Concept Brainstorming

Feb 26^th meeting summary...

To begin with, we were not sure if we should focus our brainstorming on the hardware or on the software. We swapped back and forth between both approaches. We debated the pros and cons of designing software to fit hardware. We quickly realised that since we have been given open creative freedom on this project it makes more sense for us to base our concept ideas around the software. We went with this approach. With our software concept and designs in place we can custom build whatever hardware we need later.

We discussed the fact that students in previous years were given a pre-school toy as their starting point. They circuit bent that toy into their final product. On the one hand we felt it may be easier to get started if we had a toy to look at. The colour, shape and texture, and material of the toy may inspire us to generate concepts that we were struggling to conceive. On the other hand, with no physical attributes to limit us, our imaginations and resources are open ended. For this reason we decided not to circuit bend a specific toy. Or at least not to form our concept ideas based on a specific toy. The plan is to source a number of toys and electrical equipment, and use their parts to construct our own unique product. We went full circle in our thinking i.e. without a toy as a starting point we are in a stronger position.

So what ideas did we trash out?

Well, Annie had the idea of a hardware station to house our homemade switches, and some ideas on interactivity and social culture based themes read more..., James built on the idea of the hardware station by making it into a 4 ring cooker hob. The switches would take the form of pans and kitchen utensils. The software would be a cooking tutorial package with recipes and cooking tips for traditional worldwide cuisine. The software would open as a flat world map, and take the user to anywhere they wanted to go. Audio and graphic elements would portray a local ethnic feel to each country/dish. It was this idea that really got us all talking and thinking out loud. The idea had potential, we could clearly see our new project roles falling into place now. We talked through several variations and considered the hardware involved which lead to a few other ideas too.

Although we all liked the recipe idea, we didn't go with it because we agreed our product should reflect our knowledge of multimedia principles or practices. We unanimously liked and agreed on Alannagh's typography gaming idea. It seemed everyone in the group could see that going somewhere. Needless to say, we're not exactly sure where that will bring us yet.