READ THE AIR
2015.06 至今 / Semester 3, MA: Design Informatics - 个人作品
硕士研究主题-移情（Empathy）和设计，系列作品3
BACKGROUND
“Read the Air” 是一款使用iBeacon技术实现的，基于Apple Watch和iPhone的移动应用。
Read the air 的设计来源于日本文化 ”空気を読みます“。在日本甚至在整个亚洲，"规则“或者说”潜在的规则“可能会非常的隐蔽，人们需要通过自己的判断来填补这些“表面的事物”和“实际的含义”之间的空白，这个行为称之为 阅读空气/ Reading The Air (空気を読みます).
不是所有事物都像表面看到的那样，很多时候，人们并不会直接说出他们心里真正想说的话。在日本，这种现象被叫做 “Tatemae”(建前)和 “Honne”(本音)，他们分别代表了“公众前的状态” 和 “实际上的心理”，换言之，这描述的是每一个都可能存在的一种心理状态。那些不会阅读空气的人在环境中会显得相当明显，他们缺少对社交生活中的“潜在规则”的认，他们没有办法意识到自己所处的环境下的气氛，也没有办法理解环境中其他人向他们使出的眼色。阅读空气的 “空气” 在这里指的是情绪化的气氛，或者是事情发展的情况，或者也可以用英语中一个更飘渺的单词 “it” 来解释，让人们说 “don’t you get it?” 的时候，其实心里就在责备你，“为什么你没有办法阅读空气”。
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.
社会生活中有一种规则不是硬性法律，它被人们称之为“默认规则 (Unwrriten Rules)”. 例如，当一群人进入电梯的时候，大家都会习惯性地面对电梯门站立，如果有一个人它背对着电梯门口站立，面朝着大家，他在这个环境中则是一个“can't read the air”的人。
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 (iBeacon 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
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.
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.
Sorry，此项目目前还在设计开发中，完成后将完整版上传 :)