MA UX Blogs - Dirt

UX of Dirt Week 1

Isn't it just matter in the wrong place? ~ mary douglas

UX Studio Practices

Ritual Design

Team, research methods & Duration

Aoqi, Jade, Rui, Sarthak, Sakshi

Love Letter, Breakup Letter and AEIOU

4th Oct - 11th Oct

THE brief

"Design an embodied experience of dirt."

What is dirt? During our introduction to this brief, we came across the phrase that dirt is simply "matter out of place." This perspective fascinated us, and we began the project by discussing what dirt meant to each of us. Our exploration went beyond physical forms to include psychological and social dimensions.

Love Letter & Breakup Letter to Dirt

To explore further, we used a research method called ‘love letter & breakup letter’ to dirt, which helped us generate new ideas and directions.

Parasites as Dirt

The concept of parasites and how they make one "feel dirty" as a form of dirt was particularly intriguing.

Parasites can be physical, like leeches, which feed on the body and weaken it. They can also be mental, like guilt or jealousy, which drain our emotions and make us feel unwell.

We thought of creating a game to explore this idea. The game would look at how people respond to personal and social parasites. Would they help each other or stay away? How would feelings like guilt or jealousy change their behavior? We planned a life-sized board game to make it immersive and engaging.

Sample Game Idea

However, after discussing our idea with our tutor, we realized that a game might not be the best approach for this brief. Instead, we could explore creating an experience that is more specific and unique.

Pivoting to the Idea of feeling guilty as an emotional Parasite

A quick survey helped us identify emotions, triggers, and physical behaviors linked to feeling guilty. We found that being watched by a crowd pointing fingers significantly intensified feelings of guilt. Certain postures, like keeping the head down or sitting with a hunched back, were also common among those feeling guilty. This led us to examine medieval punishment methods designed to shame criminals and amplify their feeling of guilt (Hever Castle, n.d.).

Guilt Survey Insights

Punishment by public shame (Exploring GB, n.d.)

Scold’s bridles - Torture device (The Vintage News, 2016)

Making the guilt chair

We designed a chair focusing on this posture, emphasizing the feeling of guilt as an emotional & mental impurity.

Ideas & directions [sketches by sarthak]

We also tested it with a few people before presenting it the next day to gather feedback on our expectations versus the reality.

Claustrophobic

Forced to sit in a guilt-amplifying posture

Presentation & Feedback

Some people found the chair comfortable, contrary to our intention.

It was difficult to get out of the chair once seated, which matched our expectations.

Feedback indicated the chair conveyed the "UX of Guilt" more than the "UX of Dirt”.

my thoughts

For short two-week projects, we should avoid metaphorical thinking as it takes too much time. Focus on the specific subject, like 'dirt,' without distractions. Moving forward, we should use a physical form of dirt and build an experience around it.

References