Parola progetto
The design of experiences between museums and installations, between the physical and digital space. Co-design of small to large projects, involving hospitals, doctors and patients. We talk of education, prototyping and designer responsibility.
The journalist and design critic Paolo Ferrarini interviews Alessandro Masserdotti, co-founder of Dotdotdot and OpenDot, in his “Parola Progetto” show, a podcast of interviews with people that live on projects, to tell stories of design without the use of objects and images, but only through the use of words and their profound meaning. Here’s an excerpt. To give speech the most reflective rhythm of reading.
Paolo Ferrarini. What is your definition of Interaction Design?
Alessandro Masserdotti. It’s a relatively new discipline, it’s been talked about for twenty years. But it became a more well defined subject about fifteen years ago when we started. This type of design is about the interaction between human beings (users) and technology. It is about accessing information through technology, in the easiest and most intuitive way. The mouse, for example, is a physical component (peripheral) that makes us interact naturally with the graphic interface of the computer and the information hidden within it.
“On the one hand there is the digital (binary) system, made up of ones and zeros, which is a difficult language for man to comprehend; on the other hand there is the human being, made up of gestures and sensations/feelings. The designer’s job is to find a mediation between the two.”
We are particularly interested in the relationship of the person through the space and the acquisition of digital information in the relationship between man-space-technology. In fact, we deal with interaction design in museums or in showrooms, where the spatial component is fundamental, because digital information is not used as it would be on a website, but rather in an emotional way and in relation to physical space.
P.F. Among these spaces is the “Piccolo Museo del Diario” (Little Museum of the Diary).
A.M. It is one of our milestones because it is iconographic and poetic in its essence. Since 1985, the Diaries Archive Foundation has collected over seven thousand diaries. It is a fact known to historians, researchers and directors alike, who today, thanks to the narration of some case studies of the archive through interactive installations, has become an asset accessible to the general public, without the need for precise research. We worked on the visitor’s emotional experience along the way. It is an on-going project because the Foundation collects funds every year to build new rooms and tell new stories.
P.F. You are also working in the healthcare field. Why have you made this choice?
A.M. It happened by chance five years ago, following the collaboration with the TOG — Together to Go Foundation, during a design workshop that we held at the Domus Academy of Milan. And we’re still collaborating, discovering how design through technology can become a process facilitator. The world of disability needs a vertically-integrated human-centered design, something which has become possible thanks to digital fabrication that allows to build unique pieces, designed for the person and at affordable prices. While also beautiful, something that is not taken for granted. A postural device can be transformed from an object of exclusion into a desirable object because it makes the user unique, thus working on the psychological aspect of the patients, which is fundamental in the therapeutic field. Design can change the perception and use of things. In healthcare, we are also working on systems based on eye tracking technology, through which children with extremely poor motor skills can interact with their eyes. Everything must be well thought out so as not to create further frustration. These aids are born from the co-design with professionals across different fields for a common goal, together discovering what is required and finding the most suitable solutions.
“The designer works as an interpreter, to mediate and translate between different languages. The designer, then, is used to creating something that does not exist; while the doctor or therapist perceives the technology as a product to buy and not as a project to be realized.”
But thanks to technology, everything is possible, because the only limitations are costs and the time required to create it.
P.F. In your study there is a sacred word: prototyping.
A.M. Five years ago we founded our FabLab OpenDot, as the production of prototypes represents 70% of both the physical space of the studio and of our activity. In fact, in order to validate an idea, we need to see it working. From the idea we move to the construction of the prototype and to the relative verification/modification in a continuous process. To understand if technology is working in the relationship between man and space, there is always something physical, a tangible means. Continuous prototyping also serves our customers, to whom we do not explain the project but just ask them to try it for themselves. Our learning model is in fact “learning by doing”, as we often find ourselves designing something that does not exist and therefore we must test. And in areas we are unfamiliar with, where we need to educate ourselves. A such, we organize workshops and advanced training courses with experts from all over the world.
To learn more about Dotdotdot design methodology, read here.
P.F. What will be the interfaces of the future?
A.M. Today we talk a lot about voice commands. But I don’t think it’s the future, at least not exclusively. The relationship we have with the world is multi-sensory and complex, allowing us to reach the goal more directly than using just a single sense. The relationship with the machine is equally complex: even the simple mouse is a tactile, visual and sound interface. Beyond the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence in language comprehension, the interface implementation process still has ways to go. There will be a fusion of different systems. In the automotive industry for example, haptic interfaces are being developed because with the use of touch screens, the necessary physical relationship with objects is lost.
