Curious Displays | Julia Y. Tsao

Julia Y. Tsao

julia.yu.tsao@gmail.com

Introduction / PRELIMINARY RESEARCH / Ideas & Content / The Project: Curious Displays / Project Development / Experiential Prototype / Conclusion

THE TEXT WALL

The Text Wall is a design research project looking at the role of streaming, real-time media in the creation of a shared conversation space.

Two families participated in project as a part of a larger design research study. Using their cell phones, family members send text messages to an assigned number, which were recorded and aggregated by our data server. We were able to create our own application in Flash that assigned a color, size, and path of animation to each text sent to the server. Using a projector and a Mac-Mini that connected to the server's IP address, the sent texts were projected onto the wall inside the home. The goal was to create a semi-public space in the home that addressed the issues of family conversation, issues of public/private space within the home, voice, empowerment, and things unspoken. Many of the texts displayed expected behaviors such as using the wall as a message board, for storytelling, as a public journal, for self-promotion, to display emoticons and as a space for public complaints.

RESEARCH QUESTION

How can the introduction of a semi-public space within the home facilitate unspoken conversations within families?

OUTCOMES

Routines and behaviors began building and coalescing around the Text wall. The family members used the Text Wall to comment in real time on television programs. Texting to the wall also became a game where family members would compete to be first or last to text so their messages would remain on the board. THe family members stayed up late a night to watch the wall "clear" at midnight and rose early to be the first to text it in the morning. Notably, the family members gave the wall anthropomorphic qualities such as a name and a personal history. The most profound lesson was how "sticky" the wall became. In both study families, family members texted the wall even after it had been removed from the home. In both study families, the wall took on a life of it’s own. The families named the wall "Wally," and used it as a place to manifest thoughts, experiences, to tell stories, to share their lives, and to interact with "Wally." Their wall had been there all their lives, but now had a character and a life of its own. I love the idea of changing the perspective one has toward something that has been there forever, in this case, the wall.

TEXT STORY

The Text Story Project is a second part project that serves as a continuation of our research from the Text Wall. The data that came back from the Text Wall study was in a long list of messages in an Excel spreadsheet. It was, really, pure data, and very difficult to work with, to read through, and to in general gain and understanding of the families lives during the Text Wall study. The Text Story project resulted in a detailed analysis of the 3,000 some text messages from the Text Wall study. This project was invaluable as a reseach tool. By going through the data in such detail, and by utilizing media design strategies to visualize the information, we were able to gain a lot more insight and understanding about the participants in our project.