The students thought the project refreshed their minds by being a rather open project, as compared to designing standard products. In this project they felt less confined by products already done, and could free their minds to “really create”. As such it was perceived as a mental exercise. They appreciated being exposed to theories of interaction, which they found very beneficial, enabling them to think on a new level. According to the students industrial designers design products but mainly ignore the use of these products. They also appreciated being exposed to electronics, learning what you can do with the Arduino prototyping platform.

Learning problem solving and creative thinking with the methods of Edward de Bono (from the book “Serious Creativity) was highly appreciated. It opened up their minds for seeing better opportunities, e.g. looking at a lamp from an interaction perspective, and trying to strengthen its features. They had been exposed to these ideas earlier in lectures, but working with the methods made it more concrete.

The students also appreciated how prototyping allows you to see potential in a concept. Also, allowing “wizard-of-oz” prototyping where the interaction is “faked” allowed for a better mental process making things more user friendly. After the project finished the students meant that they still discussed, what could have been done differently.

Problem issues during the project raised by the students regarded lacking infrastructure and too few computers being available. Also they found it a bit tiring with long presentations and lectures, as they are not used to it. When asking about differences and potential changes in future design projects, they wanted more short projects similar to the one-week Arduino projects. Also, they voice a concern about how some requirements, e.g. producing “tech drawings” were very constricting for the thought process. On the whole, the students appreciated the new perspectives being brought in by foreign teachers.

“In this project you will design digital technology to support the enhanced experience of a multi-cultural event – the Soccer World Cup in South Africa 2010. It is the first time the FIFA World Cup™ is held in Africa. This is a major opportunity for South Africa and the whole African continent, and at the same time a big challenge for South Africa to host a successful World Cup in 2010. Your main design goal is to find new opportunities for taking part in a large public event. This could be creating a shared experience of football games mediated by digital technology, but it could also be enhancing and stimulating meetings and playful activities among the large audience in the Fanfest areas.”

This resulted in the following projects, of which some were elaborations of ideas from the third week. The students were asked to build proof-of-concept prototypes using the Arduino platform.

Viva Vuvuzela

by Alett Strydom & Jessica Hamilton (surface design), Raoul de Villiers & Philip Fourie (product design)

A silent vuvuzela was designed that displays different visual effects through gestures. The prototype is a re-built Vuvuzela slightly shortened to a more comfortable size. When it is shaken to show e.g. protests against foul play or disagreement with a referee decision, red lights are triggered through a tilt sensor. When it is blown as an act of support, a fan installed in the mouthpiece as sensor triggers green lights.

VuVuValve

by Renier Marx & Hester Claassen (product design), Cornelius Hahndiek (graphic design)

The VuVuValve comes from an instrument (vuvuzela) which makes a noise when you blow it. It is usually seen at soccer games in South Africa and is used to support the different teams. The VuVuValve is used for a game involving two or more people. The concept is to be able to mute the opponent by blowing on your VuVuValve. For each soccer team, the supporters would have a different sonic code, displayed on the instrument. When the code of an opponent is blown by a supporter, the opponent’s VuVuValve will pick-up the code and close a valve, muting the instrument temporarily. After a short time the valve will open again, making the user ready to engage in another battle. The VuVuValve encourages fun and competitive behaviour between supporters of different teams, giving them a feeling of belonging and enhancing patriotism – “mute, don’t dispute”.

VuVuValve

Hex

by Oriole B and David Jones (product design)

Each supporter has a hexagonal “ball” that can be ”bumped” with other supporters’ balls to exchange contact info. After a bump, the ball will alert when the other supporter is close by. In the prototype the exchange of information was triggered by a tilt sensor and transmitted with wireless communication. In addition the “ball” lights up to indicate communication. The final product will be of smaller size. The goal is to connect people in the context of having fun.

Hex

Big Ball

by Glen Cook, Paul Malherbe & Dene Viljoen (product design), Amanda von Schaardenburg (surface design)

The Big Ball is used in an open game for supporters outside of the stadium in the streets or in Fanfest areas, in conjunction with a soccer match. The Big Ball is a big soft ball with a diameter of around 3 meters. The surface is divided into segments, similar to a soccer ball. When a segment is pushed it changes between two colors. For each soccer match, the Big Ball is configured with the two main colors of the playing teams. The ball is bounced back and forward, and when the supporters of one team manages to light up all segments in the color of their team, they score points.

Big Ball

Bump Ball

by Oriole B and David Jones

Each supporter has a ball that can be ”bumped” with other supporters’ balls to exchange contact info. After a bump, the ball will alert when the other supporter is close by.

Viva Vuvuzela

by Alett Strydom and Raoul de Villiers

A silent vuvuzela that displays different visual effects through gestures.

Goal Sensor

by Cornelius Hahndiek, Amanda van Schaardenburg and Jessica Hamilton

Goal posts and supporters’ shirts light up if a goal is scored.

Powerball

by Philip Fourie and Paul Malherbe

A soccer ball that charges through kinetic energy, and can be used to power/charge mobile devices like MP3-players.

Refball

by Dene Viljeon and Glen Cook

A soccer ball that blink in different colors if a goal is scored or if it is out of bounds etc.

VuVu-Valve

by Renier Marx and Hester Claassen

A vuvuzela that can be silenced by opponent supporters by playing the designated sonic code pattern.

A game where a ping-pong ball is kept in limbo in a plastic tube using a motor-contolled fan. But when you know that there is a light sensor to control the speed of the fan, you just can’t stop yourself from fiddling with it…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpIdwPmzEGs

Controlling a ping-pong ball with airflow in a tube

A wii control has been hacked to balance a ball on a “one-dimensional labyrinth game”!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khqg_lzjZsI

Balancing a ball with a hacked Wii-controller

Other projects…

A drinking game based on the traditional "toss the coin game". If you get the coin in the cup it chooses by random who is the unlucky drinker.

A classic robot that rocks out to you music on you computer.

Stress releasing game where you turn an angry robot on your boss, beating him up until you fell relaxed enough to go back to work.

Drinking game. For each shot you have to do what is displayed on the picture above the glass. Once you are done you slam the glass and the displays light up.

Space invaders meet whack-a-mole. The mission is to kill the space invader that light up in the box. You do this by hitting the keys fast. The further you go, the faster they get.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YieV4ZnROGM

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Dene Viljoen, Philip Fourie, Raoul, Oriole, Hester Claassen, Remier, Paul Malhembe, Glen, Erwin, Dave

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Cornelius Hahnebek, Lester Naik, Adele-Mari Combrinck, Erica

SURFACE DESIGN

Alette Strydam, Amanda van Schoordenburg, Jessica Hamilton

• to get first-hand experience of how digital materials can enrich the “material repertoir” of design students from different disciplines,
• to get experience from working together with other students in producing “integrated designs” where digital materials may become the binding element across disciplines, and
• to learn the basics of interaction design and designing interactive experiences using digital materials

The project is run over five weeks, starting with three weeks of intensive introduction to Arduino hardware and software programming, and an introduction to interaction design. During these introductions, students will gradually start working on the main brief and the last two weeks are dedicated to iterative design and prototyping under supervision.

For more information about Arduino and associated technologies, see http://www.arduino.cc/ and http://www.1scale1.com/, (scroll down the web-page to see examples). 

IITM is directed towards students across design subjects at the Faculty of Informatics and Design. The main idea is to bring together design students from different fields with knowledge of a wide range of design materials, around the task of designing with digital materials and shaping interactive experiences around digital products. Interaction design, a main subject at K3, forms the disciplinary base for the project and the Arduino platform for electronic prototyping and associated technologies is the main design tool. With Arduino it is easy to produce workable digital prototypes with simple and rather cheap components in a broad range of design domains.

The meaning of the title “Interactions-in-the-making” is twofolded, referring to a focus on making prototypes as the core learning activity, as well as to facilitating multi-disciplinary interaction and learning between students from different design fields.

Bart Verveckken, head of department at Industrial Design, has facilitated the set up of the project at CPUT, with the aid of staff from the other design departments at the Faculty of Informatics and Design. Jörn Messeter and Tony Olsson from K3 are the principal teaching staff with the aid of Ziggy Strohbach and Johan van Niekerk at Industrial design, CPUT.

The project runs in the period March 2 – April 3. We are aiming for a spectacular presentation of cool prototypes at the end of the project!