Interaction Design

Design Process Methods Throughout the entire module we worked closely with the methods that we learnt during our theory modules. The ethnographic processes, such as interviews and culture probes, helped us a lot in learning how locals and internationals feel towards isolation and loneliness. The collected information influenced many aspects of our projects, as for example the culture probes, which inspired our visual compositions. Learning by doing has been an essential part of this module and has helped us in exploring and practising certain Interaction Design methods. There are, however, so many more processes which we still have yet to learn. In addition, we also learnt that one shouldn’t be afraid of taking a step back during the process. Experiencing trial and errors is essential to any design process.

Three screens, each displaying two different videos, were distributed along the main hallway in the 4th floor - the floor where all design departments are located. We wanted locals to recognise familiar faces - a sense of "familiar strangers" - and be curious about exploring their stories. In addition, each screen included one foreign language that is not commonly used within the ZHdK - such as English or German are. With this decision we hoped to catch the curiosity of passersby.   We decided to not include the interviewees' names in our videos as we felt that these experiences, although personal, can happen to any international. It also supported our goal of "familiar strangers" where locals might be inclined to actually approach these faces and to start a conversation with them. This actually happened throughout the morning of our exhibition - both Emma and Ju had been approached by locals who inquired about their stories. For each screen we placed a d...

Fixing the flow  After receiving some inputs from Nicole the day before about the subtitling we returned to our video files: previously we had synched the translation to exactly when the international spoke. But as people talk more quickly than they can actually read, we realised that the subtitles were running too fast. Therefore, we readjusted and, if necessary, shortened the translations so that viewers had more time to actually read and take in what is being said. In addition to the subtitles we decided to use typography to give some context and a frame around the stories. Before each video, a strong quote related to isolation and loneliness is shown to break up the different stories. At the end of each video we displayed some general facts about the international program in the ZHdK - such as the total of internationals and percentage of women (as our interview consisted only of female internationals). This also allowed the videos to be recognised throughout the univers...

For over a week now we had been producing our videos and been working on our project without having received any feedback or inputs. We felt a bit uncertain in some areas and were looking forward to the presentation in the afternoon - in the past, the inputs we had received from our mentors and co-students had helped us in figuring out where we had to improve on. We received some great feedback when it came to the exhibition. Up until now, we had planned on using one screen, on which the stories would be shown with a dramaturgy. We had previously looked into using several screens within a room (see chapter Getting back on Track ) but had initially decided against them. Now, however, we also presented the idea of placing the screens in public spaces, instead of in an exhibit room, allowing more people to walk past and come across the international's stories. During the presentation we understood that placing one screen in a public space was the right decision to make, however, ...

Underestimation  With roughly a total of 30mins of video to translate and subtitle we had a lot of work paved out for us. After working on this task on Friday and over the Weekend there were still some videos that had not yet been finished.  We had clearly underestimated the task of translating and subtitling - besides the fact that the transcriptions and translations were very time consuming, we've been struggling with technical problems. Premiere Pro, the programme with which we were editing our videos, has compatibility problems when it comes down to newer and later versions. My Premiere Pro version is higher than the versions in the ZHdK editing rooms. This actually prevented us from being able to use certain files on different computers - and meant that it had to all be done on the same computer. As we had not been aware of this problem in advance, we all used the template on our own version. However, only on Tuesday morning did we found out that our videos, althou...

After having set on our colour correction and the layout of the video it was time to produce each individual videos. While Dominik had the task to render the videos - he was the only one who had the right colour correction tool on his computer - Randy and I discussed the flow of our overall video. What dramaturgy did we want to portray? How can we bring our message the most effectively across? We analysed all transcripts videos and came to some agreements, however, we felt like we could not proceed with this step due to the fact that we were missing Olga's translation. We had a total of four different stories from her. Although we had received a short summary of each story on the day of the interview we still weren't sure how she phrased her story and whether there were still some information missing. Luckily I managed to organise to meet up with Olga in the afternoon to work on the translations. After lunch I met up with Olga and we sat down together to translate her video...

As all of our interviewees were talking in their native language we needed subtitles so that locals and other internationals could understand the stories. Randy and I started to transcribe the German and English videos, while Dominik and Ju translated the Hungarian and South Korean videos. Olga's videos that are in Russian could not be worked on as no one could speak Russian and Olga was not available on this day. Once having transcribed all of our videos, could we start analysing the content we had collected. Strong and important phrases we highlighted which helped us to have an overview of which parts of a story was essential for our goal. In the afternoon we set ourselves to color grading and creating a layout for the subtitles. We were able to organise one of the big televisions from the Interaction Design lab which allowed us to test out our videos on the big screen. This also helped us with our color-grading as the television screen showed a different strength of black...

Due to our lighting and camera preparations of the day before we were able to produce our interview materials at a fast pace. While Dominik and Randy began interviewing our first candidate, Ju, I went out around the Design Departments of the ZHdK to gather as many internationals as possible. We had only been able to set a concrete time  in the afternoon with Adri, who we had interviewed previously, and had therefore a whole day to fill. By asking friends to introduce me to internationals within their department I quickly was able to meet new people I had never come across before - this included Emma from the United States and Olga from Russia. By the end of the day, we had gathered a total of 6 internationals who we could interview - all of different nationalities. This supported our intentions of showing the diversity within the Toni Areal and included people originally from South Korea, India, the United States, Hungary, Germany and Russia. While collecting great stories from i...

Tuesday was a day of preparations and trials. As our main tool for raising awareness is film, we wanted to ensure that our audio-visual materials had a good quality, especially once being shown from a bigger screen (40 inch). Surroundings We started off asking ourselves what surroundings we wanted to place our interviewees in. Was creating a sense of (visual) isolation the right atmosphere to place them in? Or should we use a more homely and friendlier background - as if you were actually having a conversation with these people? Interestingly enough we found our answer in our Culture Probes . One of the strongest visual illustrations of social isolation were of an individual in a completely black surrounding - the person was utterly alone. Based on this strong image we decided to place our international interviewees within a black surrounding, thus returning to the visual presentation of social isolation. Lighting But placing a person in a room with a completely black bac...

Experience through Exhibition With a better understanding of what we wanted to do, we started to look into the realisation of our storytelling-driven concept. We felt that an exhibition could be a more experience-related way to raise awareness which lead us to discuss the layout and relationship of the screens inside an exhibition room. We discussed about using a linear or symphonic style of visualisation. Did we need only one screen where one linear story runs runs through all individual stories? Or were several screen needed, one for each international that was telling their story parallel or in correlation to each other? We decided to go for a symphonic setup for the stories as we wanted to portray the internationals as individuals who were nevertheless a part of a community that shared one voice - that of feeling isolated by the locals. From afar their stories would be heard as a chant, an inaudible chatter, which would force the viewers into taking their time to focus on an ...

A Question of Visualisation We got together on Tuesday morning to settle on a definite visualisation of our intentions. With our mentor's inputs and the results form Friday's experience prototype in mind we thought of looking into other methods for the final result. Was an object-based visualisation a solution? Could storytelling enhance an object? We looked into using projections that could animate an objects surface or structure, similarly seen at iArt's Interactive Book or Pipilotti Rist's exhibition at the Zurich Kunstmuseum in 2016. Through such methods we saw a possibility of visualising the stories and experiences in a more visual and maybe interactive way. One of Pipilotti Rist's exhibits at Zurich Kunsthaus in 2016 Or could a visual abstraction illustrate social isolation through language-barriers of internationals? We had a visual picture of ripples instantly being subdued by bigger waves - was this a form of showing that internationals drown u...

With our goal of creating empathy by raising awareness of social isolation for internationals we felt that simulating a similar experience for locals was the right direction to go in. So how could we create such an experience? Presenting in a foreign language We thought of building an experience prototype inside of our presentation. Keeping our intentions secret from our entire class, we hoped to achieve the maximum effect. Instead of presenting in English, we surprised our class with a presentation in South Korean. Dominik, Randy and I all learnt a phrase in South Korea for our introduction but then left it to Ju to take over and present in her native language. The Experience Prototype only lasted for one minute, but instantly had its effects on our audience. The feedback we received were mixed. Some did not at all enjoy the forceful effect our experience prototype had - they had not willingly decided to expose themselves to this foreign language and therefore felt frustrated...

Using Cultural Probes With our defined goal of creating empathy towards internationals by raising awareness of loneliness in a foreign surrounding, we returned to the public to investigate what loneliness, or to be more exact, social isolation, means to others. For this we decided to use a light version of Cultural Probes , a research method that we had just recently looked into during the methods module. We distributed cards throughout the ZHdK with a question on the front side, asking various people to answer by drawing or writing of their experiences and opinions. For the Cultural Probe we wanted to ask an open question that allowed our target people to answer as freely as possible, hoping that this will lead to a more diverse collection of results. Through the Cultural Probes we gather over 30 different impressions in a short amount of time. These results varied and gave a good insight to the understanding of social isolation. After evaluating all cards, we selected a h...

After evaluating and summarising our findings, our next step was to define a concrete goal. Based on our research we noticed that networks are erratic which leads to a short life span. We weren't interested in creating an "one-off" event or project that would be forgotten after a while. We preferred the notion of creating an experience, an impression that would help bringing internationals and locals together. Focusing on locals While researching on communication solutions for internationals and locals, we realised that there were a lot of repetitive or unsuccessful projects that were only focusing on the international students. These examples mainly invited internationals into being proactive and adaptable - only then would an integration into a society be possible. But what about the locals? Can they be moved into becoming motivated into meeting internationals? Dominik, Randy and I all became aware of Ju's situation only once she told us about her stor...

After collecting a variety of information from internationals, locals and through research, we received a broad impression of the relationships between internationals and local students. Down below are the most important points that we've managed to gain over the last two weeks. Information gained from internationals: social gap exists between internationals and locals Swiss German often causes internationals to feel left out international programme at the ZHdK only brings internationals together  → the existing   buddy programme often doesn't help internationals to connect to locals internationals don't have many local friends internationals often feel lonely Information gained from locals: quality over quantity : friendships are built based on personalities and equal interest as a lot of time is already spent at the ZHdK, activities / networks should be outside the campus don't want to put a lot of effort into organising activities / networks l...

Research into Related Works Parallel to the interview two of us, Dominik and I, had the task to look into related works. We focused at first on other universities and colleges and their international programmes. Loneliness and International Students: An Australian Study This research paper served as our main source of information on our topic of international students in a foreign environment.  An Australian research team interviewed a total of 200 international students in 2007 and concluded that 65% suffered under loneliness during their exchange period. Their papers looked into the causes and possible solutions, which helped us solve many unanswered questions already. The research paper emphasised on the following: Networks are desirable but not a universal cure of loneliness Social networks are voluntary and therefore erratic Most internationals with problems turned to local friends instead of ones in their home country → this shows that having local friends...

Interviewing Locals After interviewing international students and hearing their opinion it was logical to turn to local Swiss students. We wanted to know how well connected they were to international students and whether they'd be interested in a network such as a club. Jan (Game Design) Carlo (Interaction Design) Jelena (Film Department) From our interview with the local students we realised that their main focus while making friends is the quality of the relationship. While international student want to make local friends, Swiss students focused more on the interest compatibility - nationality was to them of no concern. However, we observed that many Swiss locals did not have many international friends and weren't aware of the fact that internationals feel lonely during their stay in Switzerland. Once Jelena heard of Ju's situation she instantly offered her phone number and expressed interest in doing activities with her outside of Toni...

Rapid prototyping relies on spontaneity (for developing ideas within a very short time frame) and creativity with material usages (recyclability). This was a short exercise which we had to complete: within 25mins we had to come up with a concept and create a prototype with materials that were available to us. We decided to create some digital pin board that could advertise clubs and events within ZHdK. Using leftover styrofoam from the workshops we tried to build a small prototype that changed its paper display with a mechanical wheel. Unfortunately our prototype wasn't as successful as initial planned - we were later advised to not focus on mechanical aspects during a rapid prototyping as we had done.

International Students and their struggle with communication After taking a step back, we sat together to discuss what exactly interested us when it came to the term communication. This is where Ju's situation as an international student came to light: as she does not speak nor understand (Swiss) German she finds it difficult to reach out to others which often caused loneliness. She is aware of the fact that communication is the key to her situation and therefore wanted to look into the thematic. Her story instantly intrigued us others so we decided to focus on our next field research on international student within the ZHdK. Interviews For our second part of our field research we wanted to interview a handful of different international students and ask them about their communication experiences within the ZHdK. We managed to contact several students and organise four meetings for the Tuesday. We also interviewed Ju, as she had inspired us to go in this direction and had s...

Six communication categories  After watching, studying and evaluating our footages, we noticed that there were six categories of non-verbal communication. Some are done subconsciously, others not: Public communication between two or more people → huge reliance on hand gestures; hand signs are used to communicate; eye contact; subconsciously and consciously done; hand gestures often used to emphasise a point or to communicate with tourists and people with hearing problems Hidden communication between two or more people   → subtle hand signs, huge amount of eye contact; consciously done; observed during a hidden exchange / agreement Communication with objects and between non-humans  →  hand and body hugely involved; consciously done; observed with information screens and dogs Communication with self   →  heavily demonstrated through body language; no direct communication with others or surroundings; subconsciously done; observed while waiting ...