I N T E R A C T I V E  M O U S E  T O Y

Week Seven Summary:

Tutorial One:

Today we were introduced to our third project for the course and went over the brief. Our new project is about making a interaction which is controlled by our mouse, different actions cause different reactions and interactions. Ben showed us examples of past work and also explained in depth about interactions themselves, talking about how how the mouse can control a stationary object but it is an interaction when the reaction is unknown and surprises the user! Ben also told us to consider these three questions every time we consider our work,

1.) What is the user learning?
2.) How long does it take the user to learn the interaction?
3.) Once the user has learnt the interaction is it still interesting?

After we all talked we went through the processing website to find inspiration and look at examples of interactions to help us to think about our own projects.

These are the interactions I found interesting:

http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/63636

This code is actually written by a first year design student who took coding in the first trimester. I found it very interesting and exciting to use.

answering the questions:

1.) Learning that moving the mouse moves locations of the crystals
2.) It takes about 10 seconds to learn every different interaction
3.) It is still interesting after I have learnt the interaction as the crystals move in their own way and fee  like they have their own brains and they're alive

http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/8062

I love this interaction as it is so interesting and visually creates a aesthetically pleasant visual display on your screen>

answers to questions:

1.) learn that clicking the right click causes a vertex to go to the center and when let go it spreads everywhere
2.) It took me around 5 seconds to learn the interaction
3.) The interaction is still interesting as you can move the mouse around and create an unreal effect.

http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/157

This code dosnt have much of a mouse interaction but I just enjoyed the visual aspects of the design.

Answers to questions:

1.) Learnt that clicking the mouse made the cicles form faster
2.) Took me seconds to learn the interaction
3.) The interactions is interesting to watch as it feels as if it has its own brain and does what it feels.



Overall the research was effective as I have now seen examples which help me to start generating ideas in my head about what my next step is.