&Sara Johansson, Fredrik Nilsson, Pär Stenberg,

Paula ThorinIT University of Göteborg

Mapping Fabrics to Music: Lessons Learned

Sus LundgrenInteractive Institute (PLAY)

The Interactive Quilt: Original aim

The original aim of the Interactive Quilt project was to create an intuitive tangible interface,

which was at the same time a beautiful object.

The idea was to create a patchwork quilt that worked as a jukebox; the fabric of each patch

being mapped to music genres to give the user a clue of what type of song would be

played when touching a patch.

Outcome…

Mapping fabrics to music… or not

• We did user tests, asking 12 users to map 18 different fabrics to music genres– They didn’t agree!– Only two of the fabrics were easy

to map

Final design decisions

• Making loudspeakers more visible• Using more extreme variants of

mapped fabrics, e.g. actually using a piece of a pair of Levi’s jeans instead of the more anonymous pieces of demin fabric

• Unable to make the quilt ”beautiful”; the fabrics didn’t match vulgar approach

Two user tests

• First test at the IT University of Göteborg

• Second test at a café in the center of Gothenburg

• Later, more informal observations support these first findings

Test results

• Users were surprised that the quilt played music, and astonished by the fact that each patch could play several songs

• Users did notice connections between fabrics and the different music genres; however it was not obvious to them which fabric was associated to which genre– They could not predict what kind of

music a certain patch would play– This didn’t seem to matter!

Test results (continued)

• Users often interrupted a song to hear a new one, and they often pressed the same patch a number of times, trying to analyze the outcome

• If they liked a song the took a few steps back and stood watching the quilt while listening

Lessons learned

• Why were the mappings so hard to make? Well, we toyed with three highly subjective and ambiguous dimensions– The comprehension of fabrics– The comprehension of musical

genres• We ourselves couldn’t always agree on

which genre a certain song belonged to

– The comprehension of songs– (The comprehension of beauty)

Did we fail?!?

“The original aim of the Interactive Quilt project was to create an

intuitive tangible interface, which was at the same time a beautiful object.”

• Easy to use in the sense that all users quickly understood that the patches were buttons

• Intuitive fabric-music mappings? No!• Beautiful object? Well… :)

Real lesson learned

We saw it as a problem that the mappings didn’t work, but none of the users complained about this.

They just happily played on!

Surprise guests!

• Hallnäs & Redström (2001): Slow Technology – A design agenda for technology

aimed at reflection and moments of mental rest, rather than efficiency and performance

– There is a need for objects that challenge our intellects

– Slow technology should stimulate reflection, thought and exploration

Surprise guests!

• Gaver et al (2003): Ambiguity in a system may be a virtue… – …when the goal is to create

designs that are engaging, inspiring and/or thought provoking

– One way to achieve this is to create objects that are not clearly one type of object but rather a merger of two or more, making it impossible to classify it as being one or the other

Conclusion

• The ambiguity of an interface can, (occasionally?) be a strength

• A way to achieve this is to integrate highly subjective dimensions/parameters in a design

We are satisfied with the project and its outcome! :)

Thanks! Any questions?