conclusion
Shuffle Space mixes various characteristics of installation-based design research, social networking, and designer-embedded interaction. It reaches location-specific audiences. Gathering recorded sound and written content from culturally relevant interfaces, the project reflects users’ voices and experiences, leading designers to deepen their studies of interactive installation. The installation, meanwhile, adapts characteristics from the dynamics of online social networking and maps out complex design issues during the exhibition. Whether working within a college, community, or another social network, designers then are able to examine their creative process for a richer experience or research value. For myself, this practice combines the process of design research with interaction design. The reward is the challenge itself. For the users, this co-created interaction provides an alternative channel between strangers they pass by every day. Shuffle Space exploits our habits of seeing the world in dual pairs by forcing us to trade one “side” for the other — and remeasure distance between them.
