This exploration came out of an assignment in my Ideation & Prototyping class. While exploring affordances and their role in design, I was prompted to create a physical interface for a digital product. I thought hard about many different potential interfaces but struggled to select one. Most games seemed too complex,
many digital offerings were digitizations of their previous selves, and reverting to them seemed like reinventing the wheel.
This caused me to narrow my search and to look for digitally native offerings or augmentations of analog activities. I explored topics like film editing and password management, but they didn’t pop. Whenever I feel stuck while working my mind begins to wander. Whenever it wanders, out of (an addictive) habit, I find myself on social media. As I was mindlessly scrolling it hit me that social media was exactly what I was looking for. I had sketched out several ideas and received feedback from some peers about them. The “unnamed social media feed box” was the resounding winner and so I proceeded with that idea.
Social media has been reduced to a small set of interactions, infinite scrolling, and minimal differences between platforms. Looking at the simple affordances of social media which can be reduced to like, comment, view, and upload creates this strange battle with constraints because there are (near) limitless possibilities to what can be uploaded or said, but with extremely limited affordances. In this sense, all interaction is redirected into content in a recursive cycle.
Once I had settled on social media as a whole, I directed my analysis at the largest social media sites including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. These all focus around a “limitless scroll” environment with interactions such as liking and comments.
However, while all of these apps try to hold your attention as long as possible, they are constantly battling with each other to capture your attention and start the downward cycle with distractions like push notifications. I feel as this is a major constraint within the platforms because it is antithetical to both the user experience and platform sustainability.
In my work “The Fomo-Scope,” I wanted to focus on creating the intended experience for all parties and express how that juxtaposes the busy interconnected lifestyle of modern society. I also wanted to introduce a physical motion that required movement to interact with content. Social media reduces the effort to almost nothing and I wanted to reintroduce that effort which acts as a physical limitation and marries time spent reflected through exerted energy.
The primary inspiration came from a combination of found materials around my house, specifically a cardboard crank, and looking at varying forms of content consumption over the years. The kinetoscope, invented by Thomas Edison, which acted as the first personal visual content device, felt like a great inspiration to reflect the affordances and desired themes behind the project.
I sketched out some drawings and a flowchart to depict the user story of the device. From there, using salvaged boxes, a Google Cardboard, and leftover electronics, I placed them together depicting the intended layout. Once I found a configuration I liked, I cut out holes and inserted the crank, buttons, and visor. Then mocked up a quick logo, microphone grill, and button labels in photoshop. I used the “Front Page Neue” font to match the modernized “news” feed and printed them out. After that, I went to Twitter and captured some news feed content to simulate the inside view. I edited together a quick mockup of a simulated view of the piece.
Then, I gathered friends, showed them the fake video feed, and explained how the device would work. I filmed them faking the device in use and gathered feedback on the user experience. They gave additional feedback on how the device could work for other uses including shared streaming, group calls, and even use in a portable/party environment. This feedback extended the affordances I hadn’t considered but justify the importance of user and market feedback. Finally, I did a quick edit on the footage, added music, and rendered a video.
This project was a stretch at the beginning. I wasn’t extremely excited about the concept at first. But, as the idea and feedback built, the momentum was infectious. I’m at the point now where I’d actually be interested in building a real one and will be adding it to my list of to-do projects. If only I hadn’t just missed the prototype funding deadline.
[sigh]
