by Ingrid Henderson, Mina Oh, and Rachel Pak
Studio Hour was created on the basis of introducing an interactive screen that would allow users to discover ways that tangible objects connect with three distinguished artists: Henri Matisse, Salvador Dali, and Vincent Van Gogh. Studio Hour is intended for primarily young users, ages 10-16, and is intended to create a simple and interactive way for users to learn about artists. Initially, we liked the idea of creating a situation that not only allows for discoverability, but one that requires it. For the user to gain information on any of the artists, they have to interact with the interface and experiment with the various objects.
We implemented Reality-based interaction through building on the common sense knowledge that people have about the physical world through objects that they use in their everyday lives. Studio Hour greatly advances on users’ object manipulation skills, allowing users to physically grasp, arrange, and position object tokens. The users places a token—a pair of scissors, a paintbrush, or a clock—on the designated area of the screen in order to learn more about the connected artist. This physical interaction expands upon this idea of naive physics, as the user is implementing previous knowledge about the tokens as physical objects and placing them onto our desk-styled interface. On a deeper level, this interaction of two everyday things (the object and the desk), when put together propagate new knowledge in an exciting way - it encourages students that these seemingly legendary artists were themselves quite ordinary.
When deciding on the design of our Multitaction interface, we chose to work cohesively along with the horizontal layout of the screen, as well as the user’s learned environmental awareness of sitting at a desk and physically interacting with one, and came to emulate an artist’s desk. We also designed our background to look like a birds-eye-view of an artist’s studio/workspace so that the user can get the real-time experience of viewing information through this unique, art-related perspective.
Through the use of book widgets, we included images of the selected artists’ studio/workspace to convey the close relationship between each artist and their respective studios (in their times). To further enhance the user’s interactive experience, we chose to display their artworks through the use of an item flow widget. Additionally, we added video widgets for each artist to add another level of interaction and provide a different medium for learning, allowing for flexibility and differences in user’s skills of interaction. Text and image widgets were also added into our interface to add ambience to the desk setting overall. We give the user the option to clear the canvas at any time through the use of a modified text widget in order for them to de-clutter their canvases akin to the way artists are able to in their creative processes. Studio Hour is an accessible and educational app that we hope will allow young users to learn about renowned artists and their respective qualities, while also giving them the freedom to choose and interact with the objects of interest themselves on surfaces that should allows them to easily control and coordinate their physical bodies.
Team Members: Ingrid Henderson, Mina Oh, and Rachel Pak
Created for Wellesley College's Fall '17 Course
CS 320: Tangible User Interfaces