Challenge:

During a year-long creative technology class, our team was challenged to explore the UX of public spaces and ways that technology could unite (instead of divide) people.

Solution:

An interactive art installation that builds and scales as more people participate, entertaining people and helping unite them over a shared experience.

Project Pitch:

After weeks of research, competitive analysis, and observation of public spaces, we decided that what the world needed was more joyful interruptions. For a little more info on the philosophy behind this installation, check out our pitch video.

I pitched Joy Dept's campsite installation to an audience of about 100 industry professionals and BDW alumni in August 2018.

Exploratory Research

To gain a better understanding of our project space as a whole, we spent time looking at the work of different artists, architects, and agencies doing innovative things in public and private spaces.

Competitive Analysis

After our initial research, we focused our analysis on different companies that are developing experiences to create a sense of belonging. We knew we wanted to alter a space in a way that would entertain people and help unite them over a shared experience.

Ethnographic Observation

We spent time observing a variety of public spaces, from alleyways to parks, to determine the best environment for our project.

In early prototypes, we tested some pretty big assumptions we were making:

• People would interact positively with a fun interruption in their day-to-day life.
• People who didn’t know each other would be willing to interact with an installation at the same time.

Other insights: Although we had not tested for it intentionally, we realized during early prototyping that we would always have to contend with the weather, regardless of the season.

Taking all of our notes to the white board helped us hone in our what our installation would do, where it would go, and what it would look like.

Early in affinity mapping, we realized that we wanted to incorporate light and sound that would be triggered as people interacted with our space. We also realized that it needed to be portable; we didn't want the installation to be tied down to any one spot.

We chose a campsite-like setting because we thought its familiarity would create a sense of comfort.

• Projection mapping
• Fans and fabric strips
• Acrylic and LEDs

Fire prototypes included “building” a fire with a fan, tea lights, and fabric/streamers and experimenting with lights and pressure sensors connected to an Arduino. I decided to make the fire centerpiece out of acrylic and LEDs because this option left the least room for interference from the weather/environment.