Socially Tangible Media

Bridging interactive media and product design

by E. Giaccardi & M. Schouwenaars

Introduction
This booklet describes how we teach students to design with data and through
objects, aka the Internet of Things, as a way to facilitate meaningful opportunities
for social communication and interaction.

Introduction

Course set-up

Guest Lecturers

Experts

Design themes

12

Design strategies

16

Student Design Processes

20

Conclusion

44

According to Internet World Stats,

more than 2 billion people use the
Internet today to share data and
communicate through different
online media. Cisco predicts that
there will be 25 billion devices
connected to the Internet by 2015,
and 50 billion by 2020. As reported by
Intel, cars will account for more than
23 million connected devices by 2016.
This means that a growing portion of
the connected devices we will use to
communicate and interact will be an
everyday objectthings.
Living in a digital world where
everyday objects, digital services
and human beings are increasingly
interconnected is a fundamental
challenge for interaction designers
today. Taking on this challenge
requires more than an understanding
of how people behave. It requires
an understanding of the social life
of objects in the context of human
practices.

The aim of this course is to sensitize

students to the relationship between
the social practices we develop in a
connected world and those practices
we develop through material artifacts
in the physical world.
Through a rapid and iterative
exploration of different design
strategies, students become aware of
the role that a physical object can play
in a digital network and learn how
to design the qualities of interaction
with a physical object that connects to
social data.

Course set-up

Socially Tangible Media is half

a semester Master course at the
department of Industrial Design.
The course content is developed
through three design cycles. Students
produce one design concept by
applying a different design strategy at
each cycle, for a total of three design
concepts. Concepts are developed
according to the same chosen theme,
in order to compare and contrast
design strategies.
Each design cycle begins with a kickoff workshop. Kick-off workshops
help students familiarize with novel
design strategies and begin the idea
generation process.

The aim of the course is to teach students how to select and apply different Internet
of Things design strategies during a rapid and iterative design process.

The course consists of a series of

individual design activities and group
critiques in support of idea generation
and conceptualization. Reviewing and
blogging are encouraged as a means
to develop a critical understanding of
the state of the art.
The outcome of the course is a set of
three design concepts. These concepts
are illustrated and presented as a
coherent set in a final exhibition.

Elisa Giaccardi is Professor of Interactive Media Design at

Delft University of Technology. She has lectured and coached
students in Europe and the United States. Her early work
on metadesign has provided a pioneering framework to
weave digital media in everyday life by allowing people to
participate in the process of invention of the world (i.e., an
approach manifested today in social media, web 2.0, and
localized manufacturing). Her research in Design for the
Connected Everyday expands this vision and breaks new
ground in how to bring digital data and networks to fit more
neatly around our lives. She received the IDE Pluim Award
Most Inspiring Teacher in 2014 for teaching about the
Internet of Things.

Marcel Schouwenaars is an industrial designer, maker,

developer and a technophile. Two years ago he co-founded
The Incredible Machine, a design consultancy focusses on
connected products. He and his team help companies invent
new concepts that explore opportunities in connecting
products, spaces and services. Because this novel field has
yet to establish its archetypes and interaction patterns, they
prototype their ideas in the earliest stages of innovation. If
seeing is believing, then experiencing is understanding.
Marcel and his team have worked on next generation play
experiences that blend the border between toys and games,
the challenge of bringing brick and mortar retail to the 21st
century, and the very concept of modern day air travel. Their
clients include Lego, Philips and Rabobank.

Guest lecturers
Larissa Pschetz is an interaction designer at Design Informatics,
University of Edinburgh. She is currently pursuing a Microsoft
Research funded PhD. In her research she focuses on the role
of design in challenging cultural assumptions about time and
uses robots, alternative clocks and hacked domestic objects to
influence everyday rhythms. She previously studied Interface
Design at University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, Germany
and worked as an interaction designer at IXDS in Berlin, HID
in Hamburg and IBM Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Valentina Rognoli is an Assistant Professor in the Department
of Chemistry, Materials, and Chemical Engineering Giulio
Natta at Politecnico di Milano, where she conducts research
activity in the field of materials and design. She is also a
Lecturer at the School of Design of the Politecnico di Milano.
After two years at Enzo Maris studio in Milan, in 2000 she
stars her academic career with a focus on materials and their
expressive-sensory dimension. Her current research topics
delve into materials experience, design and material education,
imperfection, making and repair.

Stacey Pitsillides is a PhD candidate in Design at Goldsmiths,

University of London, a Visiting Lecturer in the Creative
Professions and Digital Arts Department at the University of
Greenwich, and a freelance consultant for Stromatolite Design
Research Lab. In her research, she explores how technological
aesthetics are framing our understanding of the future, and
probes alternative approaches to how the future might feel
through textural explorations and haptic design interventions.

Experts
Ianus Keller is a product and interaction designer specialized
in blurring the lines between the physical and the digital for
his design consultancy For Inspiration Only. He holds a PhD
(Cum Laude) from the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering
at the Delft University of Technology. He presented his work
and work from his students for international design projects
atApple, Microsoft, Intel, HP and Wacom. Since 2008 Ianus
organizes the lecture series This happened, exploring the
making of interactive design projects.

Dennis de Bel graduated in June 2007 as an Interactive Media

designer at the Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam.
In June 2009, he completed the Master Media Design and
Communication at the Piet Zwart Institute, also in Rotterdam.
Currently, he is teaching at the Willem de Kooning Academy,
and creating his own works under the Dilly Dally Foundry
label.

Gordon Tiemstra graduated in Industrial Design at Eindhoven

University of Technology. He is partner of the Afdeling
Buitengewone Zaken (Department of Extraordinary Affairs).
The Afdeling is a design agency with a human-centered
approach that helps organisations to innovate. At the Afdeling,
Gordon works at the cross-section of design, engineering and
social science on propositions for societal challenges. Together
with the team at the Afdeling he explores new and unknown
fields, creating both digital and physical systems.

10

11

Design themes provide the boundaries for students to explore the challenges of the
connected everyday. Within the chosen design theme, students decide on a specific
problem to address.

Design themes

theme

theme

theme

NUDGING
CHANGE

REDUCING
COMPLEXITY

FOSTERING
CONNECTEDNESS

As we become more aware of the

impact of our behavior (on the planet
or our own health), so do objects.
Objects are not what they used to.
Part data and connected to databases,
products spy on us and demand us
to take better care of ourselves or be
more environmentally responsible.

Through digital interaction, we have

become ubiquitous. We sustain
multiple relationships with many
people, and we continually grow
our shadow of datadata about our
connections, our interactions, our
patterns of use.

Life has become more mobile, at

times more disrupted. Our need for
connectedness has grown beyond
the brief moments of interpersonal
communication
enabled
by
information and communication
technology.

Products can exude authority

and exhibit an obvious sense of
righteousness, or rather play an
empowering, inspiring, encouraging,
and soothing role in order to stimulate
desired actions when necessary.

This complicates our relationships.

It challenges our perception and our
ability to interact in ways that are
commensurate to the possibilities
emerging from the potential of
people and things connected across
networks.

Within this theme, students explore

how connected objects can influence
behavior and nudge change, from
issues of sustainability (e.g., wasteful
use of products or materials) to
physical health (e.g., eating unhealthy
or not working out).

Within this theme, students explore

how to reduce the information
overload, pace media consumption,
manage growing social connections,
bring online practices to fit more
neatly around our daily lives, and in
general slow things down.

Do you have your mom as a friend on

Facebook? Did that bring you more
together? Probably not as much as you
or your mom wished for. Its because
this is not the platform that facilitates
a meaningful conversation between
family members. On the other hand,
ambient concepts from the past are
feasible today, but would you actually
be stroking bowls to connect with
your brother?

12

Within this theme, students explore

connectedness with a mind of
today, from families to elderly to
neighborhoods.

13

14

15

Different design strategies have been distilled for students to compare and contrast.
Each design strategy has merits and limitations. Exploring these merits and
limitations in the process of developing a design intention and an appropriate
solution to the problem, helps students learn how and when to apply each design
strategy.

Design strategies

strategy

ORDINARY
PRACTICES

This design strategy teaches students

how to capitalize on the mundane
activities people perform on an
everyday basis.
Mundane activities and ordinary
objects enable students to tap
into existing interactions, without
(necessarily) requiring an explicit
action on the users part. This can be
useful when wishing to bring online
and offline practice in-flow and keep
the product unobtrusively in the
background.
Unpacking and tapping into ordinary
practices also provides a rich set of
elements to choose from and use in
the design, which may not be usually
considered. Objects are not isolated
material artifacts but are embedded
in and across a variety of everyday
practices. A kettle is not merely a tool

16

for boiling water, it is a tool for making

tea for friends, boiling pasta to feed
a family, making a liquid detergent
to keep ones home clean. This can
be useful when seeking innovative
solutions.
By
designing
practice-oriented
products, students learn how to
create new and unexpected ways of
connecting to digital networks while
maintaining local interaction in focus.

be the expression of a personality,

meant to add another dimension
to the product. It might also be the
expression of a kind of agency within
the product, allowing for different
and more situated expressions of
intelligence.
By employing a character within a
connected product, students learn
to discriminate when it is preferable
for the object to simply exhibit a
personality or to actually manifest an
agency of their own.

strategy

ANIMATED
THINGS

This design strategy teaches students

how to bestow inanimate objects with
agency and personality, and when it is
appropriate to do so.
Connected products (and families
of products) can display a kind of
animism in their appearance or their
networked interaction, giving the
design a certain character. This might

strategy

MATERIAL
TRACES

This design strategy teaches students

how to use material traces as a texture
for communication and interaction
through and with objects that are
connected to digital networks.

inscribes a story. Interactions with

materials result in alterations,
imperfections and ultimately unique
objects, which carry traces of time
and life.
Traces that leave patterns suggesting
force and repetition, and are on
imperfect surfaces (of natural
materials in particular) are often
perceived as a form of maturity of the
objectand they can be intuitively
interpreted.
By facilitating a way for the desirable
aspects of those traces to be made
deliberately upon objects by those
interacting with them, students
explore a new direction for designing
connected objects.

Whether deliberate or unintentional,

every crack and scratch that materials
manifest as we interact with objects

17

18

19

Student design processes

A key ring and house number plate bring neighbours

together by hinting at what they have in common.

theme

strategy

NUDGING
CHANGE

ORDINARY
PRACTICES

Fabian Bitter
Match is a concept developed for
neighborhoods. It consists of a house
number plate with a LED Matrix and a
set of different key ring tags, with builtin RFID chips. Each tag represents
an interest or practical goal the
neighbour might get help for. When
in proximity, the house number plate
displays just a number, which stands
for the matching between the person
living in the house and the neighbour
walking by. This number is based on
the tag attached to the key ring in the
pocket of the neighbour, and it means
that someone living in the house has
for example 2 interests in common
with the neighbour passing by (e.g.,
camping and horseback riding). To
figure out the details, the person who
is walking by still has to get in contact
with the neighbour but the person
already knows, that it will be worth
the effort.

20

Rationale

This concept is grounded in the

observation and deconstruction
of
ordinary
practices
within
neighbourhoods (like borrowing
or exchanging objects for shared
interests). Beside the practical
advantages, a more social neighborhood can improve the wellbeing of
those living in it. People are often
living anonymously door by door,
not knowing each other and without
any social interactions. The proposed
solution helps overcome these
barriers.

Personal Reflection

Shifting the focus away from a product

to a social practice was an eye-opening
starting point for approaching the
creation of an innovative connected
product that uses data to create
opportunities for social interaction.

21

Student design processes

A tangible bank account helps children familiarise with

digital money and encourages them to save.

REDUCING
COMPLEXITY

ORDINARY
PRACTICES

Rationale

Due to technological and service

innovations the concept of money
is changing. We often pay by credit
card rather than by cash. For children
money will be harder to grasp, as it
is becoming an increasingly abstract
concept.

Personal reflection

By considering money as a practice

was immediately concrete for me.
I like to investigate and do a bit of
research on a topic to make my ideas
and final concept stronger. I like it
and it helps me to start. The practice I
have chosen isnt in its essence social.
Saving up is often a personal thing
to do; however, I liked to explore the
social aspects of it.

Personalise the device.

Give the colours a
meaning.

22

strategy

Minon Rosier
Save up is tangible bank account
for children. It provides a physical
representation of the balance in a
childs bank account. When money
is transferred to the bank account,
blocks pop up. The child can first code
the transfers into colours for example:
when my mother is transferring my
pocket money the square turns red
or when I receive a gift from my
grandmother the colour is green. In
that way the blocks show the child
from whom he or she received the
money. Children can also indicate the
goal of their savings by pushing the
blocks down, which will then light up
in a different colour.

theme

By pushing in the blocks

you can set a goal for
the amount of money
you want to save

Pushing one down

And pushing another up

Lights are going to blink!!

23

theme

Student design processes

An ordinary mirror is slowly inscribed with an aesthetic

pattern based on a couples digital life, growing into a
unique and irreplaceable object.

FOSTERING
CONNECTEDNESS

strategy

ORDINARY
PRACTICES

Marga Una Borras

Traces of our cyber life is a concept
for couples that are highly connected
to digital social networks and are
moving together into a new home. The
idea is to create a way of translating
the messages, posts and likes that a
couple share on social media platforms
into an aesthetic pattern growing
slowly onto a physical product and
making the product unique. This
pattern develops in real time to
embody the couples digital life. Each
dot represents data shared between
the couple. The configuration of dots
within the pattern enables an intuitive
reading of their different moments
on their life together. Reinforcing
the emotional attachment between
users and product also prolongs
the products life. After 10 years the
products is not (just) a mirror any
more, but the physical manifestation
of a relationship.

24

Rationale

We often forget what brought us

where we are now; the small details
that made us grow as a couple and
later as a family. Today most of these
details are publicly available as data
through on social media sites. So why
not to use this intimate information
and make ordinary objects as unique
as we are? This project talks about our
cyber life and how to translate it into a
tangible product that we can keep and
cherish.

25

26

27

Student design processes

A tour-dowsing rod challenges users to leave their

comfort zone and explore new parts of the city.

theme

strategy

NUDGING
CHANGE

ANIMATED
THINGS

Fabian Bitter
With Out/In people can decide
whether to navigate the city inside
or outside of their comfort zone.
When tapping the mode out on top
of their tour-dowsing rod, this does
not show the route or the name of the
final destination it makes its own
decisions, based on the social data and
learned patterns of its carrier. Out/In
is not about directing you to a specific
spot; it is about drifting. The product
also tries to avoid congregating
people, when they dont like to do so,
or the other way around to connect
people. There are vibration-actuators
in the two ends of the rod each
vibrates when the user should turn
left or right. When the user is at the
spot the product is proposing, both
ends vibrate.

28

Rationale

People are seeking new, exciting and

authentic places, where they can make
new experiences and meet new people
but thats not the only truth: From
time to time they also just want to
relax and stay in their comfort zones.
By creating an animated product the
user is helped with experiencing the
city in this new way.

Personal reflection

The design strategy of animating

objects provided a very valuable
starting point to think about the
qualities of interactive objects,
without predefined behaviour. It was
very animating (literally) for me, to
reconsider the so called monolithic
truth and to see the solution space,
which is created, when objects dont
necessarily solve problems for us,
but support us to explore multiple
points of view.

29

Student design processes

Showing appreciation in a shared household by giving

things a voice with a Social Sticker.

theme

strategy

REDUCING
COMPLEXITY

ANIMATED
THINGS

Emma Heitbrink
Social Stickers are re-usable stickers
for shared households. They give
ordinary objects a voice through
personally
recorded
messages.
When someone in the household
does something for her fellow house
members as a social gesture, they can
attach a Social Sticker to the artefact
to convey their message. When the
artifact is moved, the sticker will play
the message. Every member will have
their own set of stickers with a specific
colour, which are connected to their
phone. When house members want
to show their appreciation, they can
reply with a recorded answer. This
message will be sent to the mobile
phone of the giver and let them
know that someone has appreciated
their gesture, resulting in a two-sided
interaction.

30

Rationale

Within a shared household, social

dynamics are often complicated,
especially when people have little time
for others (for example, at breakfast
time!). I was interested in developing
a product that could allow fellow
house members to show their social
intentions, while maintaining the
interaction short and asynchronous
and the verbal communication
limited.

Personal reflection

As I understood it, using animated

objects as a design strategy is about
putting an everyday object on the
foreground of the design. With the
Social Stickers any artefact that is part
of a shared practice can be placed
in the foreground for a moment. I
think this solution really adds to the
experience of a shared household. It
also helps reduce the complexity of its
social dynamics.

31

chatting shopping carts

theme

Student design processes

Niels Lie
Chatting shopping carts are playful
objects for shopping strangers.
They connect to social data (such as
Facebook & Twitter) through your
smartphone, but also to physical data
(like the activity of people around
you). The shopping cart is omniscient.
It knows for example who your
friends are and whether they are in
the supermarket as well. It also knows
that one person whom you really
like, since you have checked him or
her out on Facebook over and over
again. Besides the social data, it can
also gather data from the surrounding
environment. Through the use of
sensors and cameras, it is aware of the
people around you and the products
you have in your cart.

32

Rationale

In the supermarkets these days, a lot

of people seem to have a very clear
goal: Get their groceries as quick as
possible and go home again. Most of
them dont think about other people
while shopping. The amount of
interaction between people during
shopping is very limited. People,
especially youngsters, listen to music
or are just not in a mindset of talking
to strangers. This phenomenon is the
thing I wanted to change. I wanted
to make people feel more connected
while grocery shopping through small
and playful interventions.

strategy

FOSTERING
ANIMATED
CONNECTEDTHINGS
Cheeky shopping carts encourage small talk between
NESS
I feel always so lonely
shopping strangers in the supermarket.
during grocery shopping.
No one talks to each other.

reconnect people in
the supermarket, by
providing accidental
interactions.

the shopping carts connect to

your social media and start
interacting with each other when
both people match. It also says
funny stuff to evoke interaction.

People dont pay

attention to others, they
dont know when they stand
in front of a shelf.
These young people
are so hasty these days.
Sweet granny

Personal reflection

The idea for this concept came quite

late in this cycle. I do realize that
this idea is a design fiction, really.
The carts are hooked up to all kind
of sensors and connections, which
are too sophisticated for this kind of
product. However, Im very happy
with the final idea.

Niels Lie
ID5213 Socially Tangible Media
Cycle two - animated things

33

34

35

Student design processes

A way to connect to hidden WiFi spots and give back to

homeless people their identity.

theme

strategy

NUDGING
CHANGE

MATERIAL
TRACES

Fabian Bitter
Connect could be a provoking
initiative of an organization such
as the Salvation Army, meant to
improve mutual understanding within
society. Homeless people can place a
personal lock where people are used
to access wireless internet services
(e.g., cafs or central housing areas).
In doing so, their lock will appear
in the list of available WiFi networks.
By connecting to this hidden WiFi
spot, people can access the personal
profile of the homeless person. Here
they can read about his personal story
(professionally edited) and give the
homeless person a like, send a twitter
message or donate money online.
The practice of connecting to free
WiFi spots is something we all do.
Sometimes we encounter intriguing
WiFi names, which everyone can
and has to read, when they want to
connect to the WiFi. The homeless
person can use this to draw attention
on him. Beside the immediate
benefits, Connect eventually gives
back to homeless people their identity
and decrease their aversion towards
society.

36

Rationale

People have the possibility to connect

to the internet from almost any place.
For those people, the WiFi is almost
a basic need. On the other hand there
are people, which are disconnected
from the internet, such as homeless
people. They are rather invisible
because we dont (want to) see them.
They leave traces in our environment,
while the hard circumstances of their
life leave traces on them. How can a
connected product bridge the gap
between these worlds and support
mutual understanding?

Personal reflection

To create a rather thoughtprovoking

concept, I have interpreted the design
strategy of material traces in a more
abstract way. . The love-lock that can
be found in every city is a trace, the
WiFi names are digital traces, and the
faces of homeless people show a lot
of traces of the hard circumstances of
their lives. I really wanted to support
social dynamics and avoid creating
just a pretty ornament.

37

Student design processes

A set of bookshelves connected to each other to read and

unread books. It lets kids compete with their parents, both
at their own level.

theme

strategy

REDUCING
COMPLEXITY

MATERIAL
TRACES

Lex Postma
Readshelf is a pair of shelves on which
to put books. One shelf is for the child
and one is for the parent. The parent
can set an example, be a role model,
and show the child that he needs to
read, by giving the good example.
Readshelf tracks the progress made in
reading the books that are stacked on
it. It has lights on the front that depict
a progress bar. This way, the child can
compete in reading against his parent,
by progressing better and faster.
They both read their own books and
the shelf will compare and score the
progress.

38

Rationale

With Ipads and iPhones increasingly

available, young children often lack
motivation to read on their own.
I intended to create a motivating
environment for children to perform
better by having them compete at
their own skill level with their parents
and making it more fun.

39

strategy

Student design processes

A coffee table helps patients with dementia to remember

who visited and what the visitor looks like.

MATERIAL
TRACES

Minon Rosier
The dementia patient receives visitors
such as family and friends in his/her
home for a drink in the living room.
The coffee table where the drinks are
placed notices that there are visitors
and highlights the rings around
the glass or cup (like the rings they
normally leave). When the visitors are
leaving, they can record a message.
The table knows who it is and saves
the messages. When the visitors are
gone and the patient touches the
lighted rings the table is repeating the
message of the visitor. A photo frame
on the table shows the photograph
of this particular visitor. After some
time the highlighted rings fade out.
The table will help the patient to
remember who visited him and what
the visitor looked like. So that the
patient can be more secure and be less
alone in the world.

40

Rationale

When people get dementia they

slowly lose their grip on the world.
The most common symptom of this
disease is forgetting. This causes that
the patients feel anxious and afraid
of their surroundings. Family and
friends of the patient are suffering as
well; it is hard to see your beloved one
deteriorate.

Personal reflection

At the beginning of this cycle I

investigated the opportunities for
the use of material traces. In which
context do they belong? With this in
mind I chose the context of dementia
patients. The use of traces in the final
concept makes this concept strong;
the use of material trace actually adds
value to the concept.

41

42

43

Conclusion

Using data as design material

Exploring in rapid iterations

Developing a shared vocabulary

Designing socially tangible media

Understanding how to use data as

design material is for students the
biggest difficulty. Getting hold of
the immaterial material of software
is not easy. As objects begin to be
part data and part materials, this
is however critical to a successful
design. To help students develop a
method and mental framework to
ideate in this space, we propose and
contrast in the course different design
strategies. We are also developing
a series of workshop formats to
sensitize students to the properties
and affordances of networked objects
and to what databases and algorithms
can do for connected objects.

Working through rapid ideation

cycles is another big challenge for
students. We use rapid explorations
to help students let go of wellknown methods and approaches and
encourage them to leap into new ones.
Iteration is achieved cycle by cycle,
each time starting from scratch with
a new design strategy and a different
ideation process. We emphasize the
learning process over polished results.
This has proven difficult for students
to cope with, since results are often
tentative and ideas may fail to become
a solid concept. And we tell them.

While students must engage in the

design activities individually, critiques
are a group activity. Group critiques
help students learn to identify,
deconstruct and criticize existing
products. Part of students blogging
is devoted to the same purpose.
Developing a shared vocabulary is
important for students to critically
reflect on their own design ideas and
to provide others with useful feedback.
It also helps them discriminate when
a design is really innovative and
desirable, and when it is yet another
product plus connectivity.

It is interesting to observe how

students managed to develop their
own style and perspective on how
to design with social data within an
Internet of Things infrastructure.
The final exhibition helps student
construct and communicate a
narrative for their concepts. This helps
them both to reflect on the strengths
and limitations of their design
process, and the skills acquired
and, to develop a sense of what they
may have to offer as designers to this
growing design field.

44

45

46

47

Editing and design by Emma Gohres

Photos by Fabian Bitter

Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering

Landbergstraat 15
2628 CE Delft
48

49

July 2014 Delft University of Technology