After considering all of the concepts I had come up with during my idea generation phase I began to devise a final plan for my project. I decided to keep exploring the field of dynamic eyewear, employing colour as my main tool to create a more engaging user experience. I had not found enough value in the connection of colour and relaxation to justify keeping both of them as primary focuses in my project. Furthermore I had found stress and relaxation to be too varied and personal an activity to address through the medium of eyewear. However I felt that I was still making a logical evolutionary step in my project, confident that i would still produce a final product that was engaging to use.
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I was keen to explore the idea of coloured lenses further in an attempt to build on what I had begun in my user testing. Allowing a user to simply select what colour or shade they view the world in at the press of a button seemed to be an interesting and valuable avenue to proceed down. At the same time I was aware that this would be a very complicated product to make and I didn’t know if I would be capable with my limited skills in electronics. I therefore chose to explore other avenues of colour integration in dynamic eyewear as well as lenses. Looking back at my idea generation I realised that there could be value in the concept of coloured frames and elected to investigate that further as an alternative to lenses.
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With these decisions made I began prototyping on two fronts. The first was through low tech means, primarily exploring what it was like to experience life through different coloured lenses. The second was to go high tech, employing electronics and more complex models to see both the capabilities of technology and how it could provide control for dynamic eyewear. To move forward from the glasses I had created for my user testing, I began to develop eyewear with interchangeable lenses, allowing the user to pick a colour to suit their mood/environment. I approached this by making two models, one with side loading lenses, the other with top loading.
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At the same time I also started to experiment with electronics and LEDs. I wanted to see both how much control I could exert over the strength and combinations of the components as well as seeing how they could be integrated in to eyewear. I began simply by hacking various electronics that I could find as well as experimenting with circuits. This would eventually lead to creating a selection of prototypes, each with a varying focus on either colour, aesthetics and functionality.
This was a very quick prototype that I put together. I chose to focus on the users experience with this model much more than the aesthetics. I used white card because I felt it was important that colour was emphasised in the product as much as possible. While constructing the prototype I made sure to leave a slot in either side of the glasses for the lenses to fit. I had to be careful that these slots were big enough to house the lenses, but ensure that they would not fall out if the user tipped their head from side to side.
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I used coloured acetate as a quick tool for making the coloured lenses. This allowed me to create a range of 5 colours as an initial test set. Being quite a quick and dirty prototype the glasses were very bulky and not particularly comfortable to wear. However the important thing was that they were functional and gave the user the ability to change the colour of the lenses any time they wanted.
While developing the side loading prototype I discovered that there were some issues not only with the lenses moving within the frames, but also with the overall size of the first prototype. I decided to address both issues in my next prototype, taking much more care and attention to the aesthetics and comfort of the glasses, as well as more stability for the lenses. I continued to use white card during this prototype as I found it helped emphasise the presence of colour when looking the models, and wouldn't cause any distraction of peripheral colour.
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Once again I created different colours of lenses from coloured acetate so that users to test the experience and the functionality of the glasses. This second prototype turned out to be both more compact and neater than the first. They proved much simpler to operate when changing lenses and certainly more secure than the previous model, with the lenses firmly in place.
When I asked users to test these two prototypes they brought up some very interesting and valuable points. One of the most important points they raised was the experience of looking through coloured lenses. Though they agreed that it was an enjoyable experience, some people found certain colours easier to wear than others. A problem that they highlighted was that though the yellow and orange lenses were relatively easy to adapt to, the darker coloured lenses were less comfortable. They explained that they were much more difficult to wear for long periods of time and had a tendency to make it difficult to concentrate on other tasks, such was the contrast between the filter and their usual sight. I found this quite interesting as I had not experience this myself during brief test periods while prototyping. However, it was clear that they found the impact of coloured lenses too strong to integrate in to their regular activities.
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This posed a problem as I had not had this sort of feedback during my original user testing the previous semester. I did not want to create a negative experience for people who used my product. My users explained that though they liked the idea of dynamic eyewear they felt that perhaps fully coloured lenses were not the best way to progress. I took this information on board during the development of my high tech prototypes to see how I could improve on the low tech models.
I found my initial forays in to electronics very challenging, not being very educated on the subject prior to beginning this project. Though managing to make a couple of circuits with simple LEDs, I found it very difficult to then control them in the ways that I hoped. I explored using objects like pickaxe and arduino however bother seemed too bulky and complicated for what I was attempting. I therefore initially resorted to hacking up existing products and utilising their electronic components and circuits.
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My first prototype was very simply an exploration to see what it would be like to experience coloured LEDs within eyewear. I employed the electronics from a plug-in air freshener and extended the LEDs with multi-core wire so that I could position them as I liked within the frames. I was aware that the LEDs were quite bright and I did not want to cause discomfort to anyone testing the prototype so I made sure that I placed the LEDs far enough away from where a users eyes would be. Being my first full scale prototype of this nature it was very rough around the edges and aesthetically was very poor. However I was successful in creating a pair of glasses that glowed wit the light from the LEDs.
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The feedback form this first prototype was very useful. It was clear from the beginning of testing that although the glasses were colourful, it was having very little effect on changing the colours that the users saw. Having not method of containing the light meant that it spilled out in all directions, which meant that the experience was more a display of colour over a persons face rather than changing the colours they could view. Though unsuccessful as a first attempt at a working prototype, it was very helpful in highlighting a number of key areas I would have to address in my second prototype.
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Taking this feedback onboard, I took much more care in the creation of my second prototype. I elected to use the same LEDs and power source as before as it was simple enough to adapt to almost any model and allowed me to focus on other issues. Most important of these was attempting to contain and direct the light to the selected areas. I began by acquiring a set of plastic lenses from another set of novelty glasses. I had been investigated TIR (total internal reflection) and how light travels trough plastic, creating a glow through the edges but remaining transparent throughout the body. I researched different ways of manipulating light when used with plastic and resolved that it would be best to diffuse the light by scratching the plastic with an abrasive. This meant that the light would not pass straight through the plastic and give a stronger glow to the lens overall. I used sandpaper to diffuse the edges of each lens as well as around the extremities of the main body, leaving the centre still completely transparent.
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Along with this work on the lenses I also housed the light by completely trapping it in between the interior and exterior of the frame. This mean that the light reaching the lenses was more intense, hopefully creating much stronger glow. The result of this work was a much more successful second prototype than the first. It refocussed the experience to what was seen through the glasses rather than how they looked to other people. The experience of looking through these partially diffused lenses was interesting, if not completely successful. Though it was possible to view your direct environment with no discernible change, you were aware of the colour around your peripheral vision. This prototype was revised and cleaned up before being handed over for testing by other users. This was partly to tidy up the appearance of the model but also to make the containment of the light even more effective. The result was that the advances from prototypes 2.1 to 2.2 were similar to those between my two low tech prototypes: more robust and more aesthetically attractive.
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When I got users to test this latest prototype they were more positive than the responses from the low tech alternatives. They preferred being able to view the their environment without the distraction of complete colour lenses and commented that it was nicer to have the colour as an outward display to others. I found this interesting as I had originally been attempting to create something which was more centred on a users personal experience and what they saw through the lenses. However, the consensus from the testing of my second prototypes was that a more preferable style of dynamic eyewear would be of a more exhibitionist nature, focused on how the glasses looked to other people. I had not initially though in too much detail about this, other than in the idea generation phase when looking at glowing frames. I decided that this should be the focus of my next prototype.
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My first problem to tackle on this next prototype was what materials I should use. Now that I was focussing on frames rather than lenses it meant that I would have to abandon the white card I had been using for previous prototypes. I went searching for alternative solutions to this idea, exploring areas including safety glasses and goggles, sports frames and novelty glasses. In the end I elected to use the frames of glasses that I had taken the lenses from in an earlier prototype. They were a clear plastic frame which suited my current task and appeared to have sufficient space to play with LEDs.
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I realised straight away that I was going to have to diffuse the plastic in order to get light to disperse through it properly. The frames themselves were a bit too small and intricate to use sandpaper on as I had done before so I had to look for other alternatives. After talking with one of my supervisors I decided to try toothpaste as an abrasive to diffuse the frames. The result was quite successful, the plastic certainly more scratched than before. However there were a few drawbacks to using this method, one being the small clumps of toothpaste that inevitably became lodged in hard to reach parts of the frames. The other was a minty fresh smell that inevitably resulted from the previous point. Most importantly however was the fact that, effective as it was, the toothpaste did not diffuse the light well enough throughout the glasses. After some further exploration I discovered that sandblasting was a highly effective method of diffusing the plastic. One drawback was that it could potentially make the glasses look quite dirty. If I was going to use this technique for my final model I would have to take this in to account and take precautionary steps.
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Next I had to look for a more effective way to disperse light through the frames of the glasses. I had previously looked in to the idea of fibre optics earlier in the project, but these were only useful for carrying light from one point to another. Another issue I found with fibreoptics was that they require a much more intense light source to be effective, LEDs did not perform well enough. Eventually I discovered a material known as side glow tubing, similar to fibreoptics, but capable of glowing along its entire length rather than just either end. This seemed to be exactly what I was looking for and I set about creating an initial prototype to exploit this quality.
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The result was fairly successful, with the frames glowing from end to end with a relatively consistent brightness. I used tinfoil to fashion a rough reflective housing where the LEDs and one end of the tubing met. This was to maximise the amount of light that passed through the tubing. I also used a small amount of tinfoil at the other end of the tubing to reflect light back through in the other direction which helped increase the overall brightness. One issue which plagued this prototype was a limited glow in strong light conditions. In a darkened environment the frames lit up well, but was aiming to create a product that could be used anywhere, not just in low light environments.
Rather than test prototype 3.1 with users straight away I chose to set about improving its flaws as best I could. I redeveloped the reflective housing for the light source and made the overall model more robust. With the housing for the LEDs I made a conical shape, internally lined with tinfoil. This was positioned so that the light that was placed in it could not escape and was forced down to the end of the cone and in to the tubing. I found this not only created a more effective glow throughout the tube, but it was also more capable of producing a visible glow in daylight conditions. I also made more of an attempt to embed the tubing in the frames themselves.
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When I passed this prototype to my users for testing they were impressed at the visual impact that the glasses had when glowing. I asked them to play around with the glasses as much as they wished and then proceeded to ask them questions about the colours, the control of the lights and the overall experience. Again I had quite a positive response from everyone which was encouraging. They commented that they liked the fact they could see their environment unchanged, while still being aware of the colour in their peripheral vision, similar to previous prototypes. Interestingly, though they preferred the idea of the frames being coloured rather than the lenses, some users thought the colour was perhaps too intense and might make them self conscious. A few of them proposed that it might be better if only part of the glasses changed colour, making them more of a fashion statement as well as being practical for everyday use.
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I found this session of user testing very encouraging because it was the most obvious example so far of the users involved actually thinking about how they would wear something like this in everyday life. I resolved that this absolutely the direction to take my project in from this point onwards. Up until this point I had maintained using the same LEDs and cycling system ripped from the air freshener. I consulted my supervisors about this point, concerned that I had missed out on a major part of my project by not making the user interaction more advanced than pressing buttons.
My previous attempts at exploring other methods to control the colour in my project had all proved largely futile. My experiments with biometric sensors showed that they were just too erratic to be relied upon to make a robust final model. Furthermore my attempts to link the lights to music, or any form of audio, proved equally difficult. I reasoned that it was more important to my project that I make dynamic eyewear, regardless of how it is controlled. Furthermore, it had been important to continue the development of colour throughout the design process. My supervisors confirmed that they felt it was ok to continue ahead with the colour controls as they were and fully realise the potential of the eyewear itself.
Looking back I was initially concerned at how drastically my projects aims and objectives had shifted from its initial inception. However as I sat and reflected on the process, I was confident that the development of my project, though at times a little scattered, was still logical and progressive. Each decision had been taken to explore the potential of an idea, some which had worked and others which had not. I also reasoned that I had still pursued my original aim of exploring the potential for dynamic eyewear.
I do feel that it would have been more beneficial to my project to have conducted more user testing during the prototyping phase. I took too long in developing each individual prototype, meaning that i could only progress so far with my time restraints. It would have been interesting to pursue some of the other technological prototypes further, especially when it came to the control of the colour. This would have added much more depth to this part of my project, and potentially resulted in not only a more interactive product, but also a more complete concept.
However i am still happy with the work that i did complete during this phase. I explored a variety of ideas, both physical and conceptual and developed a final prototype as the result of my findings. This will now be the basis for my final product at the degree show, though there will still be some elements which will evolve further. The focus for the degree show piece will now switch to a highly polished and robust product. I aim to make something that not only encourages interaction during the degree show but looks professional and believable.
