Video Clip

http://vimeo.com/30513113


DSDN112 Project 2 (Intelligent Energy Gadget)
Part 3 (Video Clip)

Part audio: Child Adventure by Atomic Cat jamendo.com/​en/​album/​71455


Vector background: http://www.vectorportal.com/category/stockvectors/iType/159/offset/110/type.asp


(Note minimum time requirements were not stated in writing in either lecture slides or the brief and I wanted to go with a commercial aesthetic, which is short and compact. I was satisfied that I covered all requirements well in the time of my clip and cleared the time of my clip with my tutor previous to hand in :) )

Stop Motion Images 2

Unfortunately, I came across a problem with my last photoshoot - the shirt Curtis was wearing had white stripes which matched the white tone of the backdrop, so when I selected the background, it selected the stripes in his shirt too... So, I brought the kids back in for another shoot, thanks to their parents, and also fixed up a few minor issues with expressions etc that I overlooked in the first shoot. This shoot went really well. :)

Open publication - Free publishing - More child

Interface Improvements

In addition to the creation of my movie, I also pulled up my interface with some improvements to the loading screen. I made this a smoother transition and tweaked the aesthetics to fit with the rest of the interface.

Note that my interface is based on a physical gadget with buttons similar to those on a gameboy (see image) to the side of the screen for selection and navigation.

Stop Motion Images

Today I did a photoshoot with twins Grace and Curtis - they were amazing kids to work with and I got some really good shots to use in my movie (see below) :)

Open publication - Free publishing - More energy

Research/Inspiration Project 2 - Video

This is a similar product with a similar target audience to my interface, only my interface is based on energy-saving. Hence, this is an ideal aesthetic to model my video on, only adapting it so that kids realise saving energy is the object of the game.



I intend to use the start of this commercial (the greyed out part) as a precedent for the statement of the problem in my video. This is an easily recognisable and humourous way of putting forth the problem to the audience.

The following are simply other children's commercials that I found beneficial in getting inspiration for style and storyboarding of my video.

Energy Gadget Interface 1

http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1318045721

Project Version 7

This version was just finalising the appearance of the energy monitor screen - on selection the icon changes to the power consumption, in terms of a 'kids' currency', here, ice creams. From informal research with kids, I found that most kids don't know the actual value of money, so I chose to put it into terms they would understand by associating the value of electricity with the value of familiar objects you can buy.

Project Version 6

In this version, I made the animation for the challenge sequence - the user connects via infrared to another gadget and chooses the weapon (out of their tokens) to fight with before circling the other player's icon.

Project Version 5

Here, I added some extra slides such as the add device slide, and worked on the highlighted icons on the settings page.

Project Version 4

I figured that the kids would want to arrange the furniture in their bedroom to match their real bedroom as I know from experience and investigation, into whether a child would respond better to a standardised or customised set up, that kids love customisation - hence I made an animation of a possible set up of the room as an example. Below are screenshots of the animation. I also set up the basics of the other slides ready for making buttons.

Project Version 3

Now I have the first and second frames starting to take shape. The first slide is the bedroom set up which will be customisable by the kids. The second slide is about the appliances set up and the energy they are using - this needs quite a bit of work.

Project Version 2

Further experimented with the tree aesthetic here, having a tree root light up (like electricity) on selection of an icon. Still think it doesn't fit with my ideal look of the interface though. I also cut down the number of icons from 5 to 4 because I'm going to incorporate the help menu within each page on a top toolbar. Have got all the popup white tabs with coordinating highlights working.

Project Version 1

Just starting out with my project, and I was drafting a tree-type main menu. This wasn't so much a developed idea as a starting point for playing with flash. I got the icons to look the way I wanted, and made them highlight on selection, but wasn't satisfied with the tree aesthetic - I wanted it to look a little more block-y and kid-like.

Research/Inspiration Project 2 - Gadget

First of all I'm looking at websites to see if there's anything out there that's already encouraging kids to save energy. There's not. I found a few websites that look 'pretty', but as soon as you click on something it takes you to a page with screeds of text that made me, let alone kids, want to back out of the browser, or just an error page, where this need to make kids energywise has really fallen through.

http://energyquest.ca.gov/index.html is one such website. It has this really cool homepage, but it doesn't go anywhere - just to pages with heaps of text - kids would be lost on the site. It's not intuitive enough to make kids want to explore and be inspired to conserve energy. It needs to be portrayed as a game, not a chore - kids hate chores. :) The games on this page aren't even energy conservation related - I played them...

Another website is http://www1.eere.energy.gov/kids/roofus/ - I think I found it as a link off the first one. It again just goes to a little lecture about energy, not particularly conducive to making kids want to be energy smart.

So basically there's very little on the internet that's interactive enough to inspire little Einsteins to want to go change the world, leaving a gap for a kids' website that I could design to encourage this. Children's social networking sites like Club Penguin (http://www.clubpenguin.com/) and Moshi Monsters (http://www.moshimonsters.com/) are both very popular with the 7-12 age group and have potential to give rise to a social networking site that is based around a competitive energy saving environment.

Or, perhaps a physical device might work better as it's more tangible. One toy that came to mind to do with this project was the Tamagotchi device:

Kids LOVE these and the idea behind them is nurturing a virtual pet - what would happen if we nurtured the pet but instead of feeding the pet food, we feed it with good energy use? This idea was also inspired by the virtual plant image that I posted a few weeks ago - that the plant grows when the energy is used wisely. It might not be an accurate method of measuring the energy but it's a very child friendly one.

Also, something else that came to mind when I was thinking about Tamagotchis was an old craze of 'Scannerz':

hese were gadgets which you could scan everyday barcodes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Product_Code) with and fight rival tribes monsters if you happened upon a barcode containing that particular monster. They also had a function to fight against each other, similar to Tamagotchis - in this way you had a live interaction going on which encouraged kids to get competitive and stay interested in the product. Retaining attention is very important in a product for kids, as they typically have such short attention spans. I was thinking about potentially applying this to an energy scenario where you can scan something like an energy star rating:

and play against friends - better energy conservation is the object of the games.

Statement of Intent Project 2

Having had a week away sick, I'm now playing catch up with the first part of the project; conceptualising a product and its interface, with the focus on energy conservation. As I've had a wealth of experience with kids, practically raising my sister, I know what makes kids tick about a certain object or toy - particular features will make them really attached to something, or really averse to another thing - but I also know that they are terrible at energy conservation! They tend to leave commonly used appliances, such as TVs, stereos, computers and LIGHTS on all the time, even when they're not in the same room, let alone using them. So, as I can see a niche market for a product like this that parents would buy for their kids because a) it's affordable, b) it will save them money in the long run because their kids will be encouraged not to run up huge power bills, and c) their kids WANT the product - like a toy that catches on as a craze, that every kid wants and begs their parents to buy for them. I can see I'll have my work cut out with this :)

Global Warming - Energy use and its consequences

Group Research/Brainstorming

In groups, we were given different tasks to do with energy consumption and monitoring.


Our group's task was to research energy monitoring devices and consider whether they were useful in helping to prompt users to conserve energy.


Here are a few examples we found in our research:

 This is an energy monitoring device that gives you instant feedback about your current energy use. The LEDs are used for visual feedback, "cool blue for small amounts of electricity being used; warning red for high energy consumption." These lights attractive and make you want to interact with the object, while the overall design of the object is aesthetically pleasing. The device also records a history of energy use, available for download and view on special software - although this is possible, it is not a particularly user friendly way to give feedback about historical energy consumption as you have to go the extra mile to get that information, it's not simply in your face and grabbing your attention, as it should be in this kind of device.


http://www.watthackers.com/wp/10-energy-saving-devices-to-put-your-house-on-a-diet/

This device is an energy monitoring device that records a history of your energy use and compares it to your current energy use. It's called the Energy AWARE Clock - designed much like a normal clock, but it incorporates energy use levels over time on the screen. This way, you can monitor how much overall energy is used at any one time during a 24 hour period. In addition, it shows historical periods behind the current 24 hour period, which gradually fade, encouraging the user to improve on their energy saving over time, therefore we felt it a particularly good example of a helpful energy monitoring device.


http://www.tii.se/node/5984

We thought this energy monitoring device was interesting, yet potentially not specific enough to give good feedback to the user about their energy use. The idea is that 'good' energy use (low levels) will grow a healthy plant, whereas 'bad' energy use (high levels) will cause it to wither. The problem is that there's not really any immediate feedback - it's more of a generalised response. It might work better in combination with another, more specific, device.


http://www.tii.se/projects/energyplant

The idea behind this particular energy monitoring device is pretty basic - it records how much energy a particular device consumes. The issue with it is that, as our group decided, it's ugly. There is nothing about this device that would make the user actually want to interact with it. It has a basic LED screen, black and white and is made out of off-white plastic, so is likely to make the user want to hide it. Sure, the intentions might start out well - the user keeps some tedious diary or similar to record power usage.... But to be an effective energy monitoring device, we thought that the device needed to be pretty - pretty = visually attractive = user gets feedback from the product without even realising they are tediously monitoring energy use - otherwise, how long is this resolution going to last? No one wants to do things that aren't fun. Energy monitoring devices should be fun and truly conducive to interaction in order to be really effective in helping users save power.

http://www.watthackers.com/wp/10-energy-saving-devices-to-put-your-house-on-a-diet/

Finally, we came up with aspects of energy monitoring devices that we felt were possibilities for a good design of a user interface:

• Sends emails/texts as feedback
• Pretty/visually appealing
• Wireless connectivity - ease of use
• iPhone/smartphone interface
• Touch screens - they look pretty/people want to use them, fun
• Easy to view - colour, nice numbers
• Actual cost [of electricity] - clear feedback
• Sound as warning [of high use] - beep/ringtone
• Keyring, jewellery, watch - readily accessible objects for interface
• Pretty lights
• Uninvasive, small
• Stores energy history
• App to coach you on saving energy
• Reminders of things left on as you leave the house
• Remotely turns off devices
• Affordable
• Positive feedback on how much power you might have saved while out
• Power-saving suggestions

Energy Saving Gadget - Statement of Intent

Our second project is looking at energy consumption - what we can do to reduce the amount of energy we as a society, as households, and as individuals, with conservation of environmental resources as the motivator for this. Many of the sources of energy the world uses are non-renewable - what are we going to do when they run out? We need to drastically reduce our consumption of energy firstly, but we also need to  look at alternative sources of energy to replace the ones that are currently running out.

As environmental awareness is currently a high-profile world issue, there are many ways available to monitor and reduce energy use. The problem is that many of these aren't user friendly and therefore are not conducive to their intended purpose - you're not likely to use something that doesn't fit seamlessly into your current habits, as habits are hard to change. So, if we can improve the user interfaces on such devices, we're more likely to be able to improve the monitoring of energy use and consequently work towards saving our environment.

Exhibition Write-up

My objective was to create a story by touch – the user feels the textures and associates a place or situation to what they interpret the texture to represent. This stimulates their imagination to create a scenario that they turn into an adventure as they pass the hoop through their hands and work through the textures, bridging the change in textures with their creativity. I chose the shape of the hoop because it is easy to follow, and neutral tones for the textures because the visuals were meant to be subtle. This puts the focus on the textures, not the shape or colour. By removing all words and pictures, I was investigating the power of the touch sense and how well it can function when isolated like this. I found, through experimentation, that certain textures provoke memories or common associations, which form the basis of the narrative. The textures are also arranged to create a narrative curve, that is, a gentle introduction, building to a climax, and then finally a resolution, using flat, fine textures contrasting with raised, exaggerated textures. This typical structure of a storyline encourages the user to create an interesting and exciting adventure.

Instruction

Tie the provided blindfold, and then pick up the hoop, starting at the bound section, following the direction of the arrow. Slowly pass the ring through your hands, taking in the textures by feeling with your fingertips. What can you feel? What do you associate with what you can feel – what situation do you imagine yourself in? Put yourself in a place and narrate your own adventure inspired by the textures as you follow the path on the inside of the hoop. The journey finishes when you wind up back at the bound section. Please record where your imagination escaped to in the provided notebook, but only once you have created your own story – don’t peek!

Final Interactive Object

Interactive object in action...