prototyping

Experience Prototyping lasting for five weeks was over. I didn't insist on my blog from last week because I was too busy to do the projects. And sometimes I couldn't think of anything to say.

About last week, we learned Experimental Image Making. Simply speaking, just taking a great many photos and running them fast, like movie. I thought it was much simpler than arduino coding, but actually it was taking longer than expected. We needed to consider many elements for each picture, position, background, light, color, even the shadow. After taking a photo, we just can move the object a little, quite a little, and couldn't move any other things. But some stuff is so small, I felt I was doing surgery, super careful. The only pity thing was my computer have some problem, it couldn't install the Dragonframe. So in the postproduction work, I was just an onlooker. The video is on my group members' hand, Sor and Camila.

About this week, back to arduino. I think it is summary of what we have learnt in past several weeks. The topic of project was so wide, made me difficult to decide the creature. In past time I have learnt a lot about coding, but I still have no interest in it and couldn't achieve the project alone. Thank god, it was group work. Finally we made a crazy dancing doll, never stop blinking and dancing. So if the next project still need to use coding and must be finished individually, I have no confidence, I don't think I can do it, I need more help.

Tuesday--the fourth week

Today the teacher spent much time fixing the equipment. They seem very complicated and expensive. I saw the imaging videos from the last year student, amazing.

Monday--The fourth week

This is a new week. I strongly feel there will be another big challenge waiting for us. Today we installed the sofeware called Dragonframe and used it to take many photos, then play it, wonderful things happened, the object was moving. We can uses photos to make movie. But it's not an easy thing. The first assignment is to make a object falling and bouncing. We just needed to take a photo, and then move the object a little, take a photo again......repeat this process. But actually we needed to consider the speed. When we moved it, they should not be equal distance. Start quickly, and then became slow nearly touching grand........

Tuesday--the third week

In the morning we presented our assignment1-sketches. Some of them are awesome.
In the afternoon we exercised several examples which are from teachers. They are all working, but coding seems difficult. I am worried whether I can finish the project of this week. Every week has big challenge, the same this week.

Monday--the third week

Today we spent whole morning installing software. Windows system brought me some troubles, and Chinese version made more troubles. But at last we still succeed to upload all the materials. In the afternoon the teachers taught some simple coding. And the first assignment is to make ten sketches. It is not difficult, but we were supposed to do 10 different moving.up and down, left and right, rotate,line, circle,square,color...... I was thingking...thingking...thingking...

Thursday+Friday--the second week

These two days we were doing assignment 2, making a design about haptic with arduino. I had never learnt arduino before, ao very worried about this project. But my group member Nosheen has background of computer science and told me don't worry. She gave me confidence. We changed our idea several time. Finally we made a robot shaking hand. It wae supposed to move smoothly, actually it did in the morning. But in afternoon presentation it became crazy. At least it still could shake. I was really happy that day.

Wenesday--the second week

Today we did presentation of model. I was so surprised at my classmates' designs. Their mind is quite open and novel. That is the magic power of design school student. I really learnt so much.

In the afternoon we started to learn audrino coding. It is interesting, but not easy. I just can follow the teacher, cann't make some new things.

Tuesday--the second week

Today we finished the assignment1(make things moving and preposition). When I saw other classmates using various strange materials to create new model......I don't know how to put my feelings into words, maybe appreciate their work, or worried about my design. I just used cardboard to do my job, without artful mechanism or wonderful performance. But at least it really meet the requirement. Design shouldn't be judged by right or wrong. But my work must be the simplest.

About the exercise of geting feedback, it's really interesting. We received and transmited information to others. I have never thought about getting emotional information by line before, the feeling is wonderful. In the discussion I was thinking and tried to find other ways to transmit information, senses, facial expression, gesture, etc. In some situation, people often wink their eyes to give others hint.

Monday--the second week

This week is about haptic sketching. Today when the teacher asked us whether we have arduino, I said no. But actually I didn't know what is arduino. Then in break time I googled it and found it looks like circuit board. It maks me upset. I dislike hardware, that is why I abandoned my bachelor major(communication engineering) and chose HCI as my master major.  My first task is to make things moving without using Arduino(good news for me)!!! I hope my design is not too simple.

Friday--the first week

Today is final presentation of sketching project. Last night we had finished the storyboard. So this morning we didn't have many things to do, take photos, write document, etc. In our case, all the input belong to human natural behavior, we didn't prepare the design model. But cardboard modeling is another important tool we learnt this week except sketching. I was worried that teacher would blame us. After making a wheel and a brake, I found this is a difficult job and I don't have enough time to make a whole car with inside facilities. The pity of it! After learning a week, I still cann't sketch. But what teacher said is right. Sketch is just tool, I learnt a lot about how to design, how to team work. Of course, that would be so nice if I can express my idea by good sketch.

Besides, before presentation nosheen told me that her design might not be good. But actually she lied!!!*_* Her group presentation is awesome.I really like their design of throwing comments paper to the screen. They focused on human behavior, nice experience design!

Thursday--the first week

Today is a busy day. Realizing our mistake yesterday, we changed our further work. Firstly we used some time to think about different troubles which drivers often meet. Then we chose the most common situation as background of our scenario. All of us sketched in the same paper and shared many suggestions of solutions with each other. This process was quite interesting and opened my mind. In the afternoon, each group did great presentation. But there are still some places we need to improve. Before going home, my group finished the story......I don't know what else to say. I hope tomorrow teachesr can enjoy our presentations, we really work hard.

Wednesday--the first week

Today is Thursday. I am sorry I didn't write diary yesterday. What the teacher said is right, I almost forget the feeling of yesterday. I remember yesterday we started our project. Before that, we discussed about natural behavior and rich interaction. It made me think about gesture-based interaction. Take Xbox game for example, users can control the role in the game by doing various gestures. This kind of interaction considers human body as a part of the system, physical motion as input, quite natural. Afternoon is group discussion. The topic of my group is drivers' feedback. But we spent much time discussing the different situationsand evironment and didn't understand the feedback meaning correctly. So the teacher said he don't like our idea, that made us upset. We were thinking whether we should change our idea and worried we couldn't finish this project on time.

Tuesday--the first week

Today I learnt to draw human and face.  Fixing proportion ia quit useful for beginner. In the past year, as a student of HCI, we also needed to draw prototype to express our ideas. But I can't draw. So I used to download many pictures from website, then edited them by drawing software. The problem was those pictures were different style which made my work inconsistent. So I do appreciate the beautiful sketch. It is impossible to pick up the sketching skill in a week. But I learnt to draw something which is in my mind, rather than make changes in existing objects.

And yesterday I thought I am good at geometric figure. But actually the trouble is not how to make it, but what we will make. It is very difficult to have a good idea. That's why creative spirit is so important in design field. 

Monday--the first week

This was my first time to make sktech. Kids can do better than me. So I felt quite shy to let my classmates see my work, especially others are all so good at painting. But I am still happy to learn new things and share my ideas with others.