Week 1 All Over Again

Week one of physical computing down and I already feel like my brain is about to burst. I spent most of my time this week familiarizing myself with the course website and exploring the resources that were already posted up there.

[b]Take Aways from Video's[/b]

There were just a few videos to say the least. Some were fun, some were clever, others did not seem to have a whole lot of anything going on with them. But they definitely helped to give a sense of the style of installation and the type of scale that we should be aiming for with our initial project ideas to present next week. Have some sort of installation that people could interact with but allow the installation to interact with the audience also.

[b]Take Aways from Readings[/b]

The reading resources posted on the website and on slack in particular [url]https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/understanding-industrial-design-playful[/url] were helpful in unpacking the idea of playful designs and how that is different from simple gimmicks. A playful design needs to excite and appeal on an emotional level but without compromising the functionality of the actual product or experience itself.
Below are my notes from and key points from some of the resources I read.

[i]• Why does it exist? What is it? How does it work? What values it supports? How is it different from something else?[/i]
[i]- Remove pain points, utilize standards, defy expectations (playfully, snap out of everyday routine) Hitting on the emotional not just the functional[/i]
[i]- Lower the discoverability increase the suprise[/i]
[i]• Domo Toaster - Playfulness is in opposition to functionality (Gimmick)[/i]
[i]- Ironic mashups need to resonate instantly[/i]
[i]• Meet -> Try -> Surprise[/i]
[i]• Narrative products - Playful nudges[/i]
[i]• "If the behaviour your designing for happens in the physical world, then its important to integrate the nudge with a physical interaction"[/i]
[i]• Human Values - Amusement, Humor (Add a moment of humour without getting in the way)[/i]

Now that I had a better understanding of the types of designs we are trying to come up with it was time to generate some ideas. The only stopping point was I really had no idea of the problems that people face in areas like Human Ageing and Early Learning. Big Data and Internet of Things were again terms that I had heard of but what a physical computing idea related to either of these topics looked like or could look I am still not to sure about.  

Regardless my next step was to start looking into what was Big Data and the internet of things. Why are they things, why do people care about these topics? From what I could tell the problem with Big Data revolved around privacy and how this data could be mishandled. While the internet of thing devices often suffered from being gimmicky or providing features that did not actually add to an experience.

IoT and Big Data are definitely going to be the areas that I investigate more this coming week. I feel like I need to understand firstly what they are before I can start generating relevant ideas.