Adventures in Box Making (part one)

I improved upon my box design for the object to go into by making it a hexagon. This was done so the object could be placed in the middle of the box on a stand. The first box design allowed users to place their hand into the box, pick up the object and then feel it with the entire surface of their hand. They could also get a good idea for the size of it and all the surfaces of it.

This new design meant that while it gave access to all the sides of the object, the smaller holes and the use of moderately stretchy fabric placed across the holes so that the fingers could only fit through the slit in the fabric would make it more challenging.

I also played around with the idea of gloves made of different materials that would slot into place around the hexagon and provide a layer of interference, with one hole left gloveless. The user would then place their hands into the fingers of the gloves to touch the object. I wanted to see if different materials and thickness of materials, such as latex and rubber gloves would make it more difficult to get a feel for the object in the box than with just bare fingers.

I added a second box to the design for the user to do the sculpting phase of the interaction in. This was so they had no visual feedback about what they were sculpting and had to rely completely on tactile feedback. This has taken nearly all the visual feedback away. There is still the feedback gained from seeing an accurate sculpture that someone has done. Although, given that only the user will know if they sculpted an accurate model or not, but people do tend to give that sort of thing away through facial expressions.

Adventures in Box Making (part two: Feedback)