Translating Affordances
Primary Ideation
- Qualities: simple, fun, accessible
- Affordances: translatable across ages, apparent
- Types of interaction: haptic
Exploration: I had two approaches to this assignment that I developed in parallel. One was an idea I had based on a story of personal relevance. The other was shapes as a result of questionnaires conducted with family and friends.
Idea 1: Phone handle/bracelet made of beads/buttons that syncs with your apps based on a customizable set of clickers. I was inspired by a small accessory I use everyday. It is a bracelet-like phone handle that makes it easier to carry the device when I don’t have a pocket. It also enables an interactive haptic experience that calms or helps to focus (think prayer beads) whenever you engage with it. The idea came to me as I was fiddling with the bracelet while inputting information into my calendar — “how nice would it be if I could click one of those beads and it synced appropriately with my phone,” I thought. It would be interesting to add personalized beads (think Pandora bracelets) and the user range could vary from kids to adults due to use simplicity and customizability. Primarily I was thinking of this idea in a very female-oriented context with a use case of inputting personal information seamlessly anywhere, but then I expanded my thinking into other categories. A customer could build the set of clickers based on primary personal needs for reminders like travel, health, and so on.
I thought the idea was great but given that my bead bracelet was as far as I could really build the prototype without a help of an engineer, I decided to explore further. In researching this idea further, I found some tech like wireless buttons that could be embedded in the clicker objects.
Idea 2: Was developing as I interviewed people on the kinds of apps they use. I personally found it challenging to think of a good use case for translating digital affordances. The interfaces I use are primarily for news and messaging. I don’t play that many games and find that it’s easier for me to operate on the screen. I hoped that people around me would give me some ideas…
Questionnaire Feedback
7 y.o. sister: puzzle games like 1010! & Ball Sort puzzle & Cut the Rope
9 y.o brother: Roblox, Brawl Stars, MineCraft — multiplayer discovery games
21 y.o brother: chess online
21–45 y.o friends and family: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, various health apps like Noom
60+ y.o grandparents: WhatsApp, Viber, Messenger, Facebook
I can’t say that I was greatly inspired by the answers, in my view there are not many affordances these apps have that could translate into the physical and serve a better function as an object vs. an app. For that reason I decided to zoom in on the responses of my little siblings and look into games. If there is a physical extension of a controller type, the digital game becomes more interactive. I was also inspired by the controller for Angry Birds presented in the prompt for this week’s assignment. Given that Cut the Rope was my favorite game at some point, I shared the sentiment of the experience with my sister. I thought it would be fun to translate the aspect of reward one feels when passing through a level of the game into real life. The reward in the form of candy that Om Nom receives when the ropes are cut successfully was the first thing I thought of translating into real life. What if there was an object that a user can connect to the app and get a reward every time the Om Nom character eats the treat? I saw it as follows, the game affords the user to engage and feel satisfaction if progress is made. Adding a physical experience of reward, the interaction becomes more complex and multidimensional.
User Constraints: People with learning and physical disabilities might not be able to play the game, but the level of complexity is fairly low. All it would take for the user to sync the candy dispenser with the game is to turn on the bluetooth on the toy and fill up the invisible candy compartment.
Use types: Family game, individual entertainment, logic education for kids.
Ideation Constraints: I found this assignment a bit challenging in that I had to think about reverse engineering. I would find myself asking questions like “what’s the point of translating something digital into physical if it had evolved from a world-based object (calendars, health apps) into the digital realm in the first place?” I found that with many ideas I had, translating something back from interface to object would make its use more complicated (i.e. news, instagram filters).
From research on candy dispensers that look like Om Nom and are able to sync with the app I couldn’t find anything significant, so I was very excited to mold my prototype of the object. I decided to use clay thinking its one of the more malleable materials, though it wasn’t as easy as I thought. I had to restart the process when I realized I wasn’t getting shapes i wanted and the pieces weren’t attaching properly.
You can watch my process video HERE.
This is what I came up with. Just adding a bit of imaginative thinking here
Internal structures invisible to the eye
- candy container at the bottom of the prototype
- bluetooth to connect to the game
- lever that pushes the candy from the bottom compartment into the mouth section
I can only hope my sister would enjoy her game a bit more if she had this little guy to feed her candy every time she wins a level.
