EXPERIMENTS
Sometimes we have a question about how people behave together.
So we build something small and test it.
An experiment lets us see what actually happens instead of sitting around theorising about what people might do.
WORK WITH TDC / A DEVELOPING PRACTICE
INTERACTION DESIGN.
Designing what happens between people: how they notice, respond, participate or choose to observe.
DISCUSS AN INTERACTIONA QUESTION TO BEGIN WITH
WHAT HAPPENS BETWEEN PEOPLE?
A small instruction can change a whole room. We develop ways for people to notice, respond and make something together.
Each format begins with the people and the moment in front of us.
WHERE THIS COULD HELP
A gathering where people do not know how to begin a conversation. An exhibition where each visitor can leave a trace for the next. A talk that needs space for more people to respond.
The scope can include the interaction concept, participation instructions, a prototype and an agreed testing plan.
THE DISTINCTION
THE ROOM IS NOT THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE.
There are already people designing almost every other part of it.
01ARCHITECTURE
Where will people be?
The room, the movement, the physical space.
02COMMUNICATION DESIGN
What will people see and understand?
The signs, information and visual language around them.
03EVENT PRODUCTION
What will happen?
The schedule, programme and things taking place.
04TDC INTERACTION DESIGN
What will happen between the people there?
That’s our part.
WHAT COULD WE MAKE?
Again, it depends on the problem.
But right now, we see this practice taking three forms.
COMMISSIONS
Sometimes a brand, institution, event or cultural programme already has a moment that isn’t working.
People aren’t talking.
Nobody knows what to do.
Everyone is being asked to participate and nobody wants to.
Or the idea of the event is being explained everywhere but never actually experienced.
Bring us that moment.
We can design an interaction around it.
FORMATS
And sometimes one good interaction deserves to happen more than once.
TDC can develop a system that can be repeated, adapted and used across future gatherings without becoming exactly the same experience every time.
OKAY. GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE.
Fair.
A TALK
- The problem
- Everybody listens for an hour.
Then five people compete for a microphone. - What could change?
- Before the questions return to the stage, give people a small reason to exchange the idea with someone around them.
Now more people have actually processed what they heard without making everyone perform publicly.
AN EXHIBITION
- The problem
- People walk individually through something that is fundamentally about a collective experience.
- What could change?
- One visitor leaves a small trace that changes what the next visitor is asked to notice.
The strangers never even have to meet.
But suddenly they are part of the same experience.
A BRAND GATHERING
- The problem
- The brand spends the entire evening explaining an idea.
Nobody actually experiences it. - What could change?
- Design one social action that turns the proposition into something people actually do together.
Sometimes doing something explains it better than another screen saying it.
A CRITICAL LIMIT
NOT EVERYONE NEEDS TO PARTICIPATE.
This matters.
Interaction design should not become another person standing in a room saying:
“Come on guys, everyone participate!”
Sometimes the right experience is participation.
Sometimes it is listening.
Sometimes it is watching.
Sometimes it is simply being allowed to remain an observer.
The goal isn’t maximum participation.
It’s designing the right relationship between people for that particular moment.
A COMMISSION / SIMPLY
BRING US ONE MOMENT THAT ISN’T WORKING.
You don’t need to redesign the whole event.
Start smaller.
- 01
You bring us a human problem, place or gathering.
- 02
We look at what is actually happening and find one interaction worth changing.
- 03
We design it and, where useful, test a physical prototype.
- 04
You leave with the interaction, system or format needed to put it into the real world.
That’s it.
This is still a developing TDC practice.
The first experiments and commissions begin in Bengaluru.
BRING US A HUMAN PROBLEM →