Project Brief Interaction Design Master 2010

Theme Project: Physical Computing Project introduction: November 22, 2010

Tutors/Examiners: Amanda Bergknut, AB (coordinator), amanda.bergknut@mah.se End of Project: January 28, 2011
Tony Olsson (Arduino), TO, tony.olsson@mah.se
Mette Agger Eriksen, MAE, mette.agger@mah.se
Per-Anders Hillgren, PAE, per-anders.hillgren@mah.se

Introduction
The theme aims to explore how we can design digital artifacts to map and adapt Equipment
to a more human behavior and body language. Students will be expected to budget 400 SEK each of their own funds for Arduino
You will be investigating new inputs and interfaces that take into account how start up kit. The instructors will hand out a list of necessary equipment that all
people are used to interact with the world /communicate and express. You will students need to have.
design concepts that make use of the physical body and senses by exploring i.e.
tactile and movement based interfaces beyond the keyboard, screen and mouse.
You will also investigate how to make digital content and output graspable and Groups
understandable by giving it a physical shape. You work in pairs during the Arduino briefs. You select yourselves whom you
You will be introduced to Physical prototyping, Experience prototyping, Tangible work with. You work in new groups during the Workshopsscenen-project that
interaction, Body storming, Wearables and Embodiment. You will prototype using starts January 10. These groups will be together with students from KARCH and
Arduino as well as physical materials and in doing so broaden user experience DTU in Denmark.
beyond the keyboard, screen and mouse.
In the last part of the project, in relation to a specific site either in Malmö or Arduino Brief #1 - Making old cardboard into toys
Copenhagen, you will partly work with these views and practices. This is in a 3- 22-Nov-10  9–12 - Introduction to the theme Physical
week cross-institutional project with students from The Danish Technical Computing and to Arduino brief #1 (AB,
University (DTU) and the Architecture School in Copenhagen (KARCH). This part is TO)
mainly organized by a Danish organization ‘Workshopscenen’. 23-Nov-10  9–16 - Arduino lab (TO)
24-Nov-10  9–12 - Group Work
 13-16 – Erling Björgvinsson will inform
Learning objectives about the next theme project 4 on Cross-
The purpose of the theme Physical Computing is to explore new ways to interact
social media (See more details on It’s
with digital products and personal technologies by designing innovative
Learning)
interactive solutions that go beyond the traditional ‘desktop’ metaphor and
which are designed for specific use situations and locations/physical contexts. 25-Nov-10  9–16 – Tutoring on the Arduino project
(TO)
Deliverables 26-Nov-10  13-16 - Presentation Arduino brief #1 (AB,
The deliverables during the theme is different for the Arduino briefs and the TO)
Workshopsscenen project. See each section for details.
Project Brief Interaction Design Master 2010
Arduino brief #1 consists in the creation of an electronic toy out of a recycled
cardboard box for whatever food-product you may have in the house. You can Requirements:
take milk cartons, figs from Morocco, cereal packages etc.  The game will include analog and/or digital inputs and will have LEDs ,
sound devices and/or LCDs as outputs.
Requirements:  The target group is adults.
 The toy will include analog and/or digital inputs and will only have LEDs  The game will be single/multi-player, single/multi-user.
as outputs.
 The target group is adults. The toy will be single player, single user. Deliverables for Arduino brief #2
 The result should be a box, including the board, the game pieces, your
technical game-tool, and a draft of an instructions manual. It should be
Deliverables for Arduino brief #1 documented with a video you will have to upload to www.ixdmalmo.se
The result should fit in a box of max 20x20x20cm, include a draft of an  Instructions manual for how to play the game in max one A4 using both
instructions manual and be documented with a video you will have to upload to sides (PDF)
www.ixdmalmo.se  The chosen game board
 Instructions manual for how to use the toy in max one A4 using both  3 High-Res quality pictures (TIFF/Jpeg, 300dpi), + 1 picture of the board
sides (PDF) with the pieces + 1 picture of the box with everything packed inside + 1
 Instructions manual for how to Do It Yourself, DIY, out of cardboard and picture of the box open showing the content
adding the components (PDF)  Video file documenting the game
 3 High-Res quality pictures (TIFF, 300dpi)
 Video file documenting the toy Arduino Brief #3 - Design A Time Machine
06-Dec-10  9–12 - Intro to Arduino brief #3 ( TO)
Arduino Brief #2 - Augment Board Games  13-15 - Susan Kozel – Professor of New
29-Nov-10  9–12 - Intro to Arduino brief #2 (TO) Media, room C310 (the lecture is
30-Nov-10  9–16 - Arduino lab (TO) together with K3 Fashion&Technology
01-Dec-10  9–16 - Group Work students) medea.mah.se/2010/10/susan-
02-Dec-10  9–16 – Tutoring on the Arduino project kozel-professor-of-new-media/
(TO) 07-Dec-10  9–16 - Arduino lab (TO)
03-Dec-10  13-16 - Presentation Arduino brief #2 (AB, 08-Dec-10  9–16 - Group Work
TO) 09-Dec-10  9–16 – Tutoring on the Arduino project
(TO)
Arduino brief #2 requests from you to rescue an existing board game. You should 10-Dec-10  9–16 - Group Work (TO)
look into a board game like Monopoly, Hotel, Cluedo etc. whatever game as far 13-Dec-10  9–12 - David Cuartielles – Open lecture
as it includes a board. Your task for this week will not be to concentrate in making "Light, Sound, Public space & Arduino"
a toy, but a game. Given the board, you should develop completely new game room C123
goals where a technical gadget of your invention should play a crucial role.
Project Brief Interaction Design Master 2010
 13-15 – Group Work
14-Dec-10  9–16 – Tutoring on the Arduino project
(TO)
15-Dec-10  9–16 - Group Work
16-Dec-10  9–16 – Tutoring on the Arduino project
(TO)
17-Dec-10  13-16 - Presentation Arduino brief #3 (AB,
TO)
Arduino brief #3 is to create a game looking into time, history, and life.
Everything can be accounted in time: how many hours you sleep, how often you
get a phone-call, when you got your first boyfriend etc.
Requirements:
 You have to stick to the idea of a game and place it within the context of
time. The brief is open ended when it comes to the form of it.
 The solution has to have the word "time" in the title and be interactive.
 Think about time in a creative way, e.g. do not just make a backwards
counter for the players to answer some kind of questions or solve a task.
 The target group is adults.
Deliverables for Arduino brief #3
 Instructions manual for how to play/use in max one A4 using both sides
(PDF)
 3 High-Res quality pictures (TIFF, 300dpi), + 1 picture of the board with
the pieces + 1 picture of the box with everything packed inside + 1
picture of the box open showing the content
 Box for the object
 Video file documenting your solution and upload it to www.ixdmalmo.se
Presentation of Arduino brief #3
 The presentation will give everyone a chance to play with the toys
before the final critique. The evaluation will be shared between students
and teachers. Every group will have to play at least the games from four
others and give on-the-spot critique on different aspects
 We will vote the best game, the best toy, and the best overall design.
We will run a 60 minutes simultaneous test of the toys and games. More
details on this later.
Individual reflective 4 page short paper – Deadline 7 January 2011
Writing and submitting a paper to a conference is one way of sharing research
insights – this gives you a chance to experience such a publication process. You
write a 4 page conference short paper where you reflect on practices of
interaction design when working with physical computing. The paper should use
one or more of your Arduino projects, as well as other related examples, in order
to reflect on and with these. Your short paper must follow the standard ACM
format, see the word template ‘ACM format.doc’ on it’s learning.
The deadline on 7. January is at 18:00 and your paper should be uploaded to it’s
learning.
Amanda will give you a short individual feedback to assist you in improving your
paper.
Your paper should be written to be submitted to the Student Interaction Design
Conference 2011, SIDeR’11, happening in Copenhagen in April 2011. Deadline for
submission to the conference is 18 February 2011. We encourage you to submit
your paper. See it’s learning for more info on SIDer’11.
If you want to submit you short paper to another conference that you feel is
more suitable e.g. with regards to physical computing, then please let us know.
Note that the deadline should preferably be beginning of 2011.
20/12 - 7/1 Individual Short-paper
07-Jan- Deadline - Individual short-paper
2011
10-28 Jan – Intense Multidisciplinary Innovation and Design
In this project you will collaborate with students from the Technical University of
Denmark (DTU) and The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts,School of
Project Brief Interaction Design Master 2010
Architecture (KARCH). The main organizer of the project is the Danish
organization Workshopscenen, and Mette and Per-Anders will be engaged in this
part of the Physical Computing Theme.
In this project, in the cross-institutional teams, you will be designing for a specific
location either in Malmö or Copenhagen. The project is a chance to explore
Arduino in a real world context.
More details on the project will follow before the Christmas break. Below is an
overall current schedule. Please note that the project runs full time:

10-14 Jan: Analysis, Facts and Process

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Introduction Group work Malmö - Guided Lecture: Group work
to the project. tour, local Decoding the
stakeholders. space.
Group work Copenhagen Lecture: Group work Mid Way
- Guided Involving users Critique
tour, local
stakeholder.

17-21 Jan: Strategy and Design

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Group work Group work Group work Group work Group work
Lecture: Group work Mid Way Group work Lecture:
Entrepreneurship Critique Guest
in the creative Lecturer
disciplines

24-28 Jan: Communication and Presentation

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Group work Group work Group work Group work Reflection

Mid Way DEADLINE Presentation to Reflection

Critique stakeholders.
Project Brief Interaction Design Master 2010
Recommended readings Other sources:
O'Sullivan, Dan & Igoe, Tom (2004) Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling http://www.instructables.com/
the Physical World with Computers. Course Technology http://blog.makezine.com/
http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/
Igoe, Tom (2007) Making Things Talk: Practical Methods for Connecting Physical http://arduino.cc/
Objects. Pragma http://tigoe.net/pcomp
http://www.dourish.com/
Noble, Joshua (2009) Programming Interactivity: A Designer's Guide to http://www.ubicomp2010.org/
Processing, Arduino, and openFrameworks. Pragma

Massimo Banzi (2008) Getting Started with Arduino. O’Reilley Media Inc.

Olsson, Tony, Gaetano, David, Odhner, Jonas and Wiklund, Samson. (2008) Open
softwear. Download on http://softwear.cc/

Dunne, Anthont & Raby Fiona (2001) Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic
Objects

Dourish, Paul What we talk about when we talk about context Pers Ubiquit
Comput (2004) 8: 19–30 - Download on it’slearning

Dourish, Paul Seeking a Foundation for Context-Aware Computing - Download on

it’slearning

Björgvinsson, E. Ehn, P. Hillgren, P-A. Participatory design and “democratizing

innovation” in Proceedings of Participatory Design Conference, Sydney, Australia.
2010

Jegou, F. Manzini, E. (2008) Collaborative services: Social innovation and design

for sustainability. Edizoni POLI.design, p. 31-43. Download the book for free at:
http://www.sustainable-everyday.net/main/?page_id=26

Messeter, J. 2009 Apr 16. Place-Specific Computing: A Place-centric Perspective

for Digital Designs. International Journal of Design [Online] 3:1. Available:
http://www.ijdesign.org/ojs/index.php/IJDesign/article/view/353