MAKING SENSE
How often do you think about how you navigate the world? What senses do you use? And how much does each affect your life?
Goal:
Create an experience where individuals interpret the way they value their senses before and after action.
Skills:
UX Design
Prototyping - digital and analogue
Storyboard Creation
Usability Testing
RESEARCH
This project was inspired by my project about accessibility for the blind. My goal was to translate that project's core to a more lighthearted activity.
Kacey Ballard
PhD, MA in Psychology
BA in Integrative Biology, Art History
50% of our brains are used for visual perception, including motion and color.
Multitasking: vision and hearing are separate, but vision dominates, explaining why we turn the radio down when parking for example.
ANALOGUE
The project began as a participatory physical exhibit. It involved sections for participants to experiment with touch, taste, smell, and hearing.
The exhibit required each participant to use blindfolds, nose clips, and earplugs. Each station had all other supplies needed for the experience.
PROTOTYPING AND TESTING
LOW FIDELITY
Insights
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Users did not like using the blindfold.
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Users felt nose clips hurt.
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Gloves worked well to dull sense of touch.
MID FIDELITY
Design Shortcomings and Strengths
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Bag did not hide objects well.
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Bag did not secure the object to stay in a specified area; objects could fall out
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Box with flap hides objects and provides easy access.
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The box and cube with coffee glue on worked as the object for the smell station; however, it was unsightly.
Testing Set Up
Each station was set up with objects needed to try activity. Stations included cards to rate how the participants valued each sense.
Usability Testing Insights
Karlo I.
Product Manager
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confused by order of wording in taste station instructions
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wanted instructions to unwrap food
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wondered how to share reactions
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felt the hearing audio instructions would give other participants too much information about the station
Mike M.
Software Engineer
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closed eyes before reading all of the instructions
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confused by order of wording in taste station instructions
MOVE TO DIGITAL
The project began as a participatory physical exhibit. It involved stations for participants to experiment with touch, taste, smell, and hearing.
The transition to an internet platform changed the dynamics of interaction. Participants must now have a partner and provide their own materials for the experience.