Archive for the ‘Method PLAY’ Category
At Method, there’s always room in the day for playtime. So, when Method’s Director of Interaction Design, Raphael Grignani, invited us to check out the game-themed graduation show for the course he’s been co-teaching with Method alum, Robert Murdock, at the California College of the Arts, we were thrilled to check out the innovative ideas emerging around the concept of play.
Aptly titled “The Game Show,” the industrial design students showcased a variety of thought-provoking creations, including a tearable dog toy that can be reassembled, wearable travel games, rubber band shooters, interactive dance wear, a portable swing, and a game that makes rehabbing an ankle injury fun.
Held at Astro Studios, located a few blocks from the Method SF studio, the show’s vibe was more carnival than art show–there were even live chickens in the room at one point. Fresh kettle corn, hot dogs, and free beers were on hand as the DJ spun vintage soul for the crowd. After bouncing happily from booth to booth, constantly encouraged by the students to interact with their projects, we left feeling inspired and hopeful that we might see our favorite games for sale in the near future.
The digital experiences we build these days depend highly on the transitions of the interface and the visual elements to represent the brand. These transitions or animations not only serve the function of making elements interactive but also add character to those interactive elements, hence speaking the brand language.
With this thought in mind, we decided to explore animations in our most recent Method PLAY at our London studio. Of course the fact that we have the gorgeous new space which is very inviting to the PLAY sessions only made it better. Stop motion animation is one of the techniques of animation which allows exploration without the necessity of great drawing skills.
To cut down the post production time, I researched a few mobile applications and decided to work with iTimelapse Pro for iPhone. It offers flexibility for production (manual, timer, sound initiated picture capture settings) and post production (rendering at desired frame rate or to output desired number of seconds of video from the images captured). It also renders video to a chosen soundtrack.
Check out our mini animations and photos below!
This morning, the San Francisco studio enjoyed a low-key Method PLAY session involving different ongoing User Experience (UX) projects. Fueled by coffee and donuts, we explored using Arduino to make physical controllers for the arcade game Pong and experimented with different Processing libraries to mock up a device that plays music based on ambient information. We also worked on some new sketching and paper prototyping methods, referencing the recently released book Sketching User Experiences. Not a bad way to start a Friday.
For December’s Method PLAY, the NYC studio decided to share some holiday cheer with plant life. We each made a couple Moss Jar Terrariums – one for our desk, and another to share with friends and family.
Everyone loves terrariums – go ahead and find someone who doesn’t. It’s a fun semi-cheap ‘gift that keeps giving.’ Check out our abbreviated instructions below or the link to the MakeProjects website for additional details.
Supplies:
Hammer and Philips head screw driver
Terrarium Moss
Potting Soil
Rocks
Activated Charcoal
Container (we are using Quart sized Mason Jars)
Tiny Toys, Shells, Pretty Objects
Step 1 — Make sure you jar is clean and pretty. Wash it and dry it well. Punch a couple holes in the lid (we used a hammer and a phillips head screwdriver).
Step 2 — Add the base. 1 layer of Rocks, roughly 1/2″. 1 layer of activated charcoal, roughly 1/2″. Then 3 – 4″ of potting soil.
Step 3 — Add plants & Fun stuff. Tear up pieces of Moss and soak them for about 30 seconds. Then put them on the dirt firmly. Add toys or any fun objects of your desire. We went to a hobby shop and found some excellent tiny city dwellers ourselves.
Step 4 — Water your terrarium until you see it at the rock layer. Drain the excess water and put the lid on.
From MakeProjects: “Droplets of moisture are fine — you want to see these — but if it starts looking especially foggy in there, take the lid off for a few hours to let moisture escape. Otherwise, an occasional water and/or spritz with a spray bottle should be fine.”
Creative culture, Design culture, Events, Method PLAY
Method hosts Etsy workshop on physical computing
On Monday, we hosted a workshop at Etsy Labs in their DUMBO workshop on physical computing. Beginning with a quick introduction to what physical computing is and the platform of choice (Arduino), we quickly broke into small groups to start tinkering with the code, Arduino, and various outputs we provided: LEDs, Piezo buzzers, and motors.
Why Arduino? The open-source prototyping platform has its own simple processing language, has a huge community behind it (and many resources – including code) , and is widely being used currently by designers, technologists, artists, and people looking to prototype and create products for varying uses.
The Etsy community was incredibly enthusiastic about the project, which was to create a memory bracelet that would remind you at intervals if you needed to perform a certain action. For example, if you needed to take a medication every day, check your blood pressure hourly, or even remember to look away from the computer every 20 minutes, the bracelet could light up, buzz, or make a sound to remind you.
To give them a context to work with, we gave them a challenge to program and design a physical therapy bracelet that would alert you would need to perform a certain action – for example, take medication, exercise, or check your blood pressure. We provided the Arduino devices to perform basic outputs – such as a blinking light or a ringing buzzer – and asked the participants to customize the Arduino code to program the outputs to occur on schedule.
The participants took to the challenge with creativity, creating new contexts for the outputs. One group, using additional sensors that we brought to the workshop, programed the blinking lights to respond to motion. Another took a stab at making the technology wearable, creating a shirt that housed the Arduino and wiring so that the shirt could light up.
We are really excited to share a taste of what we have been tinkering with for Method PLAY with the public. View the presentation we shared for an introduction to physical computing and the project, watch a 10-minute demonstration I gave for their live-stream, and learn more from the links included below.
Additional Resources:
Method at Etsy: Intro to Physical Computing
View more presentations from Lindsay Liu.
etsy on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free
Where to buy
Arduino’s Website
Sparkfun for sensors and outputs
Books on Amazon
After the first Method play in London hosted by Claudia Bernett, we realised that, we would like more of these sessions for some creative stimulation outside our regular projects. Hence, wanted to pick a topic of interest to all the disciplines and one that wouldn’t require a huge foreknowledge of the subject – electric origami was our answer to this.
Through this session, we explored the relationship between flat 2 dimensional surfaces and their transformation into the 3rd dimension by applying simple folds, and how electronics can take this to the next level.
As a general introduction, I gave a quick presentation of the examples of paper folding structures collected and ways electronics can be added to them. We discussed the potential to apply this in real-world applications, after which, everyone soon moved on to hands on work.
The group started off with paper folding structures (Planos) followed by origami and some added electronics to it. We had complex folding patterns printed on paper, conductive aluminium foil, some LEDs, lithium batteries and magnets. After building our desired origami structures, we explored ways to connect the circuit using conductive aluminium tape. The result was some beautiful forms from paper (that is under construction for making lampshades) and paper balloons that glow!!!
Method PLAY London: Exquisite Corpse from Claudia Bernett on Vimeo.
I recently went over to London to spend some time in the studio and co-host a Method Breakfast, and hosted a Method PLAY session in the studio while there. I did a quick presentation that introduced some basics around hacking, configuring, and designing electronics for creative output, and brought with me a handful of Keychain Digital Picture Frames for our use. The London studio is full of so much interest in this stuff that we had plenty of tools and materials to work with from personal collections!! After presenting a few basic tips regarding hacking the picture frames, electronic circuits, and Arduino, we dug into a group project.
Collectively, we decided to create an Exquisite Corpse interactive screen-based object that reflected the group as a whole. While some of us hacked open the picture frames and wired them up to the Arduino, others took photos of everyone there and cut each photo into five parts. Once we had the frames ready for input from Arduino, we loaded each with a set of pictures. We then wrote some code on Arduino to randomly tell one of the frames to advance a slide. This sets us up nicely for future implementations which integrate sensor input into the experience. For now, we ended up with an animated image object that reflects a continuously re-composing image of the studio as a whole!
Creative culture, Design culture, Interactive, Media & Entertainment, Method PLAY, Smart Textiles, Technology, Wearable Technology
Method PLAY #6: Soft Circuits!
Another successful New York Method PLAY – this one on wearable technology was so successful that we had dudes sewing! Click here to see more to see tutorial slides on how to make your own soft switch & more pictures.
We had an extra special Method PLAY session in New York on Friday. Invited guests Josh Walton and James Tichenor of the Rockwell Lab came by to present some work, talk about sensor technologies, and demo their very own capacitive sensing setup.
Our New York studio kicked-off the Method PLAY sessions a few weeks ago, to great successes. Inspired by the progress they’ve made so far with their plant, LYON, Method’s San Francisco studio held our first Method PLAY session. We got to work quickly on our Arduinos, and we soon had LED lights blinking and switches to control the LEDs. We’re pretty excited about the possibilities, and next week we will be playing with sensors and brainstorming ideas for projects. More to come from Method PLAY SF!
