Tactile Playgrounds

WEEK 5

BALANCING RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTATION

RESEARCH ON TACTILE OBJECTS

A tactile reader gathers information in parts, rather than scanning an entire image in a flash. This means that the process of rendering a print image as a tactile graphic must follow different design principles. One has to think tactually, and set aside visual preferences; just because a tactile may look pleasing to the eye, does not mean it is readable by touch. What you see visually may look clean and uncluttered, but to the sense of touch, it may be near impossible to decipher.

Most tactile graphics generally require some form of simplification. The degree of simplification depends on the amount of information, complexity, as well as the type of information being conveyed.

The age and experience of the reader must be considered when designing a tactile graphic. Based on the student’s skill level, it may be necessary to limit the number of key symbols when assigning areas, lines, and points or to produce more than one view of the same diagram rather than trying to accommodate everything into a single tactile graphic.

MAKING THE TACTILE TEXTURES

A fast way to make tactile textures is to use hot glue. The textures were taken from this image, which includes a variety of them.

Process. Cutting the foam board into squares.

Process. Scoring the pattern on the foam boards.

Results

TECHNICAL EXPLORATIONS

Taking the prototype from last semester, the idea is to use the touchpad to trigger either lights, vibration or sound.

LED STRIP AND BULB

  • LED strip animation.

    I chose to use the LED bulb instead of the LED strip because I think the animation on the LED strip would be very distractive for VI people, and perhaps cause them discomfort or distraction.

VIBRATION WITH PIEZO BUZZER

  • The motor vibrates when it gets triggered by touch.

  • One of the wires detached when the motor was vibrating, making it not work anymore.

SOUND

  • The sound working with the buzzer. However, it's too loud.

  • The sound working with three different touch pads.

    The volume was adjusted by partially covering the buzzer to prevent it from being too loud. Initially, a piece of masking tape with a sponge wrapped around was used for this purpose. However, the sound became too soft, so due to this, only masking tape was used.

CONSULTATION AND FEEDBACK

    1.

    Research more on materials, tactility and objects studies.

    2.

    Bring the “system” (the technical) and “interface” (modes of interaction, experience) together.

    3.

    Find out how the feedback/behaviour will be when touching the objects (Lights? Tactiles? Sound?)

    4.

    Think about the design of the buttons and touchpad, as well as how the physical user experience will be.

    5.

    The setup is messy and difficult to work with and has a lot of potential points of errors.

INTERACTIVE EXPLORATION THROUGH PLAY

Rather than basing the empathy in my project on fairy tales, I intend to prioritise establishing an emotional connection between VI children and the tool through play. Play is not just fun and an entertaining activity, but it is a powerful tool for learning and development. Research indicates that play-based learning has a significant impact on neurological and physical development for children to develop cognitive, socio-emotional, and physical skills.

Play allows children to:

  • 1.

    Create, explore and master their surrounding environment.

  • 2.

    Develop new competencies that can strengthen the confidence and resilience they will need to face future challenges.

  • 3.

    Support children with special needs, as it provides them with opportunities to engage in meaningful activities and develop their skills in a supportive and inclusive environment.

WEEKLY ROUNDUP

I am a bit nervous about the possibility of not having enough content for this semester in my dissertation. My aim is to have half of the discussion section be about last semester’s work and the other half for this semester. Given that I am still focusing on the technical aspect, I am uncertain if I will have ample time to explore the design and conduct user testing.

However, despite these concerns, my project is progressing at a good pace. I believe I will feel more reassured once I have determined how the tool will work and make it actually work.