Breaking News 24/7

Interactive window display that invites you to Pinocchio’s newsroom

ROLE

Interaction Designer
Experience Designer
Fabricator

DURATION

6 weeks

Under the theme “Carnival,” what can be made fun and possible for an extreme shallow window? How can it be interactive? How to make sure it will be ready in six weeks for a seven-day exhibition, with a limited budge?

Breaking News 24/7 is an interactive window display designed for Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. 

The window creates a portal to a newsroom in a dystopian world, where the boundary between fake and real can no longer be distinguished.

Design Principles

01

Simple Interaction

Getting people’s attention in the street is hard and asking them to interact is even harder, so the more straightforward the interaction is, the more likely people will participate.

02

Liner Experience

For the window response, we make sure only one thing changes at a time. It helps with directing user attention and providing clear user experience.

03

Varying Results

It is essential to iterate one interaction through a variety of results, which means the contents displayed in multiple consecutive window responses need to be different.

04

Multiple Perspectives

To attract people passing by, the idle position should not be entirely static. The design should also take both players and viewers into consideration.

Window Response Flowchart

Design Details

We designed animations to give the window a look and feel of a real news channel.

A selection of news covering different topics, which makes sure contents are different in multiple continuous window responses.

Technical System Diagram

Ideation

Ideation started with every team member coming up with two ideas and pitching within the group. Then, the group selected our top three ideas and pitched them together to others who were not familiar with the project.

Based on the feedback, we brainstormed further and decided on the final idea, which was Pinocchio's newsroom.

Fortuneteller

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Planning and Execution

Timeline, Teamwork and Communication

Since this was the first time the team worked together, establishing and maintaining clear and efficient communication was essential. Our solution was to use a shared sheet that had all the tasks, their priorities, assignees, notes, due dates, and status, apart from the general production timeline, to keep every team member updated.

Prototyping and User Testing

After each prototype and user testing, we wrote down problems we had and potential solutions. The team modified the to-do list and shared sheets together based on the result.

What did I learn?

• Communication is the key. One of the most important things that led to our project success was that we established the foundation of communication in the first place.

• Prototyping and testing are essential. Designing and building things that last long requires a significant amount of effort.

• Modular design is more reliable and easy to debug.

• Take the maintenance into consideration.
  
  

Team Members

Hau Yuan, Marco Wylie, Nathier Fernández