By abstracting movement properties and experimenting with materials, I have designed a new interaction for the drawing compass. Rather than fiddling with a small cylinder on top, the user now actually makes a circle, guided by the device’s constraints. During this design process I have learned to play with the relationships between form, function and interaction.
The design was conceived in four iterations. To come up with original interactions that fit the requirements, I worked with several materials, varying from Lego to cardboard to perspex.The requirements were about movement qualities. For example, this iteration required a more circular interaction than the previous one, and resulted in a fluent movement through shape.Connecting my prototype to those of other students, we compared similar and different movement qualities. Those provided inspiration for new requirements, like ‘make the movement less regular’.After these abstraction and concretization steps, I had a new interaction. I have tweaked it and selected appropriate materials in order to make the design useful as a drawing compass. This has resulted in a useful new tool that affords original and meaningful interaction.
