The project revolved around sustainability, and the city of Utrecht. Our group focused on learning young children what water is used for besides drinking and showering, and what choices have impact on the total water usage of a city. It was a project giving to us by the University of Utrecht, giving us directions and rules to adhere by during the design process.
There was a lot of guidance given during this project, to simulate working for and with a client. I worked in a group with other students from different fields.
Field research
We quite quickly went to the place where we would be designing for, and using different observation techniques to get a feel and understanding for the context. Heatmaps, interviews, data gathering, sitting down, etc. Combining this with a lot team building and design exercises, and we had a build a start to the project.
Braindumping
Then, all together, we had big braindumping sessions with post-its.
Concept generation
Using the post-its, we started generating concepts for our client. This proved difficult for my team members, but I found it easy by not worrying about the quality of the ideas. This way, we could continue the conversation and discuss what would work and what not.
Ultimately, we had a good couple of concepts we pitched for our clients, gather their feedback and start to work towards building a prototype.
Playing around towards the prototype
Now we had the building blocks, we could start experimenting. We build a interaction with pouring water, made paper prototypes to test out how the "gameplay" loop would work. I used my experience with Processing and projection mapping to build a prototype, together with someone elses experience in graphic design.
I experimented with Arduino on how to measure water level in a cup, to use as input. I had to learn how to build more complex structures using a lasercutter to piece it all together. The basis for the software we used to give the player feedback, was the same basis as for my previous one: Microbe Simulator. But here we had much more layers and calculations going on in the background. So it was still a quite challenge to put it all together.
The final product was an interactive map of Utrecht where you need to play around with puzzle pieces to make selections, and pouring water into slots on the map to "divide" water use in the city. It is reminiscent of water tables kids would play with. Using a projector and Arduino parts, we would make the map alive and provide feedback to the players actions with changing visuals, sounds and smoke generators.