Leather Bracelet

For this week, I decide to try some new materials I’m not familiar with. So I choose leather and wires. And I decide to make some bracelets.

Step 1: measure

Step 2: test with cardboards

Step 3: fasten

First I tried to drill diffrent size holes, and find the matched size for rivets.

Then use the rivets gun to fasten the leather band.

Step 4: add wires

I tried to figure out how to connect wires with leather. And I drilled another hole and use screws and nuts to fix wires.

The final look.

Shooting in Roland’s studio

Step 1

Draw two pads in Adobe Ai. Measure Arduino uno pad and breadboard, then test the size using cardborad (forget to take pictures).

Step 2

Then cut acrylic. I made one mistake though. In setup, I used raster instead of Vector. Thus I cut like 10 times to get it through.

Step 3

Put stands in.

inspiration

I was always fascinated by kinetic sculptures and all kinds of machanisms.

like the famous Strandbeest,

and Anthony Howe’s work,

But I decided to start with a simplest form - a four bar linkage, and use a servo to control it.

making of the four bar linkage

I draw 4 bars using Adobe Ai, then use laser cutter cut them.

Try different size of screws.

Add two holes for fix.

Glue the screws in case they fall off.

servo motor

Synopsis

Roland is a musician and a teacher living and working in NYC. This film will focuses on what influenced him to become a musician and specifically what made him pursue it professionally. We watch him struggle and overcome his challenges and finally we hear about his hopes for his own future as well as the future of music.

team member

• Yang
• Azalea

Storyboard

Scene 1 - by Yang

Scene 2 - by Azalea

Scene 3 - by Tong

sound

Sound here.

What I learned

• how to use zoom recorder, shotgun mic
• how to edit sound use Adobe Audition
• what is arc
• how to do storytelling in a soundwalk
• how to collaberate with teammates

Teamwork

We first recorded some sound from the floor, but they are pieces, ont a coherent part. And we record some sound from Washington Sqaure and subway station, but these parts seem not be used in our assignment since they are out of the building. And we came up a story of finding a secret room inside our building.

Then one of our team member switched section, and Zohreh joined us. Me and James explained what we did last week and discussed our new storyline. And we finally agree on a new story: someone walks inside building, being chased, then hear the sound of a clock and realize it was a dream. We what it mysterious and very tense.

Then we divided the story into 3 parts and edited them separately, because we want each one has a chance to practice editing. And I mixed our parts together.

What I might do differently

• Give some hints at the beginning, let people know it is not just a plain day inside our buiding.
• Give clear instructions and map, even a voice guide. Last time we didn’t realize it has to be a “real” soundwalk, I thought we just sit and listen.
• Test the soundwalk before let people do it. Test whether the time is reasonable.
• Test the volume using earphone. I edited with my speaker, and I never thought the volume might be a bit low in earphone, especially in noisy lobby.
• Use other sounds, not only what we record. What a pity I didn’t know we could use that! I always what some melody to go through our soundwalk.
• But I like our story anyway : )

step 1

Buy some wood slices. Measure them.

step 2

Find some images suitable for this assaignment. Change them into vector graphs in AI. Manipulate them to meet the laser cutter’s need. Blue for etching, Black 0.1pt lines for cutting, and white for nothing.

This one is for cut.

And this one is for etch.

step 3

Laser cut. And gotcha.

When waiting for etching, I folded an origami from game Heavy Rain. (With my eyes on the laser cutter, of course. )

“Tap your card please”

When I just arrived at New York, I was so confused about how I should use my card. And I have to let people teach me in different occasions.

“Tap your card please.”

“Insert your card please.”

“Swipe your card please.”

“Show your card to me please.”
“No the other side with your face, thank you.”

Yes the last one is in Tisch building.

More importantly, even within the tapping option, there are still several choices ahead. For example, in the CS buiding I tap my card on left side of the electronic door, while in library I tap on top of the electronic door. And in student health center I tap on the table of front desk.

And I have some touble swiping the metroCard. I cannot find where to swipe because the grooves don’t have some special color, and it can’t be to fast or too slow but they don’t really tell you that.

Also, I don’t know if I should throw away my per-ride card or swipe it again or insert it somewhere to get off the subway station.

As Norman suggests, we are made to know how to interact with an object even with a glance on it, based on its affordance.

So I start to think about the affordance of a card. What are we supposed to do with a small slice of paper/plastic?

First thing come into my mind is:

stack

hold

use as a sign

Interestingly, those happen to be all the interactive patterns I found when I googled “card” images. I never saw one swipe, insert or tap picture.

Let me boldly deduce that card are designed to be stored well, hold well, but not used well.

Because our fingers do not know how to swipe or insert a card natually. Maybe our ancestors do not do that in nature. And that’s a learned skill.

Maybe the reason why is magnetism is not something visible and obivious.

But since we cannot easily change affordance of cards, we may do something with the other part – the card reader.

For me, the key elements maybe:

make different card readers coherent

If one tap, all tap. If one tap in the front, all tap in the front.

make tap zone obivious

Maybe words, signs, pics…Let people know at one glance.

Another way to solve this problem may be: just get ride of the cards. Use phone or some inserted chips instead.

end❀

Inspirations from Norman（some notes）

These neurochemicals change the parameters of thought, adjusting such things as whether reason is primarily depth first (focused, not easily distracted) or breadth first (creative, out of the box thinking, but easily distractible).

Anxiety focuses the mind, reducing distractions.

If people are given small, unexpected gifts, afterwards they are able to solve problems that require creative thought better than people who were not given gifts.

Sometimes, of course, the tunnel vision can lead to harm, just as sometimes the broadening of the thought process can distract can prevent solution.

Start by considering tools meant for stressful situations, where the negative affect of the task leads to depth-first processing and, in the extreme case, tunnel vision.

Take a simple example – trying to escape a hazardous situation. Suppose that fleeing people encounter a door that won’t open. The anxiety-produced response is to try again harder. When the first push doesn’t open the door, press harder, kick, and even throw the body against it. In less stressful situations people might recognize that the correct solution is to pull instead of push, but not in high-anxiety producing ones. Designs intended for stressful situations have to pay special attention to matching the needs of the users, to making appropriate actions salient and easy to apply. In other words, the principles of good human-centered design are especially important in stressful situations.

So too should we not go back to ugly, ill-designed things. (Me: like windows XD)

Although the cognitive analyses of usability and function are important, so too is the affective analysis. Let the future of everyday things be ones that do their job, that are easy to use, and that provide enjoyment and pleasure.

True beauty in a product has to be more than skin deep, more than a façade. To be truly beautiful, wondrous, and pleasurable, the product has to fulfill a useful function, work well, and be usable and understandable.

Good design means that beauty and usability are in balance.

From attractive things work better by Norman

Debug methods

The Scientific Method

create an image and observe what is wrong with it.

Images as Coded Debugging Output

Like visualize a vector as red, green, blue.

Using a Debugger

conclusion

Try to create some (visual) output/feedback, so the conceptual error can be seen. In practice, this is critical and can save a lot time for us.

Sound link

Soundcloud link

Arc of the sound

Some discussion drafts

Map