Generative Research Printer
A curiosity of mine turned into a live research method.
Project timeline: 1 month
Status: Complete
How can we find out what people think about purchasing stereotypes?
Money is a multi-faceted, dynamic entity - no longer just a tool we exchange for goods. As it has this power over us, it earned the right to be examined, explored and turned over in a new light.
The interactive prompt generator was designed to discover this.
Idea Generation
Born from an offshoot idea from the main Circus design stream, the playing with receipts and purchasing opinions wasn't where the main focus for Circus was heading. However, it presented an opportunity to learn a few extra skills along the way, so why not see what could happen?
A couple of sketches of how it could work and be presented lined it up as a good fit to be displayed within the graduate show. Using the exhibition would allow interaction with as many people as possible, which would give a wide data set to work from.
Initial sketches of the receipt printer.
Context and staging for the printer was key to its success
Test Build
With some assistance from the lab techs, I quickly set up the basic code and Arduino and breadboard, pairing together the functionality of a button press with the printer's instruction to produce print in specific formats.
Along the way, we realised that instead of talking to participants about their thoughts, we could ask them to write out responses to prompts, completely removing the researcher, and the researcher bias.
A number of test prints later, it was ready to become presentable for the show. Drawing on electronics skills learned in BA Industrial Design, I soldered, heat shrinked and assembled the components.
Trial and error in setting up the Arduino code.
A simple arrangement with a breadboard to test if it works!
Soldering and securing all the components into a smaller, tidier assembly.
Installation and Delivery
Initially, the inconspicious black box was placed on the pedestal awaiting its participants, however witnessing a few mishaps, a single line instruction was added, plus an arrow to direct people to the interaction.
In the code, seven different variants were programmed to print in sequence, hopefully eliminating a repeat print within a group of participants, but restrictive enough that data review afterwards wouldn't be too intensive.
The printer in action!
Across the five days of the show, we observed many people not only stopping to engage with the interaction, but also to look at the visual display of receipts, read what others had written, photograph (and selfie!) the display.
Guests of the exhibition interacting with the printer without prompting.
There were over 200 responses from the receipt printer across the five days the exhibition was open.
They are currently being processed, sorting them into their categories, analysing the data and producing the insights.
The Outcome
