What is it about?
Shredit is a design concept for a tangible artifact for making phone calls more playful and inefficient. The artifact uses drawing and document shredding as the primary forms of interaction. It is built by deconstructing an electric shredder and connecting it to an Arduino with an LCD screen. To make a phone call, the user draws a dedicated symbol representing their contact on the artifact and ends the call by destroying the same. The user then experiences the destruction of their call as it is shredded into pieces. Initial results of testing the prototype suggest that making a phone call more tangible and playful might make it more enjoyable and meaningful. The users found the shredding interaction fun and engaging, attributing meaning to the shredded paper material. Additionally, the users suggest that interaction with a tangible artifact, not the smartphone, could allow them to focus on the conversation and ground it in the present moment.
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Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The Shredit project demonstrates the possibilities for technologies that we could use in our everyday life, not to accomplish well-defined tasks, but to expand in less defined directions (Gaver, 2002). It encourages us to play with a well known activity such as performing the call and by introducing new mechanics and material of the interactive system, makes the whole experience more enjoyable and engaging. Even if the strong emphasis was placed on the playful characteristics of the device, it is clear that it goes beyond the mere entertainment. During playtesting sessions, participants pointed out that performing the call through Shreddit made them reflect on the quality of digital conversations they have today and they found it very valuable to have a fixed, physical object dedicated to this activity only.
Perspectives
Exploring unexpected or counterintuitive design avenues is fascinating and necessary to discover what value design brings to people's lives. Additionally, exploring playful and ludic interactions in everyday streamlined interactions may give new perspectives in our lives. Furthermore, designing interactions with, e.g., a shredder is plain fun, and fun is another important aspect of design. Prototyping Shredit and having it come to life allow people to reflect and grasp the notions presented by the design concept.
Max Angenius
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Shredit: Breaking a Shredder and Making It into a Phone, interactions, June 2023, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3604596.
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