UX of Paper

Designers: Bala Chander, Ella Wilson, Jacob Tomes, Kiesha Mundin, Ava Shepherd

Brief:

For our final project of the term the goal of this brief is to design an experience of paper that explores the material, cultural and emotional properties of paper. For this project we used two research methods; A literature review and Body-storming

Week 1

Literature Review

We decided that it would best to start off with documental research about paper to help prompt ideas. On Saturday we met up online to discuss key topics that we all found intriguing about paper and what we would potentially like to explore. I personally wanted to focus on the different histories of paper and how its value has developed overtime.

Therefore for my literature review I decided to read chapter 5 of Kurlansky, Paging Through History, (2016). To have a comparison, I additionally read Tobjörk and Österbacka, Paper electronics; Advanced materials(2011).

Literature Review Paper.pdf

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Idea development / the making process

After finishing our literature reviews we all came back together as a group to share our findings and discuss any ideas that had come from it. Doing the literature review before this was actually very beneficial as everyone brought very varied and in-depth ideas forward to the group. After discussion we were able to come up with two key experiences we would be happy to present on Thursday.

One idea was to look at the concept of paper blindness and the reflective qualities of paper. The other was to look at the structure of paper and how it is able to hold information over long periods of time.

In order to achieve these ideas we wanted to try create two prototypes. The first one being a kind of light mask / light goggles that someone would be able to wear and feel blinded by.

The other prototype we were in-visioning would be inspired by Damien Hurst's work "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living". We wanted to build each individual layer that makes up paper in a manner that people would be able to walk through the instillation and interact with it.

Considering that we all liked both of these ideas we decided to build a prototype for both and see what happens. John had even suggested in our tutorial that we could blend the ideas together so were hesitant to completely write one off to early on.

Experimenting / building different light shields

Experimenting with how we can show the layers of paper

Body Storming

At this point we still liked the concept of both ideas and wanted to explore the light shield one more in depth. To help us do this we decided to do some body storming with the googles we had already made. Body storming was a research method that I had never previously come across. When we first began trying to body storm it felt rather silly and pointless. I honestly wasn’t sure how much we would gain from doing this method. However, after going round as a group a few times and everyone getting more comfortable, ideas began to bloom and I saw the potential of this research method. Our ideas started to get more diverse and natural. The fast nature of this method also helped us to not over think and just experiment with ideas.

Not only did the ideas mentioned actually end up inspiring our next stages but it also loosened us up as group and allowed us to take a step back. One thing I have learnt from this semester is how easy it is to get tunnel vision and suddenly end up 10 steps away from our original idea. This research method was therefore additionally a good way to get out of our rhyme for a moment and take a step back, look at our work and strip away anything unnecessary. Overall I personally really learnt a lot from this research method, found it very beneficial for our group and would like to incorporate it into my future work.

Time lapse of body-storming with light shield

Interim Presentation

Our interim presentation was very successful this week. We presented our two prototypes (Light goggles and face shield) along with our previous prototype of the layers of paper.

From our presentation we received very positive feedback about what we had made. The concept of paper-blindness was clearly communicated and communicative with the audience. Additionally it was very different to what other groups had done this week.

Feedback / moving forward

The feedback from our presentation was very positive and we therefore did not have to make many changes. John said that we had done exactly what this project encourages us to do. We therefore wanted to tidy up the execution of our work for next week and potentially add one more type of mask. Someone in the class also mentioned maybe adding variety in the brightness of the masks which was something to consider

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Week 2

Idea development / the making process

Moving forward our main goal was to tidy up our work and make the headsets wireless. Therefore on Thursday after class we got straight into prototyping new designs of head sets we could make. As we decided we wanted to make the lights fade in and out to show how light blindness does not happen instantly we decided to split off into two teams. Bala and Jacob would focus on building the general structure of the masks, while Kiesha and I would learn the coding for the lights and focus on that. As Ella was remote we agreed she would help with the theory side of things.

Process of headsets getting built

Coding the Lights

With the help of the creative technology lab Kiesha and I were able to learn the coding needed to fade the lights in and out as needed. However on Tuesday we were having significant difficulties setting it up. Our code kept coming up with errors and we could not understand why. At one point the technician at the lab thought it might even be an error with the lights. This was really frustrating.

However luckily Parth from another group was able to help us as he had used the same lights in the previous week. This was a turning point for us. From his help we were finally able to move on with the coding stage and attached them to wires and the light shields appropriately.

Final Outcome of Light Shield

Final Presentation

Just before class we decided it would be best if we could showcase our work in a dark room. As our normal classroom has windows across both sides of the room, it was not an ideal place to present. This left us last minute quickly scrambling to find somewhere empty that would be dark enough. I am really glad we did this though as it made the execution of our final presentation much more successful than I believe it would have been in the light.

Overall people really enjoyed our work and thought the improvements we made were successful. Giving people the ability to walk around freely and not be attached to the wall was definitely a good decision as people in the class were interacting with the masked blind people.

The three shield together

Parth wearing the circle light shield

Final Presentation

Feedback

One key point that we were told was that the presentation felt a bit orchestrated with the way that we set it up. Perhaps next time we should have just discussed our theory and then started the experience instead of doing both at the same time. Apart from this I am really happy with the way our work turned out. It was great to end the semester on a high.

What I have learnt from this group

This brief really highlighted to me the importance of communication. There was several times throughout this project that people misunderstood each other leading us to become paralysed in our progress. Due to this we often found that it would be best to walk away from the project for a little while and then regroup with fresh brains. When working as a team it is easy to get carried away with ideas and get so excited that you lose your original goal. While this can sometimes be really helpful, for us it often hindered our work. Taking a moment to all pause and step back was really helpful when this happened and allowed us to view our work with fresh eyes and recognise when these ideas were successful and when they were not.

Bibliography

Damien Hurst. (1991). The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living

Kurlansky, M., (2016). paging through history. WW Norton & Company.

Tobjörk, D. and Österbacka, R., (2011). Paper electronics. Advanced materials, 23(17), pp.1935-1961.