week 1

helloss

descriptive

last sem of school….. omg……. i dont want to study but i am also super not looking forward to working till i pass away so i’ll try my best to enjoy this. after a month of clearing my head, travelling, playing games, hanging out with my friends. i’m refreshed now so hopefully i have a clearer mind to be able to produce more ideas.

i did not like any of the final ideas i had during my last submission. it is funny, however, because the feedback given was that i give up too early to know if my idea was even possible or not. after this week’s consult, i’ve realised that it is indeed a huge problem of mine and i will not be thinking of new ideas, and instead trying out my existing concept first.

the current burnout mindfulness visualiser (this shall be its new name, it’s very long…), is quite a large concept consisting of different ideas and practices. it’s very intimidating to me, and i foresee problems in every step of the project.

i’ve simplified my project into this input-output diagram.

all sections of my dissertation have to be further defined. most of it is unclear. i think i should be including the burnout stage model by lee and ashforth, plutchik’s wheel of emotion, and my own project input-output diagram to help with the background and research objective of the project.

since my project requires two prototypes, an interactive input object and an output that reflects the data collected, i will have to really plan my time wisely. i’ve focused mostly on the output in the last semester, so i will start with the materialisation of the input this semester. i want it to be an interactive object that will gather data through its interactions.

crafting the object consists of 3 aspects.

first would be the interactive actions performed on the object. my project is to be a more exciting form of a mindfulness exercise. i researched on some interactions that would make one feel relaxed and comforted. some ergonomics of a human whilst practising mindfulness.

second would be the form of the object - which i think should be designed with consideration to its function (the interaction)

third would be the materials of the objects and the electronic parts it will need. i think this can come in later iterations of the prototype.

some interactions i can try would be tapping, stroking, squeezing, punching, whispering, shouting. the interactions are forms of expressing comfort towards the user themselves, or to help them relieve frustration.

i don’t want the interactions to be too random, however. so i started off by categorising emotions experienced during burnout first, followed by interactions i could associate to these emotions. i am also aware that emotions and interactions would vary from person to person, so i thought i could use my classmates around me to document emotions and useful actions during burnout.

here are the full list of emotions frequently experienced during burnout:

i tried finding some actions people would do to express these emotions, and i realised that there were a few repeated actions for the different emotions. thus, i decided that i could just target around four emotions and the actions that follow. i chose to target lack of motivation, exhaustion, irritability/frustration, and for a start, i decided to fill in actions of my own that i do that could express these emotions. i would need some time to study what others do to express these emotions, and whether taking out these negative emotions through these actions are effective.

while collecting user data, i could create some basic iterations of the artefacts first, to test their effectiveness. that will be my next steps to my project i suppose.

analytical

ok, this last sem, i will try my best to stop this bad habit of not proceeding with exploration. during consultation with andreas, i’ve managed to simplify my project. proceeding on with the easier sections of my project first does make it seem easier to achieve results. i realised that i tend to focus on getting the hard parts down before trying out the easier parts. it has never worked well, so i am willing to try another way.