Reflection Essay

Theme chosen: Maker Technologies

Introduction

I regard myself as someone who is interested in both artistic and technical aspects of design. Before coming to Parsons, I worked as an automation engineer and data analyst. A lot of my earlier studies and works involve analysing larger scales of system data and business processes in order to derive new innovative ideas for automating repetitive tasks and designing insightful data visualizations for the company. Those training and experiences help me to approach a problem from a very systematic, logical and practical perspective. When I come to DT, I want to explore more on my artistic side of novelty and creativity. However, I always find it’s challenging for me to narrow my focus into one single area, as my interested topics vary from environment, politics, business, society, art, science, human communication, psychology, etc. During the first year, I decided to explore different types of design and design methodologies as much as possible, not limiting from graphic design, speculative design, game design, UI/UX, motion graphics, 3D modeling & product development and XR technology.

The Reflection of Past Projects

Among those areas I have explored, a lot of my first year projects that I am most excited about end up focusing on physical computing, spatial computing and XR technology. In my major studio 1, I explored the possible alternatives for data privacy management and designed a speculative future social media platform for managing the digital data and remains for individuals. In this project, I leveraged the features of virtual reality that could transfer the intangible 2D form of data into tangible 3D forms, to create a story of how we could think about our digital exists differently, hopefully it could help people to establish the association between the digital assets’ privacy with their physical assets’ privacy, and create a sense of ownership for their digital assets. In other electives I have taken, I explore mainly on physical computing in game design, and built a series of game controllers that explore the new ways of interactions between players and arcade games. As a person who is not a hardcore game enthusiast, I did gain a lot of knowledge about game design and also change my view about games in general. During the winter vacation, I participated in the MIT Reality Hack. During the hackathon, it was eye opening for me to learn about the newest XR technology including HoloLens 2, magic leap, HTC Vive, Nreal, etc. Our team designed an app using Vuforia AR to layer the key nutrition information on top of the original technology to help consumers to get rid of the marketing bias from the packaging. The app won the best use of Vuforia, it was very encouraging and after seeing other teams’ projects and possibilities that spatial computing could provide, I decided to experient my major studio 2 with the virtual space and surrealism art, where I designed a virtual tour experience using Oculus Quest that brings the audience into a world that inspired by movement of Dada and optical art. At the same time, I was working on a half-year long AR competition that is organized by Unity and SenseTime. Collaborating with a few other DTers, we designed a simulation and collaboration AR game called GalaxyClub that allows single and multiplayer to develop a planet and work together to operate a galaxy. This AR game won the best of creativity. Interestingly, we started with all sorts of possible ideas: communication, culture, medicals, gallery art, but ending up with designing a game that aims to bring people closer when the face to face communication is not available.

What’s Next

If I can summary my previous projects into a few key words, it could be interactive space, spatial computing, human communication, creative storytelling and aesthetic imagination. Although XR technology is a potential tool I want to continue to experiment with, I also have questions and doubts about the future development of it. Many times we keep being asked the question of “Why does it have to be XR?” We have already seen a lot of XR technologies bloomed in game development. But what about other applications in our communication, art, business, cultural movement and education? Those areas are not explored as much as the games. One of the issues I can see for now is that the user experience could be confusing. Take VR as an example, when a user is in a space that could be extended infinite, where is the boundary, how can the design make sure the user gets the expected experience? I don’t have an answer yet, but it could be a possible direction for me to explore in my thesis. Also, if work from home becomes a norm in future, how could XR technologies add value to our collaboration and help to bring people closer? What are the extra benefits we could expect in addition to our current video call, in what kind of form？Meanwhile, if our hand gesture could replace the controller eventually, will we need to create a new set of hand language to facilitate more effective communication? What about the feedback system and aesthetics for the future? I am uncertain about if XR will ever replace our current communication tools or even become mainstream, but there are a few areas I think are still worth to take a closer look at.