by nadja.pirchheim -

IMPULSE #8_How to design interfaces of the future by Matt Corall

Matt Corrall held a guest lecture at our institution at the FH Joanneum. He works as design director at the company Ultraleap which is known for their devices with handtracking controls.

As I am very interested in spatial design and VR as well, I found his talk at the atelier super inspiring and wanted to delve deeper into his work. On his website I found another speech he held at the Interaction 23 Conference in Zurich, Switzerland.

During his talk Matt mentioned a lot of interesting aspects designer need to consider when designing for interfaces for the future.

  • Virtual environments with hand tracking is more intuitive as with controllers. Users do not need to remember which button does what. Also gestures have a natural variance.
  • How user interact with certain objects is quite interesting. It depends of the size of the object. Is the object rather small the index finger and thumb is used, for bigger objects the whole hand is used and for really big objects, people use both hands.
  • Objects needs to be signified if they are interactive e.g. by glowing or label when hovering/going over the specific object
  • Objects have to have three dimensional aspects. A button is instantly know to be triggered when it has a physical appearance. In general UI components work best when they are in 3D.
  • Wearable UI is really important for certain interactions. But they should only be triggered when needed
  • Exaggerated feedback: To simulate haptics in VR is not possible (yet). That the user understands that a trigger/interaction was made, the feedback has to be clearly visible and in best case be exaggerated.
  • In general every/most of the VR applications have their own interaction and process, a tutorial before first usage is very important to clarify the upcoming experience.

Generally speaking the talk and the website of Matt Corrall is very interesting to me and has a lot of helpful insights. Can recommend 10/10 😊

Links:

https://www.corralldesign.com/writing/how-to-get-into-xr-as-a-ux-designer

https://interaction23.ixda.org/online-schedule/day-1.html

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattcorrall/?originalSubdomain=uk

by Johannes Kölbl -

Grain Kalimba: Controls

n der Entwicklung meiner interaktiven Kalimba habe ich großen Wert darauf gelegt, die physische Interaktion mit dem Instrument so intuitiv und ausdrucksstark wie möglich zu gestalten. Die Kalimba verfügt über eine sorgfältig durchdachte Auswahl an physischen Steuerelementen, die den Pure Data Patch auf innovative Weise steuern. Diese Steuerelemente sind nicht nur für die Performance entscheidend, sondern ermöglichen es dem Spieler auch, in Echtzeit mit dem Sound zu interagieren und diesen zu formen.

Physische Steuerelemente der Kalimba:

Vier Buttons an der Oberfläche: Diese dienen zur Steuerung der Hauptparameter des granularen Synthesizers: Pitch, Size, Feedback und Density. Die Aktivierung eines dieser Buttons legt fest, welche Parameter durch die Bewegungen des Joysticks – vertikal für Pitch und Size, horizontal für Feedback und Density – moduliert werden.

  • Preset Button: Platziert in der linken oberen Ecke, ermöglicht dieser Button den Zugriff auf vier wählbare Presets: Granular, Looping, Stretch, und Spectral. Diese Presets repräsentieren unterschiedliche Spielweisen und Soundtexturen, die aus dem Mutable Instruments Clouds Manual entnommen und für die Kalimba angepasst wurden.
  • Freeze Button: Ein essenzielles Feature für Live-Performances, das den aktuellen Audio-Buffer loopt und somit eine Soundebene schafft, auf der weiter improvisiert werden kann.
  • Position Slider: Mit diesem Slider kann durch den aktuellen Audio-Buffer gescrollt werden, was die Auswahl spezifischer Soundabschnitte für die Bearbeitung ermöglicht.
  • Dry/Wet Regler: Ermöglicht die Mischung zwischen dem ursprünglichen Klang der Kalimba und dem durch den Pure Data Patch verarbeiteten Signal, was eine feine Abstimmung des Gesamtklangs erlaubt.
  • Rotary Button Encoder: Für die Steuerung erweiterter Parameter wie Reverb und Texture Spread. Diese erweiterten Kontrollmöglichkeiten bieten eine tiefere Ebene der Klangmanipulation und -gestaltung.

Parameter

  • Pitch beeinflusst die Tonhöhe der granularen Texturen.
  • Size kontrolliert die Größe der Körner, was die Textur des Sounds verändert.
  • Feedback bestimmt, wie viel des bearbeiteten Signals zurück in den Effekt gespeist wird, was zu dichteren oder spärlicheren Texturen führt.
  • Density regelt die Anzahl der Körner, die pro Zeiteinheit erzeugt werden, und beeinflusst somit die Gesamttextur des Sounds.
by daniil.ivanov -

Change of direction in Master Thesis

In the last week of the 3rd semester, I received a huge amount of insights related to the topic of my master’s thesis. Therefore, I decided to change the vector a little. I would like the practical part to prevail in my work. I compared feasibility, my own desires and interests, my skills and decided to focus on practice.

Recently I have spoken with Mrs. Lagger, Mr. Kipcak, Mr. Baumann and Mr. Kaltenbrunner about the framework for my future work.

Therefore, now in the near future I will take the following steps:

  1. I will compile all the information that I received from the professors into one document, which also includes a mood board for a future potential exhibition.
  2. I will formulate the exact purpose of the exhibition and what topic it will be created on.
  3. I will accurately formulate the topic, title of the work and question.
  4. I will rewrite the Expose in accordance with all the changes that my topic has undergone.
  5. I will explore all the opportunities that the city of Graz provides for such independent art exhibitions, be it art venues, museums or Leerstand.

All these steps will certainly be completed by me in the near future, so that I can begin the theoretical part of the study as soon as possible.

by daniil.ivanov -

Impulse #8 – Exhibition at ESC

At the end of the 3rd semester we organized our final exhibition in the ESC Kunst Labor space. This event had quite an impact on me, so much so that I was able to decide on the exact direction of my Master Thesis. I got great pleasure from the process of preparing and creating complex technical exhibits, from all the difficulties that this brought.

It was very inspiring to see how visitors came and interacted with real interest with the exhibits that we created with our own hands, how our ideas came to life and really brought some emotions to real people.

I came to the exhibition every day 20 minutes before the opening to launch the main exhibit “Portfolio machine” and every time small difficulties arose and were constantly different, which was especially interesting. Sometimes during the exhibition my colleagues had difficulties and then I always responded to help. I really enjoyed this work and would be very happy to do this in the future.

by daniil.ivanov -

Impulse #7 – The use of AI-based image generators.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am the organizer of the LARP games. For this activity, I decided to use AI image generators to visualize the rules more clearly.

I created a page on the Notion platform and created different sections, for rules, for character descriptions and so on. The only question was which neural networks to use. We used three and I will describe my experience below.

Lime Wire

Lima Wire is a free neural network that can generate pictures based on promt. It is worth noting that the quality of the generated content is not that high at all, this is due to the fact that the service is free and still in the active development stage.

Artbreeder

Artbreeder uses a slightly different model. We used it to generate character portraits. It doesn’t use promts, rather it generates images based on existing ones, can compile multiple ones, and offers to change parameters, allowing for unique results.

Midjourney

Midjourney is perhaps one of the most famous image generators. For a subscription it allows you to generate images of quite high quality, although some things the neural network still doesn’t understand. For example, I needed an image of a drakkar, the platform didn’t understand the word at all and drew me a dragon. Anyway, we used this very service to design the rulebook.

by nadja.pirchheim -

Ontology & Epistemology

Ontology:

If I reflect on the nature of reality as it pertains in my research topic I assume, that teenagers often don’t know what they want to become nor where their professional journey is heading. One reason for this is the lack of opportunities to gain insights into different professions. This is also been examined in a survey conducted by Zukunft.Lehre.Österreich.(1)

I definitely view this assumption as objective facts as they were asked and examine in a broader field.

Epistemology:

The primary sources for my study are mainly from the WKO (chamber of commerce) as they conduct studies and surveys every year about apprenticeships in Austria. As well as other institutions in Austria which work for the Ministry of Education, other job seeking platforms or have any relation to education and employment. Also personal experience and subjective experience from people in my surroundings play a major role and give insights into for instance the change over time. The understanding is mostly empirical based on data and observation throughout the years as well as the material which is provided by the WKO.

Possible limitations could be that I have already delved too deeply into the topic and do not see other relevant information or my own biased interpretation of certain aspects.

Source:

(1) https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1229681/umfrage/hinderungsgruende-fuer-eine-lehre-in-oesterreich/

by daniil.ivanov -

Exposé

Working title

Meaningful application of high technology in design

1. the problem (Starting point, problem description)                                             

Which theoretical, practical, social, etc. problem is the starting point of your thesis?

What do you think is the real cause of the problem?

In the last few years, technology has made huge leaps and we are on the verge of a technological revolution comparable to the advent of the steam engine. This cannot but affect various fields of labor, and some professions may cease to exist in the next decade. Some fear that the design profession (in various iterations, from graphic designer to product designer) may be replaced by Artificial Intelligence. This is a topic of great interest to me, as I myself am studying towards Interaction Design and plan to continue my career as a UX Designer. That’s why I wanted to explore this topic.

2. state of research

What is the state of research on this problem? What findings are available? What has not yet been (sufficiently) addressed, clarified or contradicted? How does your own work relate to the existing research?

At this point, I wouldn’t say there are a lot of different studies regarding this topic. Many papers are appearing right now, as the topic became relevant just a couple of years ago. So I keep my finger on the pulse and check to see if new research is emerging.

3. the question

Which question(s) should be answered in your master thesis? What is the main question?

Consequences of AI on the traditional UX/UI design

4. the hypothesis resp. the objective                                               (max. ½ page)

What do you want to prove, disprove or design, programme, … in your Master’s thesis?

Target catalogue

I’d like to answer the question of how much the latest technology will affect the design field. I will probably consider two scenarios: utopian and dystopian.

5. the reference to theory

Which explanatory approaches or theories are referred to?

What is your point of view? What is your position?

I also want to look at previous cases of technological revolutions, how they occurred in a historical context, and what input they had on disappearing or highly changing fields of labor. I would also like to look at how AI works, what it can do, and what the potential outcome of its development might be.

6. the method

What is the methodological procedure (work steps, approach)? Which methods and instruments do you want to use in the project? What does a possible solution path or procedure methodology look like? How should the problem be solved, the question answered, how should the sources be analysed?

Speculative design, expert interviews

7. the material

What material and sources are available on the topic?

Which sources (data, videos, comparative material, …) are available, which need to be identified, collected?

There are many interviews with famous visionaries (Ilon Musk, Bill Gates and others) about AI and its possible impact on the industry, many designers share their opinions and experiences on various portals, there are already some statistics on layoffs from large companies. All this is to be collected and analyzed for relevance. I also want to do some interviews with experts and process them.

8. (preliminary) bibliography in compliance with the rules of citation

I can’t give a preliminary list of references yet, as the topic is quite specific and evolving dynamically

9. (preliminary) structre

Which aspects should be dealt with and in which order?

I would definitely like to include a historical overview, the nature of AI, how it works and what it can do, expert interviews and 2 scenarios at the end, a utopian and a dystopian.

10. the timetable (project phases and duration)

How much time is needed for the most important work steps (research, data collection, data evaluation, creation of the work piece, writing the raw text, revision, layout, final correction)? – Milestones

When should the work be finished?

During spring I would like to collect all the theoretical material, in summer I am going to process it and conduct expert interviews. By the end of August I would like to finish it.

by helena.opower -

Impulse #8 Article about potential harms & benefits of social media for children & teenagers

As the start of my Master’s thesis is now getting closer and closer, I am now looking more closely at existing literature and studies in this area. I came across a very interesting paper that covers many of the areas relevant to my research. It also refers to many studies that support the statements and I intend to make a note of these for a more detailed analysis in the psychological field. This paper is therefore a good starting point and an overview of important points that need to be considered and examined in more detail.

It is about the growing challenges in the area of children’s and young people’s mental health. It emphasizes that the use of social media and online platforms could play a potential role in these problems. The paper emphasizes the long-term effects of children’s interactions with social media on mental and physical health. I think the parts that deal with neuroscientific principles, the behavior of children and adolescents in social media and the effects this has on brain development are particularly exciting. Various areas and features of social media are highlighted here and how they affect a teenager’s brain. This is definitely a very exciting point and my plan is to delve more into studies in this area so that I can use this data as the basis for my master’s thesis.

Testimony

APA article

by nadja.pirchheim -

IMPULSE #7_Interview Mediasquad

Today I had the opportunity to have a nice chat with Mrs. Frank from the company Mediasquad in Innsbruck. The company is specialized in Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality and they created the application “Berufe-VR” for the chamber of commerce.

Mrs. Frank gave me some insights about the implementation of the application and other useful tipps I need to consider when creating my VR project for my masterthesis. She also told me about their process when starting a new project and what to consider with working with clients. Furthermore she empathized how important it is to have feedback for the user especially when there is no haptic involvement e.g. handtracking, gaze control, etc. Another important hint was the iterative process and always including user testing throughout the project. Also to test the application on users which are not experts in the field – rather use rookies to get helpful criticism.

In conclusion the conversation with Mrs. Frank was very valuable and I am thankful for the opportunity to gain insights and expertise from people in the field.

Links:

https://www.berufe-vr.at

VR Projekte