Investigation 2: The box and the room

Assigned

Friday, 9 April 2021

Summary

In this assignment, you will create something with affordances that encourage people to use it in certain ways.

Collaboration

You should work in a team of two or three students. We will assign partners in class on Monday, 12 April 2021. You may consult other students in the class as you develop your solution. If you receive help from anyone, make sure to cite them in your responses.

As you’ve learned from reading about interfaces, from observing and discussing poorly designed technologies, and from discussing various approaches to design, a good UI provides affordances that encourage others to use it in certain ways. In this assignment, you will build something that elicits “correct” usage with no other communication.

There are two versions of this assignment, the “traditional” assignment, which asks you to build a physical object, and the “pandemic” assignment, which asks you to build a virtual area.

Option 1: The box (traditional)

For this form of the assignment, you will put together a box intended to elicit particular behaviors from others.

This part of the Investigation is adapted from Janet Davis’s version of this course. Janet’s assignment is itself adapted from Udacity’s course entitled “Intro to the Design of Everyday Things” and was developed by Jim Boerkel, with credit to Don Norman, Kristian Simsarian, and Chelsey Glasson.

1. Find a medium-sized box (about 6-12 inches per side). Using whatever materials you’d like, transform the your box into an interactive object that people will rub, turn, and grab, without being instructed to do so. You are not allowed to provide any spoken or written instructions.

   You can see the original video assignment from the Udacity course at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD2RjKs3Hec and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP_LveLTvDE.

2. Test out your design by finding a place with heavy foot traffic to set out your box. Observe how at least three different people interact with your box. Plan to take photos and video of the interactions. After someone interacts with your box, you may debrief them by explaining this assignment.

   Since we are in a time of covid, and people may be much less likely to pick up random objects, you may instead arrange for three people in your scurry or equivalent to play with the box. Just say something like “I need to record someone interacting with this box for one of my classes.:

3. As you observe, reflect on questions like these:

   • Does your design elicit the responses you want? Why or why not?
   • What aspects of your design are more or less successful?
   • What improvements might you make if you were to build this again?

Option 2: The room (pandemic)

Since not everyone has access to boxes and other materials (or to people who might be willing to share an object), I am providing this version of the assignment as a virtual alternate.

Ohyay.co is a comparatively new online collaboration environment. For this form of the assignment, you will create a room in Ohyay that is intended to elicit three behaviors from (novice) visitors.

Note: Ohyay.co is not (yet) approved by the College. If you choose to use it for this task, you will be doing so voluntarily. I would suggest that you not use your Grinnell id for this work. If you would prefer to use something similar currently approved by Grinnell, you may do so, but please notify me first.

1. Create a room in Ohyay.co that is intended to elicit three nontrivial behaviors from someone who enters the room. You may not include textual instructions in the room. You should assume that the person entering the room is a comparative novice for Ohyay.co and do not yet understand the conventions of Ohyay (if such conventions exist). You may choose which behaviors to elicit, but they should be of comparable difficulty to those of the box (i.e., rub, turn, grab). For example, you might try to encourage people to move their picture to a certain location, to type somewhere, or to send an emoji.

2. Test out your design by inviting three friends or classmates to visit your room and then observing how they use it. (You might create a separate account for visitors.) Your prompt should be little more than “I’ve been asked to design a virtual room for one of my classes and I want to see how people interact with it.” (Feel free to rephrase that in your own words.) Plan to take screenshots or videos of the interactions.

3. As you observe, reflect on questions like these:

   • Does your design elicit the responses you want? Why or why not?
   • What aspects of your design are more or less successful?
   • What improvements might you make if you were to build this again?

Deliverables

Please submit a short description of the project that contains the following componenets:

• A short discussion of the affordances, signifiers, and conceptual models that supported the three objectives: (Rubbing, Turning, and Grabbing for boxes; your choice for rooms). Each should be accompanied by a photo or screenshot. [Nine points; Three points per objective.]
• A short discussion of each observation, one for each of three subjects. [Nine points; Three points per subject.]
  • Describe the context (e.g., Did you leave the box on a table and wait, Did you ask someone to work with the box or the room, etc.?).
  • How did the individual interact with your object? Did they stop and look at the box? Pick it up? Touch it with tongs? Did they click randomly in the room, look around, ask questions?
  • What led the individual to interact with your box or room in these ways? What does that suggest about a redesign?
• A short video, either (a) of you demonstrating how you design is supposed to work, (b) of one of the encounters of someone and the box or room. [Two points.]

If you intend to submit a photo or video of someone other than yourself, please make sure to get their permission.

Please plan to bring your box or room to class, if only virtually, for a demo session.