Story-Based Design Methods

Reflections on "Interaction Relabelling and Extreme Characters: Methods for Exploring Aesthetic Interactions" by J.P. Djajadiningrat, W.W. Gaver, and J.W. Frens

Marcus Thomas

Dec 21, 2024

"A different choice of object highlights different interaction possibilities...Through the connotations of the object that is relabelled, the technique also makes designers aware of the socio-cultural role their products can play."

This quote was really interesting to me, as it caused me to find a connection with another realization I had discovered regarding "designing for adjacent contexts". Designs can have so many different contexts that we might not originally intend for, but it's a wholly separate thing to consider alternate connotations for them, and I find that fascinating. When we consider the possibilities of, say, a pen, and transform it into a tool for appointment setting, the ability to develop your creative muscles really shines. I think that by trying to break away from our current understanding of socio-cultural norms for products, we can unlock new ways to apply lateral thinking, and in turn, try out things that were so seemingly left-field that it almost makes you think, "why haven't we thought about using it this way in the first place." And that is a scenario that I would love to experience.

"The rings for the drugs dealer opened interesting possibilities for actions, such as linking importance to placement and delegating through sharing. However, the aesthetics of the rings for the drugs dealer are rather stereotypical."

Similar to my previous reflective paragraph, I think that by having some kind of socio-cultural touch point can still yield some interesting results. As this example goes, yes, a drug (not gonna lie, I kind of chuckled at the added 's' added in this paper) dealer having a bunch of rings is pretty stereotypical; however, is that necessarily a negative thing in a story? I don't think so, as those touch points allow audiences to create connections in their mind, and further immerse themselves in the world we're describing. Nonetheless, this example was a pretty interesting case of adding a layer of complexity to the typical drug dealer ethos. For example: what if the protagonist/antagonist is trying to catch the drug dealer slipping to usurp their place, and is looking for the opportunity to catch them slipping? They might notice the drug lord fidgeting with a different ring at different times, or a benign comment about wearing "the wrong ring today" could lead to an opportunity to strike. Although I understand the authors verdict in the context of comparing the other two examples, I don't think that by having some sort of association with a currently well-known idea is a failure as a whole, but still a creative attempt at subverting expectations.

"While the twenty-year old may come across as a frivolous character, some ideas for the appointment fan can easily be introduced to more serious applications. For example, by replacing ‘boyfriends’ with ‘business contacts’, moving the blades could become a way of judging business priorities. Likewise, for a freelancer, public mode may become a way of shielding ties with one client while visiting another."

Tying back into the "adjacent contexts" concept, I find that this is a great example of it in action! I now often find myself when designing, thinking of different ways to apply my ideas to different scenarios that are outside of my stated goals, and writing down some of my day-dreaming thoughts to further explore later. Before I even got to this quote, I also started to think about the same concept, and was glad that they touched on it as well! In conclusion, I think that this paper helped fill in another gap in my design knowledge, which started with me thinking about scale in a metaphysical sense, and now thinking about aesthetics too.

Story-Based Design Methods

Reflections on "Interaction Relabelling and Extreme Characters: Methods for Exploring Aesthetic Interactions" by J.P. Djajadiningrat, W.W. Gaver, and J.W. Frens

Marcus Thomas

Dec 21, 2024

"A different choice of object highlights different interaction possibilities...Through the connotations of the object that is relabelled, the technique also makes designers aware of the socio-cultural role their products can play."

This quote was really interesting to me, as it caused me to find a connection with another realization I had discovered regarding "designing for adjacent contexts". Designs can have so many different contexts that we might not originally intend for, but it's a wholly separate thing to consider alternate connotations for them, and I find that fascinating. When we consider the possibilities of, say, a pen, and transform it into a tool for appointment setting, the ability to develop your creative muscles really shines. I think that by trying to break away from our current understanding of socio-cultural norms for products, we can unlock new ways to apply lateral thinking, and in turn, try out things that were so seemingly left-field that it almost makes you think, "why haven't we thought about using it this way in the first place." And that is a scenario that I would love to experience.

"The rings for the drugs dealer opened interesting possibilities for actions, such as linking importance to placement and delegating through sharing. However, the aesthetics of the rings for the drugs dealer are rather stereotypical."

Similar to my previous reflective paragraph, I think that by having some kind of socio-cultural touch point can still yield some interesting results. As this example goes, yes, a drug (not gonna lie, I kind of chuckled at the added 's' added in this paper) dealer having a bunch of rings is pretty stereotypical; however, is that necessarily a negative thing in a story? I don't think so, as those touch points allow audiences to create connections in their mind, and further immerse themselves in the world we're describing. Nonetheless, this example was a pretty interesting case of adding a layer of complexity to the typical drug dealer ethos. For example: what if the protagonist/antagonist is trying to catch the drug dealer slipping to usurp their place, and is looking for the opportunity to catch them slipping? They might notice the drug lord fidgeting with a different ring at different times, or a benign comment about wearing "the wrong ring today" could lead to an opportunity to strike. Although I understand the authors verdict in the context of comparing the other two examples, I don't think that by having some sort of association with a currently well-known idea is a failure as a whole, but still a creative attempt at subverting expectations.

"While the twenty-year old may come across as a frivolous character, some ideas for the appointment fan can easily be introduced to more serious applications. For example, by replacing ‘boyfriends’ with ‘business contacts’, moving the blades could become a way of judging business priorities. Likewise, for a freelancer, public mode may become a way of shielding ties with one client while visiting another."

Tying back into the "adjacent contexts" concept, I find that this is a great example of it in action! I now often find myself when designing, thinking of different ways to apply my ideas to different scenarios that are outside of my stated goals, and writing down some of my day-dreaming thoughts to further explore later. Before I even got to this quote, I also started to think about the same concept, and was glad that they touched on it as well! In conclusion, I think that this paper helped fill in another gap in my design knowledge, which started with me thinking about scale in a metaphysical sense, and now thinking about aesthetics too.

Code Breakdown

Figure 8 Track

// Parametric curve + tangent
x = a * sin(t),  y = (b/2) * sin(2t)

function infinityPoint(tau, a, b) {
  const x = a * sin(tau);
  const y = (b * 0.5) * sin(2 * tau);
  const dx = a * cos(tau);
  const dy = b * cos(2 * tau);
  const ang = atan2(dy, dx); // tangent angle
  return { x, y, ang };
}

We draw the track as a polyline (sampled points) and orient all glyphs by rotating to the tangent (rotate(p.ang)).

4-Behaviors

behaviors = [
  { name:'SEASONS', slots:32, period: base * PI * FEEDING_CYCLE, hue:30,  glyph:'chev' },
  { name:'STROKES', slots: 8, period: base * 1.414 * FIN_STROKES, hue:280, glyph:'bar'  },
  { name:'BREATH',  slots:12, period: base * 1.618 * SLOW_BREATH,  hue:205, glyph:'mark' },
  { name:'BLINK',   slots:12, period: base * 2.718,                hue:150, glyph:'eye'  }
];

Seasons = Turtle feeding cycles
Fin Strokes = Distance Measuring
Breath = Religious Timing/Calendar
Blink = Day/Night Cycle

Visual Language

const seasonHue = seasonalHue(seasonCyc); // amber → green → violet → cyan
stroke(seasonHue, …); drawInfinityPolyline(...);

Track Color
Season color slowly shifts via four stops using seasonalHue() and wrap-aware lerpHue():

const seasonHue = seasonalHue(seasonCyc); // amber → green → violet → cyan
stroke(seasonHue, …); drawInfinityPolyline(...);

Track Color
Season color slowly shifts via four stops using seasonalHue() and wrap-aware lerpHue():

Story-Based Design Methods

Reflections on "Interaction Relabelling and Extreme Characters: Methods for Exploring Aesthetic Interactions" by J.P. Djajadiningrat, W.W. Gaver, and J.W. Frens

Marcus Thomas

Dec 21, 2024

"A different choice of object highlights different interaction possibilities...Through the connotations of the object that is relabelled, the technique also makes designers aware of the socio-cultural role their products can play."

This quote was really interesting to me, as it caused me to find a connection with another realization I had discovered regarding "designing for adjacent contexts". Designs can have so many different contexts that we might not originally intend for, but it's a wholly separate thing to consider alternate connotations for them, and I find that fascinating. When we consider the possibilities of, say, a pen, and transform it into a tool for appointment setting, the ability to develop your creative muscles really shines. I think that by trying to break away from our current understanding of socio-cultural norms for products, we can unlock new ways to apply lateral thinking, and in turn, try out things that were so seemingly left-field that it almost makes you think, "why haven't we thought about using it this way in the first place." And that is a scenario that I would love to experience.

"The rings for the drugs dealer opened interesting possibilities for actions, such as linking importance to placement and delegating through sharing. However, the aesthetics of the rings for the drugs dealer are rather stereotypical."

Similar to my previous reflective paragraph, I think that by having some kind of socio-cultural touch point can still yield some interesting results. As this example goes, yes, a drug (not gonna lie, I kind of chuckled at the added 's' added in this paper) dealer having a bunch of rings is pretty stereotypical; however, is that necessarily a negative thing in a story? I don't think so, as those touch points allow audiences to create connections in their mind, and further immerse themselves in the world we're describing. Nonetheless, this example was a pretty interesting case of adding a layer of complexity to the typical drug dealer ethos. For example: what if the protagonist/antagonist is trying to catch the drug dealer slipping to usurp their place, and is looking for the opportunity to catch them slipping? They might notice the drug lord fidgeting with a different ring at different times, or a benign comment about wearing "the wrong ring today" could lead to an opportunity to strike. Although I understand the authors verdict in the context of comparing the other two examples, I don't think that by having some sort of association with a currently well-known idea is a failure as a whole, but still a creative attempt at subverting expectations.

"While the twenty-year old may come across as a frivolous character, some ideas for the appointment fan can easily be introduced to more serious applications. For example, by replacing ‘boyfriends’ with ‘business contacts’, moving the blades could become a way of judging business priorities. Likewise, for a freelancer, public mode may become a way of shielding ties with one client while visiting another."

Tying back into the "adjacent contexts" concept, I find that this is a great example of it in action! I now often find myself when designing, thinking of different ways to apply my ideas to different scenarios that are outside of my stated goals, and writing down some of my day-dreaming thoughts to further explore later. Before I even got to this quote, I also started to think about the same concept, and was glad that they touched on it as well! In conclusion, I think that this paper helped fill in another gap in my design knowledge, which started with me thinking about scale in a metaphysical sense, and now thinking about aesthetics too.

Early Draft

After sharing the first version of my Outlook redesign, I got some great feedback that’s helping me rethink a few key areas. One of the biggest notes was to cut back on overlapping panels—they were crowding the interface and taking away from the clean, focused experience I was aiming for. People also pointed out some redundant information popping up in multiple places, which added to the clutter instead of reducing it. The most exciting piece of feedback, though, was the push to reimagine how relationships between groups are displayed. There’s a real opportunity to move past the usual lists and folders and come up with something more visual and meaningful. It was all great fuel for the next round of design updates.

Final Version

Future Considerations//
Reflections
‍

In the final round of feedback, a lot of the earlier critiques were addressed—I successfully reduced overlapping panels and cut out redundant information wherever it crept in. The new approach to showing groups was also really well received, and I think dropping the old-school ‘VIP’ concept helped make the whole system feel more inclusive and context-aware. One piece of feedback that really stuck with me, though, was a suggestion to reimagine the Focus Mode as something closer to a social media-style feed. The idea is to surface important emails from key groups or favorited contacts in a way that feels more natural and scrollable—something familiar, but tailored for productivity. It’s a direction I hadn’t fully considered before, but it opens up a lot of exciting possibilities for how users might intuitively engage with what matters most.

All things considered, this was a much more enjoyable process than I initially thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, the project interested me from the start, but it wasn't until the push to go further and unshackle myself a bit from UX conventions that I felt like this was something special. This project was a great reminder that even though us designers aren't often seen as people that consider self-expression first when creating, it's great exercise to give ourselves the opportunity to become the client. By just focusing on working out our creativity outside of what's trending, on 'this thing is so ubiquitus it's almost weird that we haven't revisited this', we're opening ourselves up to new ways of lateral thinking.

Story-Based Design Methods

Reflections on "Interaction Relabelling and Extreme Characters: Methods for Exploring Aesthetic Interactions" by J.P. Djajadiningrat, W.W. Gaver, and J.W. Frens

Marcus Thomas

Dec 21, 2024

"A different choice of object highlights different interaction possibilities...Through the connotations of the object that is relabelled, the technique also makes designers aware of the socio-cultural role their products can play."

This quote was really interesting to me, as it caused me to find a connection with another realization I had discovered regarding "designing for adjacent contexts". Designs can have so many different contexts that we might not originally intend for, but it's a wholly separate thing to consider alternate connotations for them, and I find that fascinating. When we consider the possibilities of, say, a pen, and transform it into a tool for appointment setting, the ability to develop your creative muscles really shines. I think that by trying to break away from our current understanding of socio-cultural norms for products, we can unlock new ways to apply lateral thinking, and in turn, try out things that were so seemingly left-field that it almost makes you think, "why haven't we thought about using it this way in the first place." And that is a scenario that I would love to experience.

"The rings for the drugs dealer opened interesting possibilities for actions, such as linking importance to placement and delegating through sharing. However, the aesthetics of the rings for the drugs dealer are rather stereotypical."

Similar to my previous reflective paragraph, I think that by having some kind of socio-cultural touch point can still yield some interesting results. As this example goes, yes, a drug (not gonna lie, I kind of chuckled at the added 's' added in this paper) dealer having a bunch of rings is pretty stereotypical; however, is that necessarily a negative thing in a story? I don't think so, as those touch points allow audiences to create connections in their mind, and further immerse themselves in the world we're describing. Nonetheless, this example was a pretty interesting case of adding a layer of complexity to the typical drug dealer ethos. For example: what if the protagonist/antagonist is trying to catch the drug dealer slipping to usurp their place, and is looking for the opportunity to catch them slipping? They might notice the drug lord fidgeting with a different ring at different times, or a benign comment about wearing "the wrong ring today" could lead to an opportunity to strike. Although I understand the authors verdict in the context of comparing the other two examples, I don't think that by having some sort of association with a currently well-known idea is a failure as a whole, but still a creative attempt at subverting expectations.

"While the twenty-year old may come across as a frivolous character, some ideas for the appointment fan can easily be introduced to more serious applications. For example, by replacing ‘boyfriends’ with ‘business contacts’, moving the blades could become a way of judging business priorities. Likewise, for a freelancer, public mode may become a way of shielding ties with one client while visiting another."

Tying back into the "adjacent contexts" concept, I find that this is a great example of it in action! I now often find myself when designing, thinking of different ways to apply my ideas to different scenarios that are outside of my stated goals, and writing down some of my day-dreaming thoughts to further explore later. Before I even got to this quote, I also started to think about the same concept, and was glad that they touched on it as well! In conclusion, I think that this paper helped fill in another gap in my design knowledge, which started with me thinking about scale in a metaphysical sense, and now thinking about aesthetics too.

Designing experiences that
touch, move, and inspire

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