Category Archives: Major Studio – Interface

Instruction Sets for Strangers – Conclusions and Next Steps

By Ryan | Published November 9, 2009

1. Strangers will interact in anonymous ways if the methods are recognizable and appealing to them. Strangers are more likely to reveal personal expressions if the methods are anonymous in fashion.

This was very clear in our different styles of probes and instruction sets done in Bryant Park. Our first set, which were pre-addressed and stamped postcards, provided an attractive medium “because of their connotations as an informal, friendly mode of communication.” (Gaver, Dunne, Pcenti, 23). Approximately 25% of the cards were returned, and these strangers who returned cards used our query into a personal logo as an opportunity for anonymous expression.

For our prototype which explored the questions of public displays of creativity and expression, we ended up using the installation more as a probe or a prop to interview the strangers who were in the park. Overwhelmingly, these strangers expressed that their lack of artistic or writing abilities prevented them from interacting with our instruction set in public.

2. Changes in physical environments affect how groups of strangers interact.

These photos illustrate the same location over the span of the project. This large space in the middle of the park has gone from a lush grass field used for relaxing, to a large dirt field, to a construction site, and finally to a ice-skating rink. These changes affected our instruction sets primarily because the physical environment directly impacted the expectations strangers had of each other and the environment that surrounded them.

At the outset, our research and understanding of the space led us to decisions of the kind of methods we would use in the park. Today, there are an entirely new set of social expectations, or “rules”, that illustrate an entirely new set of “constraints” or opportunities.

3. Weather conditions have a dramatic affect on certain uses of the park, such as sitting and eating, while regardless of the weather, pedestrians continuously use Bryant Park as a cut-through.

The following two videos are taken under the same conditions (ex. same area of Bryant Park, the same day of the week, the same time of day, the same number of seats provided in the park) with the only difference being the weather (i.e. rain):

Regardless of the weather conditions, pedestrians continuously use the park as a cut-through to get to another destination. However, other uses of the park, such as sitting, eating, reading, are affected tremendously by poor weather conditions, such as rain.

Next Steps

In looking at these conclusions about Bryant Park, we have a series of questions and instruction sets we would like to explore:

1. Documentary
We’ve begun a documentary short which details our experience in Bryant Park. We’ve shot a considerable amount of video and time-lapsed photography, so we felt we could use this content to provide a cohesive outline and conclusions from our project and post it to the ourbryantpark.org website.

2. Poster – Physical vs Digital Anonymous Interaction
Our interest in physical vs digital anonymous interactions with strangers was peaked by this project as a whole. In building a website and directing people to it through our 2nd postcard instruction set, we observed an increase in visitors for a short period of time.

We wanted to explore more attempts at creating an online experience for the strangers of Bryant Park through our website, OurBryantPark.org. Continuing the goal of the website, which is to provide the community of Bryant Park a place to view the responses to the various installations and interventions we put in the park as well as to see the creative works done by the community itself, we wanted to explore ways to increase the activity, both by our physical instruction sets as well as directing them to the web location.

Our next idea would be to create a poster that featured the creative expressions from the postcard instruction sets and include our web address. Will a poster be more effective? How will we determine if the posters are being used? Is our intention to provide these to specific kind of stranger, the mid-day holiday crowd or the morning commuters?

2. Games – Using more images than text with instruction set
In analyzing our previous instruction sets, we felt we relied too heavily on text based instructions, and we want to explore more image or illustration based instructions.

With the addition of the holiday shopping area and skating rink, the volume of weekday and weekend public use of the park has increased since we first started observing the park. As opposed to the destination being somewhere on the other side of the park, Bryant Park is the destination for the foot traffic.

We’ve developed a game which instructs a stranger how to build a paper airplane and illustrate for them what we’d like them to do with it. We would offer prizes for successful attempts.

This came partly from our recent visit where a game shop has opened up exactly where we handed out our first instruction set.

3. Additional Postcard Instruction Sets
We have discussed taking our two prototypes of postcard instruction sets to other areas of the city. Is there a difference in response between differing locations? Do the physical surroundings affect the response rate? What sort of additional emotional information can be gathered with these postcards?

References
Gaver, Bill, Tony Dunne, and Elena Pacenti. “Design: Cultural probes.” interactions 6.1 (1999): 21-29.

Link to Instruction Sets for Strangers Flickr Set

Instruction Sets for Strangers – Third Prototype – Results and Feedback

By Ryan | Published November 9, 2009

On November 3rd (Tuesday), we handed out 100 copies of our new postcard prototype. At this point, we have received information in regards to one of our questions, which was “Will people investigate the website?”.

Since handing out the postcards that provided the “OurBryantPark.org” web address, we have had 20 visits to the website, with a total of 56 page views. This is encouraging in regards to our query of the difference between physical and digital anonymous interactions.

We have been tracking the IP addresses of these visits, and 5 of them originated from the New School location.

We were surprised by the physical traffic patterns that morning since the new shops have been put into the park. Despite the heavy construction, the morning commuters continued their use of the West entrance.

At the time of this posting, we have not received any postcard responses.

Also posted in 2009 Fall, Major Studio - Interface | Tagged Instruction Sets for Strangers | Leave a comment

Instruction Sets for Strangers – Third Prototype – Preparations

By Ryan | Published November 3, 2009

First we added Google Analytics and a additional plug-in to our website which tracks the visitors. We will know when they accessed the site, and we’re tracking where they are accessing it from (by IP address).

We also added new posts to our website to illustrate the projects that have been done in the park so far.

We then designed new cards and printed up 100 copies. These postcards were self-addressed and stamped. We decided to use the two colors of paper that we received the most responses from in the previous Postcard prototype. For the front side of the card, we approached another question we wanted to get responses to which is:

How would the community of Bryant Park describe the park with a logo?

For the back side of the card, we approached it with an instruction without explicit text. We used 4 different photographs and used an image to request a response to the photograph (image pulled from here).

The photographs varied in context, providing different perspectives of Bryant Park. We also included the web address for OurBryantPark.org to continue our investigation into physical vs. web interest in the project as well as show new responders previous work done by other members of the Bryant Park community.