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, ...

Cybernetics and Machines Cybernetics means the science of communication and automatic control systems in both machines and living things (- Google) It's the notion of adapting to things. The term cybernetics originates from the Greek word "kubernetes" and means "to steer". Paul Pangaro, one of the leading figures in cybernetics, describes cybernetics as a process that includes a loop of sensing where the route is compared with its goal and then corrected if needed. Without this cycle no system can work.  "... as we steer a ship we want to make it to a goal. ... this loop of acting, sensing and comparing the goal ... is fundamental." Loop: A system has a goal and is always connected to the cycle of sensing, comparing and acting. For this a goal is always necessary too. There are two different feedback systems: positive or negative. Positive feedback systems include additive looping. As for an example: sound picked up from a micropho...

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...