2K-REALITY SAMPLER USER INTERFACES

RAPID PROTOTYPE EXHIBITION PROTOTYPE

Maschine Mikro MK2 Sampler Apple iPad 2

3.8 DESIGN CONCLUSIONS

In this chapter, I described and discussed my interpretive design process to answer my first research question: How can the Design Research Quadrangle framework be applied to design a sports technology innovation for pickup basketball?

I began my research project by developing a practitioner framework that articulated my personal design hypothesis—compliant sports augmentation. This process established my starting point for conducting vision-driven research and reflects Verganti’s viewpoint that the innovation of meaning begins by envisioning a personal hypothesis based on reflection and self- criticism (Verganti, 2017). Employing this approach was invaluable to my research project. As noted in Section 3.2.2, Nelson and Stolterman, and likewise Lawson, argue that first intentions are crucial to a design process; they can influence the entire process and are detectable in the outcome (Nelson & Stolterman, 2012; Lawson, 1980/2005). I found this to be the case in my research project. My compliant sports augmentation design criteria guided my vision-driven research and framed my design interpretations, and remain detectable in my 2K-Reality design. I urge designers to review Verganti’s Overcrowded: Designing Meaningful Products in a World Awash with Ideas (Verganti, 2017) before they consider utilising the DRQ framework.

My vision-driven research, or exploration to interpret new meanings, revealed the ubiquity of NBA mimicry and make-believe in the cultural practice of pickup basketball. Although I found NBA make-believe to be a compelling design opportunity, I did not know if, or how I might exploit this significant practice, until a coincidental event prompted my application of bricolage, the critical moment in my design research process.

As noted in Section 2.5.2, Norman and Verganti state that the results from tinkering, or bricolage, are “completely accidental” (Norman & Verganti, 2014, p. 93). I tend to disagree. I suggest a designer conducting vision-driven research can promote the possibility of bricolage by following Löwgren and Stolterman’s recommendation to analyse a repertoire of example artefacts relevant to a design situation (Löwgren & Stolterman, 2004). A designer, like a bricoleur, can choose an inventory of objects to tinker with, such as technology products. Interactions with these objects are events from which bricolage can create a structure in the form of an artefact (Louridas, 1999). A designer’s choice of objects and environments will influence the type of interaction events that may prompt the creation of structures—or design artefacts. The generation of my 2K-Reality idea was not ‘completely accidental’; intentional vision-driven research conducted in a conducive playspace provoked the coincidence that generated my 2K-Reality idea. As Louridas explains, “Bricolage is … at the mercy of contingencies, either external, in the form of influences, constraints, and adversities of the external world, or internal, in the form of the creator’s idiosyncrasy” (Louridas, 1999, p. 520).

My first application of design-driven research was principally an extension of my bricolage process. I continued my initial act of hacking to transform the 2K-Reality idea into a meaningful prototype I could test in situ. I attempted to create a system that would expand the ‘pretending to play in the NBA’ make-believe Reality Principle. To achieve this, the 2K-Reality rapid prototype

would have to afford the performance of NBA soundscapes that realistically simulated NBA videogame and NBA TV broadcast sound design.

As Louridas also explains; the final result of bricolage “is never an ideal fit to the requirements of the project” (Louridas, 1999, p. 519). By conducting urban probe HCD research as a participant- observer, I was able to evaluate the deficiencies in the 2K-Reality rapid prototype that diminished the ‘pretending to play in the NBA’ make-believe Reality Principle that 2K-Reality was designed to exploit and expand. The 2K-Reality rapid prototype created an experience that was “not real enough”, as one questionnaire respondent put it.

My HCD research findings indicated that 2K-Reality needed a less intimidating and more approachable sampler interface and a simplified technology configuration. Also, software capable of managing a greater variety of audio samples, that could automatically alternate audio samples, and provide controls for trajectory-specific commentary sounds. I applied a second design-driven research process to address my HCD research findings and then conducted additional urban probe HCD research. My second 2K-Reality prototype afforded the performance of soundscapes that simulated the sound design of NBA videogames and NBA TV broadcasts more realistically.

To conclude, Norman and Verganti suggest that connecting the research approaches in the DRQ framework often produces a particular pattern, whereby vision-driven research leads to design- driven research, which leads to HCD research (Norman & Verganti, 2014). I agree this pattern is likely; however, I suggest that applying the DRQ framework is not a linear nor straightforward process. From my experience, it’s likely to involve multiple steps that require a designer to reapply the different approaches. Furthermore, I argue that designers should consider applying vision- driven research throughout a design process that utilises the DRQ framework; an envisioned new meaning may be enhanced by continuously seeking knowledge by means of explorative interpretation. My continued explorative interpretation of pickup basketball sociocultural factors helped me to understand the connections 2K-Reality urban probe participants made with other NBA entertainment experiences; and therefore, the potential meanings they ascribed to the 2K-Reality experience.

In this chapter, I have described and discussed how I designed the two 2K-Reality prototypes by applying Norman and Verganti’s four types of interpretive design research. In the following chapter, I expand upon my HCD research process by reporting the urban probe studies I conducted to evaluate how people used 2K-Reality and how audiences responded to the 2K-Reality experience.