Tangible Story

Tangible User Interface
1 week | Sep 2020 | Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design
1 week | Sep 2020 | Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design
Role: Ideation, Programming, Physical Prototyping
Tool: Arduino, P5.js, Adobe Illustrator, Rhinoceros
Team: Julian Jimsa, Richard Wecker
Tool: Arduino, P5.js, Adobe Illustrator, Rhinoceros
Team: Julian Jimsa, Richard Wecker
Project details: Design for meaningfullness, focusing on a sense of purpose and fulfilment in the long term.
Advisor: Vanessa Carpenter, Olivia Prior, Omid Ettehadi, Nikolaj Møbius
Advisor: Vanessa Carpenter, Olivia Prior, Omid Ettehadi, Nikolaj Møbius
Design Opportunity
Costa Rica is a Central American country with a strong family tradition. In-person reunions between immediate and extended family and friends are commonplace. Virtual engagement is also a fundamental part of their weekly social interaction using social media and messaging applications to share stories, articles, and conversations. As a fast developing country with a growing culture for use of technological platforms, some family traditions are changing in order to encompass a more modern and city-centered lifestyle. Due to this, family stories that are told in an oral way, may be neglected and disappear with time.
What if the reunion of modern Costa Rican families was marked by a ritual of oral storytelling?
What if the reunion of modern Costa Rican families was marked by a ritual of oral storytelling?
Tying modern families together through the practice of storytelling
What is Tangible Story?
Tangible Story is a set of devices which encourages the traditional oral storytelling and inspire contemporary families to think about the way we communicate today and to deepen their connection with their families.


A receiver on the wall

How does it work?

1. Receive a new story (light)
2. Listen to a story (light & audio)
3. Record a story and send (haptic & light)

Receiver
A light pattern signals the arrival of a new story. A person can push in the center of the device to hear the recorded memory, which will be deleted after it is played. The decision of letting the story fade away or preserving it by re-recording it into their own transmitter and re-sharing it, relies entirely on the family member.

Recorder is meant to be kept at home for use whenever a family member wants to share a story. They can record them and it will be uploaded to a cloud repository. Once a story arrives to the repository, it will be redirected to a receiver device in one of the family member’s houses.
Why Tangible Story?
Slow, traditional, and emotional enhancing purposeful communication
where users need to actively participate, creating meaningfulness and connection by the action itself. We believe that by allowing families to keep their stories circulating and alive, they are creating an inheritance for their future generations. In today’s society, our relationship with technology is based on immediacy. We expect both fast responses from our technology and technology expects fast responses from us. This has also come to play in the way we communicate with loved ones since the majority of our communication platforms are based on those same fast feedback loops.Rethink the current touch interfaces in technological devices

Hanging a receiver on the wall


Building circuit board using Arduino Uno


Testing the light pattern



Programming different light patterns