Final dates
Final presentation and related practicalities
Final presentation with external sensor is on the 6th of june from 09.00 – 16.00.
During final presentation each student will get 15 min each for their presentations,
and an additional 10 min for appropriate demonstration.
Deadline for the final presentation (format of your choice)
and the written paper (digital, format of your choice) is on
monday the 2nd of june at 14.00.
From Monday 2nd of june 14.00 and until thursday 5th of june at 14.00,
you will work on your exhibition.
Those who dont deliver on monday at 14.00 will not be given space to exhibit.
Exhibition and related practicalities:
Deadline
Deadline for the exhibition setup is thursday 5th of june at 14.00
Remember that access to the library is limited to their opening hours. The library closes at 15.00 on thursday the 5th of june, and we do not want to hear any complaints from the staff about students reluctant to leave on thursday afternoon.
Guarding schedule
One student will get the responsability for setting up a guarding schedule.
Everyone will have to set aside some time during week 24 to guard and protect everyones prototypes and exhibition. ( At least its a more pleasant space to pass time in, than for any other space interactiondesign have exhibited yet)
Practicalities
Everyone have to use brown paper on their table/-s.
Tables for the exhibition will come from U1. Do carry them with care!
Keep in mind…
That the exhibition can be viewed from both the outside/corridor and the inside.
So the outside should demonstrate: concept/teaser/shelf demonstrability/eye candy etc
The inside should focus on indepth infornation/testing/process/research etc
And overall: make the exhibition accessible, consider how to communicate the concept experiences, etc.
The exhibition is being graded!
RP design brief collaboration
You will have to be present at your RP groups presentation thursday 5th of june, sometime between 09.00 – 12.00. Ideally we would recommend that you all be present at all their presentations.
The paper
Deadline for the draft for the paper is 26th of may.
Deadline for the final deliver of the paper is monday the 2nd of june at 14.00.
Lats day of the term
The exhibition will be taken down by the whole class between 10.00 – 12.00 friday the 13th.
This includes carrying the tables back to U1 and cleanup of U1.
Final end of term with coffe and cakes and a general roundup’ from aprox 12.00!
Some further references
For those working with ideas around social and personal RFID:
Creole technologies and global histories: rethinking how things travel in space and time
Human traces in domestic spaces
What Your Phone Knows About You
Making bridges talk (a practical approach to using a simple social network platform like Twitter to let things talk)
For those working with space, neighbourhoods, publics:
Major project: Iteration two
The second two-week iteration involves using workshops as an idea-generation tool, and creating a plan for a first round of electronics prototyping.
Some references from Monday’s discussion
Two general links for RFID projects (a very broad range):
51 futuristic uses for RFID
33 ways RFID has invaded your life
For Alice
Case of RFID used as a universal payment (within a closed system)
Also look at U-City
For Kyrre
Smart touch catering service for elderly
Lots of accessible NFC applications
For Knut
Some research on the body as interface
Tangible Interactions Design, space and place
For Fan Fan
Previous project on visualisation and ‘decoration’ with radio waves
Tic tac textiles: ideas for interaction in interior spaces
For Natacha:
Manual of signage design
Giulia’s project on locating everyday objects
Loc8tor
For Marianne
The age of point at things
RFID and the social life of objects
The social life of objects
The RFID Ecosystem project
For Bo
Treat your sick doll with RFID
Little Tikes RFID kitchen
For playful RFID
Hyperscan
Probably the first use of RFID in toys (the Star Wars Commtech range)
The coming age of magic
For transactions and infrastructure in public space
Touch and travel (interesting because the infrastructure is rolled out using simple (and probably cheap) interfaces that are glass and RFID tags. More here and here.
Aneace’s blog, he’s an expert in transactions
Touchable services task
Projects
Here is our presentation of projects. This covers tangible products, accessible products, ambient devices, tangible games, new embodied interfaces, mobile interfaces and games, social interfaces, modular products and toys, media art projects, spatial annotation, flash mobs and internet-based collective action, internet-based communities for craft, ubiquitous cities, environmental sensing, tracking projects and early RFID projects.
See also Christer’s links pulled from the second half of the lecture.
Major project: Iteration one
The major project started this week. Here is the introduction to the project, as well as the specific tasks for the first iteration.
One-week tasks
The course has kicked off with four one-week tasks to introduce ubiquitous computing, tangible interaction, mobile services and design methods. Each task has been designed to cover different methods for research and design. They alternate between conceptual and detail levels: from the macro to the micro.
1. The landscape of tangible interaction
This week we will look at the history of design and technology with a focus on ubiquitous and tangible research, products and services. The course literature provides you with a comprehensive overview of some of the history and contemporary practice of interaction design. We expect you to reflect on the general themes contained in this literature.
2. A simple RFID interface
This week we will build a simple RFID application. We want you to explore three aspects of RFID interactions:
* the form of the tags
* the form of the reader
* the interaction feedback
We want you to explore the possibilities for physical tags in terms of material, shape, colour, weight, etc. and how this relates to a reader and screen-based interface.
The focus of this excersise is to explore the mapping between physical objects, readers and feedback (on screen and with sound). You must avoid designing a complex service and instead work with simple and satisfying experiences with one-to-one mappings. Consider colour, time, sound, weight, iconography, character as starting points for simple relationships.
3. The conscientious consumer
What kinds of mobile services could be developed to support conscientious behaviour in shopping? RFID and barcodes can easily connect mobile phones with products and shop displays, so how should services be created around this interaction?
4. Interactions of transactions
This week we want you to re-design the ticketing system for the Oslo sporveien considering the use of RFID cards.
* Study the existing Oslo ticketing systems and interfaces in context. Document the interactions at the buses, trams, T-bane and Oslo S.
* Re-design one of these interfaces to include the use of RFID tickets: how do people buy, top-up, manage, visualise and cancel the various options in the system? What kinds of structure and visual language are required to create satisfying experiences?
Course reading
This is a compendium of reading materials that offer multiple perspectives on computing, interaction design, contemporary products and design methodology. It is the core reading for the Tangible interactions course at the Oslo School of Architecture & Design.
Most of the content below is available online, at least in the form of important sample chapters.
History & background
Some selected perspectives on technology from history. Here we see some evidence of the eternal ‘proximate future’ in both the foundation of electricity and of ubiquitous computing. We also question the development and sustainability of contemporary ubiquitous information infrastructures.
Wonders of the Future by Nikola Tesla (full text online)
Tales of tomorrow (from the Acme Novelty Library) by Chris Ware (sample images online)
The computer for the 21st century by Mark Weiser (full text online)
In the Bubble by John Thackara (sample pdf chapter online)
Ubiquitous computing
Contemporary perspectives on ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) as an area of research and development. Here we see critical perspectives of the field from architecture and interaction design, and some observations on the nature of ubiquitous computing in practice.
Digital Ground by Malcolm McCullough (sample pdf chapter online)
Everyware by Adam Greenfield (introduction pdf online).
Yesterday’s tomorrows: Questioning Ubicomp’s dominant vision by Bell & Dourish (pdf online)
Getting out of the City: Meaning and structure in Everyday Encounters with Space by Bell & Dourish (pdf online)
Tangible, social and embodied interaction
A brief history of interaction with computers including the development of the original mouse. An example of the design of tangible interfaces, including the creation of interaction models, and a simple manifesto for curious, playful interfaces.
Where the action is: the foundations of embodied interaction by Paul Dourish (sample pdf chapter online)
Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge (chapter 1 – the mouse and the desktop + video)
Emerging frameworks for tangible user interfaces by Ullmer & Ishii (pdf online)
The Curious Interface: A Design Manifesto in Favor of Play by Jane McGonigal (pdf online)
Products, services and artefacts
Contemporary products are increasingly computational, interactive and social. We start with a strong vision of a sustainable future of things, then we explore how the internet and products are influencing each other including social software, service design and mobile devices.
Shaping things by Bruce Sterling (sample pdf chapters online)
3C products, The life of products and Experience hooks by Matt Webb (weblog posts)
On the Ground Running by Adam Greenfield (weblog post)
Mobile essentials by Jan Chipchase et al (paper and weblog post)
What makes a good social object? and Why some social network services work and others don’t by Jyri Engestrom (weblog posts)
Method
Introducing a wide range of methods for interaction design and interactive products. We look at the role of qualitative research in design processes, developing fictional products, using cultural probes, ‘hackability’ and the ethnographic study of mobile objects.
Design Research by Brenda Laurel (introductions to qualitative and quantitative methods)
The importance of fictional products by Allan Chochinov (article online)
Cultural probes and the value of uncertainty by Bill Gaver et al (pdf online)
Portable Objects in Three Global Cities: The Personalization of Urban Places by Mizuko Ito et al (pdf online)
Design for Hackability by Anne Galloway et al (pdf online)
Don’t design for ‘mobile’ – design for mobility by Adaptive Path (weblog post)
Making Things Talk by Tom Igoe (entire book)
Further reading
In addition to the material above we also include The Invisible Computer, The Design of Everyday Things, RFID Applications, Security, and Privacy and Spychips as important background reading.
See also more RFID books, weblogs and resources at the Touch weblog.
Online
See the list of weblogs and interviews.
Some thoughts on designing tangible interfaces
Interviews with the makers of the Wii
“When developing a games console, a human-machine interface isn’t just a necessity, it’s an intrinsic part of the whole process. So, a number of years ago I created somewhere between ten and twenty teams, each consisting of around three people. These teams were given free rein to couple a dedicated controller or peripheral with a GameCube title, and then see whether or not the end result was marketable.”
Matt Webb on making things and why innovation is hard
“When we engage directly with the material – whether that’s plastic or code – we test the grain of the object. We see that wooden buttons don’t want to be pressed, and we’ll need a different operating mechanism. When a material thing sits in our sweaty palm, or on our cluttered desk, we test the grain of the world.”
“It may appear that the carriers’ nightmares have been realized, that the iPhone has given all the power to consumers, developers, and manufacturers, while turning wireless networks into dumb pipes. But by fostering more innovation, carriers’ networks could get more valuable, not less. Consumers will spend more time on devices, and thus on networks, racking up bigger bills and generating more revenue for everyone.”
Tangible Interactions 