ux of dirt
Week 2 & 3
Team: Angelina, Shivangi, Jiayi, Cindy, Dabeen, Ellen
Research Methods: Research Methods:Love/breakup letter, AEIOU
The Brief: Design an embodied experience of dirt.
brainstorming:
We’re diving into dirt from diverse angles— texture, smell, and how is experience itself.we seek to create something fun and interactive that connects people to it in a whole new way.
smoke offends non-smokers, menstruation is stigmatized in some societies, digital footprints refers to overwhelming online footprints, sweat feels improper socially, and stray hair unsettles in unexpected places.
Love / breakup letter
After group discussions, we agreed that hair is the most accessible material, as many share the experience of finding it in unexpected and uncomfortable places. Then we began exploring it using the love/breakup letter method. This approach helped us delve deeper into the possibilities of working with hair and designing an embodied experience around it.
aeiou
Then we used the AEIOU method, explored hair in various contexts, observing how feelings and emotions shift based on its placement. Hair in food consistently triggered strong discomfort, highlighting its unsettling impact. This key insight inspired us to design an embodied experience that captures and reflects these uneasy interactions, turning the emotional responses into a thought-provoking and immersive exploration.
love Letter
hair is protection
concrete reminder of pasting time
change hair (color/style)change mood
present healthy body conditions
breakup Letter
regularly take care.
the sight of you in tangled clumps is especially unbearable.
the feeling of cleaning hair is an overwhelming sense of discomfort
ideation
Afterward, we experimented with reactions to hair in food, bread, and chips, using fake hair to evoke discomfort. But we would like to heighten this discomfort, so we decided the final presentation to set up a fine dining table. The elegant setting contrasted sharply with the unpleasant surprise, amplifying the sense of discomfort and creating a more striking and memorable experience.
user testing
Result:
We set up a fine-dining experience complete with music, lighting, and cloches to mimic a high-end restaurant. However, every dish, piece of tableware, and the entire table was covered in hair—both real and synthetic. This unsettling twist disrupted the luxurious atmosphere, provoking reflection on norms, discomfort, and the unexpected in seemingly ordinary settings.
reflection
This was our first project using research methods, so I am still learning to use the methods to assist and trigger more ideas. And it's nice that we spent time together understanding them to explore the topic better. While our group had many interesting ideas, we struggled with execution and presentation, leading us to set some aside. However, I still find hair an intriguing form of “dirt,” offering a unique perspective—like dirt in some contexts but not in others.