READ THE AIR
JUN 2015 - NOW / Semester 3, MA: Design Informatics- Personal Project
Master Research Topic -Empathy and Design，Series 3
BACKGROUND
“Read the Air” is an APP based on iPhone and Apple Watch.
Read the air comes from Japanese culture空気を読みます. Sometimes instructions or rules are vague in Japan, people need to fill in a lot of blanks by themselves, this is Reading The Air (空気を読みます).
Not everything is on the surface. People won’t say everything out when they want to say. In Japan, this phenomenon is called “Tatemae”(建前)and “Honne”(本音), which means ”public stance” and “true intention” respectively. People who cannot read the air seem to lack of understanding of the unwritten rules of social engagement. It is about understanding a situational context. The air means the “vibe (emotional atmosphere)”, the “mood”, or the “situation”, or a more ethereal word “it” to encompass all the things are not included, such as in English “don’t you get it?”
Unwritten rules are everywhere, for instance, there are Unwritten Rules involved in something as simple as riding an elevator. After we step in an elevator, we automatically turn around to face the door. If we person stood with our back to the door, we would be regarded as "strange" or “obvious” by other people in the elevator.
KY (Kuuki Yomena, 空気読めない) can be representative of Japanese culture in general, which means “can’t read the air”. No people in Japan want to be labelled as KY. There are mainly three kinds of behaviours of KY: inability to read body language or face expression; can’t take a hint and lack of common sense. Common sense especially applies to social situations, included things like bad manners (John Spacey, 2015).
FINAL OUTPUT
Project “Read the Air” contains two main works. First work is a Multiple-terminals App for iPhone and Apple watch. People can use it to adjust their “Air Comfort Level” in prescribed environment (Geo-fence area). Once the people in the area adjust their “Air Comfort Level” lower, everybody in this area would get a vibration alert, “Am I the person who can’t read the air” or the person near me is doing something inappropriate.
“Read the Air” use percentage to define the Air Comfort Level. Basically, the higher Air Comfort Level, the higher the percentage. The overall air comfort value within a particular geographical scope is the average value from all the users in this environment.
DESIGN PROCESS
Demo Version 1.0
In order to understand the users’ feedback and suggestions, I did a test of “Read the Air” Demo 1.0 by asking people to adjust the “air comfort level” of the environment they are in.
“Read the Air” Demo 1.0 puts the personal air comfort circle (bigger circle) on the left of the page, the overall air comfort circle (smaller circle) on the right. People use “increase” and “decrease” buttons to adjust the personal Air Comfort Level in the environment.
There are some obvious user experience problems that emerged during the test process.
1. People feel confused and distracted when they see two circles in one page for the first time, especially when they press the buttons at the bottom to adjust the Air Comfort Level, they may get confused about which circle they are controlling. Moreover, the most crucial information in this App is the overall Air Comfort Value of the current environment, the overall data (smaller circle) is the most important
information that users want to know first, every time they open the APP. However, the personal circle (bigger circle) is only for the people who have the personal opinion for the Air Comfort Value they are in, people probably would only use it when someone breaks their “personal rules”. If two circles are located on one page, in terms of the importance of the information, the overall circle should be bigger than the personal circle. It would be better if two circles appear on two different pages: the main page is the default page with overall Air Comfort Value, and provide a button for user to adjust personal ”air comfort level” locates in another page.
2. The reminder for the Air Comfort Level only has a vibrate warning but not visual expression. The reminder effect would be stronger if the visual changes also happen on the circle when the Air Comfort Level decline.
Sorry, I'm still working on this project :) I'll upload the full version after I finish.