Designing with water : exploring water as a design material for interactive experiences

Sammanfattning: This project explores water as a design material for interactive experiences. The project follows a Research Through Design approach, incorporating methods from both material driven design and the soma design methodology. Over a period of two months, I engaged in first person explorations where I engaged deeply with the design material. The explorations revealed three aesthetic qualities of being in and around water, with a potential to be utilized in interactive water experiences. These qualities are 1) how water reflects light, 2) touching and being touched by water, and 3) how water produces sound when it hits other surfaces. This was followed by material explorations, in which the three qualities were further explored. The material explorations informed the design of a toolkit that incorporates the three aesthetic qualities, and allows designers to explore and utilize them to design interactive water experiences. The toolkit was then used in a participatory design workshop, where 7 designers were tasked with using the toolkit to co-design interactive water experiences. Results from the workshop include three design concepts and four themes that highlight how the different aesthetic qualities might be utilized to create meaningful interactive water experiences.