With the aesthetics of the interaction in mind
Aesthetics of interaction contains a richness into the interaction the user has. We were asked to create an alarm clock fully based on the aesthetic s of the interactions . We started our iteration process during a workshop about design relabeling (Djajadiningrat et al., 2000). By giving existing mechanical objects new actions and function s we set a base for our alarm clock.
We were very enthusiastic about the system of the glue clamp. Whenever there was used too much power it would not move further. This was the base idea for our alarm clock. If you wanted to turn it off you had to be careful.
With the use of a round shape family and the usage of light we created our final alarm clock . The final design is an alarm clock that is shaped as a bow of colored lights and that wakes the user using bright white light . The colors on the bow are mapped to the color of the sky and we still used the glue clamp idea. The functionality of the design can be seen in the corresponding video.
Details
Activity Course – Aesthetics of Interaction
For me Aesthetics of Interaction changed my view on designing. Making and visualizing has become a more centralized way of working. Just like Jonathan Ive said: “Designing and making shouldn’t be separated” (Andersen, 2019).
As a designer yo u create a product where users can interact with. As already mentioned, thinking in enjoyment of experiencing and rich actions is new for me. And I think that this way of thinking should be used more often in the creation of new products. But the user should not be forgotten in my opinion. I liked the way of thinking in interaction that triggered my personal preferences and I would like to combine this new skill with the user s needs.
Tom Djajadiningrat, Bill Gaver, and Joep Frens. 2000. Interaction relabelling and extreme characters: methods for exploring aesthetic interactions. InProceedings of the 3rd conference on Designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and tech niques(DIS '00), Daniel Boyarski and Wendy A. Kellogg (Eds.). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 66 71. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/347642.347664
Andersen, K. Digital Craftsmanship and Speculation . Jonathan Ive quotation . 2019.