Daisy Lu

A really productive talk, again! I went through an approximate timeline and what I plan to do next steps with Sarah. We added a “personal milestones” column on the self-track spreadsheet, which is very helpful 🙂 Clarifying about the “making” phase – if not ready to produce anything, results from interviews count as crafts.

As for the interviewing phase, she recommended me a few research communities & individual faculty/designers that I can reach out to, for example the NYU Aging Incubator that aims for improving health and well-being of older adults. According to the form that I filled out, she also provided some possible mentors that she can pair me with – leaning towards someone who is more knowledgeable about the elderly wellbeing concept instead of a tech/design focus since the latter can be more self-reachable.

Other suggestions she gave: when interviewing with elders (preferably in-person), bring existing AR/VR apps (can be any) with you and gauge their thoughts. How to compile better questions? She shared a link about user research; after I have the draft of questions I will send them to Sarah for feedback. Along with moodboard, also make a sketch (how you envision your final product be like, the setting, and how to use).

I met with Sarah today at noon, again, very helpful! I told her what stage I’m currently on, what my plan is regarding next steps and where I’m a bit stuck on. We also went through my starter bibliography and my proposal draft – Sarah left constructive comments on my doc. The key words are: BE SPECIFIC! Particularly with audience, physical context, specific use, the content of the work, the form of the work, problem to address, and hoped for outcome. I should try asking myself: what kind of elders? (eg. age group, ability) focused on health and safety instead of joy? perhaps a connected device to sort of track their health conditions?

Sarah suggested me to talk with some peers and to swap proposal for feedback, since their thesis are similar to mine, in some way. We could be inspired by each other! Because I’m not so knowledgable of AR/VR but Sarah is, she shared with me that VR is great as 1. a creative tool (ex. 3D modeling) 2. training simulators & educational (maybe training simulators for elderly?) Currently, my research area is quite broad with different segments of information, therefore, there can be many different approaches to my central question, so as the ultimate form. Sarah thought of a more user-research focused approach: gaining expertise by taking these emerging technologies to elderly (existing apps – AR, VR, Game), gather their perspectives, and modify/improve on one of the apps. I will definitely think through it.

Great conversation with Brian and Lane 🙂 really helpful

I shared my thesis idea with Brian and he provided feedback and possible next steps on how to narrow down the scope and connect those sub-topics together.

We also went over the proposal guidelines and now I have a clearer understanding on what to do.

It was also inspiring to hear Lane’s idea, she is quite ahead and already started the making process.

The last exercise we did was “5 minimum and 5 maximum specs for my project to get there”, which is useful to determine the priorities & direction.

I had a conversation with Sarah yesterday at noon. It went a lot faster than expected – wish we had more time to chat. We started off by me sharing a little bit about my background, work experience and the projects I had done in the IMA program. Sarah made connections between the 3 projects I shared with her (film RAIN, interface lab/creative coding Sea the Rain Lights, and connections lab Diary Balloons), and we both figured “weather” has been a consistent theme throughout my projects. I’m not sure if it’s intentional, but I realized I always tend to create something sentimental and personal. Some key elements in my work: weather, nature, mood, emotion, self expression, inner peace.

As for my thesis, I’m still a little unsure of what to do, but I shared with Sarah about the “elderly wellbeing” topic I did for critical experience. She suggested that perhaps I could extend one of my projects or combine them into a bigger project, and make it an interactive device or application for the elderly home & their social/mental wellbeing. Some action items: 1) take some time to ask elders (eg. grandparents) how they feel about the projects I did – not just the usability but what they bring/convey/solve. 2) did a couple of interviews to gather how they envision technology and its role in their daily lives. 3) research on experiences and products for the elderly, interactive forms & media of weather, and connected devices 4) dream review, imagine how a podcast would say about this product.

hhheeellllllooo 🙂