This post will show best practices and interesting projects, products, and services that benefit mental health.
Emotional First Aid Kit
“What if we treated emotional health equally to psychical health? This kit is designed for very different emotional scenarios.” – Rui Sun
Sun, a graduate of the MA Industrial Design program at London’s Central Saint Martins, developed a toolkit to cope with stress and provide comfort. The purple breathing mask emits calming scents when the user inhales, allowing them to think clearly in intense situations. The Indigo Third Eyeglasses have three lenses to remind the user to use their “third eye” and look at things from a different perspective, while the Blue Stress Buster is a portable speaker that visualizes sound with blue ink. Should the user get involved in an argument, the Green Meditating Stethoscope helps them tune into their breath and meditate, and a Yellow Confidence Booster is a super-light padded jacket that helps people who “lack the confidence to solve dilemmas or address a situation” [1].
Wakeout!
Apple iPhone App of the Year 2020: Wakeout!
Moving is proven to reduce stress, makes you feel more energized, and enhances your mood. Lots of people have no time to work out and spend hours a day sitting on a desk. “Wakeouts” are movements that are fun, brief, and can be done just about anywhere, anytime. The app has over 1000 exercises and hundreds of routines designed in a variety of places over 2 years. Quick Breaks are 1-minute, 4-movement routines that you start with a tap. Active Work Timer allows you to schedule recurrent active breaks to have a healthier workday. Wind Down routines helps you sleep better with relaxing routines before bedtime. Wakeout for Apple Watch lets you squeeze in 30-second Wakeouts right on your wrist. The new iOS 14 widget lets you start 1-minute quick breaks right from your Home Screen. Schedule up to 4 reminders to make sure you don’t stay sedentary for too long. You can also browse the massive library of location-specific movements and filter by mood (energizing, relaxing, intense, or fun), and by length (1 movement, 3 or 5) [2].
Naked Doorway by Marina Abramović
[4]
When I first visited an exhibition by Marina Abramović I was shocked – in a very positive way. Her works are dealing extensively with the human mind and intense emotions. Abramović’s performances deal with love, shame, inner demons, and the whole palette of emotions. 0ne of her most popular performances is the naked doorway where two naked persons, a male and a female stand in a doorway staring at each other while visitors should walk through them. I think it helps people to overcome their insecurity about their bodies and sexuality in general. Even though it’s such a brief moment, it definitely has an effect on many people who find it beautiful how this performance creates an intense experience with the outcome of learning to deal with the naturalness of our bodies. Its purity puts the human-being and their relationships in its simplicity into focus, which I find wonderful.
Therachat
Therachat claims to improve your mental health by offering Journeys which are bundles of evidence-based therapeutic activities to help you achieve specific mental goals. You can learn simple breathing techniques to cope with stress. As a sort of modern diary you can track your emotions to realize how they affect you over time. By reframing your thoughts you could break through common negative thought patterns.
The activity library:
Assessments
Brainstorming
Coping Skills
Emotion Tracking
Journaling
Mindfulness
Psychoeducation
Skill Building
Thought Reframing
Trigger Tracking
Therachat can be used by yourself or with your therapist. Using it with a therapist will increase the effect it has on you, so that you get more out of every session. Your therapist will be able to assign you custom activities relevant to your treatment and you’ll be able to securely message your therapist in between sessions.
Anxiety disorders expressed by avoidance are among the most prevalent mental disorders. Exposure therapy is one of the key components in cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) for this problem. The concept of virtual reality could be a groundbreaking success in curing mental illnesses. Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) allows patients who suffer from fear, anxiety, pain, phobias, brain injuries, addictions, and PTSD to enter a virtual world in which they are exposed to negative stimuli. The idea is to build resilience and emotional strength or distract the patient from their pain. The earlier a patient starts the easier it is to heal. Avoidance behavior can lead to an extreme so that it interferes with the quality of life.
The procedure
It is recommended to see a therapist first who helps you examine the origin and extent of your fears. Talk therapy should be the start of your treatment to prepare yourself for the upcoming experiences. Embedded in a larger therapeutic treatment VRT is applied in different stages. Users wear a head-mounted display system (HMD) with binocular screens, stereo sound, and a movement-tracking method to follow the shifting VR environment and the user’s head movements. In many cases, the user can move with manual control when appropriate, feel vibrations through a platform, and be presented with olfactory stimuli through a scent machine that uses compressed air to diffuse scented substances. The carefully designed virtual environment contains stimuli that have been associated with fear and in each state, those stimuli increase in appearance and intensity so that the patient’s body and mind can slowly adapt to the situations. In an exchange with your therapist, further modalities will be considered to cure you just right.
Treating various phobias with virtual reality exposure therapy [2]
Cognitive-behavioral therapy
The efficiency of VRE goes beyond simpler anxiety disorders, given that studies performed with panic disorder, agoraphobia, and social anxiety disorders have also shown VRE to be effective [5]. Combining VRET with cognitive behavioral therapy can make up for profound and sustainable healing. VRET could also help to examine the fears you have in the first place when you’re unable to understand the origin. If a child for example suffers from a fear of school the virtual world can help the child express what exactly frightens him or her. Additionally, the therapist could then try to propose different actions the children could take if they are in such a situation [3].
Curing PTSD with VRET has especially shown an effect for Vietnam war veterans. Soldiers experienced a reduction in their PTSD syptoms after being exposed to various situations that provoke fear such as jungles, helicopters or fighting sceneries.
Advantages
patient and therapist can share the exposure experience
the option of applying exposure and control over the stimuli becomes available
VR allows the therapist to individualize the exposure for each patient
VRET facilitates the evoking of memories that may be difficult for the patient to relive by complementing those mental images with sensory cues
VRET is especially attractive for the current generation geared towards digital technology
Disadvantages
development of computer programs and the necessary computer equipment are costly
the possibility of a system failure is always present and could interrupt a therapy session
the therapist has to be trained to use a VR system
VR concept itself may distract patients
the amount of sensory stimulation that can be used in VR is limited by current existing technology
Outlook
Momentarily, VRET is not as prevalent due to its costs and simple newness. Very few therapists use VRET as of now, while the infrastructure is not expanded. Probably the availability of VR equipment will increase over time not only because of its benefits for psychic treatment but also for the general interest in other sectors, such as entertainment or education. Clinical trials have repeatedly revealed that its effects persist after treatment and that it constitutes a valid alternative, or useful addition, to traditional exposure therapy. With the increasing prevalence of mental health assistance and the constant evolution of technology, the future possibilities for VR seem practically limitless.
A glimpse on the status quo of experiences with online meetings
Since I researched a lot in the theoretical background, I decided to make a short survey about the people’s experiences with online meetings. I got 36 answers from persons in the age of 18-40+ from different working fields (especially teachers) and also students. It was very interesting to see that most of the answers were nearly similar and that they fitted my personal assumptions I made beforehand. But let’s have a closer look at the survey and the answers.
The first two questions show key facts (age & touchpoint with online meetings) about the interviewees.
Answers to question 1: How old are you?
Answers to question 2: How did you get in touch with online meetings tools?
Answers to question 3: Which meeting tools do you use?
Answers to question 4: Which tools do you use for additional interaction?
Answers to question 5: Which is your favourite meeting tool for private meetings?
The last question about what is missing in online meetings was an open one so I got a range of answers. Because of their similarity I could sort them in 4 categories: Communication, body, technologies & environment related points.
Answers to question 6: Which three things do you miss the most during online meetings?
The table looks like the main issues come along with the communication but they are often related to each other (like reactions or exchange before & after a meeting). Furthermore the communication issues also depend on the technology point ‘talking simultaneously’. After summarising the answers I came to the conclusion that there are some key ‘pain points’ and also several factors that influence them. I made a quick overview to sort my thoughts about the main outcomes:
An important outcome I want to emphasise is the lack of simultaneity within online meetings. A lot of answers made clear that the interviewees especially missed the direct and spontaneous atmosphere of online meetings. Besides that the interviewees are not that often in touch with active interaction tools like collaborative whiteboard or life questionnaires which maybe could lead to a more direct and simultaneous meeting feeling. Another interesting thing is that the interviewees mentioned the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of an online meeting.This could have an interesting link to my findings on (virtual) spaces and I am looking forward to further research.
Key words: survey, computer-mediated communication, connectivity, cyberpsychology, digital social interaction, online meeting, remote communication media, telecommunication, verbal communication, virtual communication, web conferencing, web meeting
Sollte man eine Qualitative User Research mit einem persönlichen Interview durchführen oder doch besser eine Quantitative Research mit einer E-Mail-Umfrage? Oft ist es schwierig zu Wissen welche User Research Methoden man für den eigenen Prozess anwenden soll. Daher ist es um so wichtiger zu wissen, wann man welche Methode verwendet, um gute Ergebnisse zu erzielen.
Auf der folgenden grafischen Darstellung sind die gängigsten Methoden der User Research zu sehen. Die Methoden lassen sich allgemein in folgende Bereiche einteilen: QUALITATIVE, QUANTITATIV, ATTITUDINAL und BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH wobei manche Methoden auch überschneidend sein können, so genannte Hybriden.
„Natural use of product“ ist die natürliche Interaktion mit einem Produkt, hier gibt es keine genaue Vorgehensweise, sondern man lernt hier aus dem Verhalten der Nutzer. Es wird beobachtet wie das Produkt genutzt wird und führt aus diesen Erkenntnissen Anpassungen am Produkt durch.
Das „Scripted“ ist die szenarienbasierte Interaktion mit einem Produkt. Hierbei wird ein Proband mit verschieden Szenarien konfrontiert und sollte diese mit dem Produkt lösen.
Bei der „De-contextualized” hat der Proband keinen direkten Kontakt mit dem Produkt.
„Combination” wird oft dann verwendet, wenn es um die Testung der Konzepte geht.
Zu beachten ist auch, dass gewisse Methoden nur in bestimmten Phasen der Produktentwicklung angewendet werden können. Hier ist eine Tabelle zu sehen, die zeigt wann welche Methode in welcher Prozessphase zum Einsatz kommt.
Welche Methode in einem speziellen Fall anzuwenden ist, ist abhängig von der aktuellen Prozessphase und von den Fragen, die durch die User Research beantwortet werden sollen.
In our daily lives, we have access to countless objects, all of which can be replaced whenever we feel like it. Yet it seems harder to part with some of them. Who has never been reluctant to throw away a pair of shoes that have been worn for a long time even though they are damaged and worn out, and this without any logical reason? I propose to explore our connection to the object and how our emotions towards these objects impact our interactions with them and can make them awkward.
The place of emotions in our lives
Emotion is the manifestation of a feeling that provokes a disorder. Emotions are considered to be animal, complex, and irrational and tend to be contrasted with so-called human, logical and rational cognition, yet it is emotions that allow us to make decisions even if unconsciously. In order to better understand, we need to look at human behavior, which is largely subconscious. In general, when information reaches the conscious mind, many judgments have already been made unconsciously. It is the affective system that prevails and makes a judgment, it is the affective system that will allow us to determine whether an environment or a situation is safe or dangerous, for example. The cognitive system will interpret external information and give it meaning, while the affect which is the system of a judgment of the outside world can be conscious or subconscious. When we feel an emotion, we make a conscious experience of the affect and this allows us to attribute a cause to it as well as to identify its object. Let’s take the example of a 3 meter long, fairly wide board that we have to cross. If it is on the ground or placed at a low height we will do it without apprehension. Now if we take the same board and place it 50 meters above the void our reaction will be completely different. The reflected part of our brain will not see any difference but the emotional system, at the visceral level, will generate a feeling of intense fear. This example shows us that the affective system functions independently of conscious thought. This same system also allows us to make decisions. Contrary to what we think, it is not rational thoughts that allow us to make decisions, even simple ones, but our emotions. Cognition interprets and understands the world around us while emotions allow us to make quick decisions about them. In fact, if we go to a bakery to choose a cake, it is not logic that will allow us to choose, but affect that will tell us which cake will generate more taste pleasure. However, there is another parameter to take into account. Studies of emotions have shown that they originate at three different levels of the brain: visceral, behavioral, and reflective. The first one is automatic and defines what is good or bad, it is the beginning of the affect process. The behavioral level focuses on what comes out of the visceral level and improves or inhibits a behavior that will be triggered. The reflective level streamlines environmental information to influence the behavioral level. In our everyday life this is how these 3 different levels can appear:
When we go to a haunted house we experience visceral reactions of surprise and fear,
When we cut meat with a knife, we experience the behavioral level by performing repetitive gestures with minimal concentration so that we can cut ourselves at certain times.
When we play a complex music score it is the reflective level that comes into play; we analyze the score to play it and our fingers play instinctively.
It is essential to understand that the first two levels are subconscious, which is what allows us to do several things at the same time such as driving and thinking about something at the same time. These levels are therefore of paramount importance in the way we interact because emotions influence our behavior.
Last interesting point, these 3 levels can find themselves in opposition and take precedence over others depending on the situation and the person, that’s why we do not all react in the same way. A simple example, a year ago I made a skydiving jump with a friend, we thought about it at the same time and decided to go for it on a whim. We scheduled the jump two days before and from then on our reactions and emotions were different. At first, my friend was a little apprehensive about the jump, while I felt nothing but excitement and anticipation. On the day of the jump, she had no apprehension at all and wanted to jump, while I was scared when I got on the plane and started shaking and clenching my teeth and couldn’t control myself. Finally, we both jumped, a lot of emotions came up and the adrenaline and excitement on landing were immense. You can see here that the different levels did not arrive in the same order for my friend and me. She first felt fear, the visceral part at first, then the reflective part intervened and the behavior that resulted when the time came was only due to the excitement. For me, the reflection came at the beginning, when I programmed the jump but in the plane, the visceral part generated fear. We have just seen how emotions are created, how they are ours, and how they influence our behaviors and reactions, so it is time to think about how they relate to objects.
The generation of an emotion in relation to an object
Emotions change our behavior in a time that can be very short in order to give an immediate response to a situation that makes us feel positive or negative. When we are in a negative, stressed, anxious state, our brain focuses on one thing, the source of this state, and the emotional system is alerted at all levels so that there is a very quick reaction in case of a problem. Conversely, when we are in a positive state, we are open to what surrounds us, much more curious and creative. What does this have to do with design? This is it. A relaxed, joyful designer in a good mood is more creative. We can also ask ourselves how through their design objects generate positive or negative emotions? To do this, let’s go back to our 3 levels and link them to design, so that gives: visceral design, behavioral design, and reflective design.
What is the impact of emotions in the generation of awkward interactions? It has been proven through different studies such as Masaaki Kurosu and Kaoru Kashimura, researchers that the attractiveness of an object influences its usability.
Visceral design is what gives us a good or bad first impression and symbolizes the attractiveness of an object, which is personal to us and felt as soon as we see the object. At this level, the information about the object is already pre-made and preconceived based on its appearance, its touch, it’s feeling. Some time ago I bought a very simple object, a pen. It has no particular function, has only one color of ink, and is not refillable. So why did I buy it? This pen is a unicorn pen with fun colors that made me laugh, that’s all. When I bought it I didn’t think about the fact that it could be more complicated to use because of its shape and weight, nor did I think that its shape would make it impossible to fit in a pencil case and yet I don’t regret this purchase or complain about its use. The awkward interactions that I encounter with this object come from the characteristics of its appearance or as it is these same characteristics that pushed me to buy it I don’t think about it and I adapt myself.
Behavioral design is the experience we have of the object through its use. This experience is based on several things: function, performance, and usability. At this point, the positive or negative effects depend on the emotion generated by the use, was it frustrating or amusing? I’ve had various TV remote controls, one of them leaves me with a special memory. When I first had it in my hands I tried to turn it on by pressing the on/off button, until then everything was understandable, but nothing happened. I tried, again and again, to check the presence of batteries, the position of the batteries and try again. It took me a good 5 minutes of unsuccessful testing to understand that for the remote control to work I had to stay pressing the button for 5 to 10s. This experience was quite frustrating and after this one every time I used this remote control I found the ignition time incredibly long. Here the emotions generated by this awkward interaction made it unpleasant and unsatisfying for all the interactions with this remote that followed.
Reflective design is about the message, culture, and meaning of the product and its use. It is completely conscious and it is about the interpretation, understanding, and resonance of the object. The reflective level determines a person’s overall impression of an object. An object is more than its functionality, its value is how it meets people’s emotional needs, how it allows them to give them the image they want. Let’s imagine that I have a passion for cars and more precisely for speed, I have the opportunity to buy a very fast Ferrari car, I buy it for myself knowing that no matter which car I own the speed limit will always be the same. So I have a race car that I will never go very fast with.
Conclusion
The emotion and the attractiveness of the object have an influence on us, however we must keep in mind that this notion of attractiveness can be different from one culture to another. Does this cultural difference have an impact on interactions?
Definition, in progress
A Clumsy interaction doesn’t happen at the moment we use the object, it was there before and can come from the designer and his personal vision of the use of the object.
A Clumsy interaction can depend on the conception of an object and more specifically on the design of the experience related to this object when trying to manipulate it, activate it, make it work, and understand it.
A Clumsy interaction has several causes, one of which is mostly conceptual. When the origin of the awkward interaction is inappropriate and deliberate behavior, it is then a human error of the user.
A Clumsy interaction can be the result of a lack of curiosity.
A Clumsy interaction depends on the level and type of emotions the object will generate in the user before, during, or after its use.
Sources: Book: Emotional Design, Don Norman, 2003 Article: Les émotions dans le design – les trois niveaux du design, UX-FR
There is barely a product found in the supermarket which is as demanding as wine and about which can be told so many stories. Just one label is limited space on a bottle of wine which is very hard to bring all the information on the label that need to be told. So AR would especially for wine labels a good and helpful solution the show more details.
Yet AR is use for wine labels or beverages in general but more as a entertainmet application. Here are some examples.
While in 2020 only 1% of retailers said that they are using Augmented Reality (according to a report from Mobile Maketers) many of them did not realize yet that there are not only a chance of higher sales when using this technology to sell their products, there is also a lot of infomation the company can get from those application. Much user data can be collected by analyzing the use of the app and seeing which products are used in which environment.
Still 52% of retailers say that they are not prepared to integrate AR into their retail. They are mostly scared or simply don’t have time for the 3D modeling and photography which is needed to display the products in the application.
The growth of conversions with AR is high. To be exact it is arount 40%. It gives the user the confidence to buy with more conviction which means the return rate dicreases and also the satisfaction after the buy is higher.
Advantages for customer
On the other hand for the customer, it is made way easier to get to know new products in a realistic way. The customer can see if his expectations match witht he products which leads to higher post-purchase satisfaction.
To buy a product, a customer needs to be convinced of the product. 71% of the consumers say they would shop more often if they used AR.. Reasons for that are that they get a more detailed overview of the product and can imagine the product in use in a better way. They feel better and saver in ther buying decisions and are satisfayed longer.
When the customer shops in stores they have multiple more aspects and senses they can use to discover a new product than they have when online. They can see, touche and feel the product. But nevertheless customers shop more and more online because it is easier, they don’t need to leave the house and especially at Corona times it is way easier to shop from home. Those people will do online shopping and you probably can’t stop them. So why don’t give them a realistic and good experience at home?
At the same time, it is important to give customers in the shop a special experience as well to stop onlineshopping by everybody. If there is a better user experience in shops too, not that much stress as it is right now and having more individual consulation, there is a chance that more people will come back to the shops to buy there products there again. 66% of consumers in Japan want offline stores to offer AR experience.
How important it is for the user to get good information about a product is seen by another survey of Mobile Marketers where 40% of consumers said that they would pay more for a product that can be customized with AR.
In the last blogpost we had a look on how we as designers could use artificial intelligence (AI) in our work. For this post, we need to get back to the first question: will AI take over the world and kill us all?
I talked to my friend Michael Meindl, who is doing his PhD in the field of artificial intelligence. Right now, he is doing research on how robots and machines learn movement and how different parts of a machine can communicate with one another, just like a human body would to. He uses machine learning to make the communication within the system possible. His research will probably be used in the medical field, for example for prostheses. For me he is the smartest friend I have (though the competition isn’t really hard since I’m friends with lots of lovable idiots). I asked him what he thinks about the future of AI, what this means for us and of course if humanity will get destroyed by this technology.
He stated that if we look at how AI is discussed in the media, we are talking about the wrong matters and trying to handle problems which might never come into place. The thinking about AI is formed by sci-fiction books and movies, moreover, the misconception that a machine might have human attitudes or interest. The following article is based on the conversation I had with Michi.
Often, we hear about the crazy short time it takes for an AI to learn a new game. People consider this means that AI is a super quick method to learn things. But we need to take the years of research and programming into account. Even if you have two AI’s which play different games and want to merge them together, it takes years of work to get that job done. Also, the method of how an AI is learning new things, seems kind of odd when we think about it. If a human would want to learn how to play chess by playing it a thousand times and just trying out moves over and over again, to see if he can win the game like that, you’d consider him as stupid. But that’s what a machine learning algorithm is doing. Since we don’t even really understand how human intelligence functions, how shall we create an artificial general intelligence (AGI)?
Is this calculator an AI?
Back then people might have said yes, now maybe no. This example shows that the definition of intelligence is sometimes a very subjective matter. Some calculations we type in might be difficult to solve, but in the end this system just follows given commands. Is that intelligent?
We have kind of a problem when we think about the definition of intelligence. Actually, an AI just does what it is told to do. It follows given commands. This sometimes looks to us as if the system is intelligent. The real intelligent thing about this instruction-following system, is the algorithm which makes that system follow instructions. If a calculator doesn’t seem like an AI to you, then also a self-driving car shouldn’t. Just like a calculator, it follows commands and instructions.
The term prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, comes from the Greek and is combined from the words prsosopon for face and gnosis for knowledge. This condition means that people are unable or have difficulty recognizing faces. In other words, identifying or distinguishing people by face is not possible. Prosopagnosia, however, can also affect the ability to recognize objects, places, or cars in some cases. So it is a malfunction of the brain circuits. However, despite having this condition, those with prosopagnosia are neurologically intact and have normal intellectual, socio-cognitive and visual functioning.
These faces are meant to show what some people see who have this condition
Prosopagnosia is estimated to affect approximately 2 percent of the population and is considered a rare disease, as it affects no more or even less than one person in 2,000.
There are two types of prosopagnosia: acquired and developmental or congenital. Acquired means that neurological damage is the trigger, either from a stroke, accident or brain injury. Developmental or congenital means that the affected person has suffered from this disease since early childhood or has inherited it through a genetic connection. Most conditions often originate from birth and it remains for most or the whole lifetime
Managing life with this condition
There is no hope for a cure through specific treatments. That is why those affected often develop their own strategies for dealing with the consequences. To know who the other person is visual or non-visual information is learned. Visual information is body posture or certain characteristics like hairstyle or clothing, non-visual information is the other person’s smell or voice. But these types of strategies will not always work especially in unfamiliar locations or situations.
Cure
As mentioned earlier, there are no treatments that cure the condition. However, there may be techniques that can help some people who have developmental or congenital prosopagnosia to relearn the mechanisms of facial processing again or anew. For people who have this condition due to neurological damage to the brain, certain factors may determine whether recovery can be successful. These include the age of the person when the brain was damaged, the severity of the brain injury, and the timing of treatment.
Problems or consequences of the disease
Prosopagnosia can carry some serious consequences. A person with this disorder may develop an overwhelming fear of social situations and therefore try to avoid social interactions. Consequences may include problems at work and few social contacts. Depression is not an uncommon condition, especially when the condition occurs later in life. Remembering places, distances or orientation points can also be impaired, because this information cannot be processed properly. Some no longer recognize their own face. It is harder to follow plots in movies because the characters are not recognized. Problems such as judging the age or gender of the other person, not being able to follow the gaze or interpret facial expressions are also consequences of this disease. However, this does not always have to be the case. Many can recognize the differences, see if people are laughing for example, but cannot assign this information. A great number of people with this condition report that they fear to appear rude or uninterested, because they do not recognize the other person.
Treatments
There is a program for people with developmental or congenital prosopagnosia to learn how to recognize faces. The program works by showing computer generated faces of men to the persons with the condition. The task is then to divide these faces into two categories. In one category, the faces must be classified in which the eyebrows and eyes as well as the noses and mouths are closer together. In the other category, the same pairs must be sorted, only the distance is further apart. It is normal to need about two seconds to be able to classify a face. For people with prosopagnosia, it can take six times longer. The purpose behind this cognitive training is to learn not only to remember one particular feature, but to force them to remember the distance between the eyebrows and the eyes, as well as the mouth and nose at the same time. However, this theory does not work for all people with this condition. If these exercises are not continued, it is possible that after about three months this ability to recognize faces will decrease again. Nevertheless, it also shows that it is possible for the brain to acquire new abilities. Researchers believe that it is much easier for younger people to learn or acquire new things, which is why it is advised to start this program relatively early in the hope that the skills will be kept.
Program for people with developmental or congenital prosopagnosia to learn how to recognize faces
Another tactic comes from seven classmates based in France, who have created a company called CertiFaced to use AR glasses to help people with the condition. The idea is to use software to help identify people by scanning certain distinctive facial features. The principle is intended to work similarly to facial recognition used to unlock cell phones. In order to gain the necessary knowledge, they have talked intensively with this group of people and received a lot of constructive criticism. This project is still in the process of implementation and they hope to get the necessary funding to continue it.
Rare health conditions 31: infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy, progressive hemifacial atrophy, acquired prosopagnosia; and offering emotional and psychological support, Chris Barber (8.1.2020), https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/bjha.2020.14.1.15
Prosopagnosia (face blindness), o.A. (last reviewed: 1 May 2019), http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/face-blindness/
Face blindness program shows promise, Mark Roth (1.6.2010), http://www.post-gazette.com/news/health/2010/06/01/Face-blindness-program-shows-promise/stories/201006010140
Can technology help face blindness?, Lam Yee Man Nick (29.10.2019), http://medium.com/@lamyeemanick/can-technology-help-face-blindness-43ce845c9e75
In Part 1 of the topic Skeuomorphism in digital music production programs I talked about the little development of skeuomorphic design elements in common music production programs and their plugins for musicians and producers.
One of the effects of social and cultural change is that, for current generations, it is often no longer really a question of how the hardware works in detail, but simply of being able to get active in the selected area as quickly as possible and get started straight away. Music in pop culture often consists of digitally generated sounds, where the link to the original sound of an instrument is sometimes hardly recognizable anymore. What kind of access to the interface would be needed today that laymen or people without this presupposed access to analog music could use the interface intuitively, and does something like this already exist? What would an interface look like that is suitable for the complex demands of musicians and producers, but is oriented towards current design trends and new approaches?
For my research, it was also important to me to examine current music programs that may be approaching music production programs and their plug-ins with a modern design and a different, more up-to-date design. My focus is to look at other design approaches in this area and see what the possibilities are. I looked at the following examples from this field regardless of their exact function, intuition and interaction in the music industry. This was purely about new design approaches and visualizations in music production programs and plugins that stand out from the sea of similarity because of their visualization.
Example 1 | Arcade by Output: Arcade is a sample playground with a Flat Design approach and simple interaction methods. It uses a Spotify- similar design for music production and looks much simpler than comparable music production programs for this function.
Example 2 | Thermal by Output: Thermal is an interactive distortion plugin. It makes it easy to experiment and dial in new distortion sounds. A user-friendly experience is key to controlling the deeply powerful, multi-stage engine. A Flat Design approach is used for the modern and aesthetic distortion visualization, in combination with the skeuomorphic interaction tools.
Example 3 |Portal by Output: Portal is a granular FX Plugin. It also has a Flat Design Approach and rather simple interactions. The interaction tools are part skeuomorphic, part flat. It visualizes the granular sound like Thermal in a flat but in an interactive and modern manner.
The examples shown above provide an insight into how music production programs and their plug-ins can also look different. At first glance, it seems that the interface is much easier to use due to the reduction of elements and the visualization of sounds in this way allows one to experience one’s own composition visually as well. It gives a glimpse into the possible future and modernization of music production programs and their plugins.
Interfaces are getting flatter and flatter. New design approaches like the flat 3D effect of neumorphism go back to the skeuomorphic direction and give flat design a new direction. These very effects of “getting flatter” and “going back” lead to a loop in design where we constantly reflect old values and thereby come back to them in new ways. These effects require haptic feedback (at least in mobile devices), because the boundaries of an analog operable element blur in digital implementation. Haptic feedback means that forces, vibrations or movements are exerted on the user via the interface. This allows the user to haptically feel what he/she is seeing and doing through a digital interface.
Through my previous blog posts, I’ve noticed the opportunities and possibilities of using the modern and intuitive design elements of neumorphism and flat design for interactions, especially in the field of music production. It would be a great experiment to see how this design approach affects music production programs and their plugins. By potentially combining this with haptic feedback or sound for controls and allowing the elements to be flatter, but still maintain their sublimity and realism for interactive use, could revolutionize the design of music production programs. At best, the results would be improving usability and an overall better user experience. By incorporating the new design trends and the simplification that comes with “going flatter“, it would also be possible to make programs more easily accessible to non-professionals or amateurs in the field.
