Break - homework

Over the break we were asked to present research on
- An individual who is in a specific situation regarding their Wellbeing . . or
- A human made (manufactured or social, etc) experience that addresses a persons Wellbeing

I found this really interesting article on Shallow Interaction Design (something I'd never heard of before) but found really interesting so decided to present this when we return.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/03/getting-disconnected-shallow-interaction-design-deeper-human-experiences/

I prepared 3 slides as per the instructions and wrote myself some notes as to what I was talking about on each slide:

 

I looked at improving wellbeing in terms of connection after being inspired by the article Getting (dis)Connected: Shallow Interaction Design for Deeper Human Experiences by Jes Koepfler & Kieran Evans. It contained a great introduction to the idea of Immersive vs. Shallow Interaction Design.

Immersive Interaction Design promotes deeper engagement between the human and the technological interface and immerses you in the technology rather than encourage you to connect with others in real life. Immersive design encourages users to stay in the application by creating nested content (image).

Shallow Interaction Design on the other hand promotes surface level interactions with technology to minimize distraction. It focuses on getting technology out of the way to support social interaction by keeping the experience and content shallow, meaning the content always originates from a single source point.

The design task that they demonstrated this concept with was their task to create a digital tool that supports a face-to-face roleplaying game for audiences 14 and over around disaster resilience and emergency response. The important thing for this brief was that in order to combine digital and human interactions they recognised that they needed to harness shallow interaction design. As ideas developed and the technological aspects became greater, it was important to reflect on their decisions, and they realised that in a real disaster situation technology and communications are often first to break down so they needed to keep iterating to a point where the technology component was only involved when absolutely necessary, and the iterations for this are still happening.

What I acknowledged could be useful for me to take forward was to keep in mind whether technology benefits the message. This is especially critical in my brief where I am dealing with elderly people. I also took on board the importance of continuing to reflect on and iterate ideas and methods. I compiled a neat list for when to consider Immersive Interaction Design and when to consider Shallow Interaction Design. Immersive Interaction Design is most useful when the primary goal is to connect people with technology, for social experiences that are designed to happen online, and for content heavy experiences. Shallow Interaction Design is more useful when the primary goal is human interaction, for social experiences designed to happen in person, and for content-light experiences.