Experiential artifacts as a design method for somaesthetic service development

Abstract

How can deep understandings of material properties, limitations and possibilities be used concretely as a resource in the design of embodied experiences? How can material explorations spur and potentially direct, inspire, open up for new technologies and innovations? How can we identify, develop, and polish desirable core mechanics for embodied experiences and what kind of mobile services can be built with these experiences?In this position paper we describe our idea of experiential artifacts, and how we think these can help us open up the design space of the next generation of physically engaging mobile technologies.

Towards Affective Chronometry

“…While most of these approaches advance theoretical frameworks, there has been a less empirical exploration of specific material qualities. Noticeable exceptions include the systematic exploration of shape-changing materials and their properties [59], the identified design challenges around hardware's affordances, software's properties, and sensors' material properties [81] or how such properties can be leveraged for the design of embodied experiences [82]. We follow a similar approach focusing on less explored digital materials in HCI, namely smart materials and actuators.…”

“…We employed a research through design material exploration [82] consisting of a playful and tinkering approach [57] to discover novel material properties. Due to its suitability to support imaginative exploration of novel designs, and potential emphasis on the body [42], research through design has been employed in both e-textiles [14] and wearable artifacts [71,89].…”

Dynamic Displays at Wrist for Real Time Visualization of Affective Data

“…We employed a material exploration method [16] consisting of an experimental and playful approach for fabricating three layers [5,18]: thin and low-cost thermochromic materials layer, custom shaped heating mechanism layer, and insulation layer ( Figure 3). For material layer, we explored thermochromic liquid crystal sheet and pigments for their ability to display color changing effects and discard the ones actuating above 40°C for safety reasons.…”

Documenting the Elusive and Ephemeral in Embodied Design Ideation Activities

“…The most common approach is accompanying the textual descriptions with graphics, such as photographs (e.g., [4,7,8,[41][42][43][44][45][46][50][51][52][53][54][55][56]) or illustrations and drawings (e.g., [57,58]). Another performativity purpose is helping build empirical evidence: Photographs accompanying the main text are widely used, which can also help the reader better understand interaction (e.g., [4,6,41,[44][45][46]50,[52][53][54]56]). For instance, Iacucci and Kuutii [52] captured how participants explored early design ideas through interacting with artifacts in different scenarios.…”