational physical objects having ‣ shape,‣ form, ‣ texture

‣ Collect physical objects,‣ Work out new ideas‣ Re-work existing ones‣ Provides a context to inform and

enrich design

‣ Deconstruct objects into component parts ‣ to understand, how the work

together‣ Reassemble them in new

ways‣ To explore design possibilities

‣ Physical objects‣ could serves as sketches to

demonstrate ideas and concepts‣ could be label and annotated

analogue to drawing and photo sampling

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Collecting objects as idea triggersDesign inspiration

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Collecting objects to build withFavorite kindergarten supplies

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Collecting objects to build withOffice supplies

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Collecting objects to build withElectronic components for making computer-controllable hardware

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Collecting objects to build withTools for making physical things

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Collecting objects to build withReuse and recycle

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Cardbox boxSimilar to shoe boxes:

• quick and easy to store• difficult to access

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Desk drawer

• Provide more opportunities to organize objects

Yet, • difficult to transport the

whole or parts of the collection (e.g. to bring objects into a meeting)

• Non-visibility of non-used objects creates the danger to forgot them

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More durable container makes your externalized memory more robust

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Tool cabinet

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Visual display cabinets

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Next Class Topics

‣ Next Topic‣ Ideation techniques

‣ Exercises ‣ 3 sketches by next ‣ Be continued: Apply the 10 plus 10 method within

your group to your design project