Designing for “information in my world”

An international competition and a trip to Seattle

Our IDE faculty was invited to participate in the 2012 Microsoft Research’s (MSR) Design Expo. The theme this year: “Information in my world”. How can your surroundings help you get oriented and get the information you might want at that moment?

IDE TU Delft participated in the 2012 Microsoft Research Design Expo

Microsoft Research’s Design Expo is a yearly design competition to which seven top international design schools are invited to present their work. Assistant professor Stella Boess of our faculty was the contact person for Delft and set out the challenge to students to develop concepts that reflect the increasing availability of information in every facet of our everyday lives. The Microsoft liaisons were Arne de Booij and Jakob Nielsen.

Selecting the winning team “LiftLife” to present in Seattle

In Delft, four teams competed to win the trip to Seattle as part of the Exploring Interactions autumn class and Interactive Technology Design spring class. Team “LiftLife” won: Jaap Rutten, Segourney Muntslag, Natalia Papadopoulou, Iris Ploum and Maarten Karremans.

The winning concept: “LiftLife”

The winning team’s concept is an interactive installation in the elevator of an apartment or office building: users can scan colours they have on them. Each person’s colour is presented in an animated illustration in the elevator. This facilitates non-committal communication and feeling more comfortable about those in close vicinity. Besides Stella Boess who managed the project, Aadjan van der Helm and Walter Aprile of the ITD course and Ingrid Mulder and Sanne Kistemaker of the EI course also supported the team in developing this concept during the courses.

Travelling to Seattle and Best Industrial Design Award at MSR Design Expo

Team “LiftLife” traveled to Seattle to build and demo their concept at MSR Design Expo 2012 where they won the award for Best Industrial Design! It was a trip full of prototype building, presentations and fun at parties and visits.

The student teams from all seven participating universities (Delft University of Technology, Umeå University, Carnegie Mellon, Royal College of Art, Tsinghua University, Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial, University of Washington), with their tutors and Microsoft liaisons.