We started exploring data physicalization. A data physicalization is a physical artifact whose geometry or material properties encode data. Data physicalization aims to help people explore, understand, and communicate data using computer-supported physical data representations. These representations are called physicalizations, analogously to visualizations — their purely visual counterpart.
We also started thinking of the diary concept in stages and asking the W Questions. The first stage was — Habit of recalling memories, the second was- Collecting information & Self-tracking and the third was- sharing information.
For the first stage of habit building through memory, we looked at the Memory palace and its techniques. A mental image of the locations one has visited have to be remembered. We thought it would be a good idea to inculcate that into our design.
From reading about data physicalization, I came up with an idea of creating a map instead of a diary with pages. This map would have to track certain elements like- location, date, and people. I was thinking of a generative toolkit and thought of letting people build their own maps. Also, there would be digital aspects in the map to share the information. Everyone seemed to agree with the idea so we went ahead with it. We were also thinking of the system of the map.
We decided to track ourselves again and make our own maps first to help realize the aspects we could take from each one’s map.
When I started making my map, I wanted to go for a more topological aspect. I marked all the locations I visited with blocks and arranged them according to how crowded the place was. More blocks = more people.
I decided to mark the days with a slate. If I had been to the location on that day, I marked it green. The people I met during that visit would be marked in a small flag with their names written on it.
After tracking ourselves for a week with the help of this map, we decided which aspects to borrow from each one.
Nancy, Amber and Felix's map respectively
Feedback
John really liked that we had stepped away from sketches and actually made our concepts physical. He liked the merge between physical and digital. He urged us to make the map simpler so that it can be scanned easily by the phone camera and can be integrated with a digital platform.
Takeaway
Integration between physical and digital was a good thing to learn about. Working and collaborating through making was really interesting, especially online. We were able to convey our ideas much more through making.
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