The Midterm Prototype
Developing the prototype was great fun. We wanted to go for a simple and sleek interface, echoing iPod simplicity. Building for a minimum of levers, buttons, handles and instructions. Once we settled on the general design, we all agreed that a cardboard prototype should be mocked up so we could see the size, think more clearly about materials and generally see how it felt to interact with the machine.
Critical to our design was stretchy fabric. We found a very able substitute that was ready-made for testing. Also, it came in sheer with a control top waistline. Very helpful. Sizing was also a concern. “Queen Long” seemed best suited for our testing needs.
The panty hose were too sheer, but would do for this first round. A small hand print would be inked into the fabric as a direction for hand placement.
We did find a nice quality Lycra that light would shine through easily to give the user feedback, but would remain opaque in the absence of any interaction. Since it needed a cleaning, we decided to wait until the techno-guts were closer to ready before a real Lycra “fitting.” The hand area would light up to confirm that the user had “downloaded” their question and possibly give the boolean response as a green for yes and red for no. The I Ching response lights would also shine through the fabric, but along the sides.
We are going for a white clean design-y box-like object. The only real control function on the unit (aside from the hand-placement area) would be the toggle for choosing to receive “answer” or “guidance” before casting.
Here is Leah's Blog entry for the project this week: http://itp.nyu.edu/~lg221/new_blog/