When I began my master’s program I was already confident in my ability to make physical products. However, I wanted to challenge myself to develop more technical skills, particularly in coding and electronics. This became a consistent focus throughout my master projects. I began in my first project by learning to work in Unity to create a mobile phone game. While this improved my understanding of software development and coding, I realized that I missed the hands-on, physical aspects of design.
This realization led me to follow courses such as Interactive Materiality and Designing User Interfaces with Emerging Technologies, where I improved my ability to use software and electronics as a tool to support the creation of physical products. These experiences helped me strike a balance between working with physical objects and using software and electronics to bring my ideas to life. During my third project I combined these skills with my proficiency in laser-cutting and CNC milling to develop the first prototypes for Slumber.
For my final master project, one of my main objectives was to deliver an accurate experience of Slumber during user testing. The primary challenge I faced was picking the right technology to achieve this goal. I accomplished this during the sensor exploration phase by delving deeper into the specifications of various sensors, testing and comparing their performance to determine the best fit for the project. This process gave me a better understanding of the tools I was working with and taught me how to effectively research and evaluate technology for future projects.
Relevance to Identity and Vision
Delivering accurate experiences is important to be able to truly evaluate a design with users and iterate on prototypes. Because of this, I put so much focus into developing my technical skills during my master. Being able to include more sophisticated electronics and digital elements into my prototypes is something that brings me a step closer to my goal of creating truly meaningful products.
