[Project] Research in progress

Middle part of my process. I usually kept my notes in the same journal, and it's easier to remind or refresh my mind. It's only for today, I'll scan the one before (the journal a few days ago when we started the project) later on to share my work in progress.

If you cannot read it very well (the image is kind of small), I'll briefly explain it here. It was helpful to be in a different group to talk about our work in progress. Erica and Daniel helped me clear out some production related ideas and gave me advice/feedback on how I can start working on my self-portrait. We also discussed about the title for each one's project. I named my project as "She & I: Darcy Wang." They agreed the title was good, and I should just name it as "She & I."
Short and get to the point.

ESC== Electronic Social Club

Today Iva and I went to the [ESC] at Hunter College. It was an event that shows current MFA students' work (or thesis) from Parsons DT, PRATT, IPT, Hunter College, etc. Too bad I didn't bring my camera with me to take pictures. Not only it was an event to see students' work from other schools, also a good time to get to know them and also to broaden our art network. Some of the projects are pretty interesting. I scanned one of the project description from the programm brochure:


This piece was an interactive device that senses the speed of hand motion to change the pace and pitch accordingly. If I lay my palm on the sensor, the sound will be played slower and slower till it stops. It is more involved in physical computing and programming.

We saw there's a second year (Drew Cogbill) from our DT presenting his half-way done thesis. The thesis was called "Pigeon." It is a mobile networking between people or family that let user shout out to the world in 1 minute. More like talking to the voice mailbox, and people can access to hear your feelings, opinions, or updates. Sounds like mobile or audio facebook to me if I am correct to interpret the project to my understanding. He did a demo for us by calling the number: 713-574-9488. It worked! Then, follow the voice instruction to sign up an account.

I absorbed so much today, and hopefully I am able to present in that place one day. XD

[Postmortem] Flower Alarm Clock

I was in a group with Iva and we came up a new form of alarm clock, which is called “Flower Alarm Clock.” The purpose for the design is to wake people up with strong impact: scent, sound, and puzzles. The following categories are the analysis for our product:


Strength:

For the solution, we found out it will be an effective way to solve the problems that people have difficulty to wake up in the morning. Our solution for the design was add some elements to the alarm clock that are scent, sound, and puzzles. These three happen at the same time when the alarm is on. In order to wake up fully, the user need to wake up and solve the puzzles in order to cease the alarm. So, the user will fully wake up by finishing the puzzle and won’t go back to sleep.


Weakness:

The scent can be improved to gone faster after the alarm been turned off. We didn’t think about the situation when the scent would still remain after the alarm off. If the user happens to use “fart” scent as a way to wake him up, he or she won’t like the bad scent would not go away after the alarm clock been turned off. This is the consideration we need to improve for our design.


Design Process:

When we first came out to re-design an alarm clock that functions different than the others and started building the design brief, that was the key moment for this design process. At first, I only came up with ideas that I wanted to create something that does not look the way as it functions. Iva and I really thought outside of the box to create a product that looks attractive, functions well, and user enjoys the innovative appearance. Iva and I worked together as a group pretty well. She understood my concepts and my ideas really clearly even though I just told her I really like to make something creative and innovative. We didn’t have conflicts at all. Iva worked really hard on rendering the 3D modeling of our prototype as final storyboard. I mainly threw my ideas into words and wrote major contents for presentation. Along the process, we got together fix and edit the PowerPoint presentation and made the physical prototype.

The only trouble spot we faced was the user or audience we selected. We aimed our user group too broad at the first time. We basically aimed everyone to be our user group. It turned out wrong so that we located our target user as “kidults.” It appears more specific and helpful to our final solution and conclusion.


Conclusion:

With our effort on the finalized version, I consider our product would be a great exhibition piece. Because we added additional elements in the alarm clock that people may not think of before, it will bring a new horizon or dimension into the design world. The proper place for our exhibition should be the gallery of our Parsons building located at 2 West 13th St.

[Project] Design Brief-"Re-design"

Intro-Overture

I don't do blogs all the time. I tried to maintain and kept updating blogs before, but it never last really long. I normally record my daily thoughts and activities in my own journal book. Since the Chronobook* came out lately, I found out it's really unique and fun to keep daily journal. So, the online blog is even being ignored by me.

However, I decide to build a blog not only for Interface class, but publish and share my thoughts, life (not too personal life), research, laughter, madness, and... everything universally. So, that's why I name my blog as a digital version of my journal/ Chronobook. You may see me really crazy in this my little own world, or you may think I'm extremely random and still crazy. That's ok. Just keep coming back for my new post. Hope you'll enjoy it.

*Chronobook is a product of MUJI Company. Please refer to www.muji.com.