| Beschreibung |
If we think of data representations, we normally only think of visualisations. But what if data moved off the screen, with 3D physical shape and materiality, into the world, so we could touch it, hold it in our hands, feel it – or navigate the data by moving around it? And what if it could move and change shape to reflect updates and in response to user interactions?
Physical representations of data have existed for thousands of years. Initially emerging from the arts, ‘data physicalisation’ is increasingly investigated in Information Visualisation and HCI, pushed by recent advances in digital fabrication and mechanical actuation. Physicalisations have the potential for novel and creative designs as well as changing our relation to data. Their design can utilize digital and material a LEDs to traditional
crafts materials, where the choice of material influences meaning and experience. Most work in this area has created static representations – but for dynamic data series and interactive feedback, we need flexible, shape-changing or moving representations.
Following a Research through Design (RtD) approach, we will work in small groups (mixing technical and design students) to develop dynamic data physicalisations, e.g. using motor-based actuation for shape-change. We will engage with the literature in this field of research, investigate options for creating dynamic physicalisations, develop ideas/concepts and prototype them, and implement one of our ideas. Finally, we will do a small user study of our data representations.
Students from the different degree programs will have different emphasis in tasks in this project:
- HCI Master students will engage both with technology and design aspects. They will take part in creative conceptualization, focusing on user interaction and experience, and will devise and run a small user study of the final design.
- Informatik Bachelor students will focus on technical aspects, in particular actuation technologies and control, the software side of data query/interaction, and potentially, detection of user input.
- Product Design and Media-Architecture students will engage in creative-artistic conceptualization and focus on physical-material design and construction and will collaborate on designing the user interaction.
This course is perfect for students who would like to be challenged to find problems, who enjoy individual and (multi-disciplinary) group-work, and to come up with their own concepts. Students will focus on research topics such as ”qualitative data representations”, ”data physicalisations”, "affordances", "shape-changing interfaces", and "ambient/peripheral interfaces".
We encourage students to participate that have a high interest in prototyping with hardware (e.g., Arduino), working with materials (e.g., wood or silicone), or using traditional fabrication techniques (e.g., origami-folding). The project is most suited for students who want 18 ECTS |
| Voraussetzungen |
Participants should have an interest in working with and tinkering with physical materials, ideally some prior experience with Arduino and electronics. They should be interested in developing novel interactive devices and interaction techniques and in exploring novel ways of representing data and making it interactive. All participants should enjoy working in an interdisciplinary group, want to be creative, build prototypes, and be able to converse in English.
- Informatik (B.Sc.) technical ability, interest in learning Arduino, electronics, and in particular controlling motors and/or other actuators, interest in creative work.
- M.Sc. HCI: interest in creative design and interaction with data; willingness to think ‚out of the box’; Interest in working with actuated objects, physical design; ability to contribute to conceptual work; willingness to learn and do: interaction design, physical design methods and electronics, human-data interaction, evaluation methods.
- Product Design (PD): Creativity, practical experience with design of interactive products/objectrs, physical construction (e.g. 3D- printing, laser-cutting, woodwork, metalwork etc.), ideally some prior experience with electronics and Arduino or with mechanics (moving parts). Media-Architecture (MA): Creativity, practical experience with physical construction (e.g. 3D-printing, laser-cutting, woodwork etc.), ideally some prior experience with electronics and Arduino
- PD and MA: Please apply auntil 03.04.2024 by E-Mail with Hannes.waldschuetz@uni-weimar.de and eva.hornecker@uni-weimar.de (please include a description of your prior experience in relevant areas, with examples of prior work if applicable)!
(We plan to attend the project fair PD to present the project.) |
