TABLE WITH A VIEW |
Photography:DB |
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SELF PRODUCTION 2007 INTRO The Table with a View is a bedside table with an embedded screen that displays views of nature. It offers the user the unique & exciting experience of waking up to a view of somewhere beautiful and remote. Accompanying the bedside table is a wireless camera which is placed by the user in an outside location. The camera footage is streamed live to the screen on the table allowing the user to lie in bed and gaze through a tiny window into a remote and secretive place.This peice was the outcome of an exploration into sleeping rituals, as part of my Honours year at University of Dundee. The Design Process that allowed me to arrive at this peice is sumarised as follows.
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RESEARCH The project started out as a people centered design investigation into domestic sleeping rituals. I was interested in how people prepare for bed? How people wake-up the next morning? And the role that objects and furniture play in such routines. What I aspired to do was uncover people centred insights around sleeping rituals that could inspire the design of interesting sleep related products |
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To
explore these issues I designed a Cultural
Probe pack to uncover fragementary clues and inspirational user insights
around behavourial, social and cultural issues, focusing mostly on sleeping
rituals. Ten packs, consisting of a disposable camera, sound recorder,
sleep diary and a visual questionaire were distributed to ten willing
participants, who engaged with the probes for 4 weeks, before returning
them to myself.
An overwhelming majority of the Cultural Probe participants engaged with the packs, particularliy the disposable cameras, which instructed participants to photographically record a broad range of sleep related issues.
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Along side the Cultural Probe based research I conducted experiments to pursue other design directions, like public furniture for sleeping , to use an example. What I was interested in was designing public park furniture to support siesta style daytime napping in good weather. As an initial step in this direction I anonymously placed a single bed, complete with bedside table and linen, in a public park and filmed the event from a secret location. The experiment intially validated the notion that the general public would engage with public furniture that facilitated sleep related activities. Although this idea was abondoned in favour with developing what became the Table with a View, public siesta furniture has merit and is something I would like to re-visit in the future.. |
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Intial
sketch ideas drew inspiration from the research phase of the project,
focusing mostly on making 'technology fit people' in a domestic sleep
related way. The following are a selection of ideas that immerged from
individual and group brainstorming sessions.
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After
establishing that the outcome should be some sort of bedside table with
an embedded vewing window we explored and refined the sketch idea through
'quick and dirty' prototyping. The first rough version of the table with
a view can be seen below left, which was built as a means of testing the
concept with a number of users.
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User
testing a prototype camera in domestic context, exploring how the system
would fit into people's everyday lives
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Simple experiments with screen maskings exploring how different shapes and tunnels could change the viewing experience.
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The final prototype was further validated by putting it back into domestic context in two households. The feedback from which was very positive - both participants expressing the experience of living with and using the product made their morning routines exciting and interesting. Participant B expressed that they particularily enjoyed waking up to a view that had been chosen by someone else especially when their wife placed the camera to 'film the sunday breakfast, so when I flicked on the Table with a View I could see my bacon and eggs cooking, infact I could almost smell them. |
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Final Prototype in beech wood with a mains powered and battery powered camera. The table features an on/off toggle switch and a tuning bar to allow the user to tune the veiwing screen to a number of remote cameras. If you are interested in purchasing the Table with a View please email info@mrdeanbrown.co.uk dimensions : 75 x 30 x 45 cm
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COPYRIGHT © Dean Brown 2011 info@mrdeanbrown.co.uk |