ART483/484 – Projects in Interaction Design, Winter Quarter 2010
Prof. Axel Roesler / Division of Design / UW School of Art, Division of Design
Yong Rhee & Sander Viegers / Microsoft Office

Microsoft provided a forum around the theme “Service meets Social” to showcase exceptional design process and ideas. As part of a quarter long course, students from five invited international Interaction Design programs (Carnegie Mellon, Art Center College, NYU Tisch School, Universidad Iberoamericano Mexico City, Central St. Martins College of the Arts, and University of Washington / IxD) were asked to form interdisciplinary teams of 4-6 students to design a user experience prototype, encouraging out-of-the-box-thinking, and engaging with students from other design teams from around the world in exploring implications of digital and physical worlds as these intersect where service meets social.

Interaction Design ART483 students Andrew Battenburg, Minnie Bredow, Tim Damon, Sophie Milliotte, Jon Sandler, and Tanya Test presented their project ‘OpenDoor’ at the Microsoft Faculty Summit in Redmond yesterday.

Watch part 1 of the OpenDoor presentation
Watch the OpenDoor video prototype
Watch part 2 of the OpenDoor presentation

OpenDoor design process documentation (PDF)

OpenDoor is a mobile application that enables neighbors to share their resources. Our goal for individuals is to provide each member of the community with free goods and services. At the collective level, our aim is to develop sustainable local communities.

Rather than a large database of goods and services, the design relies on common interests: people who share a common interest will be more likely to need the same goods and services. As a community-driven service, OpenDoor focuses on the social by emphasizing direct relationships and face-to-face communication between neighbors.

Trust is established by constraints in location: A new member can only register in one neighborhood – this home base defines the proximity in which prospective exchanges can be posted and searched. OpenDoor participants build their profile by defining their interests and needs. When an OpenDoor participant looks for a good or service, the system will show the profiles of the neighbors that are most likely to have what they are looking for. OpenDoor participants send a direct request to these neighbors through the system. If the neighbors agree to meet, OpenDoor will automatically put them in contact over the phone.

OpenDoor participants can specify if their search is a regular inquiry or an immediate need, depending on the situation in which they are in. When there is an exchange between OpenDoor neighbors, their real world meeting is exemplified as a physical interaction that is the bump between their phones so that the exchange is documented like a receipt: both the lender and the borrower can track what needs to be returned when and to whom. In summary/big picture review, the system provides statistics on how much the user and their community saved thanks to OpenDoor.

Context
Microsoft is providing a forum around the theme “Service meets Social” to showcase exceptional design process and ideas.  As part of a quarter long course, students are asked to form interdisciplinary teams of 2-4 students to design a user experience prototype, from which a representative team from each school will be featured in a presentation at the 2010 Microsoft Faculty Summit July 12-13, 2010 in Redmond, Washington. The Design Expo creates a forum for encouraging “out of the box” thinking, by exploring students’ visions for the future of computing as well as honing their presentation skills and engaging with students from other design teams from around the world to see how they approached this year’s theme.  Students often form lasting relationships with other students and this informal network has persisted from Design Expos over the years.

Design Topic
The 2010 design challenge explores the emerging role of designing services and the intersection of Social Networking technologies and trends. Service design is a meta design activity for intentionally integrating systems of interaction with customers—via physical systems,  information systems, and human systems—to create value and differentiate providers. Think everything from getting a coffee at Starbucks to being treated at your local hospital, from government services to financial services. Social is all about people building and connecting through communities and sharing information and influence. What happens when service meets social? There are some precursors in services such as Patientslikeme™ and some micro financing services—but what happens when service meets social in the mainstream and everyday life? This is a broad challenge—so you will need to be mindful and narrow it down sufficiently. You should consider the entire service system but in your design we’d like you to specifically look at software that addresses both the customer and the provider side of the service + social experience. We encourage you to think beyond traditional software, toward solutions such as lightweight user interfaces for inputting (entering) and outputting (disseminating information) which integrate with everyday life.

Example Scenarios

– Design a social networking service that lets patients, friends, family, and providers work together support people with chronic illnesses

– Design a social network lets the elderly provide services to families in their local communities. This should take into account those who may not be able to drive or be physically constrained with regard to the type of work they can do.

– Design a collaborative real-time service that enables students to make money as they tutor