Hello! My name is Mihika Bansal.
I am interested in using design to create long lasting, meaningful interactions for people, thinking through and mapping complex problems, and designing interventions that work at different scales, facilitating systemic change. I believe in the power of good design to create positive social, economic, and environmental changes that will ultimately lead to more sustainable future societies.
In addition to my Environments Design Major, I am pursuing a minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies.
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Big Idea #1 – Here/There
Phase 1: Determining a Problem Space
Initial Brainstorm
Beginning this project, I did a brain dump about what I was curious about and what I could potentially create a designed solution around.
Developing a Research Question
Within this large brain dump, I pulled out common threads, themes, and contexts that were present. The bigger ideas I developed were:
Educational Spaces
Connection to loved ones in remote spaces
Countering Feelings of Loneliness
Placemaking and Placelessness
Escapism
Context for Research Question: What do students need in the remote/hybrid space to enhance their learning experience?
How might we model social presence in remote learning environments to create the needed sense of community?
How might we encourage deeper engagement with the material in remote learning environments?
How might we create a teacher presence in remote settings in order to reduce parental dependence?
Narrowed Research Question: How might we model social presence in remote learning environments to create the needed sense of community?
Target Demographic
Within the space, I knew I wanted to work with students that were K-12. However, each age group has different learning objectives and different challenges with online school. So I decided to narrow my scope to students in 6th-8th grade, or middle school students. Generally middle school is a time in which a student forms a lot of social connections and are in a changing part of their life. I am curious to see what challenges this age group has in forming a sense of a strong community around them.
Phase 2: Research and Storyboarding
After determining my overarching context and specific research question, I began thinking about my research.
Research Strategy
With this project, I decided to conduct a mix of secondary and primary research. Both together will give me an understanding of the problem space I am working within and places for intervention and solution development.
Secondary Research
This paper goes into research already done in social presence in online learning experiences. My main insights gained from this paper were the five pillars they determined for a successful learning experience (all catered to what teachers can do). These insights could be useful to keep in mind when designing a product or experience for this space as well.
Affective Association – Teacher creates space for emotional connections and personal stories
Community Cohesion – The teacher appropriately addresses students as a group and creates an inclusive environment
Instructor Involvement – The teacher can engage with the class emotionally and socially
Interaction Intensity – The teacher should encourage students to work with one another, engage with one another
Knowledge + Experience – The teacher builds relationships with the students by the understanding and experiences they bring to class
Understanding Developmental Goals for my Target Age Group – 12-14
Most Parents of K-12 Students Learning Online Worry About Them Falling Behind
Developmental Milestones for 12-14 Year Olds
Primary Research Method – Interviews
To gain firsthand insight into the problem space, I want to interview both parents and students about their experiences with online learning.
Questions:
Conducting the Interviews
Throughout the weekend, I interviewed 4 parents and 5 kids, 1 in 6th grade, 2 in 7th grade, and 2 in 8th grade. To collect my insights within the problem space, I created an affinity diagram, accounting for the perspectives of my 3 stakeholders: parents, students, and teachers.
With the affinity map, I also started to add in places for intervention. Through my ideation, I found 4 potential spaces that I could work within:
Creation of a classroom community
Increased emphasis on the arts
Improved communication between teachers and students
Improving and creating student to student relationships
Easing the transition period from subject to subject
Phase 3: Ideation
Idea #1 – Community Wall
In each class, there would be a communal screen where students can put their own thoughts and build on each other’s ideas. These walls would work in a VR setting to help students feel as though they are present in class together again
Idea #2 – Transition Wall
To enhance the transition period from subject to subject, there would be a wall that would connect to each student’s phone to track their motion through the break. This would show on the wall which is connected between all the students to show motion. This would attempt to bring back some of the spontaneous interactions students have between passing periods.
Idea #3 – Study Buddy Tool
For this solution, I created an object that connects 2 students together to facilitate the process of them studying together. This came from the insight that students enjoy studying together, but some students don’t have people they can rely on. I debated connecting a student to one students in each of their classes, which would have needed a system of 6 blocks. I realized that that would create weird patches of students and in middle school students overlap in their classes enough that one buddy would be enough for each student.
Expanding on an Idea
After thinking about the ideas I created, I decided to focus on the study buddy idea because it could be integrated easily into systems that students already use. Also it helps students feel connected to others and create new friendships.
Phase 4: Development
Design Goals
01 Facilitate communication between students
Help students start conversations with someone
02 Provide Academic Support & Collaboration
Give students a person to study and collaborate with
03 Promote Emotional Connection between Students
Give students a chance to form new friendships
04 Curb Feelings of Isolation
Create an ambient presence to remind students that they aren’t alone
Physical Form Brainstorm
Storyboard Draft #1
I also decided to call the object the student’s buddi.
The buddi is divided in 3 phases. The first is to establish an emotional connection between the 2 students. This phase is to help alleviate the awkwardness of hopping on a Zoom call for the first time. The student can relay questions to one another through the object and indicate points of similarity between the two students.
The second phase deals with during school interactions between the 2 students. The buddi will be a passive reminder of the other student’s schedule during the day. It also serves a series of individual functions throughout the day – like reminding a student to stay focused and reminding them to get up during breaks.
The third phase deals with after school working together functions. This part allows students to reach out to one another to get some help on their work. It also connects with the student’s google classroom to let the other student know which subjects each student is working on.
Mapping Out Functions as Individual + Collaborative
After talking to Dina, I realized I was getting confused about all the interactions I wanted to include and what the buddi’s functions will even be. So I decided to map out the functions as either an individual function or one that facilitates collaboration. I also wanted to figure out how to more closely integrate the buddi with google classroom, so what other features could be included on the buddi.
Draft of Systems Map
User Journey Map Draft
Questions at this Point
Is the buddi too much like a phone?
What actual outputs and inputs do I want the buddi to have, and what would be most efficient to use a certain number?
How will the buddi be controlled? Does it need to be an extension?
Phase 5: Iteration
Edits on Draft 1
After talking to Danny about the direction I was heading in, he had a lot of amazing thoughts that were incredibly helpful. For the first phase, he suggested alleviating the question and answer burden on the students. He suggested using the cuteness of the form more heavily, relying on functions that the buddi already has. So he suggested doing things like “sending the student a jiggle” or “sending a sound” or doing other things that start a connection in a nonverbal manner.
Also both Dina and Danny were confused about the manner in which students were matched with one another, so I need to figure out how to demonstrate that process more clearly.
Then he also suggested simplifying the functions of the buddi due to how confusing and elaborate it was getting. Additionally, he suggested going back to focusing more heavily on the collaborative parts of the buddi because that was the initial purpose of the buddi anyways. We clarified what types of sensors and outputs will be in the object, deciding not to account for gestural inputs because of how difficult it would be to fit a camera into the body of the buddi.
So to make utilizing the buddy easier, I decided to incorporate a chrome extension that would work over Google Classroom that would allow students to control buddi easily. It would also be a good way to show the method in which students are paired together.
Redrafting Interactions Incorporating Chrome Interactions
Wire-framing Chrome Extension
Onboarding/Pairing Interactions
Chrome Extension interactions through
Reevaluating My Progress
At this point, I realized I was trying to accomplish too many things with this object. I was grappling with whose presence buddi is meant to represent. Does it have its own presence? Is it suppose to represent another students presence? I was jumping between these two ideas and I needed to chose which it is meant to do.
I also wanted to reevaluate the premise of my project. I wanted to recreate social interactions, but grounded it in an academic/studying context. After some consideration, I realized this is not the best way to use to buddi nor the type of interaction I should try to recreate. Therefore, I want to think about how to use the buddi to recreate the spontaneous and personal interactions that happen during breaks, during lunch, and after school. I want to think about how the buddi could facilitate connections between old friends and potentially connect new students. I also want to think more about leveraging the nonverbal connection that buddi creates.
Thinking about Physical Interactions
Interactions that happen in the hallway:
Saying hello
a longer conversation
Physical touch/tap on the shoulder
How do we recreate those sorts of interactions in remote settings?
Thinking about How Students Send and Receive Interactions
Will the interactions sent be personally determined or random?
Will students get paired with other students or do they have choice in who they send the interactions to?
And how do they control these interactions?
If they get paired how long do they stay in pairs? Will the pairs be matched based on personality?
Does it depend on the time of day for whom they can send interactions to?
Can we still help students that don’t really have friends right now?
Thinking about Visual Displays of Information
Would this be an extension? – Extension still stands because of connection to class rosters + potential of this to expand into an academic tool as well + most students have chromebooks
An app? – not all kids have a smart phone (but I can prototype on an app?)
A desktop app?
A online browser?
Types of Social Interactions
Spontaneous Interactions
In order to create new connections, I decided to have a certain number of interactions created through Buddi be somewhat random. These interactions would be based on the timing by which students interact with their Buddi. When two students interact with their buddi in the same way at the same time, they will send signals to each other’s buddis, creating this feeling of ambient presence.
Mimicking passing hellos in hallways
Mimicking a shared conversation
Mimicking Human Contact
Goofing off with another person
After the break ends, the student will learn who specifically they interacted with through their chrome buddi extension. Each student’s profile will be connected through google classroom. They have the opportunity to add the students they interact with as friends.
Planned Interactions
In order to maintain old connections, the buddi also allows students to interact with their friends. These sorts of planned interactions are best for longer spanning breaks, like lunch and after school. In this situation the student can use the buddi to send a message to the student that they want to chat with, with the help of the extension.
Student 1
Student 2
Updated Systems Diagram
Sensory Feedback Diagram
Physically Prototyping Buddi
Physical Form Goals:
Comfortable to hold
Squeezable
Tossable
Good for fidgeting
Has a “character”
Cute but not too cute
Form Exploration
First round 3d Model Print
I need to scale down the size by 25%, it fit perfectly in a 6’4″ man’s hand, which definitely is outside my target audience size.
I also need to consider how to create the model itself to fit all the things inside of it that I need to. It should house an Arduino nano, different LED lights, a breadboard, and maybe a vibrating sensor.
Chrome Extension Prototype #1
Onboarding
Break Interactions Extension
Planned Interactions Extension Prototype
Buddi Output Animations
Changing the Planned Interactions to Games
Chrome Extension Updates
Break Interactions
Game Interactions
Reading Reflections
2/3/21 – Reading Reflection: A Survey of Presence and Related Concepts
The concepts of what make virtua l environments “effective” is interesting. I was specifically interested in this idea of social presence. Is it even possible to replicate the feeling of having a social interaction in person to one in a virtual environment to the same degree of enjoyment? Is that even necessary? I think people can argue about the semantics of the concept of presence + what it means to create presence. The biggest question I want to answer with this is why. What will the feeling of creating presence do and for whom? In what ways can it be used for good?
2/9/21 – Reading Reflection: Social immersive media: Pursuing best practices for multi-user interactive camera/projector exhibits
I appreciated this reading providing very tangible measures of success when thinking about how to create effective immersive environments. The division of understanding people in emotional, social, and physical ways as all measures of how to create a holistic space, provides a great framework when approaching design problems in the environments design space. With this paper, the idea of creation of “reality” through these spaces is interesting. “Reality” is what these spaces are attempting to mimic, or versions of reality, and understanding the way humans perceive reality allows designers to create spaces that serve a range of purposes: from being unsettling to being comforting. Additionally, it was helpful to think about human motivation in how designers can make people inclined to participate in social interactions, as the end goal of these spaces is to “design human behavior.” The emotions or actions that tangibly come from the experience (energizing, calming, competing, performing, disinhabitation, learning, dwell time) listed in this paper, provide a helpful grounding idea for designers when thinking about their end goal in creating the environment or experience.
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