Year

2017

Deliverables

Research paper
Prototype
Video

Expertise Area

User & Society
Technology & Realization
Creativity & Aesthetics

Project 2: GGD LIGHTING INTERFACE

The “GGD Lighting Interface” is an interface developed with the purpose of making it easy for employees to incorporate their own light preference in a shared working space. The interface is designed for the GGD Brabant Zuidoost who are switching their existing lighting system to a digital connected one. The final design consists of a tangible interface that is placed next to a group of tables and is in direct connection with the lights above these tables. The way the system is designed eliminates awkwardness between employees. The system uses an NFC scanner, which enables every employee to quickly set their own preference. The quick and simple interactions do not disturb the workflow and therefore make the interface ideal in working spaces like the GGD offices in Eindhoven.

My reflection about the project

Compared to work I have done before this project gave me a lot more freedom, however with this I also felt it meant I had to give more effort because of this freedom. I therefore tried to work more structured than I have before, as well as to give more effort in discussing than I have before. Beside developing my areas of expertise I also had a more personal goal set for this project. Before starting the project I felt that I lacked when it came to giving input and discussing during the early phases of the design process. Therefore I wanted to develop myself more to be more active in working in a group as well as say more during the phase of creating ideas and stay active throughout the project. To say that I accomplished my goal I find difficult as it is not something I can really measure, however I will say that I think the goal was reached according to myself somewhat. It can definitely still be improved more however compared to previous experiences I would say I made improvements.

For the project in general I also wanted to work more efficiently and structured. Something I noticed with working in groups is that often we would fall behind schedule severely or have to do most of the work at the last minute. This time it went a lot better. By creating a schedule and reminding myself, being reminded by the others and vice versa we stayed on track. Beside my personal goal I also worked during the project on certain areas of expertise. During the early phase of the design process and before the final design I worked on the area of User and Society. This was done by creating ideas with the help of papers, scenarios and personas as well as helping with questioning during the user test. I think my development in this area was the most visible as the project gave a concrete target group from the start and during the process this group was constantly kept in mind. The only thing that I find unfortunate is that I didn’t have the opportunity to directly talk with people from this group; the scenarios, personas I helped make and user test questions seemed to be the closest thing to the real group. I think by creating these things I learned how to do them better and what to avoid for the next time.

Furthermore during the project there were opportunities to work in the area of Creativity and Aesthetics. While I didn’t focus much on this area I still got to work on it. The posters for the project were a chance to work on my skills within the area. In the beginning I did struggle a bit as I felt a bit stuck in creating it in one way. This was mainly because I wasn’t focused. However I managed to improve at the end and also received help within the group. I learned what to do next time I get a task like this and how to avoid problems. Beside the posters there was also the design of the interface which was within this area.