Donald - In the early 70s my Granpa took a position as the head teacher of the British School in Tehran, the capital city of Iran. He has a large collection of slides from this time, and his fear was that when he passed away these slides would disappear into storage and his stories would be lost.
In January 2008 we were set the brief of bridging a generational gap, specifically that between a young person and their Grandperson. Storymaker, Storyteller was our solution.
Photography by Joanna Montgomery.
Experience Prototypes - Our two experience prototypes, My Granpa's Storymaker sits side by side with my Storyteller. Normally these devices would be forty or so miles apart in our respective homes.
Storymaker - My Granpa, Donald, uses this simple device (based on a 70s handheld slide viewer) to tell his stories. One button starts the process; a microphone captures his stories, and as he inserts slides into the top of the device they too are captured. A second press of the button sends the collected pictures and stories as a single 'presentation' to the Storyteller.
The simplicity of this device counteracts the problems of assembling projection equipment and gathering family to view slides.
Storyteller - My device, the storyteller, receives and archives my granpa's 'presentations', which are projected from the cone visible above. The dial cycles through the first slide of each story, and the single button starts whichever story is selected.
It was important to us to preserve the (lost) sensation of being in a darkened room listening to my Granpa talk. Consequently there are no pause, fast forward or rewind controls. Pauses and mistakes are part of the experience.
Storyteller cone - The projection cone was milled from aluminium by the university engineering department. The design was inspired by our research into 1970s projection equipment. Behind, there is a digital projector on its side.
Storyteller grille - The cases were laser cut from steel. These grilles help dissipate heat from the projector.
Storyteller controls - The story selection dial was milled from aluminium by the university engineering department. On the far side the play button can also been seen.
In addition to the projector itself, the casing also conceals circuitry and an arduino board.
Storymaker, Storyteller - In 2008 my team and I were flown to Seattle to represent the UK with our project at the Microsoft Design Expo in Redmond. We presented on the 29th of July to an international audience and a panel of judges including Joy Mountford and Bill Buxton.
"He speaks in the technology of his day and you view in the technology of your day, and it's seamless, and that's elegant. I've not seen that before." - Bill Buxton
Awarded 'Best End-to-End Design'.
The Underwonders - Our team, the Underwonders: Lee Murray, Natalie Montgomery, Jo Montgomery (no relation) and myself, with Product Design course director Polly Duplock. This was our booth at the demofest at Microsoft HQ, where we demonstrated our project to visitors before the final presentation.
Read more about the project's evolution on our blog at http://ipd.dundee.ac.uk/designexpo08/blog/ or see our classmate's projects at http://ipd.dundee.ac.uk/designexpo08/
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Storymaker, Storyteller