Evaluating a project is often the most important part to help you improve on your future projects and to take a closer look at what you thought about the overall outcome. Obviously we didn't actually create our installation so I cannot do a full evaluation with reviews and opinions from different people but I can evaluate the areas of the project that I completed and give my own views and opinions on my work.
Overall I thought this was a good project to begin the term with. It helped to introduce me to all the different areas involved in planning and designing an interactive installation and seeing as I had never done anything on this scale before it gave me a good insight into an industry style project. Before I did this project I had never realised all the different areas that I was required to complete in order to design and carry out a project like this, such as the environmental and contextual studies that I had to complete. I enjoyed completing the project, it was good to have creative freedom and be able to design something completely new with few constraints such as expenses.
Our choice of space definitely challenged us when it came to thinking what we could install into it. The space is not very big and is very busy especially on the weekend. The space already contained an attraction, which was the wooden animals, so we had to think carefully about what we could install into it. However I am quite glad we chose this space, it's not the first place that comes to mind when thinking about where to install an interactive installation but this challenged us and allowed us to expand our ideas and think more critically about what we could design. Also it's in a popular area so was the ideal place to install something that lots of people would be able to use.
Success Criteria
Our success criteria depends on whether we fulfilled our requirements;
- Must contain some form of media that allows users to interact with it with an appropriate device- although our installation doesn't have a device for interaction, it is interactive as the screen has an overlay that allows the users steps to be detected and this in turn produces a reaction.
- Must allow participants to engage with the space and support the activities that already take place within space- Our installation ties in with the theme of the space; the jungle animals, because of the balloons which contain the RFID tags.
- Installation must have aesthetic, conceptual and sensory qualities as well as functional.- Aesthetic qualities include the image on the screen when the RFID tag tracks appear on the screen and show the balloons moving around the screen. It completes the main concept of the project which is to create an interactive installation in a social space. I wouldn't really say the interaction has many sensory qualities other than being visually appealing. The installation will be functional within the space.
- Technology must be able to work under any weather condition- The touch foil overlay that we can put over the screen to make it interactive is waterproof so this will ensure it can work in any weather condition.
- Technology must be able to withstand a large and prolonged amount of use- The screen that we are going to buy will be very durable and they last for a long amount of time which is what we need to ensure that the screen works for a long time as our chosen area is very popular.
- There are space limitations with the chosen area so installation size must be relative to the size of the area- The installation will fit into the floor of the space so the only issue that we will have to sort out is making sure we get a screen that is the correct size and fits into the middle of the space.
- Installation must not be in the way of pedestrians.- The installation will be put on the floor as it is a flat screen so there is no issues with the installation being in the way of people walking through the area as this is one of the main features of the screen so has been designed for people to walk over it.
- Installation must produce sound but must not be too noisy that it distracts other passersby.- The installation does not produce any sound as we thought this would be too noisy for the space as it is outside in an area that is already very popular so will be loud already.
- Installation must be a completely new design and not resemble any of the other technologies currently installed in the shopping centre.- Our screen is unique and does not resemble any of the other technical installations in and outside of the shopping centre.
- Installation must use as little cables as possible to ensure the optimum area can be chosen and there are not too many wires around that could become broken or damaged.- We are unsure yet of the amount of cables we need to use because we have not created the installation but we hope for most of the technology to be wireless therefore we will be able to cut back on the amount of cables we need to use.
- Must use light effects to ensure it can be used at night.- The screen lights up so will be able to be used during the evening and night time.
- Must be secure so pieces cannot be stolen.- The screen will be fixed to the floor and the balloons are designed for people to take.
As you can see from our requirements we have completed most of them and I am happy with the final outcome of our project in relation to these requirements. I think we worked well as a group and it shows with the way we were able to make sure we completed these requirements, for those we did not complete like the sound one, we have a valid reason why we did not and I think the work we produced was to the best of our abilities.
In my personal opinion I think our installation was well thought out and designed. From our original idea of using RFID tags I think we expanded our ideas well and came up with a good idea that allowed us to fulfil all our requirements.
However there are always areas for improvement that we could have done better on;
- I thought we could have done more research at the start of the project to look at more options of what we could do in terms of interactive devices. I did some research into interactive floors and screens but as a group I think we should have found some more information on different technologies before making a firm decision on our final choice.
- I thought we could have been a bit more proactive as a group as we did not meet up very often to discuss ideas and relied more on our blogs and the portal to share our ideas.