Micro UX - Week 7

Brief: Design a way for a person to pass as a ‘generative AI’ in an everyday setting.

Methods:

Team: Tanya Singh, Akriti Goel, Jakob Prufer, Ruoxi Song, Changlin Hou, myself

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This week, divide and conquer was the only way to succeed.

The Planning

With a significant amount of work to achieve, our first task was to understand how we could achieve it. Using the team's skill sets, available workshop and studio time and the sheer willpower of 6 motivated people, we set out the plan for the week.

Plan for the week. Notes by Akriti Goel

The Build

Even though it had been incredibly simplified, we needed to still plan out how to manufacture the physical aspects of the project. Being familiar with construction detailing I explained to the group how we could achieve the design.

Plan for the build. Sketch by author

The final outcome didn’t only include 3D work. The integration of the sound-responsive LED tape required time and skills in coding an Arduino. The following video demonstrates the different aspects that came together to realise the whole of the 3D prototype.

Video of the build of the prototype. Images and videos by Tanya Singh, Akriti Goel, Jakob Prufer, Ruoxi Song, Changlin Hou, author.

We managed to secure some studio time to photograph the prototype, with the help of the technicians, set up the backdrop, lighting and camera to get professional photographs of our design.

Behind the scenes of the photoshoot. Images by Akriti Goel.

Photoshoot images. Images by author.

The Filming

We needed a proper storyboard to think of each shot, the script and any props needed, so I made a custom template and worked out the structure and bones of the film. A review by all teammates gave us some edits which contributed to the overall vision and intentions of the film.

Storyboard. Images by author.

A final check-in with Tonicha before filming gave us a last minute tweak to the ending of the film, twisting the darker side of the design a bit further, and giving the human-AI more human traits.

Sketch for last film shot. Image by author.

Behind the scenes of the filming. Images by Akriti Goel, Tanya Singh, author.

The final video. Collaboration with Tanya Singh, Akriti Goel, Jakob Prufer, Ruoxi Song, Changlin Hou, author.

The Presentation

Our intention had always been to produce a physical version of our design, so whilst the film was telling our overall narrative, the model needed to be situated in the classroom, and functioning for the project partners and audience to see.

We carefully considered the staging of the piece itself, and of the whole presentation.

Prototype staging. Sketch by author.

Variations of presentation staging. Sketch by author.

The Presentation Sequence

We had bounced between staged participant interactions of varying kinds across the week, and decided that with the film being nearly four minutes, a participant wouldn't have enough time to engage properly with the model. We decided to use the model ourselves, for what it was designed for: to rehearse a difficult scenario. Only ours, was a 'rehearsal' of our final presentation.

This did give us the opportunity to play with the AI interjections and the phrases the tutors use, including lines such as:

"Remember to show, not tell"

"I can see where this would live in the world"

"If it was easy, everyone would do it."

The Feedback

Our film received a deafening applause, as did the presentation as a whole, a few minutes later. It was a proud moment.

The feedback we received was asking for a little more on the research side of things, something we knew we were short on, but had opted with our allotted 7 minutes to focus on newer developments since our research-focussed midpoint review.

Another comment about the staging: we could have hidden the live AI Operator - Jakob, sat at the laptop, controlling the demo - behind the panel itself, only for a live reveal at the end.

Afterwards, the tutors said that we had produced a design that had met the brief, and they wanted to know more about the ecosystem that the AI and its operators existed within. A fantastic piece of feedback, as they didn't question any of the design or context, and instead were curious to know more in general.

With only a few minor tweaks to improve on, my group and I were very pleased and impressed with how the presentation had gone, and that the project ended on a high.