Lab Weeks: Product & Presentation
Product
In the end, we came up with a Paradise Disco, a 1970’s inspired installation. We created a box in which a user can come put their heads in and interact with it. First, the user is invited by coming close to a fluffy looking box by a distance sensor which plays a melody of “Take me on” and matrix lights say “Hi”. User then can put his head in the box and explore different things.
We used a projector to light up the ceiling of the box with a kaleidoscope video and used previously bought mirror cardboard pieces to reflect it on other walls. We made a little John Travolta that by using a potentiometer a user can move its hand up and down. On the other side of the box, we placed buttons that when pressed make the clouds above turn different ways.
User Journey Map :
Paradise Disco from the outside
Demo of our Product
Presentation
Presentation of our concept happened online, therefore we decided the best way to showcase our product was by creating a demo video. This way we could help our audience to get a better idea of how it works and get them to empathise with this concept. Making a showcase video also gave us a possibility to make it into a funny story on how this concept could be used, with music and aesthetics we wanted to show.
During our presentation we quickly explained how this concept came to be, showed our demo and we received some good feedback. We tried to incorporate typical UXD humour and the CMD audience really liked it.
Fun fact, Jullya kept this box at her place and her roommates enjoyed sitting there in the evening and interact with it.
Relevance
Our concept was based on playful interaction, we wanted the users to be able to go inside a small box, where they could interact with different elements. For the user we wanted to create a space which one could use to relax and feel in control of its environment. This was achieved by using heaven and Saturday Night fever movie as an inspiration, a place filled with fun and bliss. Young people in general are used to having a lot of information thrown at them daily, we wanted to make a space where they could stop thinking about it and be in control of what kind of content is used (in this case content refers to different playful interactions). This potentially could lead them to feel empowered to use technology in a way that they want and stop using it when they want to.
