A theme like "Invisible Sweethearts" raises a lot of interesting questions. Invisible – but as in what? As in unknown, hidden? Or as in simply not visible, but still something you can hear, feel, smell, touch? Or invisible in the sense that it is not clear, explained, but discrete and fuzzy? And sweetheart… who or what do you love? A person? A hobby? A drug? How do you show it? How do you hide it? Or the other way around, how do you make someone show their affection of something? Or - how do you make someone love you, perhaps despite the fact that they already love someone or something else?
Yes, “Invisible Sweethearts” is the theme of the project. We do not know what it means – that will be up to you to find out, perhaps by answering the questions above or coming up with new ones. Your task is to come up with a design that addresses this issue in some way. You decide upon context, users and their target group yourselves (these may differ; e.g. the users may be left-handed, red-haired taxi drivers trying to persuade a target group consisting of elderly blind ladies with tiny dogs!), and of course you decide upon your project idea in general.
In any case you could design a wide array of things within this theme. A game, some piece of code making you popular on Facebook, or a handheld device for displaying affection. The opportunities are endless...
Demands
However, there are a few demands. Your project should...
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Design a Persuasive Technology – i.e. use technology to change someone's behavior or attitude (without using force or lying). Whether this behavior/attitude is de facto changed must also in some way be possible to test and measure. |
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Be based upon some kind of testing. Either empirical testing of the major persuasive concept, before the design, to steer development, or in the form of an extensive research proposal in the report, focusing on how to test the final suggested design. |
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Involve Ambient Technology – use subtle and peripheral ways to affect users. |
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Take a clear aesthetical stance, i.e. to provoke, evoke certain emotions, be functional, be critical, be playful, involve the entire body or something else |
Deliverables
See the Schedule to check out what will be delivered when.
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Process documents (set of project ideas, project description, project plan etc.) |
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A Project report where you describe
concept idea, scientific background as basis for concept rationale, design methods and design process, working methods, design rationale including aesthetics, description of testing, descriptions of design improvements, analysis of the project and a discussion. |
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Some kind of Prototype. You decide yourselves how elaborate your prototype is. It can be anything from a very detailed concept description (containing filmed scenarios or user stories in combination with different types of mock-ups/dummies etc.), to a fully working prototype in form of a program, game or device. It very much depends on your project idea. |
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An individual Contribution Report from each group member. |
GROUPS AND SUPERVISION
The projects will be carried out in groups. The ideal scenario, which we are aiming for, is to have two group members from Eindhoven and two from Gothenburg, but if that doesn't work out some or all groups may get another constellation. Each group will have two supervisors, one in Gothenburg and one in Eindhoven.
GRADING
These are the criteria for grading (and of course also for winning the contest) and how they are weighted:
Concept idea (creative, original idea, with a clear hypothesis on
how persuasion might be carried out ): 25 %
Work process (planning, execution of planning, ability to meet
deadlines, ability to counter unexpected events if any): 10%
Prototype (quality, complexity): 25%
Project report (scientific background as basis for concept rationale, design rationale including aesthetics, description of testing, descriptions of design improvements and further testing, argumentation, writing skills: 35%
Presentation: 5%.
Individual grades will be based on the performance of the individual within the team. That is, the grade of the project is the grade for each group member, corrected with evidence about the process of running the project which might indicate that a person has contributed significantly more or significantly less than the other team members.
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