Theme 5: Design Research

Comics, Robots, Fashion and Programming: outlining the concept of actDresses

While reading the first part of “Comics, Robots, Fashion and Programming: outlining the concept of actDresses” I find myself amused of how the writers have drawn correlations between programming and how this language could be representative in comics and fashion. It is interesting how they implement these areas, which one usually have not thought of when having programming in mind, and present them in a way that is so clear and understandable. For example they refer to combining different clothes in order to create a new styles, and show that this could be viewed in the same angle as combining modules and functions to create new programs. Another approach through a different angle is the similarity between programming and comics, displaying the exaggeration e.g powers and abilities as a language which is easy to read, and also playful.
The previous examples are presented as useful because of the fact that they provide semiotic qualities, and the writers describe these as “possible for ordinary people to read and relate to”. The balance between these two show that there is a way to approach different generations that perhaps have certain difficulties adapting to new technologies, such as older people. Furthermore, the focus on this week’s theme is HCI (human computer interaction) and more specific on design research. The two articles provide us with presentations and characteristics that differ from each other.

Question: Are there any other fields that are inspirational when doing a Design research? (As for example, fashion and comics in this article)

Turn Your Mobile Into the Ball: Rendering Live Football Game Using Vibration.
Prototypes are a beneficial part of researching if the researchers, like Haibo Li with colleagues, investigate how to implement a new method. In media technologies researchers often want to create or improve an already existing product. By presenting a prototype there are many valuable advantages to study and could be explained, in my point of view, as a road towards further understanding and probable solutions. From a researchers point of view, the prototype will assist as the next step further away from the starting phase as the idea, and become a concrete visualization of the product without developing it all the way. By presenting the prototype towards an audience, perhaps the potential users of the product, the researchers will be able to take different angles of improvement to consideration. Earlier studies in the subject are not always the best (or only) approach in developing new systems, and the prototype will conduct in order to gain necessary feedback in an early stage. This could be both time-efficient for the researchers and also open up new areas of errors that may not have been relevant in before hand. A prototype may also be a probable solution to get as many answers as possible that may concern the researchers. Such as testing the functionality, developing new ideas and also determine cost.

While doing a design research, the presentation of it is often, from the readers’ point of view, hard to understand without a prototype presented or at least visualizing it to get a grip of the actual product. User satisfaction, when doing a design research, is A and O and when communicating towards a potential audience and future users. This is why the characteristics of the prototype have the main purpose of showing the major elements and therefore help the users to understand the product. By showing these characteristics, the users get a sense for the actual product ahead of the establishment. This is why Li and his researching team has done a great job in presenting their idea of product in the article “Turn your mobile into the ball: Rendering Live Football game using vibration”, by illustrating throughout their article with pictures and tables backing up the key of their idea. The researchers do not need to consume the time to produce the final product, but only apply parts of the devise – which also reduces costs.

References:
Fernaues, Y. & Jacobsson, M. (2009). Comics, Robots, Fashion and Programming: outlining the concept of actDresses. In Proceedings of the 3^rd International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction. New York: ACM

Réhman, S., Sun, J., Liu, L., & Li, H. (2008) Turn Your Mobile Into the Ball: Rendering Live Football Game Using Vibration. IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, 10(6), 1022-1033.