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RESTAURANT SCENARIOS
In the Smart-Its project, we were designing visions of future technology
with capabilities that can be hard to imagine based on our lived experience
today. We needed methods internally for exploring ideas from the point of
view of emerging user experiences. To extend these ideas to the general
public, we needed to create prototypes that operated on both conceptual
and experiential levels. Using scenario methods, we opened a design space
with diverse stakeholders focused on everyday use contexts – for instance,
a restaurant where 'smart' objects could support dynamic workflows, information
display, and new interactions. Three prototypes were implemented for innovative
experiential demonstration of ad-hoc networking, distributed sensing, and
collective intelligence among multiple objects embedded in scenarios of
use.restaurant summary (A4 PDF)
scenario methods
Scenarios were developed in workshop sessions using experiential design methods and materials. Initially, we used scenarios in conjunction with personas and paper mock-ups to sketch potential behaviors and functions of smart objects. Later, they were refined as storyboards through role-play and video scenario techniques, to guide specifications for sensor and application programming. Finally, scenarios accompanied working prototypes to convey the look and feel of the user experience and provide an accessible means of conveying the technical story to the public. Scenarios proved a valuable means of supporting communication, decision-making, and collaboration in the project.
Documentation: Workshop 1 - use contexts, 06/2001, Göteborg Sweden; Workshop 2 - situations and objects, 10/2001, Zurich Switzerland; Workshop 3 - scenarios and applications, 11/2001, Oulu Finland; Deliverable 3 (PDF) documentation of scenario work.
workshop leaders: Ramia Mazé (Interactive Institute) and Lars Erik Holmquist (Viktoria Institute)
restaurant application
From the scenario work, we developed the restaurant application in order to examine interaction with smart artifacts integrated in the workflows, dynamic activities, and user needs in a specific context of use. Physical prototypes were developed combining sensor perception and network technology in relation to three scenarios of use. Percepts were developed and tested for several artifacts working together. Input from multiple sensors on each artifact contributed to the artifact being able to 'perceive' its own quality in relation to its expected life span - for instance, a wine bottle could not only tell how well it had been treated and when it was at the right temperature to be served, but it could communicate this with other wine bottles and objects nearby such as menus.
These were implemented in an interactive installation as mock food items containing Smart-Its devices – users manipulated the items to trigger video scenarios illustrating the restaurant context and technology concepts. In the 'oyster auction', sensor-enhanced packaging enables oysters to determine their level of freshness and communicate through a dynamic label. In the 'dynamic specials menu' scenario, wine bottles monitor their history, negotiate a value amongst themselves, and display detailed information to consumers through dynamic interfaces. In 'are you being served', the natural actions of a chef gathering items together on a tray triggers an order to monitor and display to a waiter when its ready to be served.
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| scenario: 4MB quicktime | installation
video clip: 12MB or 20MB quicktime |
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| scenario: 6MB quicktime | installation
video clip: 8MB or 14MB quicktime |
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scenario: 3MB quicktime |
installation video clip: 9MB or 14MB quicktime |
Documents: percepts features definition, specification of quality percept by item, interaction schematics for installation, diagram of visual flow for installation, Jamboree exhibition design, Jamboree report.
project lead: Ramia Mazé (Interactive Institute); project team: Timo Ahonen and Stavros Antifakos (ETH Zurich), Peter Ljungstrand (Interactive Institute), Hanna Landin, Magnus Nilsson, Tobias Rydenhag (IT University Göteborg), Lalya Gaye (Viktoria Institute)
experiential installation
For public exhibition, the installation involved visitors in a hands-on and experiential way in exploring scenarios of a possible of a technological future. The artifacts were designed to look like 'props' rather than product prototypes in order to feel accessible. They were clearly labeled with instructions inviting visitors to handle and interact with them them – wine bottles marked "shake me!" and "store me away", for instance. This sucessfully focused attention away from the idea of the traditional object and on to the principles of sensor perception, collective intelligence, and ad-hoc networking that actual physical interaction with the props triggered and which were pointed out in the animated scenarios.
In a follow-up evaluation workshop, this installation demonstrated computation as a property in the design of smart objects. A group of designers and design students were invited to discuss Smart-Its technology, which proved to be a difficult concepts to grasp as. In conjunction with demonstrators, design materials and props proved to be valuable tools for communication.
evaluation team: Lalya Gaye, Lars Erik Holmquist, Sara Ljungblad, and Tobias Skog (Viktoria Institute)