This project aims to highlight unsavoury and inconsiderate behaviours of the consumers through giving innate objects such as fruits, a voice to project their displeasure when the above actions are being executed.
We want to explore the relationships between innate objects and how they might sound like. Even if the object in question does not explicitly emit any audio.Through the use of fruits, we want to look at how the objects in question would produce a sound that shows the relationship between materiality of the object and also the way it would be hypothetically sound.
The Anything Probe exercise allowed us to conceptualise and explore our initial idea of working with sound. We looked into the various variety of sounds which includes ambient, unassuming and everyday noises as a starting point for this project. This exercise angled our scope for the coming weeks but it did not constrain our ideation process as we were always looking to improve from our primary idea.
When we think of sound, one does not usually think of using fruits as a medium. Hence, we wanted to channel this curiosity and experiment it on different kinds of fruits to produce sounds and visuals that are not commonly associated or signified with them. Our project is ultimately a modified Arduino board through the use of a Makey Makey. It acts as a circuit board through the incorporation of the tester as a part of the whole set up. The user holds onto an end of a crocodile clip to be “connected” with the circuit while the fruit will be clipped on by a separate crocodile clip to close the circuit. With a successful connection, touching the fruit would trigger visuals and sounds to appear on a screen. Rapidly tapping on the fruit would create a unique chain of visuals appearing on the screen.
Our main inspiration behind the idea came from Yuri Suzuki’s OTOTO and Shawn Wasabi’s videos. While our group has always wanted to work with sound, it took us quite some time to arrive at our latest idea. Our initial idea involved creating a soundbank from unassuming sounds, to give sounds to objects which did not usually have sound. We initially struggled with thinking about how we could go about triggering sounds without the use of a keyboard, but we came across the Makey Makey.
We also encountered some problems with the P5.js code initially, but we managed to use specific concepts that we learnt in the previous semester to make things work. We applied the concept of flexibility and adaptability when one works with code so that we can better translate and modify these codes in a more streamlined manner. This would eventually aid the foundation and eventually build up of codes that we achieved throughout the five weeks of amendments and exploration.
Achievements that we achieved doing the project consisted of finding a common level of proficiency that the whole group of work on together. By understanding the gaps and knowledge that we were lacking, we adjusted our expectations but ultimately realised that what we wanted to achieve was indeed possible and all it needed was some guidance and critical thinking to make our intended outcome to work. We recognised the importance of a collaborative effort that is essential to make a project like this to work. It was helped on by setting clear and specific roles for each member of the group so that we can efficiently progress our research and also assist in the actual connection of the entire setup. We also understood the flexibility of code whereby we could reuse certain elements of them and just tweak and modify so that it will work with our current context.
Our project is ultimately a modified Arduino board through the use of a Makey Makey. It acts as a circuit board through the incorporation of the tester as a part of the whole set up.
“A multi-sensory experience, that prompts people to rethink their action on abusing fruits before buying them”
Through our artefact, we hope to give the user a multi-sensory experience, through touch, visuals and sound. The on screen visuals reflect the way a weighing scale would look in a supermarket, while the physical setup would resemble a fruit stall, where the user can pick the fruits.
Through our artefact, we hope to give the user a multi-sensory experience, through touch, visuals and sound. The on screen visuals reflect the way a weighing scale would look in a supermarket, while the physical setup would resemble a fruit stall, where the user can pick the fruits.
Our findings for the test outcome displayed encouraging signs for the awareness of unsavoury behaviour in regards to the checking of fruits. Most, if not all the participants mentioned that they would reconsider before abusing the fruits in the future. We were pleasantly surprised with the awareness that it has provided during the user testing.
Users found some difficulty understanding how to properly navigate through our set up due to the lack of instructions and background information available. During testing, we found out that our set up was not as easily understood as we thought it would be. And perhaps we had our considerations focused more on the functions of the setup instead of working more to allow users to understand easier.
For future testing, one key consideration we would like to implement would be to give clearer instructions, either on screen or printed out. This not only provides clearer context on what is supposed to happen, but also aids as a rundown for areas which requires larger understanding during user testing. Improvements that we can implement is to simplify our whole setup instead of using the pressure plate. One of the options is to link a few fruits at the same time. This would eliminate the need for constant clipping and also reduces the steps for users to work with in order for the setup to work.
Group Reflection: Our findings for the test outcome displayed encouraging signs for the awareness of unsavoury behaviour in regards to the checking of fruits. Most, if not all the participants mentioned that they would reconsider before abusing the fruits in the future. We were pleasantly surprised with the awareness that it has provided during the user testing. However, we feel that the setup can definitely be further improved to allow a smoother and more streamlined user experience. Beyond this project, we realised that our setup even has possibilities of further expansion such as including a wider range of produce that can be found in a supermarket which includes various poultry, vegetables and seafood. Additionally, it could also be a pop up booth that we bring to supermarkets to target more people such as uncles and aunties who frequent these places to try out and be educated in the process. And through this, we might also find a different set of reactions from them as people from a different age group might react differently from our current results. Overall, we feel that this project has allowed us to explore and capture the spirit of play that is still relatively unexplored in the world of computation. It has also removed our misconception of computation in design, as we thought computation would solely be code and data driven. It has remoulded our way of understanding computation to also include elements of playfulness and fun which definitely exist but still remain unexplored in the world of computation.
Individual Reflection:
Process
The whole idea was kind of sparked by OTOTO, by Yuri Suzuki, it was a point that I wanted to explore and I shared with Ronald and Zavier, thinking that it was too complex of a work. But then, I was surprised that all 3 of us also wanted to explore something similar like this. What was just a small idea led to a series of ideation, and eventually we managed to find a simpler yet fun approach to do it. Drawing inspiration from Shawn Wasabi, we wanted to work on “sensory Objects” and to give fruits a voice.
Through the making process of the project, I picked up a lot on the hardware and the software of the Arduino through the use of MakeyMakey and trying to recreate one from scratch, from sourcing the parts to testing and accidentally breaking my tools. Apart from that, I had the chance to set up the essential codes of the p5.js like linking Arduino codes and p5js editor and setting up multiple “classes”, and this better honed my capabilities for coding on p5.js. While working under stress, I think I am now better adapted to code more quickly than what I was able to do.
Testing
I find that the outcomes and observations were within expectations of what I had, how the users would engage with the setup we had as well as their reaction. There were only a few points that I felt that we overlooked. As the main task I took up during user testing was manning the booth while handling the documentation of user interacting with our set up, I realise that even after explaining to the users what this booth was about, the users were still apprehensive to tap the fruit as they do not know what might appear on the screen, so perhaps on this point we could have a sign that eases their worry that nothing intimidating would appear on screen. I also felt that there could be more guidance in the user journey as with each testing the users interpret the instructions differently. Some clipped the wire to the tray, which was not intended. Overall, I feel that our user testing was a success, as it highlights our intended user reactions as well as flaws in our setup for us to improve further. And I believe that however much we prepare for each user testing, there would always be points for improvement and with more iterations and testing, would we be able to “perfect” our Artefact better.
Personally, I realised after taking a step back that with the complexity of this project there were a lot of considerations that we needed to balance and cleane up in just 5 weeks. Issues such as different fruit types and participants will make and break the set up as each fruit and people have different “resistance” which will affect the circuits connections. Apart from that we had to also balance the fluctuating pressure on the sensors to come up with an accurate number. With that, I would look into making a function that will lock the registered number after sometime a fruit has been placed on the sensor, just like how traditional weighing machines do, there after reset once the user removes the fruit, this might solve the issue we have.
Reflection and Conclusion
Overall, I have learnt a lot in the past 5 sessions, from concept to the making. Working in a group setting, we had lots of fun bouncing off ideas from each other and it opened up a lot more possibilities for this project as there were different perspectives coming in from each of us. Recreating my own MakeyMakey and handling the codes for the project allowed me to pick up Arduino as well as to improve on my coding skills. And lastly, bringing the whole project to life, in the setup for user testing and documentation for the first time allowed me to understand the amount of thought and the attention to detail that was needed for user testing, like thinking of how the users would react to our set up, the design of the setup for testing (set design) plays a role in establish the background of the project and also documentation through survey and video. Making sure all these aspects do well is way beyond a single person’s capacity and requires a whole team effort.