“ Final Bachelor Project about informative wallpaper ”
I have used my final bachelor project as is an opportunity to explore the field of calm technology and in particular the direction of Information Decoration. During this project I have been looking at how to use wallpaper as a means to visualize information. The outcome of this project is a wallpaper pattern that informs you about your upcoming activities. Read on..
InVis-a-Wall (Information Visualization Wallpaper) gives you an impression of your life and all your upcoming plans. When looking at this wallpaper you will get an overview of important, exciting or special moments mapped over a longer period of time. This way the wall decoration gives you the opportunity to create anticipatory pleasure, in addition it can be a great mnemonic device to help you remember important dates. Since the data is being presented in an abstract way, other people will only perceive it as decoration.
For the final wallpaper design I have made use of thermochromatic ink, this ink changes colour when the temperature exceeds a specific degree. In order to demonstrate the concept I have made a silk-screen print of the patterns using this thermochromic ink.
The goal of this project was to do an exploratory study to investigate the possibilities and difficulties of using wallpaper as a means to visualize and communicate information. During my internship I have explored the field of Ambient Information Visualization (calm technology) as well as Slow Technology. Eventually the outcome of my internship project was inspired by the philosophy of Slow Technology. I have really enjoy working within this field therefore I had decided to use my Final Bachelor Project to explore this field even further.
I have divided the first part of the project into three separate elements: technology, information (what information to visualize) and visualization (how to visualize this information). I have explored these three elements separately by researching, benchmarking and brainstorming about these topics. For the next phase I focussed on combining these elements, crystallizing the concept and building a working demonstrator. Much time is effort is spend on designing the wallpaper pattern and making the prototype. At the end I have done a small user evaluation and have paid attention to the context of use and the market introduction. Below you can find more information about the process of the project.
In order to communicate and record my ideas and inspiration, I have created an inspiration & idea booklet for the project. Please click on the picture to see more.
In an early phase of the project I have made a small scenario in order to illustrate the idea. As you can see in the scenario (please click on the picture to see the rest of the scenario) the wallpaper is slowly changing over time as the activity is approaching.
I have collected a lot of different patterns to use as information and inspiration source. Here you can see a collage of the gathered patterns, if you click on the picture you can see the rest of the patterns.
This picture shows a collage of the pattern exploration for the final pattern design. This final design is based on the Gestalt philosophy.
This picture shows the final wallpaper design in the home environment context. I have also thought about other possible context of applications. Two of these examples can be found when clicking on the image. In the first example the pattern is used in a office environment and in the second example I have placed the pattern on the building of a cultural centre (in this case the Effenaar in Eindhoven).
I have used the silk-screen printing technique to make the prototype of the concept. On this picture and the next (these can be found when you click on this picture) you can see the process I have gone trough to make the silk-screen prints.
Here you can see a picture of the final prototype and the active scenarios. Please click on the picture to see more.