Seamless Interactions

Aesthetics seem to come from many different sources, practices, theories and believes. Because humans are different, their perception is different. Someone might experience something aesthetic, while others find it utterly incomprehensible. This could also do with the fact that humans have different levels of experience, giving different values to designs. By using theory about esthetic interaction, I explored its boundaries through creating a gesture based alarm clock that could create a soothing sleeping ritual.

The alarm clock lets the user open it up through petting its side. This way the user can place their phone inside, so it will not disturb their resting during the night. The clock has 12 fins, each representing one hour on a regular clock.

Before this design was chosen, I made different prototypes to explore different interactions. I often used high quality materials, instead of regular cardboard and foam board, to evoke different senses. I used a metal key and mostly wood.

Without the theory I would have done ’thinking through doing’ without a reason. My decisions would have been made based on looks and appearance, rather than aesthetics. The theory and lectures gave backbone to my decisions on creative grounds, other than ’yeah…this looks nice’. I now see how form can follow a certain function and how function can follow a certain form.