Thursday, November 5, 2009

Final Submission Experiment 2 & Research Assignment

Experiment 2 Final Submission



The exact texturing of Town Hall station was not important for my experiment, as it was the amount of advertising that altered the environment.
By covering the walls of the tracks, and the stairways/escalator ways, I was able to make one side of the station completely bare, and the other swarming with advertisements.

The desired effect was achieved as my experiment showed that advertising did have affect the porosity of the building.

I could have got many more subjects to take part in the experiment, which would've have smoothed out the results, and maybe created a better perspective on the affects of advertising. All the outlier results might be singled out and a better understanding could be shaped.

The paths of the subjects through the space were not as direct as they were in the control test. They were also slightly halted as in some cases the subject actually stopped or turned to look. In other cases they simply turned their head while moving.

It could be improved by adding bots to the environment in order to simulate another factor that might alter the effects advertising has on porosity.
For example the awkwardness of public spaces might find someone looking at advertising in order to avoid eye contact with strangers. Or while moving people might be less likely to look at advertising as it might provide some distraction from the environment now having more obstacles in the way than the simple layout of the building.

Another factor that may have altered the results is that the game simulation simply does not provide the atmosphere and mindset that one might have while mindlessly moving through Town Hall station on a regular day. The fact that they are merely sitting at a computer, and somebody asks them to "simply walk from the bottom level to the concourse" does not create a proper simulation to walking out of the station as you've arrived after a long day at work or university.

There are many factors that could have altered the experiment, and they should all be taken into account in order to improve the experiment.

File download link

Research Assignment



This experiment could've been improved by having a lot more candidates take part. A wider range of media available would have been extra help too. There are many students who have experience with 3D modelling and a more well rounded result could've been achieved had I asked a wider range of students.

Another aspect that could help improve the experiment would be to make a more technically challenging object. The object had it's technical difficulties with accuracy, however did not provide an huge insight into the methodology.
For example, all the students created the table top, and then continued to the legs. This was a particularly logical series of events, however an object with more stages that interconnect would have provided more options for the students to approach the task from.
And greater insight into their methodology could've been achieved.

Most students opted for sketchup when choosing their preferred option. This was assumed to be due to the fact that it's very common, easily accessible and a program used by many people new to modelling. Even with a greater candidature this result might be assumed.

The students opting for 3D modelling programs like Cinema 4D and 3D Studio Max had a slightly different approach to Solidworks. Solidworks being a very precise engineering program, it offers a very different angle on modelling as opposed to the aforementioned programs.

9 x Realtime Image Captures

Student 1 Solidworks - Rotating their final Product













Student 1 Google Sketchup - Completing the 10cm x 10cm squares for the legs













Student Two Solidworks - Smart Dimensioning the Base 2m x 1.5m rectangle













Student Two Google Sketchup - Alternative cut-extrude method of creating the table













Student Three Solidworks - Smart Dimensioning the legs













Student Three 3D Studio Max - Positioning the table top













Student Four Solidworks - Smart Dimensioning the table top













Student Four Cinema 4D - Interesting choice for modelling

Creating the shape before inserting measurements












Gridding the shape for ease of extrusion

Monday, November 2, 2009

Week 6 - Research Question Progress and Camstudio

Footage used for my research:
-screenshot footage: this will better communicate the participants fluentness in using the programs.
For example, if they use shortcuts, or click on the menu icons specifically?
If they make mistakes and are clumsy or not when modelling?
If they use a logical series of modelling forms to create the final product or if they proceed using arbitrary orders for creating the model?

This realtime footage will hopefully communicate the results of the experiment in a clear and concise manner, addressing the question directly and relaying the results in a simple and clear way.

Various text overlays and subtitles will be used as the video progresses in order to keep the viewer up to date with results and to make sure the question is still the focus of the vide and the viewers idea does not stray from the question at hand.