Materialise, Make it Real - W7

Designers | Alex Newson • David Han • Sue Heeyeon An • Tatiana Bohsali

External Partner | This Ain’t Rock’n’ Roll

Brief | Design a way to materialise blockchain

Refinements

After testing out our previous prototype with the peers last week, we realised there were a lot of confusions with the flow of using the store. Interactions between the people and the store, the UI design on the screen and especially, the aspect of materialisation of transaction which demonstrates the blockchain.

First of all, we started off by refining the user flow of the store (fig 1), removing the complexities and not to add more elements onto it. People going back and forth with two different codes messed up the navigation - so many devices laid out horizontally did not help. They have pointed out using two codes to access the store and to the locker was too much which made them feel lost. Also, we thought the current mechanism of Proof of Friendship - the Word of Mouth has been recentralised by only giving the power to the people from a selected proposal. We considered different ways to decentralise the accessibility of the store from patient 0 such as nominating people in different areas or the store generating a code. At last we decided on, an access phrase being displayed on the terminal screen for a certain amount of time - giving a randomness. In this way, now the power is distributed.

Fig 1. User Flow. Image by Tatiana and David.

More Iterations

Most importantly, my very concern was the store required people to write their own transactions and this created hesitations of what information to input. I personally thought it was not ideal since it requires people to do more work and in fact, blockchain technology captures it automatically. From this we began to think how we can materialise the transactions of items without any additional steps for people. Thanks to Zhaolu, she gave us amazing feedback on whether we can take a photo of an item and people giving and taking while they are interacting - recording the transactions. This gave me an idea to use a receipt machine from the Creative Technology Lab, which will print out a set of images (fig 2). Moreover, the current design gives complete access to the entire unit once they have the code. We decided on dividing the unit into two, directing people to put in an item in order to get an item (fig 3).

We divided the task to reach our expectation of building a high fidelity prototype and I was in charge of designing the store. I continued to think about how we can develop the transaction recording system. Finding a way to display it in a more visible way and immutable in terms of the layout and materials as my other concern was it being very fragile and easily disrupted. This made me come up with an idea to build a section with a transparent acrylic board which would present the chains of captured images visible to everyone but also immutable without giving them full access to change it (fig 2).

Fig 2. Store Design Development. Image(s) by Sue

Fig 3. Unit Design Iterations. Image by Sue

Fig 4. Store Technical Drawings. Image by Sue

Fig 5. Store Planning for 3D Workshop. Image by Sue and David

Brixstop as a friend

Furthermore, we discussed how we can reveal the fact the store owns itself. This was by adding a personality aspect to the store specifically through vocalisation, expressing it’s preference in terms of items given (fig 6). The Brixstop being peoples’ friend in the community.

Fig 6. Brixstop Storyboards. Image(s) by Sue

Let’s Start Building!

Fig 7. First Planning of Brixstop. Image(s) by Sue and David

Fig 8. Coding for Receipt Printer. Image(s) by Sue and David

Fig 8. Final Touches. Image(s) by David

Testing Time!

Vid 1. Testing Brixstop Voice Over. Filmed by David and Edited by Sue.

Outcome

Vid 2. Final Design of Brixstop. Edited by Sue.

Fig 9. Final Design of Brixstop. Image(s) by Sue

Fig 10. UI Screen. Image(s) by Sebastian Ervi

Vid 3. Final Design of Interface. Edited by Alex.

Presentation

Overall, Charlie and Clive really appreciated our outcome, how we built an experience around the store and the materialisation of the blockchain. Also, they liked the idea of Word of Mouth connecting people together through existing networks. However, as John and Alaistair mentioned I wonder if the proposal on the back could have lived somewhere else, perhaps in a digital form where it gives more accessibility to people. For me, the most important aspect we missed during the project was talking and testing with people in Brixton. And how our store can be situated in the street of Brixton, considering the streetscape. Over the 7 weeks, we struggled to find design opportunities in the beginning as blockchain was not an easy notion. Yet, I saw myself greatly enjoying it, diving into the area of the unknown and gaining a lot of different insights. At last, we made it real in a very short time!

Materialise, Make it Real - W7

Where is Blockchain — W6