Final Outcome and Presentation

Designers: Ava Shepherd, Parth Loliyania, Willow Yan, Ziyuan Dou

Its our final week!! This week we are focusing on finalising our design for the presentation along with finishing any visualisation we need. In order to get everything done in time we decided that the best way would be to break off and work on individual elements of the project separately.

Sanding Plaster Tunnel

I started the week finishing off our plaster cast mould. When it came out of the mould one side was significantly higher than the other and meant that it would not stand when turned the other way. To help with the sanding the 3D workshop provided different types of sanders. After a lot of sanding and measuring, I was able to get the mould completely flat and ready for presenting.

Sanding the Tunnel

Laser Cutting

Once I had finished this, since I was in the 3D workshop I was able to engrave our emblem onto a small piece of wood. We originally wanted to attach the emblem onto our final tunnels to give the full effect. However once we started the laser cutting process we found that we would not be able to create the effect we imagined in such a little time frame. Therefore we decided to use the laser engraver instead so we could still showcase how it would look.

Engraving the Logo

Creation on the Final Tunnels

Meanwhile, while I was in the 3D workshop Willow and Ziyuan were building our final tunnels upstairs. We decided to use wood for our final outcome as we had the plaster mould to showcase how the finish product would look in final resolution. Willow suggested that we laser cut all our pieces of wood so that they could easily be stuck together and be uniform. This saved us so much time and made the building process on a whole much easier.

Building the Tunnels

Once the tunnels were build Willow and Ziyuan were able to start painting! We decided to use a bright blue as we had recently discovered that rats are red -green colour blind, meaning blue is one of the only colours they can see (Do Rats Have Good Eyesight?, 2022). We really liked the idea of using blue as not only will it stand out for humans, it will also be visible for rats.

Painting the Tunnels

How our tunnels can be used

In the end we decided to go with three different style blocks that can be mixed and matched. The first one is the entrance / exit that have a basic arch through the centre. The second is a middle block that is used as a junction so has exits on all four sides. Finally we have the third block which can be used to go horizontally through walls and has an arch through the centre horizontally.

Testing with Rats

The next day we were then able to take our finished tunnels to be tested by a real rat. The tunnels were a perfect size for the rat this time round and provided it will lots of space to move around and hide in. Overall the rat seemed to enjoy our structure and could navigate around it easily

Rat interacting with our tunnels

Video of the rat testing our tunnels

Creation of Demonstration Video

Finally, the last thing we wanted to do before our presentation on Thursday was to create a comical video about the rats using our tube. We decided that taking a light hearted approach would fit best for our work as it helps shift peoples mindset about rats and help tackle the stigma. Therefore Parth and I went out in the evening to film some clips we could use for a video from the rats POV.

To be able to film from a rat POV we had to DIY a tripod for our phone to record.

Filming video 1

Outcome from filming day 1

When we got back, Ziyuan shared that she had also made a story board for a different potential film. We all really liked her story board and thought that the story was communicated much stronger than the video we filmed last night. Therefore we decided we could combine Ziyuan's idea with the Mario idea from last night and create a strong final video.

Ziyuan's Storyboard

Filming the second video

Final Outcome

The Rodentia Line

Visualisation of how the tubes would look in a wall

Final Presentation / Feedback

On Thursday we had our final presentation! We were all really happy with our end outcome and were really excited to showcase our work to Takram. We felt as though we had progressed significantly from our interim presentation when we last officially presented to Takram and were eager to hear their feedback.

Overall we received really positive feedback about our design. Both Takram and the class enjoyed the video we created and thought it added another layer to our project that worked really well. While people still had questions about how humans would react if this was rolled out around London, we came to the conclusion that it would be something we tackle as it happens. There is constantly new systems being put in place that face resistance at first and slowly become the norm. Ideally, this could work like that in the future.

Reflection / Learning

This project has taught me so much. Not only have I learnt how to design for non humans and shift my mindset from a human centred approach to design, I have learnt that I really enjoy prototyping ideas along the way and seeing where they take us. I believe that one of our groups strongest strengths was that we never limited ourselves to only focus on one idea. Instead we left it open and allowed room for ideas to come and go and create its own path.

Overall I really enjoyed this project and have learnt key skills that I will carry with me in my future work.

References

Pets on Mom.com. 2022. Do Rats Have Good Eyesight?. [online] Available at: <https://animals.mom.com/rats-good-eyesight-11086.html> [Accessed 21 April 2022].