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Gan Shi

Device Prototyping

  • My Experience of Using LittleBits

I first knew those powerful cute little tools when I did my studio preparation. The introduction of the kit was like…

Tools in This Box

Although the names of all the tools were self-explanatory, I still felt it was too complicated for me to generate my prototype with it. But with the practices during studio section, it turned out that I had overestimated the difficulty of using this kit. So long as I settled down a topic, it became much easier to pick tools I needed. And the rest of challenges remained at properly assembling those tools to make my prototyping work. With Kerem and Nitaya’s instructions, the embryo of my prototyping gradually appeared. As I was pursuing a temperature reporting system of cookie baking, I built the core body of my prototyping with a temperature sensor and a split.

Core Body (Temperature Sensor in Pink and Split in Orange)

I connected a buzzer and a LED light to the two tips of split respectively in order to have two distinguishable signals as temperature changed.

Finished Prototyping

Here is the link to a short video interpreting the ideas of my device prototyping. Please check it out!

  • Self-reflection

For my prototyping and the practices during studio section, I only used a few tools in the kit. There were a lot of tools and different topics I had not tried. For example, if I could play with LittleBits kit again in the future, I probably will make a speaker with light sensor, MP3 player, synth speaker and maybe the memory card with several old songs in it. Playing with LittleBits is so fun.

  • Wildcard

Q: How does LittleBits kit inspire and help human centered designers with their ideas?

A: In my opinion, practice and manually doing stuffs are especially important to the process of designing. With all the tools in the LittleBits, a designer can generate different versions of his/her ideas and adjust details within only changing a little part of the previous prototyping. Being able to visually see the ideas in real models can help designers find advantages and flaws of their designs so that they could do further better.