Posts about “Video prototyping”

First day filming

I got stuck in the workshop trying to make the animations work as the rest of the group was starting filming the opening sequence and some shots of the device when it was not transforming.

My problems where that the friction between the bars was very high and they got struck when I tried to push them with a couple of different stuff. I made a roller thingy to get a wave-like motion and fork to push some bars half ways and some the whole way. The fork worked ok, but the roller was worse.

Animation fork — The Animation Fork - A fork to push the bars to make them move magically

Another group was on sound. They made an intro to express the anxiety that could ensue if you don't use our product. It's cool to see how just a couple of samples and an eerie background can do.

I wish I was a bit more involved in this as it is something I have very little experience with. The way we divided the work was more based on what skills we have and not on what we don't have. We jokingly focus on making the best video, but in reality I think we do sacrifice learning for a higher finish.

Laser Focus

Our first day in the workshop starts with some sketching and we start designing our first artefact.
I was mostly in charge of manufacturing as I had the most experience in the workshop. There was some minor arguments about color but in the end we went with gold. I proved a somewhat bad choice as that spray paint took a lot longer to dry and we had some problems with the bars sticking when we tried to move them to fake the shape shifting.

The first iteration — Math gone wrong - Only 6.25 days fit. Back to the drawing board

Another group was on sound. They made an intro to express the anxiety that could ensue if you don't use our product. It's cool to see how just a couple of samples and an eerie background can do.

I wish I was a bit more involved in this as it is something I have very little experience with. The way we divided the work was more based on what skills we have and not on what we don't have. We jokingly focus on making the best video, but in reality I think we do sacrifice learning for a higher finish.

The story so far

We have decided to make a device that visualizes the next seven days in your menstrual cycle. We want a device that is desireable to have in your house as decoration, and it should be abstract but informative for the woman and possible partner.
We landed on a some kind of physical bar chart that shows the next week.

We toyed with the idea of making several parts to our concept. An app, a thermometer and a shape changing artefact. We scrapped this as we realize we are not making a real product anyway. If we are faking the shape changing part we can as well fake the functionality.

Storyboarding

So what story do we want to tell? We want to show three different use cases, using it as contraception, wanting to get pregnant and to know when to expect your menstruation. We want as little acting as possible as we are not actors. We will have to show a quite abstract and complex concept in a clear fashion, that will be hard. Will people be able to follow and understand? We have an idea of something slick and cool, lets see how it pans out.

Video prototyping group project

Assignment: Shapeshifters

Brief: Make a video prototype of a shape changing object. Tell the story of how it is used and what user value can come out of it.
We have 3 weeks to do it.

Materials: Video

Team: Malin, Zakiya, Cathrine, Simon and me

We started our work with some ideation sessions. In Methods 1, we learned some techniques that we found really helpful. Just sitting and writing random ideas for five minutes helps create lot of new ideas. Some will be very bad but a few will be something you can work with. We went on with some more sessions where we riffed on each others ideas.

My favourite idea was a scarf/gps that shows the way by pointing in the right direction or the telepathic tape roll "TeleTape". These devices might not have been the most serious so they where abandoned along the way.

After a while we had some ideas we could discuss and we chose some kind of device that would visualize your menstrual cycle similarly to the app Natural Cycles.

Now we just have to decide what kind of device this should be. I just saw the Typified Weather Poster and really like the idea of the changing colors in a physical object. Like toy cars or t-shirts when I was a child. Maybe this could be implemented in some way.

Video prototyping intro

We started our video prototyping with a lecture about narrative and how to get your story through to the viewer. We discussed how the correct framing and cutting can make a scene more interesting and what the story arc does to engage the audience.

I have not had much experience making "movies", especially since I left art. Storytelling has not been a big part of my work so it was great to get more insight int that. I will think more about it in my work in the future.

Movies as prototypes

The concept of video prototyping was new to me. Not that I have not seen any but I have not identified them as prototypes. Now it makes perfect sense to me, communicating a design that may be impossible to implement right now may very well only be possible in a movie.

I can also see how I can use it in my work. Communicating an application flow or device use can be very useful when the real experience is hard to reproduce or when you present it to stake holders that aren't users.

Workshop: Netflix gesture UI

Brief: Explore free space gestures for controlling the following Netflix functions: play/pause, skip episode, volume up/down/mute.
We have one and a half hour to capture a design proposal on video.

Materials: video

Team: Zakiya, Simon and me

We made a video of me in a couch controlling the screen by waving my hands. It's a rough prototype with bad acting and timing but we learned quite a lot from making it. Just getting our hand dirty was very useful.

[insert video]