Co-Experience in the Car

This class creates concepts for improving experience in the car in situations in which there are several people in the car doing ordinary things together.

These ordinary things are things like organizing entertainment for children, sharing and eating food, calming down children who fight, and so forth. These are organized activities that can be studied and described for design. Spefically, the focus is on what happens between the front and the back seats between children and grown-ups/more mature teens in the front seat.

Importantly, ordinary activities like eating make traveling in cars more pleasant. However, they simultaneously take people's focus away from what is happening on the road, causing potential hazards and introducing risks to the driving experience. What kinds of things take attention away from the road? Which ones are potentially dangerous? How could one make drriving safer with design?

Two trends are important in this regard: driving has become more common; and many activities - entertainment par excellence - have become technologically supported, making coordination of things like entertainment more demanding.

The aim of the class is to improve co-experience in cars with safety in mind. How can we support interaction between the front and the back seat so that its critical points can be done more safely?

The solution has to involve a design concept which is based on a short user study and uses a few technical things:

- sensors

- microcontroller programmed by the participant

- actuators

- "ubiquitous" design that involves a physical solution, not just a digital one

The design concept has to be

- based on observations on human interaction, not just on an individual perspective

- focus on the ways in which changes in the interior could be used to enhance co-experience

The class runs 8-9 weeks, consisting of chunks described in "Schedule" on the class Web site. Information also in Syllabus.

At the end of the class, each participant should have constructed and initially tested a prototype. A short report about the process is required as well. Final presentation for an audience consisting of instructors, workshop masters, School of Design teachers, as well as company participants.