🦆 Interaction Nerds by UXA | S24.02
The (Extended) Optimism Issue: Character Design Pipeline, 2024 UX/UI Trend Predictions, and Managing Healthy Productivity!
👋 Announcements — Good to be back!
Hey everyone! We’re hoping that you’re having a wonderful return to campus and are looking forward to everything we’re cooking up here in the Interaction Nerds lab. 🧑🍳 No announcements for today, but keep your eyes peeled for some super exciting news to come! 👀
🍎 Club Compass — 05-360 Interaction Design Fundamentals
Written & edited by: 🍳 Evelyn Lui
⚠️ Attention prospective HCI students! Are you interested in obtaining HCI for a minor or an additional major? Or are you just looking for an intro design class to know what you’re getting yourself into? Well then, you’re at the right place!
🤔 What is 05-360 Interaction Design Fundamentals?
Interaction Design Fundamentals introduces the human-centered design process as well as fundamental interaction design principles, methods, and practices. 💪 It is a new class that began last fall as a replacement for Interaction Design Studio 1 (05-651) and Interaction Design Studio 1 (05-392/692). This is a required course for anyone who’s planning to complete an HCI minor or major and also a wonderful class for those who are interested in learning more about HCI!
🧐 What do you do in 05-360 Interaction Design Fundamentals?
Students will learn to design solutions 🖊️ through a human-centered design process and apply fundamental interaction design principles to real-world problems. 🧩
🤔 Who should take 05-360 Interaction Design Fundamentals?
Everyone! Students don’t need any design or coding experience, this class is only asking for a desire to learn more about the creative design process.
💓 Editor’s Pick — Can AI be designed to empathize?
Written & edited by: 🕺 Arin Pantja
As machine systems and AI continues to advance and do more human tasks through the form of chatbots and other means, a question arises: Will they ever be able to reach a state of emotional consciousness in a similar way humans do? 🧠
🤖 Affective Computing — technology that allows systems and computers to identify, process, and simulate human feelings and emotions.
Computers arguably can recognize emotions through different inputs such as facial expressions and speech recognition through trained datasets. Similar to humans, we observe and detect clues to classify emotions — and past research has shown great accuracy in machine and human recognition. But does this really mean a machine is able to understand emotions and be ‘empathetic’? 🗯️
💕 Empathy v.s. Compassion – Thinking about Use Cases
It’s important to distinguish what it means to be ‘empathetic’ and ‘compassionate’. Whilst both definitions are around responding to other people’s emotions, being compassionate is also the desire to take action and help someone else, while being empathetic is focused on the awareness and understanding. 💖
With the increased usage of deep learning and machine learning capabilities, perhaps technology can be more be perceived as more empathetic and responsive to our emotional state, but not compassionate. Affective computing might be more relevant in training such systems and creating more ‘personalized’ interactions. Here are some example use cases around affective computing –
🏫 Education Spaces – A research project led by Hua Leong Fwa is exploring ways of adjusting tutoring strategy that responds to the emotional state of students – from frustration to boredom.
🛍️ Customer Service – from retail stores to contact centers, gauging the customers emotions can provide insightful and actionable data on improving customer service and creating a more pleasant experience
🤍 Challenges and Potential Futures of Affective Computing
From concerns around data privacy and ethical concerns, one might wonder whether such data and interactions become too invasive. Technology might be used in a more manipulate way through emotion surveillance, but it’s also important to keep in mind that human emotions are highly complex and subjective**.** What safeguards can be placed to ensure these use cases don’t happen? 🤔
As our connection with technology deepens and permeates various aspect of our lives, there emerges the potential for more symbiotic and empathetic engagements between humans and technology. 💭
🎭 Resource — Playful Learning with ‘Improv Prototyping’
Written & edited by: 🧸 Ahana Banerjee
🎭 What is Improv Prototyping?
A term that combines improvisational theater principles with the iterative process of creating prototypes in a user experience context. As shown below, improv prototyping involves re-enacting challenging scenarios as a group, with one person introducing the scenario becoming the 'director,' and others as 'actors.' This structure encourages playful experimentation with strategies and interventions.
🎭 How do I do Improv Prototyping?
🎯 Define the Scenario: Identify a challenging design problem.
💃 Introduce the Scenario: One person becomes the "director" and sets the stage.
🤹♂️ Act Out the Scenario: Designate others as "actors" to improvise based on roles.
🚀 Experiment with Strategies: The director suggests playful interventions in real-time.
🔄 Debrief and Reflect: Discuss insights gained and iterate for the next round.
🎭 Why Should I do Improv Prototyping?
By integrating principles from improv theater, we can accelerate problem-solving through rapid iteration, gaining unique insights into user experiences. This playful approach not only enhances adaptability and innovation but also cultivates effective communication skills and empathy. In a nutshell, it's a fun and engaging journey of discovery for designers and innovators alike! 🌐🎭✨
🛝 Fun — Wushiland Branding
Written & edited by: 🚐 Sherry Chen
Curious about the cleverly branded boba cups floating around campus? Wushiland Boba is the new boba place replacing Fuku Tea on Craig Street near CMU Campus. Not only are they dishing up delicious cups of tea, their branding is pretty neat too!
🤔 Who’s behind the scenes?
The editors behind this week’s issue are 🥸 Kaitlyn Ng, 🧸 Ahana Banerjee, 🕺 Arin Pantja, 🍳 Evelyn Lui, 🚐 Sherry Chen, and 🦝 Caleb Sun.
🥰 Follow Us
We look forward to co-curating future content with you! Let us know what you think about the content and send us some good vibes through these channels below.
Instagram | Facebook | Linkedin | UXA Website
🌱 Join the Community
Join the Slack channel to get updates on upcoming events, learn about cool resources and opportunities, ask questions about anything HCI, and much more.