"Reset: the Sitting Intervention" meets the Makey Makey

I approached the MakeyMakey from a coding point of view first. I reasoned that once my interaction worked, I could have fun adding and exploring interactions. I do wish I had had a bit more time to play with interactions but I spent a bit longer on the code.

Development Process:

Testing the sitting interaction alone would not be enough, so I decided to revisit the original concept. The goal of the reset is to encourage people to move after sedentary periods. The reset woul make a sound and buzz to encourage movement.

How could I increase this level of encouragement?

Eventually I decided that one way could be to get the wearer to do a physical activity to be able to get the alarm to stop. I also decided that the alarm should go off until the wearer completed the activity, and then chose a song to meet the goal - "I like to move it" seemed the perfect fit.

Real-world scenario:

Sitting down starts the timer.
Standing up for longer than one minute stops the timer.
After 50 minutes of being seated, the alarm starts to go off to encourage the wearer to get moving.
The user must complete a physical activity to get the alarm to stop and be able to sit down again.

Testing Scenario:

Sitting down starts the timer.
Standing up stops the timer and resets it.
After 5 seconds, the song starts to play.
The sound will stop after the wearer runs on the mat for 10 steps.

Physical Components:

Designing physical interactions

Last week's class activity challenged us to think of 5 new, physical interactions that would change the way we do certain technological tasks.

E-mail

 (i) When selecting contacts, use a rolodex to be able to scroll through the address book.

 (ii) Adding an attachment by clicking a paperclip.

 (iii) Sending an email by flying a paper plane across the room.

 (iv) Stand up and jump on a pressure pad to send email.

 (v) Hit an arcade strength bar to send outgoing mails.

Twitter

 (i) Post a Tweet by flapping arms

 (ii) Whistle to post a tweet

 (iii) When using a hashtag, the user must press a button and say "hashtag" and then type in the word.

 (iv) When the user is typing a message on mobile, they can shake their phone and the last word they typed will become a hashtag term.

 (v) The user has a Twitter bird toy that must be squeezed to send a tweet they are typing.

Super Mario

 (i) Incorporate exercise - interact with wii, jump to get Mario to jump, run in place to get him to run, lift arms to change direction, etc.

 (ii) Jump on trampoline to get Mario to jump.

 (iii) Boxing gloves and padded controls.

Prototyping Feedback

In designing my prototypes for TwisterXO, I set out to find out which size mat to use. I got feedback from 10 people during the contact session and 2 more outside of the course.

I developed 3 different versions –

• a 3x3 grid

• 3 in a row on a 4x4 grid

• 4 in a row on a 4x4 grid

For each testing session there were two testers. They played two of the games in a randomly selected order.

To gain quantitative data, I timed the duration of each game.
On average, the 4 - 4x4 game took the longest to complete, taking up to 2 minutes, while the small, 3x3 grid took under 1 minute.

After the games, each user was asked to fill out a questionnaire.

Summary of findings:

• The 4x4 with 3 in a row game was the favourite with all of the testers choosing it as their preferred game.
• Adding body parts like the original Twister game: 60% said no.
• The majority of players said that the games were of average challenge
•  The 4/5 testers who played the 4 – 4x4 game rated it as 1 point higher on the challenge scale than the other version they played.
• The 3 – 4x4 game got a the highest number of scores for replayability, with 50% saying it was very playable and 25% saying it held an average level of replayability. It was also rated more replayable than both the other versions by 1 point in most comparisons.
• The 3 – 4x4 was rated more rewarding than the others.

When asked if the tester would fix anything, most said that the spinning arrow should be easier to click.

Other feedback included finding a way to make the game more skilful, Having multiple players rather than just 2, and Asking about playing with your body, so only having 4 markers to place.

Further development based on the findings:

• Multiple players
• Only 4 moves – include the option to lift one body part if all 4 are placed on the grid.
• Possibly adding an element of skill to counteract the random element.

The 3 - 4x4 grid will be further developed based on the findings.

Play it here

Instructions:

1. press the arrow to spin

2. choose your twister spot

3. next player repeat steps 1-2

Get 3 in a row to win

TwisterXO - AS3 planning

I feel grateful that I have done a lot of coding, but I am still learning AS3 so it is quite slow. The bounce tutorial was particularly helpful in getting the feel for the syntax.

I have started planning my prototype and I am not sure how adept I will be at AS3 within a week, so I will aim at getting the noughts and crosses interface done if I don't have time to figure out the Twister player options (left hand, right hand, foot).

In terms of classes, I would probably need a main, a Twister tile, a player and a spinner class, as outlined in the CRC cards below.

Makey-Makey friendly

In review of the video feedback, I decided to revisit some of my original ideas and see which would be easier to prototype with the MakeyMakey, as the reset does not make contact with anything and the MakeyMakey depends on this function.

I am revisiting TwisterXO, my Twister and Noughts & Crosses concept. New video to follow.

Types of Prototypes - Alarming!

Week 3 - Exercise 2

Types of prototypes

A horizontal prototype gives a view of features offered, and does not explain these in detail. 

A vertical prototype explore the function of a specific feature. In the image above, I have given two options the user can do when setting a new alarm - setting the chain of alarms and changing the alarm tone. Now one can envision what will happen or how one of the features works, rather than just knowing about the feature.

For the alarm exercise, I went on what I thought would be a diagonal prototype. From the main interface, the user can edit the chain alarm and edit it directly by clicking and holding the icon. Simply pushing the button will turn the feature on or off, but holding it in will bring up the settings page as before. This is another way of accessing the same tech without many steps.

Testing

The reset is a wearable lifestyle intervention. Students spend hours in sedentary positions and this is detrimental to health. Wearing the reset reminds you to take regular breaks. While it is not directly social, it does encourage wearers to take breaks away from their desks or laptops, which will hopefully lead to more meaningful interaction and study breaks.

While I tried to think of a more social idea, I had a bit of trouble with my creative process this time around. The reset is more of a personal intervention that I would use. Ideally I would like the clip to be smaller than the prototype shown.

It was fun to create the video and I learned a bit about editing because I hadn’t shot videos before this year, so I welcomed the new experience. I used a combination of editing software, starting in Photoshop and later iMovie to see how both are used. For filming, I used my compact camera for video and sound, and had my phone near me to record the audio for better audio quality, which I ended up using in the video, as it was clear and free of background noise.

Testing Feedback

1. How can the concept be made more social?

As stated, the problem is not addressing a social problem but it can be adjusted to be more social and interactive.

Some suggestions to make the concept more social:

• Use it as a competition between friends on social media.
• Encourage lazy or unmotivated people to move and be held accountable in a community.
• Used in nursing homes- where the nurses get feedback when someone has been sedentary for a long time, they can monitor and facilitate movement and walking.
•  Choose a different concept or problem area.

Further suggestions to make it more interactive were:

• Link to an app and social media.
• Have an app interface so you can set your preferred time period and see the percentage of time moving to percentage stationary.
• Have a timer and screen on the device

2. How could the video be improved?

The actual video received good feedback, the sound was clear and it was not too long.