Surfing in the streets

Design & Research Exploration phase 2 5-12-2012

Roderick Huijgen IO1305050 Tutors: Stella Boes & Anna Pohlmeyer

Introduction
The following report contains the Design & research exploration done in the second phase of the project Exploring interaction Mobile city. It includes short explanations of and the main results gathered with the explorations steps done by the student. The report ends with a conclusion of the exploration done up until this moment in the form of answers to the formulated research questions and a short reflection on the process.

Content
-Design Goal -Research Goal -Creative technique: Extreme characters -Directions -Testing movement -Testing visibility -Testing showing directions -conclusion

Design Goal:
The element on night time travel has been added to the design goal. Enable longboard users to travel safely through a city AT NIGHT by improving their relationship with other travelers

Research Goal:
Find out how to best illuminate a longboard user in the city of Delft. Research questions: 1. What is the difference in movement between a longboard user and a cyclist? 2. How can a longboard user be illuminated to clearly represent it as a longboard traveller at night? 3. What other uses can be found for illumination while longboarding?

Creative technique: Extreme characters

To get inspired and expand the number of idea's and directions, a creative session was done with the a number of designers. The technique extreme characters was used for each individual problem. Research question: What other uses can be found for illumination while longboarding? Extreme characters The method was performed with 4 characters: 1. Garon (mister arrogance) 2. Little red riding hood (miss sweet) 3. Ronaldo (mister sports) 4. Evil witch (miss evil) Results The session results in a number of interesting idea's in different directions, ranging from speedometers to games.

Directions
The idea's generated in the creative session were not primarily focussed on safety as the goal of the design. A short analysis of the idea's brought up 3 categories of idea's Light as play tag, speed, team play Light as cool looking awesome, UV, black light, Tron Light as safety clear, directions, active light, sensors Conclusion Although safety is the main driver for this project, both play and cool could be implemented in the final idea, helping to enrich the interaction of the design.

Testing movement
The designer believes that part of the solution towards increased safety is clear communication. In order to find new possibilities, the designer searched for differences between cyclists and longboard users when traveling, especially focussing on the movement. research question What is the difference in movement between a longboard user and a cyclist? Method Film movement of both and analyse the results, focussing on joint movement. Conclusions The movement of the cyclist is very stable, the cyclists body seems to be suspended in the air with only the knees and feet in movement. From the side the feet make a very recognisable circle movement and the knees pump up and down. The longboarders body shows a lot more movement during travel. In fact since the whole body is move up and down to perform the steps only one foot and knee do not move while traveling. The movie showed that it is actually the hands that move the most like they would when a person is sprinting. The foot together with the knee that is used for propulsion moves in a very distinct way that is easily recognised as being on a skate-/long-board. The movie also showed that the shoulders of the longboard user tend to move a lot more that those of the cyclist and can be seen as a point of interest.

Testing visibility
After a number of ideas had been generated, it was time to test some of them out in the dark. Up until now most ideas had not been properly tested with the use of actual light. A parking lot near the station was the perfect place to test some of the ideas with a rough model. Research question How can a longboard user be illuminated to clearly represent it as a longboard traveller at night? Method By using bicycle lights and tape the light source could be sticks to different parts of the test-subjects body. Thus simulation a light emitting product and what effect the different positions has on it. A video will be made of the simulation while two cyclists move together with the longboard user and the product. This video will be shown to several others outside of the project as a reflection on how they interpreted the product. Conclusion The test was observed by both the fellow design group members and the movie by four other regular bicycles users. Both parties came with a number of unexpected results. -The lighting of a bicycle is on a very specific height (usually right above the wheels). Having light at a different height already makes a difference for the interpretation and is noted by people as being unusual. -Even at half lit areas like the parking lot, the bicycle lights made a huge difference in spotting the test subjects. It is easily underestimated how much difference just a little lighting make to help spot other traffic. It can be imagined that it makes even more different when the observer is inside a car. -Having lights stuck to the board itself makes it very easy to recognise since the bicycles dont have any viable spots to attach lighting so close to the ground. The test subjects instantly understood that they were not dealing with a cyclist but with a longboard or step. The subjects expressed concerns that the light can easily be missed by car drivers or when going up a hill because it is positioned so low to the ground. -There seems to be a very basic understanding, probably though by the experience of seeing bicycle lights for years. The normality of the bicycle light makes anything different stand out much more. -Having both a red and white light attached to the hands is very confusing and hard to control. Oncoming traffic can get confused because it sees both lights sometimes. Also since the user move the hands a lot during travel it felt unnatural to keep the top of the hands (white light) facing the front and the palm of the hands (red light) facing backwards.

Testing showing directions

The idea of lighting up the hands and arms of the user has been popping up on several occasions and seemed especially interesting because it would allow the user to show directions or intentions to the surrounding traffic, thus enhancing the communication. Research question How would one non-verbally communicate in traffic with lights on their hands/arms/legs? Method This research is done with a roleplaying session with a number of students. By taping a longboard shape on the floor they were roleplaying that they were traveling on a longboard. Each subject got a number of pieces of tape on several places on their body and were told these represented light. During the test each subject was asked to make signs for going right going left pass me and stop! Photographs were taken of the reactions. Conclusion -having light on both hands instead of just one was preferred because it felt more natural and its easier to keep balance when communicating left or right. -the participants preferred the lights on the body parts that could move easily (hands and elbows). Even though the shoulders are a valid place for showing light, they are not mobile enough to communicate with. -each participant fell back in the communication used when on a bicycle. This seems to be the most natural way of non-verbal communication and was even easier now since the participants had their hands free.

Research conclusion
In most of the research results that were gathered in this phase, the hands of the user seem to be the main point of interest. During travel the movement of the hands is very intense and unique, usually completely in sync with the movement of the stepping foot since these two balance each other out. By getting the hands lit up, the user will be easier identified as a non-bicycle traveller but not be mistaken for a pedestrian. Whether or not bystanders recognise a longboard user in the movement will have to be further tested. The hands have a height that can be seen by all traffic users, pedestrians and truck drivers alike, this would solve the problems when placing lights on the longboard itself. Also the hands have a major function in the non-verbal communication of the longboard user. Since both hands are free this is even more so than with bicycle users. The concept should be based on these results and the product should be focussed on the use of light on the hands to solve the design problem