by julia🐨razumovskaia -

5# Product & Business Idea – Design & Research II (Katerina)

✍️ What problem are you solving?

Most navigation systems are designed solely for speed and efficiency. They guide people from point A to point B as quickly as possible, but ignore their mood, context, and the quality of the journey. This creates a sense of passivity, stress, and detachment from the city itself, especially when it comes to large cities or complex journeys.

✍️ Why should we care about it?

Because the way we move around cities affects our attention, stress levels, and attitude toward urban spaces. When navigation focuses solely on speed, people miss out on the city’s opportunities and the chance to explore it. In large cities, this often means we stick to our usual routines and never get to know the city beyond what is strictly necessary.

✍️ What is the solution you are offering? How does it work?

The solution is an adaptive map navigation system that suggests routes based not only on the destination but also on the user’s mood, time of day, and preferences—in other words, on the right kind of onboarding. Instead of always suggesting the fastest route, it can offer alternatives such as peaceful, curious, social, or exploratory paths—for example, through parks, cafes, quiet streets, or unfamiliar neighborhoods. Safety and lighting can also be taken into account.

✍️ Who is the target audience? Who is the customer?

The target audience includes city residents, travelers, immigrants!, researchers, and people seeking more meaningful ways to navigate urban spaces. This is particularly relevant for users who are tired of navigation focused solely on efficiency (such as myself). Clients may include individual users as well as city tourism organizations, municipalities, or mobility-related services interested in promoting a more measured and people-centered urban experience.

✍️ What is going to happen? (Change & Impact)

My product prioritizes mindful navigation over mere ease of use. Instead of simply speeding up movement, users get more information, more choices, and a deeper connection to the city. This can reduce stress, encourage exploration, and help people discover new neighborhoods, rhythms, and everyday experiences in places they already know—or think they know.

Thanks! 🙏

by julia🐨razumovskaia -

4# Customer Profile & Value Proposition Map – Design & Research II (Katerina)

💼 Persona I – Busy Commuter

This is a time-conscious person who needs to move efficiently between locations, often under stressful conditions. They rely on navigation to save time, but in doing so experience stress, overload, and reduced alertness. They need routes that remain efficient, reduce mental strain, and allow for brief moments of calm.

🗺️ Persona II – Curious Explorer

A user who explores the city with an open mind and curiosity, rather than in a hurry. They are interested in discovering new places, atmospheres, and experiences. They need a navigation system that supports exploration, suggests meaningful routes, and helps them engage more deeply with the city.

by elizabeth.trevinopadilla -

Product/Business Idea

What problem are you solving? Externalizing one’s own internal proprioception and bodily and spatial awareness is not easy, and varies from person to person depending on their mental model.  

Why should we care about it? Through sports (specifically aerial silks, in this case), people get adrenaline, maintain good physical and mental well-being, and create community. However, there is a barrier to entry in the fact that people believe it’s harder and less safe than it actually is, leading to people potentially not finding a hobby that could bring them joy. 

What is the solution you are offering? How does it work? I am offering an aerial silks teaching kit including colorful sleeves and a physical 3D model of a human, which has articulating joints and an additional apparatus add-on (starting with aerial silks). This model would have the possibility of demonstrating aerial silks figures on a smaller scale and with lower stakes. Plus, a premium model would have digital capabilities, with sensors embedded in the sleeves to track the person’s movements and be able to represent it autonomously in the model. This kit would also come with an accompanying app that will function as a personal digital aerial diary to log and track your own progress and create community. 

Who is the target audience? Who is the customer? The target audience is the aerial silks student who wants to learn new figures. However, the customer is both the student and also the aerial silks teacher that wants to be able to explain in more classes without having to expense copious amounts of physical energy. 

What is going to happen? (Change & Impact) Aerial students will be able to have more mental security that they will be safe trying out a specific new figure. They will get a deeper understanding for their own body and spatial awareness. The learning curve of new tricks will be lesser, making students able to learn and retain information quicker. Students will be able to, on their own, see if a figure is appropriate for their level, decipher individual moves, try it out in a low-stakes environment, and identify which points have to be taken more care of in order to be safe (e.g. detect essential and nonessential parts of a figure). 

—  

Source:  

Own ideation  

by elizabeth.trevinopadilla -

Customer Profiles, Value Proposition Map, and Business Model Canvas 

The following are representations of the 2 customer profiles, the value proposition map, and the business model canvas of my prototype. 

Own image. 

Own image. 

Own image. 

Own image. 

Own image. 

Through this exercise, I realized the possibility of expanding my low-level prototype into a digital tool and environment. It would be interesting to explore how a tailor-made app can elevate the experience of using my tool and learning aerial silks, working as a sort of personal diary to log your learnings and new tricks (in progress/mastered) and create community for aerialists from all over the world to help each other. Not only that, but sensors could be added to the wearable sleeves that could communicate with a “premium” (premium because it would have digital capabilities besides his analog ones) version of the 3D little guy aerialist to observe what an aerialist did that was wrong/right.  

—  

Source:  

Own ideation  

by julia🐨razumovskaia -

NIME Article Review – Sonic City: The Urban Environment as a Musical Interface

I’d been looking for a topic that interested me for a while—and the title itself caught my eye because I was searching by keywords. Of course, I’m not usually interested in much of the technical information related to “music.” But this really caught my attention.

Sonic City is a powerful and innovative project precisely because it presents the city not as some kind of “backdrop” for interaction, but as the interface itself. This certainly resonates with me as someone with a background in architecture. There, we always thought of the city in terms of movement, rhythm, route, atmosphere, and—not least—the physical perception of space. In Sonic City, all these qualities are not just characteristics of the environment, but also part of the interaction. The authors of the article literally propose “playing the city,” transforming everyday movement into a form of musical and spatial experience. This idea is explicitly stated in the project’s main text: the city is viewed as an interface, and mobility as an interaction model.

From an interaction design perspective, I find it particularly significant that the project moves away from the conventional screen-based UX. There is no traditional screen, buttons, or graphical interface here. Instead, everything is built around body movements and environmental data—rotations, movement, light, even pollution levels and the presence of metal—as well as pauses and combinations of context and behavior. The authors describe a two-level mapping system, where some parameters influence short musical events and timbre, while others affect the more structural composition of the sound. This makes the interaction less abstract and more situational; the music arises precisely from the connection between a person and a specific place and moment.

The first text “In Duet with Everyday Urban Settings: A User Study of Sonic City“ [1] struck me as a stronger conceptual and design-oriented exploration of the questions ”Why can the city be an interface?“ or ”How does this project differ from a musical performance?”. It was also very interesting to see how they included not only engineers and designers in their team, but also architects and sociologists. The project isn’t just about technology; it’s also about the body, the city, behavior, everyday life, and its aesthetics.

The second text “Sonic City: The Urban Environment as a Musical Interface” [2] is a bit more important to me, since it tests whether the idea works in real-world user experiences. The study was smaller and more qualitative than quantitative. It included people of different ages and lifestyles, and, by the way, none of them considered themselves musicians. This is an important point, since the project was tested on ordinary people. The authors, by the way, asked the right UX question: “Do people perceive Sonic City as a research tool or as a musical one?”

Overall, I consider Sonic City a very important example of how to think at the intersection of architecture, urban experience, and interaction design. For me, the project’s value lies precisely in the fact that it translates spatial perception into an interactive experience, and interactivity back into urban and bodily reality. The papers showcase not just interesting technology, but a different way of thinking about UX: not merely as interaction with a screen, but as interaction with space, the body, the route, and the atmosphere of the city. And that is precisely why this project still seems relevant to me today.

Sources 🛈

[1] In Duet with Everyday Urban Settings: A User Study of Sonic City. Proceedings of the 2004 Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2004). Authors: Lalya Gaye, Lars Erik Holmquist. Available at: https://www.nime.org/proceedings/2004/nime2004_161.pdf

[2] Sonic City: The Urban Environment as a Musical Interface. Proceedings of the 2003 Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2003). Authors: Lars Erik Holmquist, Lalya Gaye. Available at: https://www.nime.org/proceedings/2003/nime2003_109.pdf

by julia🐨razumovskaia -

3# Inclusion & Accessibility – Design & Research II (Katerina)

These factors highlight that access to slow navigation is not the same for everyone. The experience depends on physical abilities, emotional awareness, and cognitive skills—such as the ability to walk, recognize one’s mood, and make decisions about the route. It also requires a certain level of spatial awareness, which is not always equally developed or maintained.

At the same time, accessibility is shaped by external conditions: pedestrian infrastructure, GPS accuracy, access to mobile devices, safety, and cultural habits of movement. This shows that slow navigation is not just a matter of design, but a systemic issue influenced by the environment, technology, and the social context in which the user finds themselves.

by julia🐨razumovskaia -

#2 Change & Impact – Design & Research II (Katerina)

This comparison highlights the shift from efficiency-oriented navigation to experience-oriented movement. Most existing navigation systems prioritize speed, offering the fastest route by default and guiding users through the city with minimal user involvement.

As a result, users typically follow directions passively, often losing their sense of the surrounding environment and missing opportunities to interact with it. Travel becomes functional rather than experience-driven.

In contrast, this project explores navigation as something more adaptive and human-centered—where routes respond to mood and context, encourage exploration, and foster a more meaningful relationship with the city.

by julia🐨razumovskaia -

#1 System Map – Design & Research II (Katerina)

This diagram illustrates the broader ecosystem surrounding my slow map navigation system. At the center are the direct users—people who move around the city with different needs, rhythms, and intentions. Surrounding them are groups that use maps in their daily lives, from residents to travelers, each of whom perceives the city in their own way.

The outer layer shows indirect users—entities that do not use the product itself but shape the conditions in which it exists. Urban planners, local businesses, infrastructure, and data systems—all of these influence how we move, which routes are available, and how the city is perceived.

Together, this underscores that navigation is not just a tool, but part of a larger system. How we move through the city is shaped not only by personal choice, but also by design decisions, the environment, and the social structures around us.

by carla.asmellash -

Grease Pencil

Da das übergeordnete Thema meiner Masterarbeit die Hybridanimation ist und ich untersuchen möchte, ob es einen optimalen Hybridisierungsgrad gibt, der besonders stark mit dem Publikum resoniert, beschäftige ich mich dieses Semester mit der Grease‑Pencil-Funktion in Blender.

Grundsätzlich ermöglicht der Grease Pencil, im 3D‑Raum oder direkt auf 3D‑Modellen zu zeichnen. Der Vorteil dabei ist, dass beim Modellieren nicht jedes Detail ausgearbeitet werden muss – Zeichnungen und Akzente können nachträglich mit dem Grease Pencil hinzugefügt werden.

Ursprünglich wurde das Werkzeug entwickelt, um kleine Notizen oder Skizzen direkt im Arbeitsbereich anzubringen. Anmerkungen können auf Objekten oder in der Szene gezeichnet und später wieder ausgeblendet werden. Es diente also zunächst als einfaches Annotationstool. Mittlerweile hat sich der Grease Pencil jedoch zu einem eigenständigen 2D‑Zeichen‑ und Animationssystem innerhalb Blenders entwickelt.

Nutzerinnen und Nutzer kĂśnnen auf verschiedene Weise mit ihm arbeiten:

– Zeichnen direkt im 3D‑Raum,

– das „Anheften“ von Strichen auf modellierte Objekte,

– oder das Platzieren von Zeichnungen an der Kamera.

Diese Möglichkeiten erlauben es, 2D‑ und 3D‑Elemente auf vielfältige Weise zu kombinieren.

In professionellen Produktionspipelines wird der Grease Pencil vor allem in drei Bereichen eingesetzt: Storyboarding, 2D‑Animation und hybride 2D/3D‑Projekte.

Beim Storyboarding ermöglicht er es, Szenenlayouts, Timing und Kamerabewegungen direkt innerhalb derselben Software zu entwickeln, in der später auch das finale 3D‑Rendering stattfindet.

In der reinen 2D‑Animation unterstützt der Grease Pencil klassische Frame‑by‑Frame-Animation mit Keyframes, Onion‑Skinning und Timing‑Kontrolle – und das in einer Umgebung, die gleichzeitig Zugriff auf 3D‑Kamera, Beleuchtung und Compositing bietet.

Mein Ziel fßr dieses Semester ist es, alle zentralen Funktionen des Werkzeugs kennenzulernen und herauszufinden, welche Ansätze fßr meine Arbeitsweise am besten geeignet sind. Am Ende mÜchte ich mithilfe des Grease Pencil einen Hintergrund gestalten und kleine, einfache Animationen hinzufßgen.

Die Inspiration fĂźr das Projekt stammt von folgendem Blenderprojekt

https://studio.blender.org/blog/house-of-chores-testing-grease-pencil-30/#house-of-chores

by Hannah Wasserfaller -

Science Communication and Creative Editing

Finding creative ways to communicate scientific topics to the non-scientific community

Introduction

This blogpost shall give an overview over the planned skill to be acquired throughout this semester and list the resources that should be used in order to acquired said skill.

As I plan on building my master’s thesis around the topic of science communication and on how to build bridges between design and science communication in order to better communicate scientific topics to a non-scientific audience, I want to take this semester to focus on creating short-form video content that tackles scientific topics. My goal is to make these videos more than „classic“ explainer videos and have them stand out by learning more about creative editing and VFX for that purpose. The final product should be a series of videos that have both, educational content and visually appealing creative edits.

I have been researching accounts and creators who focus on producing creatively edited videos and selected some editing styles I would like to try out. These styles I would then like to match with scientific topics, which I am also in the process of selecting. I figured –at least for the start – I will be focusing on choosing topics that have some sort of „visual potential“ (meaning that they concern subjects that can also be adapted visually) and can be broken down into short form content relatively easily. Even though that may restrict the exploration of more complex topics, it will help me to get started in this field and to get to know more about how much information is needed in short form content to still convey knowledge without losing too much critical information. 

First Content Ideas

Since I was part of last year’s JOANNEUM Arctic Expedition Team and have worked in the science communication and media division of the team, I would like to generally focus on Arctic topics. There are many fascinating topics surrounding the Arctic and Arctic research is more relevant than ever, since it is not only heavily affected by climate change, but the happenings in the Arctic also have a massive impact on, for example, Europe’s climate. 

To get started, I put together a list of possible areas to be explored and explained on the video projects. This list, of course, is subject to change and extension and will be updated accordingly.

Topic 1: Greenland

1.1 | The Map of Greenland 
Greenland: The Island That Looks Like a Continent / Why all maps are wrong

Sources for info material:

1.2 | The country itself 
Population, languages etc., the name „Greenland“

Topic 2: The Arctic 

2.1 | Arctic vs. Antarctica  
-> Arctic vs. Antarctica (location on the planet, polar bears vs. penguins) 

2.2 | The Arctic 
-> the name origin
-> which areas/countries are part of the Arctic 

2.3 | Arctic Phenomena
-> Weather phenomena such as the Aurora Borealis and the Midnight sun

Topic 3: Glaciers

3.1 | What’s a glacier?
-> What makes a glacier a glacier?
-> how glaciers work

3.2 | Climate change and glaciers 
-> Melting glaciers
-> Ice shield, Glacier tongue

Next Steps

In the following days, I would like to further explore the potential of the listed topics and come up with ways to (visually) communicate and them. To get started, I have selected the topic around explaining the different map projections of Greenland, because it is not only a topic that can be well-explained in a short amount of time – it is also fun to play around with visually.

Background: Since it’s not possible to convert a 3D-sphere (such as the earth) into a flat plane, all maps are subject to distortion. Greenland is a pretty fun example of how map distortion completely changes a countries’ proportions – since northern and southern points of the globe are most affected by the falsification.

The next task is to come up with a storyline and subsequently a storyboard for this topic. Simultaneously, I intend to look into the creators more in-depth and look for explainer videos and tutorials to learn more about their approach to creative editing. The next blogpost will therefore be dedicated more to the editors and frameworks needed for creating short form (VFX-heavy) content and what topics surrounding the editing process itself I will need to look into.