2009 MDP Summer Research Project

Redesigning the media designer’s affordances

Principal Investigator: Phil van Allen, MDP Core Faculty

Project Schedule:

13 weeks, week 1–13, Wednesdays and Thursdays 10–5:00, with occasional 3rd day per week

Project Description:

How can a designers workspace and tools be remade to take full advantage of physical and digital affordance in a New Ecology of Things context? This 13 week MDP summer research project is part of the New Ecology of Things Lab research, and re-imagines the designers workspace and tools by searching for the most appropriate set of affordances and interactions for a designers context. Looking at the needs of the modern media designer, the project will create a taxonomy of affordance for both traditional (desks, chairs, pencils, pinup space, etc.) and computational (displays, sensors, tangible interfaces, networks, etc.) objects, spaces, and systems. Alongside this study, speculative (as in futuristic) workspaces, tools and their associated interactions will besimulated andprototyped, bringing in designers for testing and critiques. The taxonomy and prototypes will inform each other as the project progresses. A final report will be published on the New Ecology of Things website: newecologyofthings.net.

Research questions:

1. What are the affordances of the workspace and tools of the designer, traditional and digital? How can these affordances be organized into a taxonomy that will be useful to interactive designers?
2. How can redesigning the workspace & tools with optimal affordances and interactions:
   1. …enable a more spatial mode of interacting with the virtual objects of design – combining the benefits of object permanence and physical location with digital affordance?
   2. …provide tangible interactions that enable a range of rich, embodied gestures for the process of sketching and making?
   3. …improve the pinup wall, drawing tools, version control, project management, image manipulation tools, interaction prototyping, sketching, etc.
   4. …re-introduce the benefits of moving around a design studio vs. sitting at a fixed computer workstation?
   5. …make project switching a smoother process that retains the “useful mess” of projects in progress?

Methods:

1. Analyze traditional and digital designer workspaces and tools and create a taxonomy of affordance
2. Identify designer activities with good potential for redesign and develop several prototypes of new workspaces and tools that afford better interactions

Research intern positions offered – 2-3 available:

Job Description:

Research Interns will work under the direction of the PI. Activities will include developing a taxonomy of affordance and building working prototypes as discussed in the methods section. In addition, interns will be expected to develop their own interests in an independent project that addresses the research questions.

Specific activities will include:

• Documenting how designers use workspaces and tools and detailing the affordances found
• Collating affordance data, developing a taxonomy, and visualizing it
• Analyzing affordance taxonomy to identify rich design opportunities
• Designing, building and programming working prototypes of new approaches to design work
• General work in setting up systems in the Wind Tunnel to support the research
• Qualifications
• Prior experience with interactive objects & spaces, including physical construction, soldering,
• and using the Make Controller and NET Lab Toolkit
• High quality writing ability
• Expertise in information design
• Video recording and editing
• Programming in ActionScript a plus
• Application materials required
• Portfolio of related work
• 1-2 page essay describing the applicants interest in this research and the independent focus they plan on pursuing during the research period

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