EXPERIENTIAL PROTOTYPING: DESIGNING FOR A NEW ECOLOGY OF SYSTEMS
 
 
RESEARCH QUESTION
This thesis research explores two questions:
1 - What role does media design play when designing for emerging technology and new ecologies of systems (based on Philip Van Allen's "New Ecology of Things")?
2 - How can this role be applied to the design process as a new method for system designers?

 
   
 
ABSTRACT
Networked sensors, wireless devices, and RFID tagging are being seamlessly integrated into our material world connecting us with everyone, everything, everywhere and at anytime. This "New Ecology of Things" (Van Allen) is built on complex technological, interactive and behavioral infrastructures that have the potential to include an infinite amount of variables within the system. The question then becomes: how do we design for these new systems?

To understand the system is to understand the experience.

Experiential Prototyping develops a real world context through the use of user-based narrative combined with tangible interfaces to design and "prototype" complex system design involving products, services, and technological infrastructures. Sensors and microprocessors are used to turn a story into an interactive experience that examines specific features within the system and enriches the overall process toward better design. Not only is the method used in the design process, but it is used ultimately to communicate the system to the design team, within an organization and/or to potential investors.

 
 
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this thesis research is to explore methods of using media to ideate and communicate successful and more efficient design solutions for the new ecology of systems resulting in a new design practice that integrates media design into the design process for complex system design.

 
  THE NEW ECOLOGY OF SYSTEMS

Technology is becoming increasingly prevalent in our material world. In the future, mobile phones and networked objects and spaces will be ubiquitously embedded into our environments and products. In fact, it is already happening today with increasingly sophisticated cell phones that allow for entertainment services such as mobile tv, GPS and photo-enabled “tag and scanning”, and payment services. In addition, the technology is spilling over into new tangible forms such as wearables (interactive clothing), interactive retail, and an entire plethora of blue-tooth enabled devices that we wear, carry, or use in our environments. This world, according to science fiction writer and visionary Bruce Sterling, is called the “internet of things” in which computer technology interleaves our physical world of material objects and re-defines the relationships between people, our tools, and our possessions.

Sterling argues that, “there are six key factors shaping the future of material objects:

  1. Interactive chips that can label objects with unique ID
  2. Local and global positioning systems that can determine the location of tagged objects
  3. Powerful search engines, particularly for local searches -- a Google for finding things around you [in our material world]
  4. 3D virtual design of objects
  5. Rapid prototyping production and fabricators
  6. Cradle to cradle manufacturing, zero-emissions production, ‘design for disassembly,’ and ‘a new kind of death for objects.’” (worldchanging archives)

What does all of this mean for designers? We are moving beyond designing for just another handheld device with a screen on it toward alternative systems of objects and environments.“’Protocrat’ is the term Bruce coins for the creative, community-minded individuals who will participate in the realization of these solutions; a group of inventors, venture capitalists, journalists, and designers. [He] uses the phrase: ‘the actual is the new virtual’ to describe one of the ways that design will become the norm as far as solutions to the big problem.” (it conversations)

In addition, not only is the concept of the internet spilling into material objects, our objects and environments are becoming smarter and seamlessly networked. Philip Van Allen's "The New Ecology of Things" describes this. "With massive RFID tagging and the deployment of smart networked sensors and wireless personal information devices, a new ecology of things is developing. How will people and things interact in this fluid environment of tangible artifacts and the data-spheres that surround them? Who will determine how this interaction works?" (van allen, net) And how do we design for these systems? Gone are the days of the lone designer. This emerging technological infrastructure requires a more sophisticated approach to design, which understands social interactions, networking, integrated systems, communication and examines potential experiences within a social context.

The New Ecology of Things is becoming the New Ecology of Systems. An example of a system is Apple's iPod music system. Not only does it include a device (the iPod) but it includes software (iTunes), services, content and an entire technological infrastructure. But the iPod still needs to be manually connected to a computer to exchange any data. Building on Van Allen's notion of the "New Ecology of Things", what happens when the iPod is networked to other iPods and the environment in which it is in? This adds yet another layer of complexity to the system and evolves the New Ecology of Things into the New Ecology of Systems. How do we design ecologies of systems that are increasingly complex?

This is a challenge for designers. (quote from NET): "We are dealing with a subject that is technologically highly complex, yet it will have a revolutionary impact on how we will interact in the near future with objects, services, our built environment and with each other. We will make the attempt to match a new technology with needs, uses and applications that have yet to be defined. Translating our thoughts into convincing and tangible scenarios will be a main design challenge." As the New Ecology of Systems become increasingly more complex with an infinite number of variables, how do we design these systems toward successful solutions? This thesis explores the question and results in a new design practice that encourages collaboration and guides design teams in the ideation, evaluation, and communication phases of the design process called "Experiential Prototyping".

  
 
EXPERIENTIAL PROTOTYPING (A NEW DESIGN PRACTICE)
Experiential Prototyping: a hybrid form of media design that merges user-based narrative with tangible interactions.

Chair of graphic design at Art Center College of Design and owner of Triad in Berlin, Nikolaus Hafermaas, argues that: "A diagram says more than a hundred words, an image says more then ten diagrams, a working prototype says more than a thousand words." When designing new ecologies of systems, the possibilities of features and interactions are endless. As designers, how do we identify and focus in on the most important areas of the system in conjunction with the architecture of the systems as a whole? And how do we do this in a collaborative design team that includes multiple disciplines each with its own vernacular and way of working? Collaboration between these disciplines is key for designing successful solutions. The ability to "sketch" interactions is key. Experiential Prototyping encourages design teams to sketch interactions, evaluate them, and communicate complex systems. The method is wedged between ideation and prototyping of the current design process and can be used over and over again in any context to design complex systems.

[show diagram]

The method guides collaborative teams in concept phases through user-based storytelling, employs the concept of "activity spaces" (described later) and builds an experiential and tangible scenario used for evaluation and communication of features within the ecology of systems.

Research into this method leads to two case studies where the method of Experiential Prototyping is applied. What inspired the case studies is my interest into the subject of inactivity and our increase in sedentary lifestyles. The systems encourage social-based physical movement and play among groups of people and/or individuals. The method allowed for the systems and specific features within them to evolve based on how the characters (real-world users) would interact with it and led to an Experiential Prototype of them.

 
 
 
 
© 2005. Jennifer Darmour, Media Design MFA Candidate