Brief
Design a way to materialise the qualities of mould
Team-mates
Jumleena Bhagawati, Xiyuan Han (Cyrus), Keyi Cao, Reagan Bbengo & Anshu Agarwal
Date
20/10/22 - 27/10/22
Welcome to week 2 of UX of Mould. For this project, we designed an embodied experience that translates both the good and bad qualities of mould. We were asked to to find and identify mould to understand it. We used two distinct research methods, The Love Letter and the Breakup Letter and AEIOU for the purpose of this project.
In this blog post, I have presented my documentation of our observation, research, and the prototype-building process that we did as a team of 5 on this project. I have also discussed the feedback received on the prototype and my reflection on the week's work at the end of the post.
- Timeline -
- Seeking out the mould -
We started our individual search for mould: in the bins, side of the road, kitchen, and even tree stumps. Not gaining too much success on our own we decided to put our heads together to figure out which place in London will host the biggest archive of moulds.
The immediate answer was probably the Natural History Museum, but when we looked it up we were a little disappointed with the fact that their collection was not even open to the public. So we decided to move on and think harder. It was then that one of us had an "aha!" moment and it was suggested that maybe we should go to a fresh food market.
Our logic: A place piled up with fresh organic produce should definitely have some old deadly mould hidden in some corner or even in plain sight, in case we got lucky. Whichever way it was, the motto was, if we spot a mould, we scoop it up and carry it back home with us! What really sounded grand at that moment was a nice little trip to Borough Market, a thousand-year-old fresh food market in Southwark, London. What if we find there a thousand-year-old mould there? The very thought of it was for sure extremely tantalizing.
So we decided to hit the moulding mine the very next morning and collect our prize. Or so we thought...
Trip to Borough Market
Borough Market was relatively easy to find. From across a distance, we could spot the huge crowd and smell the smell of a Sunday morning farmer's market. I remember as I walked in my mood was instantly elevated. But the question was will we find mould there? It was too busy and too fresh to be sad and mouldy.
Picture from google maps of borough market
We walked around the marketplace in awe and with a slight dilemma of coming to the wrong place. Everything looked extremely inviting, especially the shops serving fresh seafood on rice, chocolate on strawberry, and cheese....
Oh! AND THE CHEESE!
Picture of our teammates discovering the cheese in the market
Now, throughout the course of this project, I often caught myself wondering if it was at that moment we somewhat knew, what our end result on the topic of "UX of Mould "would be.(Everyone was hit by the same lightning bolt. harmony, unison, and same wavelength) Was that our eureka moment? I still wonder.
Picture showing the cheese we found in the market
So we finally found our mould and that too on cheese! It was really a double-win situation for sure. There was one particular cheese that caught our attention, the Dorstone cheese. While none of us was experts on cheese we found the texture of the yeast growth on it extremely beautiful. And so we bought it.
To learn more about the yeast that is added to the cheese and the process that goes into making it, we decided to speak to the cheesemonger. But unfortunately, our luck ran out that day, and even if the monger was trying to answer our curious questions to the best of his ability, he said he did not know much as he was not the manufacturer. (Later we found out that the wrinkly rind that excited us forms thanks to a yeast called geotricuim, naturally present in goats).
Keyi's Mouldy Supermarket Noodles
Picture showing the progression of mould on our team-mate Keyi's lucky pack of udon noodles.
After our mediocre success trip to the borough market and returning with a few grams of cheese, our teammate Keyi had her own little surprise waiting for her in her kitchen cabinet. She definitely had a bit of extra luck that day. To everyone's amazement, she found a little pack of slightly moldy udon noodles sitting in a corner only to be discovered by her at the perfect time when we were in need of it. Over the days as we documented the pack of noodles we saw the enjoying the attention as it grew and flourished.
- Research & Observation -
After we collected the mould we applied it to the research methods provided to us. From our observation, we devised the love letter and the break-up letter to moulds.
Then we recorded our activity in the Borough Market in the form of AEIOU.
- Design Process -
Brainstorming
We were inspired by the lifecycle of Plasmodial slime moulds (the myxomycetes) forming a large, multinucleate amoeba during their feeding stage called a plasmodium. [Melissa Ha et. al, 2022]
The image is taken from https://bio.libretexts.org/
The team first diverged to brainstorm the concepts. In this phase, I focused on the efficient usage of multiple attributes in a high-level information layout. Then we started testing material for creating a structure like the plasmodium.
Sketching
To communicate our design clearly about how the prototype would work and how the experience would play out. We quickly sketched out the idea during the group huddle, and after we immediately went to try out our concept on the materials in a form of a body-storming session.
Design plan:
Picture (left): us sketching the concept; Video (right): Us bodystorming our concept
Challenge - Converge
The making of the prototype was really enjoyable and not very complicated so we faced barely any challenges throughout the process.
Video: Short time-lapse video on our team building the prototype
- Prototype & Interaction Design -
The prototype is meant to replicate the multinucleate amoeba during their feeding stage called a plasmodium. We kept food on different parts of the floor, the volunteers are supposed to put the sheet prototype over their heads and quickly grab the food from the floor before anyone else get it and eat it.
Picture of the volunteers trying out the prototype during the presentation.
- Evaluation & Feedback -
Finishing the initial development week, our prototype was tried out by the volunteers in our class. The feedback was very mixed. It was praised for its visual appearance but concept-wise and experience wise it was agreed upon by most that it completely missed the mark.
After seeing the demonstration the class came up with the following insights to help us with our concept and design further down the road:
1. It was not easy to catch on to the fact that the white membrane with the colourful string represented a uni-cellular mould and we were its hype. So the concept needs to be well translated
2. Not shying away from using a real mould for the prototype.
3. Instead of creating a concept by trying to emulate a mould, we should use inspiration from it and develop our prototype.
- Reflection -
While hearing the feedback I found myself instantly agreeing with everything that was being said. We did struggle as a group to arrive at a solid concept for our prototype during the 1st week so the feedback was well anticipated. We realized that our direction could definitely change for the better. We really honed into the responses that we got in order to come out of our idea slump and find a new direction to take our prototype. However, at the end of the week, I was really proud of how we collaborated, and even though the concept was not a huge success I enjoyed the process that brought me to the week's final prototype
Other than the pre-identified set of questions, the visualization also allows for the discovery of insights through interactions.
- Reference -
Ha Melissa ,Marrow Maria, & Algiers Kammy(2022). Slime Mould vol 5.2.01. sitehttps://batch.libretexts.org/print/url=https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Botany/Botany_%28Ha_Morrow_and_Algiers%29/Unit_1%3A_Biodiversity_%28Organismal_Groups%29/05%3A_Protists/5.02%3A_Heterotrophic_Protists/5.2.01%3A_Slime_Molds.pdf
Comments