The UX of Skin | UX Studio Practices
29/10/20–12/11/20 (2 weeks)
📰Brief: Design a way to expresses the skin/world interface.
🤝Teammates: Tatiana Bohsali, Luchen Peng, Syana Nayar, and Sanjana Sanjiv Mehta
The First Stage
In the beginning, our group discussed what skin is and what features it has according to our experience.
In my view, our skin is a recording instrument that records and shows how we interact with the world through our callus and body scars.
To further experience my skin, I started to pay attention to my skin changes in different environments deliberately and deeply understand what Sanjiana proposed that skin is our body notification. Different parts of the skin are responsible for reminders based on different contexts. For example, when I am soaked in water for a long time, the first part of my skin responding is my fingertips, which wrinkle.
Sanjana and Tatiana devised a questionnaire around the idea of “ Skin gives notification” to explore the area of skin reaction. And I made an illustration to show the result.
We had several design directions and concepts under the full exchanges and communication and prototyped one of them.
(1)Skin is sacred, we need to protect it as it protects us
(2)Skin gives notification. It is like our postman
(3)Skin as a medium for propagation and multiplication
(4) Skin as a canvas to impress: skin as freedom of expression, but still within norms
Concept confirmation
After receiving the feedback from classmates and professors, we took “skin propagation” the ideal brought out by Sanya as the theme of our project. Sanya interviewed her sister’s feelings as a pregnant woman. Her sister said that she feels there is a whole world inside of her.
Extensibility and stretchability of the skin support the propagation of life in humans. It makes one connected to the whole world. A pregnant woman has the ability to carry a child with a growing womb because of a specific skin transformation.
Prototyping
We associated with Russian dolls based on this concept. Consequently, we devised boxes layer by layer around the idea of pregnant women feeling-the emotion of limitlessness. We filled materials with different properties between each layer of boxes to simulate skin touch. Looking at the certain properties of skin being stretchability, elasticity, moldability, and multiplication, we chose sand, slime, styrofoam balls, crystal balls as our materials,
Material experiment
During the prototype. I realized most of what we used were artificial composite materials, which were not environmentally friendly, and departed from the “natural law” we want to express. In that situation, we tried to start with ecological materials. For example, I recycled fallen leaves and mix them into waste paper, and tried to mix and grind fruits with different textures together. Due to the inability to achieve the effect that we satisfied in a short time, we gave up this idea.
Final outcome
We did a presentation and created a treasure hunt game for the class. Two participants need to find the note with poetry by means of uncovering each layer of the box. The whole poem appeared when all pieces of paper were found and spliced. Moreover, we attached a mirror as the “Easter egg” on the last layer. When the players reached the last layer, they will see themselves through the mirror. On the one hand, Using minor to express the infinity of skin propagation. On the other hand, we hope this way can further expound our concepts- “propagation of life in humans, that is how we are created.”
Feedback and Reflection
David expressed that it reminds his experience at the seaside, and we not only provide a journey for him and reflect our nature. However, processor points out mirror set up in the whole experience like a new language. If we want to develop this project, the key parts we need to improve is to experiment with other tools instead of a mirror. What is more, Condersing digital to abundant its playfulness is also a good direction.
At last, during this project, I don't think that many of the previous ideas were useless, They are possible to be integrated into the final result of the design unconsciously.
📕References
Kellett, Heidi, “Skin Portraiture: Embodied Representations in Contemporary Art” (2017). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 4567.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/4567
Anashkina, A.( 2018) The History of Russian Nesting Dolls. Available at: http://www.castlesofspain.co.uk/ (Accessed: 28 Dec. 2020).
