Prototype of the Tic Tac Toe game, realized in collaboration with Stephanie Dudzic (MFA 2014). In this interactive game participants can play Tic Tac Toe and create a music composition at the same time. Each shape has a unique sound. When put together, sounds create a sequence based on the order in which users placed a cross or circle, Spring 2012
these kinds of prototypes are built for highly developed projects. According to the authors the Integration prototypes “may need to be as complex as
the final artifact, they are the most difficult and time consuming to build. Designers make integration prototypes to understand the design as a whole ” Prototypes support the concept and help to communicate complex information. They are invaluable for explaining interaction design systems that are usually difficult to explain with words. As Houde and Hill emphasize: “What is
significant is not what media or tools are used to create them, but how they are used by a designer to explore or demonstrate some aspects of future artifacts.” In the following chapter I will describe the case study prototypes that I developed to support my research for social, interactive installations. Most of my work needed at least two prototypes before the final concept could be improved and fully developed. Additionally it was hard to count how many ideas were rejected just by simple interaction tests that are taken using nearby objects. Each prototype contributed to the final project. Observations made during interaction sessions are the basic foundation for this thesis document. For various reasons, the projects were completed on different levels of development. Most often the concepts were too complex for my programing skills. However, with each of my prototypes I managed to evaluate some aspects of my ideas. These explorations were an invaluable experiences for my research process.
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P L A Y FU L I N TE R A C TI ON S Designing Spontaneous Connections Maria Stangel