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 15th of September See appendix C for details on this exploration. I explored the interaction that that people have while finding their way near Rotterdam Central Station to answer the research questions: What interaction qualities do I encounter in the context that I want to design for? How do people navigate through the city? What can make the city worth visiting? I found that the current interaction between people and the products that help them navigate is often focused, restrained and dependent. This was the first step towards my interaction vision, which you can find on page 4. In order to read a map or navigate with a phone people need to shut themselves off from their environment. So my design should decrease the effort of navigating a lot. This exploration also influenced my research and design activities; I realise that I have to learn how people navigate, consciously and unconsciously, when they do not use a product, because I might choose to design to support that behaviour. 4th of October My current interaction vision is shown on the right. This interaction vision will be improved throughout the project. 11th of October This workshop was a nice opportunity to do a design intervention, see appendix G for more details. My buddy group played two different prototypes. Their feedback raised new research questions right away, mainly about the level of detail of the signal that the design gives to the user: Should the design offer a detour as well as a shortest route back? Should the interaction be more playful as with the warm/cold signal, or should it be more specific as with the right/left/ backward/forward signal? Does the user set the starting point? Can that be different points? I thought of part of these things so some questions are new and I will answer them during design interventions in the second cycle.

4th of October I prepared for the observational research clinic by planning my design intervention (below). I got useful additional advice from Mrs. Albayrak; Ask the person about the experience during the experience, ask her why she turns into a certain direction at each decision moment. I adjusted my design intervention according to the clinic. She also mentioned that I could give the person some additional info on the environment, which I did not do because I wanted a clear contrast between conscious navigation and wandering around. I do want to apply this advice in a next design intervention because a newly raised question is: in what way should information on the environment be provided by my design?

13th of Sepember 18th of October These design ideas in appendix H can be tested and used to answer the research questions mentioned below. They fit in the design direction described below that will be my starting point for the iteration cycle.

17th of September See appendix D for details on this exploration. An e-mail questionnaire has been send to explore what my target group (students 20-30 years old) expects when visiting Dutch cities that thy do not know well, whether they can find inspiration by going to a new city and what inspires them. Through this exploration I got the confirmation that my target group can find inspiration while moving through a city that they do not know well, it gave my design raison dtre. The next question that raised is how my target group experiences navigation through the city during their visit.

8th of October I gave a person from my target group three different assignments to observe how she experiences navigating in different ways through a city that she does not know well. You can find the interaction qualities per way of navigation and other details on this intervention in appendix F. Based on this design intervention I can make an additional remark for my Interaction Vision: Unrestrained curiosity should be complemented with a slight feeling of control by providing some background info about the environment. Because not knowing anything about the environment seems to be a kind of restriction. When it comes to my design goal, my intention is to focus on enabling people to navigate back to their starting point with the help of my design. If I can offer them a carefree way back that does not ask for much of their attention, so they can stroll around in a city center without paying attention to where they are exactly.

My design goal is more specific after the research activities, design interventions and workshops of the ideation cycle: I want to enable students (aged 20-30) to pay attention to areas of a city that they have not seen before and that they might find interesting, without being distracted by products that they use for navigation. I will do this by offering a design that will lead them back to their starting point (the station), at the moment that they decide it is time to return. The interaction with the design will be experienced as unrestrained curiosity because they can still focus their curiosity on their environment; the design will lead them back without demanding their full attention in the way that phones and maps usually do. Because they can trust upon an easy way back to their starting point, they will not worry about navigation when strolling around in the city center. This is the design direction that I will start the iteration cycle with. My main research questions at the end of the ideation cycle are: - A what moment does the interaction with the design start and end? - How complicated or simple should the interaction be to enable the person to be attentive (not distracted but sufficiently informed) to his environment? - How do I reach unrestrained curiosity with my design and is this really what the interaction needs to be in order to take the users attention off navigation and enable the user to be attentive to his environment? I will start answering these research questions by testing and developing the design ideas that I have, and by exploring the relevant background information that I got from the stakeholders.

27th of September During this stakeholder meeting I learned about the current concerns of city planning in Rotterdam and some sources that might be useful for my project. Because my target group consists of pedestrians, no specific questions are raised currently, but I hope to contribute to creating a more relaxed feeling for visitors of the city that are surrounded by rushed people. See appendix E for an overview of stakeholders and additional sources of information relevant for my project.

10th of October 1st of October During the interaction vision workshop I learned how to establish an interaction vision. We practised designing an inspiring lunch experience for the canteen downstairs with the interaction vision refreshing openness. It was a good exercise that showed me the pitfalls of an interaction vision; if the terms have overlap (openness = refreshing) for example, they might not tell enough about the interaction qualities. I also learned that I have to be very picky with a metaphor and give a clear explanation otherwise different people might interpret it differently. With my (tourists) group I visited Egbert Stolk, a stakeholder in the field of urban planning. I told him about my project and he helped by pointing out sources that I could use for my design (see appendix E); probably the most interesting source is the theory of Kaplan, about the directions that people are likely to take. I will look into this in the second cycle.

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Unrestrained Curiosi y

is what I want students to experience while moving hrough a ci y hat hey do not know well. Unrestrained by navigation devices hat would a tract all of heir a tention so hey can focus on any hing hat hey are interested in about heir environment. This me aphor shows a diver hat can move in any direction hrough his environment. He can even move up, unlike he people on he shore. He does not have to mind his navigation, or how to get back. He naturally feels hat up is he way to return. Therefore he can focus on his environment. No hing will keep him from looking at what a tracts his a tention at his moment.

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A
Get lost visiting Rotterdam without any planning in advance Why does this design goal stimulate you personally? When I visit a city my mobility depends on the streets that I know by heart and the public transport connections that I know or that I looked up. I tend to go for the areas that I know and like and only take slightly different routes because I always keep in mind how to go back. I expect that more people like me would like to be surprised in a city and let their mobility depend on a design that influences their route and way of moving through a city. No planning, just experiencing and relaxing. I think the fact that most of us have a celphone with GPS and will always find their way back, is not enough to invite people to get lost and enjoy it. Next to that, I think that quite some people do already move through cities in an explorative way when they are on holidays, but not at home in the Netherlands.

Who will be the users of your design? Visitors of a city that they do not know well. Visiting the city alone or with 1 other person. Students aged 18-30 looking for inspiration or something new.

In which situation will your design be used? (location, people involved, experiences, products involved, etcetera) Rotterdam, every part of the city, reachable by public transport or walking, that might be of interest to the users. The central station will be the starting point of the user.

What effect for the user(s) do you intend to generate with your design? (what possibility is generated, or problem is solved) I want to enable visitors to wander through areas they have not seen before and that they might find interesting, without keeping track of the map and without thinking about their way back to the train station. They should be enabled to concentrate on their environment instead of on their navigation through it.

- What do people expect from a visit of a city they do not know well? - What do people plan and look up in advance? - Is there a desire to be surprised? What is the good thing about getting lost? - To what extent do people control their city trip? Do they make use of a map, route planner, tourist information? - Why do people visit the city? What makes a certain spot interesting to visit? - How often do or would people like to visit a city without a clear goal in mind? - Does this design benefit from excluding all means of moving except from walking? Because integrating different means of transport involves getting people to the right bus stop for example and costs money. Whether this is a problem will depend on the Interaction Vision.

Which other stakeholders will be affected by your design? (as users, producers, others in the situation, regulators etcetera) The visitors that will make use of my design, maybe the public transport organization, the direction of musea and other areas of interest, probably the tourist office.

Quite some questions can be answered by fellow students. Blogs of travellers online could give interesting insights, e.g. stories from students that made use of couchsurfing, staying at houses of people they do not know. They will be the kind of people that might be interested in my design. From a travel guide like lonely planet and tourist office information I can get specific places of interest in Rotterdam that I will use to design for an existing and limited area.

Mobile City: It will influence the direction and way that visitors move through a city. Mobility will not depend on the known means and routes but will be unplanned and will not take as much attention as usual. There will be less or no need to think in advance: what is there to do in this city? Where will we go and how do we get there?

I hope my design can involve the stakeholders projects in the exploration of Rotterdam by Dutch students that seek for inspiration, rather than involving all means of transport available in Rotterdam.

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B Design and Research Exploration plan Ideation cycle

Goal: Exploring the current interaction of people navigating through a city Activity: Visiting Rotterdam and studying peoples behaviour around the central station. Research questions: How do people navigate through the city? What interactions do they have with products for that purpose? Motivation: Getting a rst impression of the behaviour of people in a city that they do not know well, and on their interaction with the products that help them navigate and with the city. Design intervention/goal: Finding out what my target group expects of visiting cities they do not know well. Activity: Questionnaire per e-mail Motivation: Gathering initial relevant opinions, experiences and expectations from my target group.

Aline van Vliet 1355953

(Research) goal: adding to my background knowledge on the topic of peoples behaviour in a new city. Activity: Researching knowledge on getting lost, the need for navigation, peoples feelings in a new environment, looking for previous (design for interaction) projects on this subject. Research questions: How can I in uence the focus of people that navigate through a city? Motivation: This expands my framework for designing something new in this area. Design goal: Generating ideas for a design that o ers the interaction qualities from my Interaction Vision. Activity: Sketching, translating my ndings so far into ideas. Motivation: If I have enough interesting solutions this week I can test one of my ideas before the end of the ideation cycle and use the ndings to develop a concept out of it.

Goal: Finish up initial exploration Activities: Analyzing questionnaire outcomes, exploring travellers blogs, reviewing literature on urbanism (starting with Christopher Alexander), reading in on potential stakeholders. Research questions: - What do people expect from a visit of a city they do not know well? What do people plan and look up in advance? - Is there a desire to be surprised? What is the good thing about getting lost? - Why do people visit the city? What makes a certain spot interesting to visit? - Does this design bene t from excluding all means of moving except from walking? Motivation: Building up su cient basic knowledge on my topic so I can make a useful rst design intervention.

Goal: Making a simple prototype for one (or more if possible) of my design ideas Activity: Choosing one or a few interesting ideas Motivation: Testing a solution soon will help me in the process towards a design that has the right interaction qualities. (Research) Goal: Testing my design idea Research question: - How does the user interact with the design? Motivation: This will give new information that I can base the choice and development of the idea/concept on.

Design intervention: Going into the city with someone out of my target group, Activity: Observing how the person navigates and letting the person experience not having to navigate. Motivation: Generating new and speci c ndings on how my target group navigates through a city, gain insight in current interaction qualities. I need to know the current interaction to establish my own interaction vision.

(Research) goal: Evaluating the test of the Interpretation design idea learnings relationsInterpretation learnings relations Interpretation learnings its relations Interpretation learnings relations Activity: Having a few users try out the prototype and evaluating use with them. Interpretation learnings Research questions: - What interaction qualities does this solutionrelations o er? Interpretation learnings relations Interpretation relations Interpretation learnings relations - What should be changed about this design to improve learnings it considering my Interaction Vision? Interpretation learnings relations Interpretation learnings relations Motivation: The ndings can be used for the development / choice of the concept(s).
Description design intervention / research exploration incl motivation and relaDesign goal: Developing at least one design idea into of a concept tions Activity: Sketching, researching, evaluating of concept(s). Date blabla= Motivation: With this concept I will move on to location the Iteration cycle.

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C
Saturday September 15th Around Rotterdam Central Station Plan: Explore the interaction (way of use, understanding, experience) that people have while finding their way near Rotterdam Central Station. If possible, focus on my target group (aged 20-30). Take pictures. Also take pictures of things that I see that might make a city worth visiting. While exploring the area around the station without using a map or my phone. What is recognizable, how do I remember the way back easily? Even though they are surrounded by signs, they look on their map.. Interaction qualities (person map): focused, determined, impassionate, careful. All the images in this report, the front page for example and the details of images used for the lay-out are pictures that I took in Rotterdam and that I believe make a city worth visiting for a lot of people.

Since I knew I had the time and my purpose was to explore, it became very easy to know where I came from. I navigated back to the station with by recognizing buildings, the structure of small and broad streets and the sorts of traffic on the street (cars bicycles trams pedestrians or just some of them). I might primarily be led back to the station by an unconscious feeling for navigation.

Looking at one of the many signs. Confused / annoyed if they do not tell you what you need to know. In that case people have to stand still and look around for a clue on where to go. Interaction qualities (person sign): Confused, distant, focused, dependant, indecisive, passive, uncontrolled.

This guy was asking Where do I go now? while talking through his headphones with his phone in his hand. Interaction qualities (person phone with headphones): dependant, restrained (because he needs the information before moving on, but he does leave one earplug out which makes him less closed to the environment), classy and tender (the way he handled his phone and respected it as a tool). Without noticing I photographed the same girl twice. She either preferred to stop walking so she could send a text or read her mail, or she stood still to check where to go. Interaction qualities (person - phone): Closed, committed, restrained, sincere.

In Rotterdam I explored the interaction that I want to change with my design. The current interaction between people and the products that help them navigate is often focused, restrained and dependant. I cannot influence whether other people can find inspiration in Rotterdam and what inspires them. What I can do is taking their focus off navigation. Therefore my next step will be finding out why my target group visits a city and what inspires them, to make sure if my design has a raison dtre. Then I will design for taking away the need to focus on navigation. Still, potential sources of inspiration will be present throughout the report in the images used for the lay-out. In order to take peoples focus off navigation I will have to learn how people navigate, consciously and unconsciously. I will use these findings when defining my interaction vision, when planning design interventions and when generating my first design ideas.

Only after 15 minutes of watching this crossing I saw someone looking on the black and white signs. Most of the time there is no interaction with the signs, or it is: indifferent, natural, distant, passive.

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Research goal: An e-mail questionnaire has been send to explore what my target group (students 20-30 years old) expects when visiting Dutch cities that thy do not know well, whether they can find inspiration by going to a new city and what inspires them. Meaning to my project: If I know how and why students visit cities in the Netherlands that they do not know yet, I can design something that my target group probably likes to use. I will use theory about way-finding and exploring behaviour of people in general and apply that in combination with self found knowledge on preferences of my target group.

A6: city fun facts, maybe nice areas or musea/to-dos A7: Heel weinig, hangt ook af van de mensen met wie ik ga. Meestal alleen waar ik ongeveer de leuke dingen kan vinden (kroegen, musea, etc.) A8: Where the city center is, how I would get there.

hebben vaak een iets andere mentaliteit. Dat kan voor een nieuwe frisse kijk zorgen A8: Very new architecture, new stores, new inventions.

A1: Pff, not very often. It is to visit a friend. Maybe twice a year? I have no idea... A2: 4 a 5 keer per jaar ofzo A3: Almost never A4: Around twice a year A5: Approximatily once a month A6: Not that often, mostly because i dont have that much time. Last time was Groningen, i didnt look up information and the city seemed pretty dull. maybe i should have looked up some info :-) A7: Ik heb bijna nooit een vast doel als ik een stad bezoek. Gebeurt ongeveer 5 keer per jaar A8: Once every few months.

A1: New ideas (or lead to develop ideas) being triggered by something. This something could be anything. A store, square, restaurant, person etc... A2: Inspiratie = motivatie, nieuwe inzichten en energie om projecten af te ronden / of nieuwe op te pakken. A3: Awe, new ideas/things A4: Feeling stimulated to do something nice, fun or useful by somebody elses example. A5: Inspiration is for me information I receive from any kind of source which sort of triggers either positive or negative associations. A6: Inspiration is something that triggers me to do something, to get my hands dirty or simply make stuff. I can imagine you could also get inspired to do an activity other than creating something, but i mostly get inspired to be creative and make things. A7: Nieuwe inzichten, of iets abstracter: een positief gevoel en de energie om nieuwe dingen te ontdekken/bedenken. A8: Could you give your personal definition of inspiration? something that makes me think differently and opens my eyes about the world, work, interaction between persons, life or anything else

A1: To see new things and discover cool places. A2: Ik verwacht een dag zonder verplichtingen waarop ik kan doen waar ik zin in heb. A3: That I will see things that I havent seen before. A4: Get a feeling of the atmosphere, see some nice architecture, be outside for a day. A5: Some frustrations, especially when I go to Amsterdam. I never go there, so I dont know where to go for nice shops, good food, etc. Amsterdam is the only city I get lost every time I go there. Every canal looks the same. A6: I would probably somewhat prepare the visit by looking up a few facts or to-dos before leaving. I do like to explore a city, but only if i can give myself/get a few directions. A7: Een paar leuke activiteiten, terrasje pakken, een idee krijgen van de mensen die daar wonen (identiteit van de stad) A8: Depends on the purpose of my visit. If Id go shopping I would want to see the city center.

A1: Maybe new shops. Usually I visit a city to do shopping or something. A2: Andere steden kunnen mij inspireren doordat je altijd weer nieuwe indrukken krijgt. Dat kan energie geven en zorgen dat je weer open staat voor nieuwe ideeen. A3: Beautiful buildings, different culture/mindset, even within The Netherlands there are quite big differences in atmosphere from one city to another A4: Yes, artistic inspiration in shop windows and galleries, parks and the mentality of people. A5: Buildings, shops, people (clothes, jewellery they wear) A6: I dont think I have been inspired by a city before. The story or history of a city can be interesting, but I dont think it would inspire me to do something. A7: Ja dat kan. Je komt toch in een andere omgeving, andere sfeer, mensen

Through this exploration I got the confirmation that my target group can find inspiration while moving through a city that they do not know well, it gave my design raison dtre. The next question that raised is how my target group experiences navigation through the city during their visit.

It occurs about twice a year that I visit a city without a clear goal in mind.

I expect to get a feeling of the atmosphere, see some nice architecture, be outside for a day.

A1: I dont visit cities I dont know that well very often. Usually i visit these places with people who do know the city. So I expect that person will know where to go. Otherwise it usually is for a specific shop or museum or to eat something in a specific restaurant. Than I plan the journey to that location ahead with public transportation/ how long is the walk etc? A2: Soms hotspots, maar vaak ook niets. A3: I would probably have a clear goal in mind of where Id want to go (specific location), or at least what Id want to do (going out, having drinks somewhere), so then Id look for directions to that location A4: Nothing, only train scedule A5: How to get from central points (leidsche plein etc.) back to the station.

In the city I get artistic inspiration in shop windows and galleries, and parks and the mentality of people can inspire me too.

For me, creativity is feeling stimulated to do something nice, fun or useful by somebody else's example.

I only check the train schedule

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Answers of one of the participants

E
This is an overview of the different stakeholders that I either had a meeting with or that are related to the course and topic. I also list the topics and sources they gave information on. I can look back on this throughout the project but I will not use all the resources that are presented here, just those that turn out to be most relevant. The tourist office Travellers blogs

Space Syntex; how groups move through a city. Qwic scooter factory Hoogeschool Rotterdam Egbert Stolk, Urban planning, Architecture Public transport company RET Vrachtfiets Departments of Mobility, Sustainability and Health at the IDE faculty Can you say in advance what attracts people? Theory of Kaplan & Kaplan about which direction you will move in, what is a promising outlook. You dont come tabla rasa, your previous experiences influence e.g. your cognitive map: that you expect some kind of city center with a market and a church in each Dutch village. When it comes to Rotterdam, most people know that it has been bombed and this also raises certain expectations. Look up Kevin Lynch, The image of the city. GPS tracking projects of architecture might offer more insights.

Find out whats going on inside our heads. Maybe its an idea to raise awareness, inform people about a specific of cognitive map. The city of Rotterdam is creating oases to enable people to relax. People move to and from the station in large groups at certain moments, the same goes for the city center. Cycling becomes a problem because bycicles take more space (relatively) than public transport.

Create surroundings in which people feel more peaceful. When designing for people that are visiting the city, deal with the rushed feeling that you get when surrounded by rushed people. Look up the term Programmed Mind.

Robert Korteland is involved with city planning, cultural and economic diversity. S. Silvester on mobility and sustainability. S.K. Beella is open for questions on mobility and sustainability.

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Book by Kevin Lynch about our cognitive map that we unconsciously use when navigating through a city

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Monday October 8th Rotterdam city center

Funny looking people, I did not quickly see the poles where you can check out (with your public transport card) but I was looking for them. I saw that they are in construction and that it is chaotic. - What made her choose that direction? I know the street from Monopoly (game) / This area looked more like a city, the area behind us more like a village / We have to walk on the right side of the road / I want to go there and see that (Erasmus bridge) / Its too far away so we stop moving in that direction. - What did she encounter in the environment on her way? Kissing people on a bridge on the water, a motor, ugly office buildings, a bridge over water for pedestrians, an excavator, boats, an old guy with a dusty look, a parking, McDonalds, tram, lots of bicycles, it was crowded. High buildings make you feel small, I do not like that. - What assignment did she prefer? Why? Assignment 1 (navigating to bookshop) because I do not like walking around

Going into the city with someone out of my target group, Activity: Observing how the person navigates and letting the person experience not having to navigate. Motivation: Generating new and specific findings on how my target group navigates through a city, gain insight in current interaction qualities. Motivation: I need to know the current interaction and experience to improve my own interaction vision. Questions have been asked during or after each assignment. Assignment 1. Find me (at Rotterdam Central Station) on a bench near the exit to the metro - What did you know? - How did you find me? - What did you encounter in the environment on your way? Assignment 2. Navigate from the station to the Selexyz Donner bookshop. - How did she prepare? What did she know in advance? - How did she navigate? - Does it bother her if I ask questions or talk about things that are not related to the route? - What did she see encounter in the environment on the way there? Assignment 3. Take the directions you want for 20 minutes, without worrying at all about the way back. - What made her choose that direction? - What did she encounter in the environment on her way? - What assignment did she prefer? Why?

- How did she prepare? What did she know in advance? When sitting in the train on the way here, I used google maps (to see how to get to the bookshop) and made a print screen of it to save internet. I knew in advance that I had to go to track 1 for the right exit of the station. I went to the other side of the station a few times but it is not such a good neighbourhood. - How did she navigate? I tried to know the map by heart. I knew we had to turn left at the Manhattan hotel that I recognized, at the Karel Doornmanstraat we had to turn right, after a large street with an A in the name we should go left and then follow a curvy street. Halfway I doubted whether I had missed a street so I looked on my phone but we were doing fine. - Does it bother her if I ask questions or talk about things that are not related to the route? No. - What did she see encounter in the environment on the way there? Lots of shops, do you want their names? I did not pay attention to the traffic. I saw the trams, I do not see them in Utrecht usually.

Erasmus bridge
- What did you know? The direction of the shops and of track 1. The metro is often at the side of track 1. I knew there was a bakery shop near. - How did you find me? I walked straight through and then I saw the sign of the subway exit (and found you). - What did you encounter in the environment on your way?

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without a goal. I would have liked it if the weather would have been nice like it is in summer or if it would have been a beautiful city. Then assignment 0 (finding me on station) was nice because I was unprepared and had to look for the signs. The least nice was assignment 2 (20 minutes exploration) because of the grey whether, I do not think this city is beautiful and it would be more fun if you know more about the city. Most important is that its a beautiful city.

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The first assignment was to find me at the station, on a bench near the exit to the metro. She liked this assignment because she was unprepared and had to look for the (metro exit) signs while looking for the checkout poles as well. When I asked her afterwards what she encountered on her way she especially remembered funny looking people, the crowd and the signs that she had been looking for. The interaction with her environment was easy and open, while she had a clear goal and new a little bit about the station. The second assignment was to navigate from the station to the Selexyz Donner bookshop. She prepared in advance by using google maps on her phone and trying to learn the route on the map by heart. She used the Manhattan hotel, a street name and part of a streetname as points of recognition and took her phone once during the route to confirm if we were going the right way. Afterwards she remembered mostly shops and different means of transport. The interaction with her environment was excited and determined. Raised question: She did not seem so hindered by having to navigate because she looked it up in advance, and enjoyed finding her points of recognition. Maybe I can work with this, giving some points of recognition that people can easily find in their environment. The third assignment was to walk around and take the directions that she wanted for twenty minutes, without worrying about the way back. She had different kinds of reasons to take a certain direction, see appendix F. She remembered quite some details about the environment after the 20 minutes, e.g. an old guy with a dusty coat and kissing people on a pedestrians bridge on the water. Interaction qualities: The interaction with her environment was explorative, delicate and a little confused. She does not like walking around without a goal, at least not in a city that she does not consider beautiful on a clouded day. She pointed out that she would like this on a sunny day in Amsterdam that she knows better, or abroad. With a little more background info about the environment she would enjoy it more. Raised questions: In what situation do people benefit most from a design that helps them navigate back to their starting point easily? It seems to be that knowing a little about the environment makes the activity more enjoyable. Based on this design intervention I can make an additional remark for my Interaction Vision: Unrestrained curiosity should be complemented with a slight feeling of control by providing some background info about the environment. Because not knowing anything about the environment seems to be a kind of restriction. When it comes to my design goal, my intention is to focus on enabling people to navigate back to their starting point with the help of my design. If I can offer them a carefree way back that does not ask for much of their attention, so they can stroll around in a city center without paying attention to where they are exactly. And now that I know what kind of objects in the environment attracted the attention of my test person, I could integrate these objects in my design.

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Thursday 11th of October Studio 6 at IDE This workshop was a nice opportunity to do a design intervention. I had my buddy group of three people do the following exercises:

I need to go home!
Strolling through the city center

One person walked through the studio as if it were a city, and after some time says I want to go back to the station. The other person picked the location of the station (a certain chair for example) and guided the first person to that object by saying warm if the person came closer and cold if the person got further away from the station.

Same exercise but the other person gave directions left/right/backward/forward instead.

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Their feedback raised new research questions right away, mainly about the level of detail of the signal that the design gives to the user: Should the design offer a detour as well as a shortest route back? Should the interaction be more playful as with the warm/cold signal, or should it be more specific as with the right/left/ backward/forward signal? Does the user set the starting point? Can that be different points? I thought of part of these things so some questions are new and I will answer them during design interventions in the second cycle.

COLD < - - -

- - - > WARM

turn to the left!

You have arrived at the station!

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The device
A printed image that reminds you of the order of coloured areas; the red dot indicates the station, the starting point. The purple area is the furthest away from the station.
1km

The idea

Every area of the city center has its own colour that helps people orientate, navigate and estimate their distance from the station. The device and colours on objects in the environment are so passive that they dont give the user the chance to be too focused on navigation and not pay attention to the environment anymore.

(Dis)advan ages

The environment

On buildings and objects, small but visble colour patches give the user an indication of the area he is in. The patches should be spread and have a maximum distance of 25 meters so the user will always encounter patches when he looks for them and he will not be able to walk 5 minutes in the wrong direction

+ people can estimate their distance from the station + Low distraction because something has to be looked up in the environment - Not the quickest way to get back to the starting point - Might be considered obtrusive in the environment - Has to be integrated in the environment + very low-tech

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The device
A handheld device with coloured circles that can light up with a very strong intensity or a weak intensity. The area in which the user is is has a strong intensity, the area towards he is moving has a weak intensity. The other lights are off. The state of the device if the user is in the yellow area, moving in the direction of the starting point - yellow shines bright, red shines but less intense:

The idea

Every area of the city center has its own colour that helps people orientate, navigate and estimate their distance from the station. The different colours that light up on the device are the only thing that can distract the user from being attentive to his environment. The user will have to check the device while walking a few steps in a certain direction so he knows whether he is getting further away from or closer to his starting point.

1km

(Dis)advan ages

+ people can estimate their distance from the station + Low distraction because the user can read the sign in a blink of an eye, but higher distraction than with design A1. - Not the quickest way to get back to the starting point + Not obtrusive in the environment - high-tech

1km

The state of the device if the user is in the yellow area, moving in the direction of the outer area - yellow shines bright, purple shines but less intense:

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16

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The idea

The device

A stone with a GPS in it to locate itself and the starting point, that can change between two temperatures that are easy to distuinguish.

The use of the device is very simple; the stone belongs to a starting point, e.g. Rotterdam central station or the tourist ofice. The stone get warm when the user moves it closer to the starting point, the stone gets cold when the user moves it further from the starting point. Navigating back to the starting point will require some patience and concentration from the user but since he just has to hold it in his hand and feel which direction to take he will constantly look at what happens around him.

(Dis)advan ages

The idea

The use of the device is very simple, the user sets the starting point himself and can walk back to it any time. It will probably require looking at the compass once in a while, but it will be just in a glance so it will distract peoples attention as less as possible. The closer to the starting point, the more the user can start recognizing buildings. This idea will probably leave a lot of space for the parts of the route that the user does remember himself.

- people cannot estimate their distance from the station + Very low distraction + way of use is quite simple - Requires some practice and patience and does not help you to get back to the station as quick as possible + Not obtrusive to the environment, can function anywhere - high-tech and maybe impossible

The device

(Dis)advan ages
poi starting

An electric compass that remembers in which direction and distance you have moved from your starting point. It always leads you back in the right direction of the starting point that you set, while you choose which streets you take.

re

nt

17

- people cannot estimate their distance from the station + Low distraction because glancing at it once in a while will be enough. + way of use is quite simple + Helps you take the quickest way to get back to the starting point + Not obtrusive to the environment, can function anywhere - high-tech

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