This project grew out of my love of tennis and a passion for a particular tennis player: Jannik Sinner. I wanted to design an experience where people could see how impressive this athlete is.
The final work is an exploratory, interactive data visualization where people can use a unique controller to see Sinner's game evolve and they can compare him to other great players.
Defining the problem
I started with formulating what I wanted to research, what is my fascination with Jannik Sinner and what do I want to learn and make for this project.
Rapid Prototyping
Very quickly after I made multiple small clickable prototypes using Figma, after sketching different ideas I had. These prototypes were made to explore the way I can show data in an interesting way.
First Concept
I took the feedback I got from the first ideas to generate a more defined concept. With a clear controller, target audience and context.
For conveying my concept, I made sketches and designed controllers using Fusion360.
Much more research
After presenting this concept to my supervisors, it became clear that the concept needed much more research, as there was a mismatch between the context and the UX: it was too static for a "tennis" experience.
First, I tried to learn a lot more about my target audience by conducting interviews and sending surveys. With this new knowledge, I sketched the User Experience by creating POV (point-of-views), and using existing images.
Experimenting
To try to translate the User Experience into an installation, I experimented with new technologies (for me). First I tried using a Blackbox and projectors, creating a digital tennis court.
Then I did a lot of experimenting with an Arduino and ESP32 to create a tennisracket with interesting controls added on to interact with the data. I tried making my own potentiometer using a ball bearing and copper tape, wireless connections over BlueTooth, communication between different programs using OpenSoundControl, tracking the controller with OpenCV and creating interactive data visualisations with a SQLite database.
Final Prototype
After all the experimenting and research, time came to finish the project and present the design. For this, I used 2 projectors and a tablet. I made 3 "sketches" using Processing which communicated with an ESP32 in the controller and a database stored locally on my computer. With this, I created a playable experience, where the player first takes the role as a commentator, seeing a timeline of Sinner's career. Then the player is able to zoom in on key moments, travel to that moment in time, on the tennis court, taking the role as his opponent.