Week 6 Assignment: Arduino Inputs & Outputs Project
In Partnership with Ploy Pruekcharoen
For this assignment to create a learning tool using Arduino inputs and outputs, my partner Ploy and I created a simple color mixing learning tool using distance sensors and a color changing LED.
Sketch:
Circuit:
︎︎︎After discussing some of the different inputs that we could explore with this project such as buttons, color sensors, etc., we decided that for the purpose of this project, using distance sensors would make the most sense as long as we could make sure that the sensors were not too sensitive where they overlapped.
Fabrication:
︎︎︎For the fabrication of this tool, we wanted to create a packaging that would be intuitive and easy to use, and also play off of the idea of a painter’s palette where paints are distributed on the edges and mixed in the center. We created a couple of prototypes using cardboard and later settled on acrylic which was lasercut.
Final Product:
Conclusion:
Overall, Ploy and I were happy about the outcome of our project as it was almost exactly what we had envisioned at the start of the project. We were able to demonstrate the connection between the input and output of the tool and I think that this tool serves as a prototype for another version of the tool that could expand to more colors, simplified user interfaces, and more variety of color display.
Reading Responses:
“The future of Interaction Design”
I really enjoyed reading this article about the future of interaction design- because it made me think about something I hadn’t before and the possibilities of interface design that I had neglected to think about because of what of the current realm of possibilities in my mind. I really enjoy the proposal that the author makes about tactile interactions, especially because I really enjoy them even when feeling paper or any kind of texture really. One of my favorite points in this article was about ‘Pictures Under Glass’- I feel that while its such an innovative invention that has changed the way we interact with objects, I feel our society getting too comfortable with such limited ways of interaction. I see this especially when people now get frustrated when graphic displays are not operated by touch screens. I also think that the way we interact with touch screen interfaces and computers are not the most healthy as well- as the author points out it was not the way that human arms and hands were designed to operate most of the time. I feel that this article opens up a great question about stepping out of the box of what seems possible or ‘doable’ when thinking about the future of interaction and to start thinking about what is most helpful and intuitive when developing and the designing for the future.
I really enjoyed reading this article about the future of interaction design- because it made me think about something I hadn’t before and the possibilities of interface design that I had neglected to think about because of what of the current realm of possibilities in my mind. I really enjoy the proposal that the author makes about tactile interactions, especially because I really enjoy them even when feeling paper or any kind of texture really. One of my favorite points in this article was about ‘Pictures Under Glass’- I feel that while its such an innovative invention that has changed the way we interact with objects, I feel our society getting too comfortable with such limited ways of interaction. I see this especially when people now get frustrated when graphic displays are not operated by touch screens. I also think that the way we interact with touch screen interfaces and computers are not the most healthy as well- as the author points out it was not the way that human arms and hands were designed to operate most of the time. I feel that this article opens up a great question about stepping out of the box of what seems possible or ‘doable’ when thinking about the future of interaction and to start thinking about what is most helpful and intuitive when developing and the designing for the future.
“What do prototypes prototype. Handbook of human-computer interaction”
I feel that this article was a very good resource for defining the scope of what a prototype can be, how it can be used, and how they serve different purposes throughout the design process. Before I got into studying more about user experience design I had an idea of a prototype to be a halfway finished, usable and interactable representation of a product. What I enjoyed about the author’s point of view was that a prototype is essentially a tool that can be used at any stage of the design process to address design problems and communicate your ideas to audiences and stakeholders. One of the examples that really stuck with me was of the 3D interior modeling software for which prototypes of various fidelity were developed linearly throughout the design process as the team addressed certain design issues and developed their idea rather than going in order of what is thought of as a conventional design process that starts out with a sketch and ends up with a finished product. I think knowing that this is even a possibility was very eye opening. I also agree with the author that prototypes can be and should be different in appearance, scale, medium depending on the project and who and when it is being presented so long as it is serving the purpose of communicating your idea to the audience at that stage in product development.
I feel that this article was a very good resource for defining the scope of what a prototype can be, how it can be used, and how they serve different purposes throughout the design process. Before I got into studying more about user experience design I had an idea of a prototype to be a halfway finished, usable and interactable representation of a product. What I enjoyed about the author’s point of view was that a prototype is essentially a tool that can be used at any stage of the design process to address design problems and communicate your ideas to audiences and stakeholders. One of the examples that really stuck with me was of the 3D interior modeling software for which prototypes of various fidelity were developed linearly throughout the design process as the team addressed certain design issues and developed their idea rather than going in order of what is thought of as a conventional design process that starts out with a sketch and ends up with a finished product. I think knowing that this is even a possibility was very eye opening. I also agree with the author that prototypes can be and should be different in appearance, scale, medium depending on the project and who and when it is being presented so long as it is serving the purpose of communicating your idea to the audience at that stage in product development.
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