animation
(E)motional design paper at DANDE2012
Last week I presented my paper on (E)motional design at Out of Control, the 8th International Design & Emotion Conference in London. With the paper, I argue that movement and emotion are highly interconnected, and that movement has the power to affect, engage and persuade us deeply.
The presentation was of course made with Prezi, using the new 3D background feature. Feel free to click through it:
In order to analyse and design kinetic interfaces (interfaces characterized by movement) we need to consider two things at the same time: how movement helps us to carry out actions, and how movement creates meaning (=double mediation). The paper includes an analysis of how movement is used on the screen interface of the Apple iPad, as well as a design experiment in which I used stop motion animation to explore how movement can be used in a mobile app.
Ready for some academic arguments about visual movement? Have a look at the paper: (E)motional design: double mediation in kinetic interfaces.
PS 1: the paper is based on the trial lecture I held for my PhD defence in 2010.
PS 2: download the magazine app I use as an example of a kinetic interface: Katachi.
New video: Kinetic Interface Design
In order to make my research more accessible I have created a video that shows a number of kinetic interfaces. Kinetic interfaces are here understood as screen-based interfaces that are characterized by movement.
Kinetic Interface Design from JonO on Vimeo.
In addition to the interface examples, a number of descriptive and analytical terms are presented. These terms have been developed through analysis of kinetic interfaces in academic publications. The kinetic interfaces presented in the video are:
The Apple OSX login box
NAVIMATION
The Iconist #1 (iPad)
www.leoburnett.ca
Disney Movies (iPad)
SOCIAL NAVIMATION
www.taggraph.com
Flipboard (iPad)
MOTIONAL TRANSFORMATION
www.jonathanyuen.com
www.well-formed-data.net/experiments/elastic_lists
SPATIAL MANIPULATION
For All Seasons (iPhone)
www.tryggtrafikk.no/Sykkelhjelm2010
www.ecodazoo.com
TEMPORAL NAVIGATION
Cooliris (iPhone)
www.wrangler-europe.com/bluebell/ss10/#/collection
www.flashloaded.com/flashcomponents/3dwall
INDEXICAL COMPOSITING
www.sectionseven.com/index2.html
www.homeinvest.no
VIRTUAL KINETICS
www.thewhalehunt.org
www.thibaud.be
Music: ‘Rieth’ from Gesamtlaufzeit by Marko Fürstenberg. (Used with permission.)
Sketching with time: student projects
Some time ago the interaction design students at AHO did a short project in which they experimented with stop motion for prototyping a photo album interface. Before giving the task to the students I tested the technique myself using the free Mac software FrameByFrame (see earlier blogpost). This is the first time we have instructed students to use stop motion, so the project was partly an experiment in itself. In addition we wanted to find out more about the potentials and challenges of using stop motion for prototyping navimation.
Let’s look at some of the videos.
Synne Frydenberg
This idea shows quite directly how the properties of paper can be used in motion sketching, in this case by folding the paper.
Natasha Ruivo:
Natasha makes use of what I call virtual kinetics, by giving the sensation of gravity and mass as the images fall down.
(UPDATE: this video stopped working, and has therefore been removed)
This video shows nicely how stop motion can be used to show how a specific task or action in the interface can be accomplished. This would be much harder to sketch and present without such a video.
Fanny Monier
Fanny shows how stop motion can be used to create a sensation of transformation and three-dimensional space by simply substituting one drawing with another. This technique seems highly effective.
Another way to create the sensation of a three-dimensional space is of course to physically set it up in three dimensions. This efficiently takes us away from the page metaphor and allow us to rather conceptualise the interface as a stage or a theatre.
Svein Inge Bjørkhaug
(UPDATE: this video stopped working, and has therefore been removed)
The idea behind this video is to make a way of sorting images as they are imported from a digital camera to a computer. I think the motion sketch communicates quite well how this idea could be realised, by showing how the user actions are linked to what happens on the screen.
Ivan Milanovic
Ivan was the only student working with a real device, the iPhone. It must have been quite hard to work with such small elements and the small screen space. The first part of the video is a bit too rough, but the last part of the video shows nicely how a tilting gesture can be used to move between images.
Theo Tveterås
A simple but nice idea: touch the surface, and images appear underneath each finger.
As Theo argued, the principle that is sketched out here could be used in a screen interface by using other ways of controlling the navigation. I also think it could be a fun way of navigating a device with screens on both sides!
A playful way of engaging with photos: a memory game!
What did we learn?
Stop motion prototyping obviously has its advantages and disadvantages. These are the main advantages:
- quite easy and quick to prototype visual elements that move, especially in three dimensions.
- easy to show how user action and screen presentation may be related over time
- the rough style of stop motion is suited for rough sketching
- physical space and physical elements (such as paper) may inspire and induce new ideas. Great potential for experimentation.
- effective for communicating and presenting ideas
The challenges:
- requires some equipment and software tools (camera, tripod, light, PC, software)
- it may take some time to prepare the visual elements (i.g. paper pieces)
- there are limits for what you can easily do in front of a camera. Some things are more easy to do on a computer
- it is hard and time consuming to produce subtle and sophisticated movement by using stop motion
Sketching in time
“Since they need to be able to capture the essence of design concepts around transitions, dynamics, fell, phrasing, and all the other unique attributes of interactive systems, sketches of interaction must necessarily be distinct from (traditional) types of sketches…†Bill Buxton: Sketching User Experiences
This week I have been involved in teaching a group of interaction design students at the Design for interactive and social media course at AHO. The topic has been ‘Sketching with time’, and has focused on using stop motion combined with paper prototyping to sketch interface ideas. The week’s assignment was to make a photo album interface and experiment with navimation.
Before introducing the students to the technique I had to try it out myself. I found the Mac application FrameByFrame which has been brilliant for this purpose. The functionality of the software is limited, but it is free, extremely simple to use, and serves the purpose for quick motion sketching.
Here are two of the quick stop motion sketches I made:
I also tried using video, recording my actions in real time:
The video quality is quite rough (partly because I am using a really old DV camera), but I don’t see this as a big problem. The technique is primarily to be used for quick sketches early in the design process.
The students got three days to make their video sketches. During these days many of the students managed to do a lot of experimentation and test out different ideas. The task was in many ways an experiment from our side, so I was positively surprised by the diversity and quality of their work. I also got the impression that they had learned a lot about timing, response and communication in the interface.
The technique has clearly some disadvantages – it is for example hard to make subtle movements and deal with details and many elements at the same time. However, it seems especially suited for 3D motion sketching, since this often requires a lot of time and skills to do on a computer.
UPDATE: see some of the videos the students made.
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