The UX of Human Senses (Week 2)
Brief: Conceive, make and wear a design that extends human senses beyond the body.
Our sense was interception, to be experienced at Tate Modern, Turbine Hall.
Team: Qibin Cheng, Manfredi Montaretto Marullo, Muneria Kazi
Our feedback has noted that we needed to consider feasibility, so we discussed the idea of scaling down the first concept from a building to a doorway. Having searched the locality of Room D211 we did not find a suitable area we could show our concept, and there were many variants of the idea to be explored, so dismissed this idea.
Discussing the belt concept, we decided to retain the wearable but rethink the ball-bearings as the instigator of the sensation in favour of something that included an element of deception, as the bridge being wobbly was a surprise to us all and contributed to the overall feelings experience.
The surprise aspect was initially trialled as concealing weights within a skirt. We reviewed the development and decided that there was a level of simplicity and honestly about the design without the skirt element, so we agreed to discard this, and retained the weights exposed.
Images showing development trialling the skirt element, and weights being directly hung from the body, offset by balloons. Photo credits: Manfredi Montaretto Marullo, Manfredi Montaretto Marullo, photo by author, Qibin Cheng
The next aspects of the prototype tested were:
To ensure the arms could hold the weights (bags of sugar), and to discard balloons in favour of a sturdier material.
To experiment with the length of the arms offset from the body to avoid the weights hitting the wearer and achieve the best possible sensation
We included 'fake' sugar - a sugar bag with paper inside instead to become the deception.
Development of weighted belt. Photo credits: first three images by author, last image by Qibin Cheng
Testing of the weighted belt. Video credit: Qibin Cheng
Our prototype was presented as per the above video, asking participants to wear the belt whilst kneeling, and then for them to walk around and experience this sensation. Our participants agreed that there was a 'weird' sensation, an uneasiness starting at the gut, and the deception with the sugar bags and their expectations vs the reality of the belt was working as intended.
The feedback received was to take the concept further, such as:
Using something elasticated rather than ribbon to hold the weights;
Creating an obstacle course or some other form of activity rather than just walking;
Overall, the prototype was a successful, however it was noted that this could really have been presented at the interim presentation rather than as the finished piece, as there was so much more we could have done. I agree with the comment, particularly with hindsight of our time management, however I will also allow us a little grace in that we were still finding our feet in the first few weeks of the course and learning what is expected of us.
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