Imagine a tiny friend in the shape of a ball that notifies you about everything. Quite annoying, isn't?
This was a discursive design project, part of a course at the Royal Insitute of Technology KTH. The aim was to create a discussion or invoke reflection in the audience. After several discussion we settled for the topic "attention and notification" since we found it quite peculiar how all the notification sneaked into our daily livesand we the user seemed to come to terms with this flood of notifications. The task was to create a short movie which introduces the topic in satirical manner. To start a discussion there is a fine line between put into the drawer of art (on quickly been forgotten) or being too unrealistic.
Discursive Design Project
TopicLeisure
Used MethodsBrainstorming, critique sessions and supervision
Technology usedAdobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects
TeamCharles Windlin, Christoffer Lambertsson
My RoleStoryboard, Editing, Special Effects
We created a story about a tiny ball that notifies you about everything by hopping around and making noises. The concept was to show the excitement of such technology in the beginning, followed by a decrease of interest and increase of annoyance. The climax is the disabling of the device which leads into boredom and feeling neglected. Ultimately, the user gives in and activates the device again and awaits with great anticipation a new notification. Christoffer played the user of this little ball very convincing and we believe we could tell the story as we intended it to be.
Still image which shows the simple display of information
We had several sessions of brainstorming about a possible topics before we finally decided to focus on the attention issue. We circled around the issue of news consumptions and dilution of facts with myths and opinions. We came up with a few ideas but we felt we couldn't pin down on a specific issue.
After we settled for your final idea which we believed had the most potential, we started to sketch out a storyboard and quickly went into production of the movie. After the shooting, I editied the first draft of our movie and afterwards we finetuned it togehter. We showed this first draft the class. We gained insights about what to adjust which was mostly about timing.
At last I added special effect like the interface and the sound effects. The final version was shown to friends and random students at KTH. As mentioned before, the reactions had no surprise. People understood the issue but it didn't started a disscusion nor a thought process.
One of the first ideas: "The Newsredder"
A very brief storyboard and shot checklist for our movie
The pingpong ball was attached to a stick with a thin thread
Discursive design is a very delicate process for being successful. It takes a lot of experience to actually create an impactful piece. One might state that user feedback might help. Too much consideration of user feedback might lead to dilution of the message and might loose its bite.
I took part in the brainstorming and ideation sessions, obviously. Also, I was responsible for editing the movie, add special effects and sound effects.
A screen of the project in Adobe Premiere