Workshops Reflection

ID4250 Exploring Interactions - Sustainable Living

Robbin Kwa 1505947

Octorber 25, 2012

Workshop 1: Getting into EI

This workshop was all about interactions. What is there to observe and what are ways to do it? We learned about interaction qualities and how to identify them. Also the design goal and interaction vision were introduced. This workshop taught me a new way of observing interactions. With the introduction of identifying interaction qualities, I now understand what EI is about and what is the purpose of this new way (for me) of designing. The role-playing was a bit awkward at first, but as everyone had to participate, we could all learn about EI in a joyful way. In this workshop the design goal was still unclear for me. We tend to set up a design goal that was more focussed on the end-result than on interaction qualities. The next workshop (mini-EI) helped me to understand the design goal better. Overall this workshop was a good practice and eye-opener for EI. It got me excited for the rest of the course.

Workshop 2: Mini-EI
The workshop mini EI was about formulating a design goal and coming up with research/design explorations. We were also introduced to the topic of sustainable living. This workshop gave me a good understanding of what the design goal means, because it was explained with examples within the project topic. I think it was also working to let us come up with a design goal first and then dicuss/crit them with the whole group. It gave me good examples of what is good and what is wrong. Furthur more the practical approach of this workshop gave me good insight of what the research and design explorations are. After this workshop it was clear for me how to set up a design goal and how the interaction qualities should be involved.

Workshop 3: Interaction Vision

The interaction vision workshop was about getting a feeling of how to create an interaction vision. The workshop was really fun to do. The first part was a passive (presentation), but I experienced it as an eye opener as I learned that the interaction vision can be created in more than only words (also pictures, movies, objects). The second part of the workshop was to explore these means of communicating your interaction vision. I enjoyed the creativity of this assignment and learned by doing. Also the last part, when we discussed the interaction visions (created with different means), was a learning point of what is good and what is wrong for creating the IV.

Workshop 4: Prototyping Interactions

This workshop was set up to try out any research/design exploration you wanted to conduct on your real target group. As I was still busy with the research explorations, I did not have any design explorations yet. I discussed my current findings and planned research explorations, just like a normal coaching session. So this workshop was not useful in the way it was meant for in the first place (my own fault), but it was useful to get feedback from the other students on my own project and approach. I did find it inspiring to participate in the other students design exploration tests and it motivated me to speed up with my own project.

Overall I like the workshops because of their practical and active approach. I get feedback on my own work and I get inspired by others work. It always gives me new insights on the topic for my own project, so it is a learning experience every time.