Conference Proposal
Abstract:
For this interactive, users will have the option to play with three or two types of animals. As of now, I am considering using fish, ants, and penguins. Fish are not social animals that do not respond positively to human interaction. Interacting with fish would create an interaction that is disruptive to the fish. Ants are social creatures, but do not respond positively to outside interaction either. Though ants respond well to other ants, any interference from people would also be disruptive. Penguins on the other hand are both social creatures among their own species and respond positively to human interaction. With the option to interact with these three, or two if I later choose to omit either fish or ants, species I hope to highlight the type of reaction users will have to playing with these other beings.
Norman’s 7 Steps:
Forming the goal – A person sees the animal and is curious to see what it does.
Forming the intention – They will figure out that the animal responds to certain actions and gain experience as they continue to explore the setting.
Specifying the action – The person will realize that specific actions will cause the animal to respond in a certain way.
Executing the action – The person will interact with the animal and the animal will respond in a realistic way.
Perceiving the state of the world – The person will find that the different species of animals will behave differently.
Interpreting the state of the world – The person will realize they can disrupt the animal’s state, or improve it.
Evaluating the outcome – The person recognizes that some animals are more prone to sociable behavior while others are not and will become aware of how common interactions vary depending on the type of being they are interacting with.
Design:
I would like to keep the coloring of the design simple and not overly excessive with the amount of coloring thrown at the user. I believe in minimalism and keeping things simple so as to reduce the possible overload of information introduced to the user. In terms of how this project operates, the behavior of the animals will be captured in a continuous movie. Therefore, depending on what the user does, a certain portion of the movie will be played that depicts the animal’s reaction.
If I were to use a term made popular by millennials, I would describe the animals as a collection of GIFs. These series of GIFs respond to certain actions the users administer. To precisely capture the actions of the user, it seems best to have the user interact through a mouse rather than motion capture. With the input of action being by mouse, there is more reliability and accuracy.
Code:
draw() – Will contain the conditionals so that the project is always willing to accept new interaction.
setup() – Will lay out the basic settings that are permanent throughout the project, such as the background.
Variables – There will be variables for actions, colors, locations, and images.
Color – The animals and background will be colored.
Interactivity – The user will use a mouse to input certain types of actions.
A relationship between user input and the programmed environment – The user will have a call and response relationship with the animal.
Garrett Hsuan
