Description of the project: As part of my master degree project, I designed an interactive film controlled with ”natural behavior”. In this case the film is controlled by eating popcorn. This type of interaction challenges the traditional way of interacting with interactive films and offers a new solution. The traditional interactive films (clicking on options) interrupt the flow and the decrease the levels of immersion in the story, which is an identified problem in this format.
Goal: To design an interactive film that challenges traditional ways of interaction and that doesn’t interrupt the flow and the story of the film.
Methods: Research, brainstorming, sketching, user research, prototyping, usability testing.
What I did in the project: Everything. I was all by myself.
Design process
Research
My first step of the project was to explore the context area and see if there were other projects challenging the traditional way of interacting with interactive films. I found some interesting projects during my research, showing that there were other alternatives to interact with interactive films. In my research I found films that implemented voice recognition, oscillation between different perspectives and tracing when interacting with a film.
Brainstorming and sketching
Based on my findings, I started to brainstorm and sketch on several ideas.Now that I knew what was out there, I could start shaping my own project, that hopefully could differ from the existing interactive films and use an innovative type of interaction.
User research (interviews)
When I had decided which idea to develop, I realized that I needed more background and more facts about the users that I was designing for. People that have internet connection watch online videos, so that is a large target group, but people that watch movies at cinemas is a more narrow group that could give me insights about their experience when watching films at the cinema. I went to the closest cinema to interview people that were on their way to watch a movie, or that on their way out. I interviewed a family with two kids, a group of three male adolescents, and a teenage girl. I stopped interviewing people when I considered that I had a conclusion and that I had found a relation between the answers.
The basic questions in the interview were about the experience at the cinema, what could improve that experience, which objects the participants bring to the cinema (I was thinking about the interaction with objects) and what the participants do at different points of their experience. I reached several general conclusions:
- The participants in these interviews thought that cinemas were good as they are, they are pleased with what they get and they wouldn’t make any bigger changes.
- When discussing 4D cinema, they thought that it could be “a little too much”, too much going on.
- Viewers are always immersed in the movie when they watch films at the cinema, they don’t get distracted or restless.
- Pop corn (or snacks) are basically the only objects they have at hand. They eat during commercials or during the less interesting parts of the movie.
Conceptualizing
During my brainstorming I found out that interaction with physical objects could be something interesting and feasible to do, and during the interviews I discovered that my users watch films holding popcorn in their hands and that they eat it during the less important parts of the film. This made me design an interactive film controlled by popcorn eating. When the user eats popcorn, the film gets more dramatic and when the user drops the popcorn, the film gets less dramatic and gets into a soothing mood. I thought, ”If the users eat popcorn during the less interesting parts of the film, let’s make it more interesting then”. In conclusion, the user would oscillate between two states (dramatic tone and soothing tone) by either holding the popcorn or not.
Prototyping
I developed a prototype using two films, javascript code and a Makey makey. The javascript code allows the user to oscillate between the two films by pressing the right arrow key on the keyboard. By connecting the computer to a makey makey, the user could make the right arrow key be replaced by (almost) any physical object. In my case, and for the purpose of my design, I connected the makey makey to a popcorn box. So everytime the user held the popcorn box, it would be as he/she pressed the right arrow key and then the film would change state. As long as the user holds the popcorn, the film would have the dramatic tone and be ”more interesting”.
Video prototype
I also made a video prototype visualizing how the design works.
Visit the website of the prototype (connect to a makey makey to get the full experience)
Read full design report