Exploration of User Interfaces

Most current digital products are designed to be so frictionless that they sometimes become negative and hinder much of their creative potential.

Through (the development of) my interactive installation “U&I” I questioned as many elements as I could from the User Interface and explored how they impact the experience of the user with a digital product.

The person who interacts with the piece is put within a simple story where their decisions define how it will unfold. On the decision points in the story, one has to shape a simple form out of clay to communicate their choices which are fed to a Machine Learning model.

The lost sense: Touch

When interacting with plasticine (modelling clay) one gets a richer experience because the touch sense is amplified. This “materialising” of the user interface bridges the gap between the physical and digital worlds.

One (different) way of thinking about time: Branched versions

Time and rhythms of interaction became design elements which must be carefully selected to best suit the experience. Just as in life, an interactive story calls for making choices which brings us to one of several possible alternate sequences of events.

The brain with creative capabilities: Artificial Intelligence

Coding is not dull and in fact, can be used for creative purposes. By tapping into Artificial Intelligence (AI), the designer can set the rules and let the interaction between the human and the machine create unique creative outcomes that the designer even might even not think of.