GICO - GICO
Pluggin for future collaboration
GICO-GICO, the self-resilient interactive system, blends physical and digital interactions into ‘spatialised’ behaviors, redefining a sustainable collaborative relationship for future creative teams.
Project Info
Solo Project
6 Weeks, 2021
Tasks
User Research & Workshops, Concept
Experiments& Iterations
3D CAD, Prototyping
Usability Testing, Visuals
Topics
Sustainable Digital Interactions
Future Digital Interface
Tangible Media
Design Methods
Iterative Design
Interaction Design
Human-centered Design
Software
Figma, Rhino, Premier Pro,
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
Visit lliuziyi.com on your laptop to check for the research process and full details
From the very beginning of the digital age, we have been exploring how, exactly, we talk with our machines. The traditional keyboard and mouse have long dominated, and the newly born touch screen will not be the last way. Perhaps, therefore, we should also start thinking about the way we interact with computers from scratch. This is the initial research question:
Initial Research Question:
How might we reimagine a sustainable digital interaction for the creative workers of the future?
Problem & Opportunities.
Through an analysis of existing solutions. I examined how the design of interactions can be critically viewed through the lens of sustainability.
There are three major gaps, which leads to three possible opportunities:
I, therefore, define the future of Sustainable Digital Interaction as a self-resilient, humanized and collaborative digital interaction system.
Limited the scope to collaboration first, iwhich possible solutions could be spatialising information, screenless solution and community computing. Here we proposed the second question:
Developed Research Question:
How might we facilitate collaborations in creative workspace,
through rethinking interactions between digital and physical tools?
User Research.
The research and experiments consist of three stage:
- Gadgets overcomplicate technology increase technical barriers and ignore the current digital divide, making them less inclusive.
- Solutions that can only offer limited user scenario put their customer adhesiveness in doubt.
- Devices that are highly immersive could restrict human collaboration.
I, therefore, define the future of Sustainable Digital Interaction as a self-resilient, humanized and collaborative digital interaction system.
Limited the scope to collaboration first, iwhich possible solutions could be spatialising information, screenless solution and community computing. Here we proposed the second question:
Developed Research Question:
How might we facilitate collaborations in creative workspace,
through rethinking interactions between digital and physical tools?
User Research.
The research and experiments consist of three stage:
I. Shadowing:
to help identify interactions happening in each creative collaboration stages. I sit down with two creative workers, Ellie and Jassy, and spent 1 hour observing them working on a creative project.
to help identify interactions happening in each creative collaboration stages. I sit down with two creative workers, Ellie and Jassy, and spent 1 hour observing them working on a creative project.
EXPI: Data from Shadowing
II. Interview: to measure the type and level of collaborations along creative collaboration,
I interviewed the three participants and let them draw the line indicating collaboration levels.
![EXPII: Data from Interview]()
I interviewed the three participants and let them draw the line indicating collaboration levels.
EXPII: Data from Interview
III. Workshop: to find out the further relationships.I designed a workshop where five participants are guided to complete three activities. The workshop also directs the project to focus more on where the collaboration is the most active - the early stage of creative collaboration.
![]()
![]()
![EXPIII: Data from Workshop Activities]()
EXPIII: Data from Workshop Activities
The Insights.
The insights from the experiments are:
Therefore, I ended up at the final research question:
Final Research Question:
How might we facilitate spatial collaborations in creative workplace,
through blending physical and digital as part of space?
Brainstorming& Prototyping.
Two early concepts: 'Gamification' and 'Modularity' were developed into low-fi prototypes, and validated with the users. They suggested that there should be more focus on how the solution could encourage spontaneous and fun interactions, as well as emphasizing the flexibility and sustainability of the platform.
Final Design.
The final concept therefore decided to focus on developing the "Modularity" concept, but also retaining the fun, creative elements of the "Gamification" concept.
GICO-GICO is an innovative step towards the future of sustainable digital interaction. Starting with collaboration in the creative field, GICO-GICO spatialise digital and physical informative interactions into tangible behavioral interactions, emphasizing the tangibility, programmability and self-resilience brought by a modular interactive system.
GICO-GICO interactive system consists of a physical collaborative board, a website cloud-base and an APP.
Features of Collaborative Board
Colored cubes are used to label team members. Different sizes of cubes supports different contents.
Components of Collaborative Board
The Cloudbase synchronises real-time inputs and outputs for easy operation from online platform.
![The Cloud-base]()
The One-touch app allows processing of information on the go.
![The App]()
![Interactions on the Collaborative Board]()
The Cloud-base
The One-touch app allows processing of information on the go.
The App
Interactions on the Collaborative Board
![User Scenario]()
User Scenario
Conclusion & Foresight.
GICO-GICO follows an Hypothesis-Experiment-driven design approach with a Human-Centered focus. It succeeds in making interactions in creative collaboration "sustainable". GICO-GICO has proven to provide more tangibility, programmability and iterative capabilities than existing market solutions. Users gain a more stimulating atmosphere for creative discussion, tools for increased productivity, and a higher degree of autonomy without altering the existing habits. The next steps for GICO-GICO are:
