Disguise — W5
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
Rescope
After the mid-point review, we had numerous questions emerge with our diagrams we made. From this we decided to go back and rescope what we might have missed (fig 1). I realised that we visualised it in a very simple way when it is actually even more complicated. All the details were hidden under a flat diagram not making it clear which aspects are taken and used from the previous precedents we analysed.
Fig 1. Rescoping the Diagram. Image by group.
Then I continued with Artefact Analysis of Amazon Locker also looking at a similar shared resource platform. The very difference from Amazon Locker is our store focuses on sharing items within the area and between people and Amazon Locker is purely for yourself. While our design accepts ideas from people and uncovers every item to people, Amazon Locker has limitations of accessibility being placed in public and private areas. The store being moveable is more democratic and for more people from Amazon Locker. Additionally, It hides all the hidden nature of what’s going on inside, perhaps this can also be reflected in our design of the store - making it much more transparent.
Fig 2. Artefact Analysis. Image by Sue.
Furthermore, I looked at other existing donation points I found around the area such as Sainsbury’s Food Donation Point, British Heart Foundation’s Donation Bank and Library of Things, an online based platform which Charlie from This Ain’t Rock’n’Roll mentioned. As they valued the second hand item from people it always related back to making money, it was more of a business area. The main aspect we took here was to examine the functionalities of the service and implement the useful elements for our prototype.
Fig 2. Donation Points. Image by Sue.
Fig 3. Differences. Image by Tatiana.
Fig 4. Common Heritage of Mankind. Image by Alex.
Fig 5. Memphis Design. Image by David and Tatiana.
Fig 6. Library of Things. Image by Sue and David.
Fig 7. Answering questions by Group. Image by Sue.
Low Fidelity
At this time, we were still left with loads of questions unanswered but we thought it's better to start developing the application then iterate as we go rather than being stuck in one place constantly. So Tatiana and I focused on working on the user journey, building a sitemap for the prototype as we wanted to test it during Speed Dating. We decided to test the main feature of the borrowing and lending process by developing a low fidelity interface considering the time given. Tatiana and I worked on the mobile version and David and Alex on the terminal screen in the store.
Fig 8. User Flow and Sitemap. Image by Sue and Tatiana.
Vid 1. Low Fidelity Prototype. Edited by Alex.
Fig 9. Mobile and Terminal Interface. Image by Sue.
Feedback / Reflections
Speed Dating gave us a lot of feedback and opinions from different groups which was great. Yet, again most of the questions were regarding the weaponised aspect of the store such as the store being misused, items being stolen. I found it very hard to answer these questions as for me it was the questions perhaps we cannot solve entirely.
One of the most important things I realised personally during the feedback was the fact that during this week the only way we considered making blockchain technology apparent was via application. Where is Blockchain? We completely did the opposite creating a disguise, not much difference between existing blockchain exchange platforms I have explored in week 2. Now it was time to bring it to the front in order to experience it. But first to select an aspect of blockchain since we cannot materialise everything then to highlight the ones which we could expand further and make it experienceable.
Fig 10. Speed Dating. Image(s) by David
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Bibliography
British Heart Donation (n.d) Join the Reuse Revolution. Available at: https://www.bhf.org.uk/shop (Accessed at: 24 May 2021)
Library of things (2021) Library of Things. Available at: https://www.libraryofthings.co.uk/ (Accessed: 24 May 2021).