Lisbon Underground Talents

Requalifying public space through an IxD-enabled art exhibit

Context

  • Msc Design in IxD, Interaction Design Project 1
  • Academic Project
  • Role as IxD Designer

Deliverables

  • Ethnographic Study Report
  • Benchmarking Report
  • Product Definition Report
  • Interaction Animation
  •  Interactive Wall Prototype
  • Support Interface Prototype

Project Specifications

Timeline

Sep 2021 – Jan 2022

Tools

  • Figma

  • Photoshop

  • Illustrator

  • After Effects

  • Adobe Dimension
  • Blender

Overview

The Briefing

As part of my master’s degree in Interaction Design, I was tasked with exploring Lisbon and selecting a site to revitalize. 

After walking through the city, I decided to focus on the subway stations, aiming to infuse these spaces with new life and create a more engaging experience for commuters.

The Proposal

Having thoroughly investigated and studied the subway users, my vision is to synergize the subway experience with Lisbon’s rich artistic heritage. 

I proposed the creation of an interactive and ever-evolving art exposition within the subway stations, providing a captivating platform for unknown and independent artists to showcase their work. By seamlessly blending technology and creativity, this initiative aims to engage commuters in an immersive and dynamic art journey, enriching their daily travels with the city’s vibrant cultural essence.

Stage 1. Research

Ethnographic Observation Studies

Benchmarking

During the research process, our primary objective was to accurately identify our users, their activities, and the characteristics of the spaces and moments they inhabited, with a specific focus on cultural activation in Lisbon’s subway stations. To achieve this, we initiated an ethnographic observation study, wherein our research team spent several afternoons in the subway stations, engaging in direct conversations with passengers. Through this approach, we successfully delineated two distinct user groups that would interact with the proposed system.

To explore the possibilities of incorporating an interactive art exhibit within the subway station, we conducted a benchmarking process. This process enabled us to gather valuable insights on the physical support and infrastructure required for the project.

Findings

  1. Enhancing art engagement during waiting moments necessitates providing rich interactions to captivate subway passengers.
  2. Meeting the distinct needs and expectations of content creators (artists) and content consumers (subway passengers) is essential for a successful platform interaction.
  3. Considering the brevity and casual nature of interaction times is crucial for designing a seamless and efficient user experience.
  4. Given the daily commuting patterns of most subway passengers, regular updates to the platform are vital to maintain an interesting and dynamic interface.

Ethnographic Observation Studies

By dedicating several afternoons to studying user behavior on Lisbon subway boarding platforms, the following insights emerged:

  1. The users are demographically diverse, representing a broad cross-section of the population.
  2. They exhibit a strong focus on their smartphones, engrossed in digital activities during their commuting time.
  3. Social interaction among passengers is generally low to non-existent during these subway journeys.

User Definition

The project necessitates the involvement of two distinct user groups:

  • Content Creators: These users contribute content to the platform, such as artists and creators. They require a seamless and intuitive interface for uploading their work, managing their submissions, and accessing relevant data on their contributions.

  • Content Consumers: These users are the ones exposed to and interact with the content on the platform, such as subway passengers. Their needs revolve around a user-friendly and engaging interface that allows easy navigation, interaction with art installations, and access to relevant information.

Given their unique requirements, conducting separate benchmarking analyses for each user group will ensure that the platform caters effectively to the diverse needs of both Content Creators and Content Consumers.

User Specification

Stage 2. Product Definition

Principles

The principles are the design guidelines of the project. These represent general traits that should inform decisions about the interfaces and the interaction model.

Medium Agnostic

Works regardless of the art form


Non-Imediate

Interactions are rich and diferentiated from what they are in most art galleries wether traditional or digital

Democratizer

presents a proactive intent to actually teach users

Non-Space/ Time Restricted

Interactions don’t necessarily end in the subway station

Environmentally Integrated

Interactions are integrated in the environemnt, instead of just happening there

First Iteration

The project involves implementing an Interactive Wall on the walls of the subway stations’ boarding docks. Each day, a curated selection of art pieces will be displayed in each station. Depending on the art medium, distinct affordances will be made available to ensure an engaging and interactive experience for the passengers interacting with the installations. This approach aims to transform the mundane waiting moments into captivating opportunities for subway users to immerse themselves in diverse and dynamic artistic expressions.

But how can the interactions be richer?

Art Mediums

The system comprehends a taxonomy of diverse art forms, ranging from traditional visual art mediums to performing arts, literary arts, new media art, and time-based media. It encourages experimental and conceptual art, eco-friendly creations, and collaborative projects, remaining open to emerging art forms to stay relevant within the contemporary art landscape.

Hybrid Curation

  1. Each day, a combination of Artificial Intelligence and Human intervention collaborates to curate a selection of artworks for display.
  2. The AI monitors the art types that receive significant interaction in each station, creating sets for the following day’s exhibition.
  3. Human experts ensure the AI’s impartiality by supplementing the selection set with diverse artworks, thus mitigating any biases and enhancing the final display.

Stage 3. Materialization

Visual Design

Interaction Model

The system provides a diverse range of interactions, including visual exploration, touch-based engagement, motion-based interactions, and voice-activated commands. Social interactions foster community engagement, enabling users to share and collaborate on an inclusive and immersive art journey within the subway stations.

Interactions Design

Given the limitation of prototyping every interaction in high fidelity, small animations were developed to showcase each of the afforded interactions. These animations effectively demonstrate the user’s gestures or interactions and their corresponding effects on both the interface and the environment. By providing a visual representation of the interactions, the animations serve as a valuable tool for understanding the user experience and refining the interactive elements of the system.

General Interactions

Specific Interactions

Interfaces

This project comprises two interfaces: 

  1. The Modular Interactive Wall, featured on subway station walls to deliver an immersive art experience for passengers;
  2. Support Interface, a website facilitating artist submissions, analytics monitoring, and active platform engagement.

Main Interface

The panels possess modularity, implying that theoretically, the wall’s expansion can range from one unit to an unlimited quantity. Screens are shielded by self-cleaning glass, promoting cleanliness. These panels are multi-touch enabled, facilitating intricate interactions involving both hands, and also incorporate a built-in microphone to enable audio input.

 

Support Interface

Final Considerations

This endeavor proved to be a captivating exploration of how interaction, UX, and UI design can transcend the confines of the digital realm and manifest tangible benefits in the physical world. Positive outcomes emerged from this endeavor. In this instance, a traditionally dim environment underwent a metamorphosis into a place of learning and culture, concurrently offering emerging artists a platform and audience to showcase their creations.

The bright side of this project is displayed through the rich interactions that were crafted, facilitating an art experience that diverges from the norm of conventional museums. Moreover, the architecture of the system, incorporating both human input and AI, possesses noteworthy value by introducing a recommendation approach that deviates from the prevailing norms.

An area for potential enhancement in this project lies in the execution of higher-fidelity prototypes for these interactions. Regrettably, this endeavor was hindered by time constraints, preventing the realization of this aspiration.

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