Choose an assignment:
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eBook Reader Concept
Assignment: In teams of 3-4 people, design an electronic book reader for a given target audience and context. The focus will be to: synthesize needs and opportunities from both potential product users and other sources. Discover the intersection between the needs observed by researchers and the needs people perceive in themselves in order to find rich areas for product development. Design product interactions that support the emotional connections between the person the reader. Explore the personal and social roles that ebook readers facilitate. Communicate the value of the ebook reader through the visual, auditory, and narrative channels provided by a long video sketch that should be roughly 2-minutes in length.
Solution: Click on the link below to view our project documentation.
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Mobile Device
Assignment: Students will design a physical device that allows for two-way communication between a set or two groups of people. Design Issues: user research, interviews, personas, and scenarios Deliverables: iPhone application prototype, presentation of design, project documentation.
Solution: Click on the link below to view our project documentation.
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Physical Cube
Assignment: Create a physical cube no greater than 6"x6" that should look as if one should/can: rub it, turn it, squeeze it.
Solution: A collection of sponges wrapped in a soft foam and then covered in laptop screen cleaning cloth. I then placed tacs on it to give it the appearance of a die, which provided the 'turning' aspect. The squeezing and rubbing where inherent in my choice of materials.
Click on the thumbnail to view more images of the project.
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Digital Cube
Assignment: Create a digital cube using any program of our choice that should look as if one should/can: rub it, turn it, move or rotate it.
Solution A Bryce 5 rendering of a cube with a rock-like texture. I added water to the scene, which provides two contexts: rub because you want to see what it is and why it is reflecting, and move because you should want to dunk it in the water. I then animated it with music composed by Nathan Zoob.
Click on the thumbnail to view my cube video.
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1000-Floor Elevator
Assignment: Design an elevator for a building with 1000 floors. Not an elevator system, a single elevator that can travel from the ground floor to the 1000th floor. Address the following: How a user selects a floor, how the floors are displayed to those in the elevator.
Solution: In keeping with the traditional affordances of an elevator, I decided to avoid using the popular 'keypad' solution. What fun would elevators be if you couldn't go in and push a few buttons to see them light up like when you were a kid?
Click on the thumbnail to view the detailed solution.
[Download PDF - 942 KB]
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Ambient Device
Assignment: Design an ambient device that displays in some manner some sort of data (weather, time, stock market, fullness of the basement vending machines, etc.) in a calm, non-intrusive manner. The most important criteria: the class feels as though they can experience it.
Solution: A watch that dynamically changes color based on four major functions: time of day, events, stopwatch, timer. Essentially I wanted to use ambience to link color and design in a way that is not necessarily useful, but simply enjoyable to experience.
Click on the thumbnail below to view my 11x17 presentation.
[Download PDF - 11.5 MB]
