For three weeks simply observe how people interact with their environment and everyday objects. Document your observations with at least 75 photos and note what type of interaction that you see and why it was interesting. The types of interactions I want you to note are: reaction, responding, co-opting, exploiting, adapting, conforming or signaling. From your collection of notes and photos produce a simple website, poster, book or video to share your observations with the class.
- reaction, “we interact automatically with objects and spaces that we encounter”
- responding, “some qualities and features prompt us to behave in particular ways”
- co-opting, “we make use of opportunities present in our immediate surroundings”
- exploiting, “we take advantage of physical and mechanical qualities we understand”
- adapting, “we alter the purpose or context of things to meet our objectives”
- conforming, “we learn patterns of behavior from others in our social and cultural group”
- signaling, “we convey messages and prompts to ourselves and other people”
Thoughtless acts flicker group: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/thoughtlessacts/
Thoughtless acts: morning paper https://www.ideo.com/blog/thoughtless-acts-the-morning-paper
The Role of Observation in User Research https://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2018/09/the-role-of-observation-in-user-research.php