Evin’s Single Action Design

For this experience I found it difficult to come up with a fool-proof design that I myself would be excited to show the class. After spending most of the week pondering the ideas of making a music box I decided that would be an interesting but simplistic idea that I thought many would try.

When I have a mental block the place I usually go is Michael’s. There I knew I would be inspired to make something. After spending countless minutes roaming up and down the isles I did not have any idea of what to do. So I put it off and on the monday we went back to school I was sitting in a lounge area and an idea struck me; A light projector where you would insert a slide and it would change the colour of the light according to what colour of plastic I decided to use.

That night I went home, bought my supplies and I worked on it feverishly. I built the box, the slide and when it came time to test it out, I was immediately put off by the lack of colour that shown through. I went back to the drawing board and decided to make it into a miniature tracer that if an image was placed into the light box it would be ideal for making stencils. Ultimately that is what I did and I felt quiet proud of myself for creating an interest object that could be used by anyone.

On the day of showcasing my single action design, Phil Roy was the person to test it out. As expected, it took him a few tries to understand the whole concept but when he was able to understand the affordance and the action of pushing the slide into the light box, he seem to like the idea, and knew exactly what it was for. When he showed the whole class, most seem to give out an understanding “awe” because they too liked the idea (at least I hoped that was the reason :P).

Mrs. Gorbet did note that though it was interesting she thought that I was using more than one action to portray the meaning. In my defence I did say to her that I believe it was by the single action of placing the slide into the holder that it created the designs true meaning, when in turn created a creative environment for the person to work in. I supplied paper in case he wanted to trace the image.

overall it was a fun experience 🙂