#space&multitouch

MY EXAMPLES 

3d boxes + zoom

3d boxes + drag

Flat box drag

Split + dig 

What does this project mean for interaction design?

o   I learn about space in a small way. How do we perceive depth on screen? How can I, with very little effort, make something feel deeper than it actually is? With placement of elements and color changes, I can get the feeling that I am actually getting deeper into something while actually physically being in the same spot. I can’t physically get deeper into the screen.

o   The newer iphones have a function called force touch. With that we can almost pierce through an element on screen and get other functions. With this function, we can get into the element without actually doing so. It is some kind of shortcut to see what we actually can do with the element.

What does it have to do with space?

o   I’m exploring how to perceive depth on screen and how to move between the different layers so it does not feel forced or weird.

What does it have to do with multi touch?

o   I’m exploring how to use my fingers to move through the different layers (above).

What is the most important insight?

What happens to the sketches if the physical screen space changes?

What happens if look is the same but feel changes? (same css, different touch function)

o   See insights below

How much feedback do we need to know where we are? (text, color, movement in space)

o   I guess it depends on the feedback we get. If we take my example of getting deeper in to a folder, then maybe the movement in space is actually the only thing we need. I can see where I have been (without the folder actually telling me how deep I am with text) and where I am going.

o   Color is a less good way to go. Even though I mean that you are getting deeper by darkening the color, this might not be evident to someone else. This might not mean the same for them as it does for me.

o   Text is the thing we want to avoid. Sure, it is something we are accustomed to (just look at folder navigation on a Windows computer). But if we could create this notion of knowing where we are without text – I mean we don’t use it in normal life. I don’t orient myself in space by the help of words, I orient myself with the help of the things around me and how their position changes when I change position.

What visual feedback in this context would feel natural with the zoom function?

o   We can see many examples of zoom just by looking at a phone. Zooming in on a screen usually means things getting bigger. But with my example I didn’t want the element I was changing to take up more space than it did before. Maybe an animation of a smaller box inside of the original box, taking the original boxes space when zooming? 

INSIGHTS

·       3d boxes + drag function feels more natural than 3d boxes + zoom. The reaction feels more connected to the action.

·       Color ruins the focus of the sketch. I should remove the colors and maybe only have a border around each, so I can see the different boxes. What changes when I remove color changes?

·       When removing the red-orange-blue colors to a darker and darker red, I saw that it felt more natural and that I indeed was getting deeper in to a hole (like Alice in wonderland, and rabbitholes).

What I have found about this module is that the unstructured (by faculty and teachers) way of doing this course does not work for me. The lectures that didn’t come, the own group work for three weeks. I can’t do it. It does not work for me. To have that much free time to structure ourselves, I can’t do it in a productive way. The way the projects have been structured, the experimental with material and topic has been interesting – but this has also gotten to me. The way of experimenting without a concept or goal (a product or situation for example) was fun at first, but now towards the end I have found that I don’t work that way. I’d rather have a specific area to research, or a specific situation to design for. It’s hard creating things when you can’t see the finish line. I want a task to solve, a situation to observe and learn.

The first module was great, because I got to use cardboard and a physical material to experiment with. It felt like I had something concrete to try. Next module, with variable fonts and expression was a bit harder – mostly because it wasn’t something that interested me that much. This last module has a really interesting topic and easy enough material. But the structure of the module has made me dislike the way of working.

First iteration, colors: This example shows how the color of the box change depending on the distance between the two fingers. The idea was to create a feeling of getting deeper into a folder with the help of zooming. The color change was only created for me to see the changes, to get feedback that my code was working. The colors were meant to represent warm and cold spaces, although when I am moving “further down” in to the folder, the folder I am looking at right now becomes hot (and in my sketches, it is still blue - cold).

Iteration two, color and text: In this one I let the colors be the same, but I added text as a feedback to navigating where you are in the folder. I made a mistake with the text, it should have added a “/sub” for every layer I penetrate (for every step further down in the folder). Right now it said “Main folder/subfolder one” or “Main folder/subfolder two” - not actually showing in the normal way (as we write in code or can see in the folder window on a Microsoft computer) as “Main folder/sub One/ sub Two...”. 

Iteration three, shadows: In this iteration I tried to give some depth to the folders. You now get visual feedforward (or is it feedback) of how deep you can go into the folders. The deeper you get, the less shadows of folders you have. The color changes are still here, but more to give a notion of change and not so much focus on warm and cold space. The issue with this one is that it is only n the beginning that you know how deep you can go, and only by remembering the amount of shadow-folders would you know where you are.

Iteration four, knowing where you are by seeing where you’ve been: This example is similar to the last one, but here I have added a notion of seeing where I’ve been. In this when, we could get a feeling of where we are compared to the other elements. I can see how deep I am in the folders and how deep I could continue to go. By comparing the beginning and end of the “line” - I can navigate through the folders, knowing where I am.

Iteration five, drag: This example plays on the last, still seeing where I am by seeing where I have been and where I am going. But this example shows a different way of interacting with it. This was supposed to create a similar feeling of leafing through documents in real life. Getting one out of the way so that we can see the next one.

Iteration six, dig: In this example, I was merely playing around with how we would interact with the “getting deeper”- feeling. It was inspired by digging a hole in the ground, having to move dirt to see what’s beneath. Although, in this particular interaction one has to use both hands, and this might be the most productive way of interacting. This iteration has no feedforward, nothing to show you what will happen if you interact with it. It also has no indication of what sort of interaction is possible.

What have I seen from these iterations? 

By changing or adding another element, the feeling of interaction changes. I saw that only seeing where I was going, without seeing where I had been did not help me in navigating the space I tried to move around in. In the finder-folder on Microsoft computers, we can see text showing us where in a folder we are. On Mac computers, we see the last folder we were in, in a split-screen with the folder we are in right now. 

What I have also seen is that I have moved away from the hot and warm space (although they are still there in the folder examples I have - the folder I am in right now is hot, the others warm) and moved towards navigating myself in space. And this notion of navigatin oneself, is similar in digital space and in the lived space. How are we supposed to follow a map leading us somewhere by not knowing where we’ve been and where we are? How do we move forward in life not knowing where we have come from?