Project Interaction
A journey through different kinds of interaction, from a physical installation with Arduino to voice control and tactile feedback.
The challenge
How do you design interactions that go beyond clicking on a screen? And how do you make sure everyone can use them, including people with a visual or hearing impairment?
My role
The project consisted of weekly assignments and an individual final assignment. I focused mainly on user research, voice design, physical prototypes with Arduino and TouchDesigner, and testing with users.
The approach
Over a few weeks I explored very different kinds of interaction:
- Physical and immersive: with my team I built an interactive space journey in the Immersive Lab. Visitors controlled the projections in TouchDesigner with a real rotary knob connected to an Arduino.
- UX Safari: I looked into why the charging points for the university’s student card are so awkward to use, and designed a higher-contrast interface in a spot that is easy to reach from a wheelchair too.
- Voice and haptics (final assignment): I designed a voice assistant in Voiceflow and combined it with tactile feedback on a coffee machine, so blind users can make coffee on their own.
The result
A series of working prototypes. The highlight: a tested prototype with voice and tactile feedback that lets someone without sight order and make a cappuccino independently.
What I learned
Coming from frontend, I often looked first at what looked good on a screen. This project taught me to design from the user’s perspective, with all the senses.