Interactive expression of emotion

What is Form in IxD?

There is a classic notion of “Form“ is a shape or 3D object, which has the ability to express emotion and character. But “Form” can also be many elements coming together to create a whole. In the case of Interaction Design it is that particular sequence of elements which together can give the idea of an emotion. For me Form is about giving shape to an overall experience which I have tried to do in the exercise below.

For this exercise I chose to express the term Humiliation.

On diving deeper into the emotion I realised that humiliation has two acting parties. Therefore for this purpose I chose to express a person being humiliated.

Using ‘Curves’ to visually represent Humiliation

Humiliation is a series of intense feelings which could be embarrassment, shame, discomfort etc that lead to the person feeling completely destroyed in the end. I visualised the emotion in a curve pattern to better understand the interaction and effect that I want to create.

No person feels humiliated on their own. It is a feeling that is triggered another person or event.

When choosing to express this emotion it was critical that it was expressed only once triggered by a person which is the key element when trying to express Humiliation.

Code a New Expressive Language

I choose to express this emotion using light and programming a reaction on pressing a force sensor. Code is a new subject to me and to achieve what I had in mind I realised that I need to first break down the sequence that I had in mind as this would enable me to know the code that I would require. This also made it easier for me as it formed a checklist of feedback that I want to receive. Overall it was fun to experiment with Arduino but I realise its a muscle to develop only with more practice

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