Get in touch with me at ananyamanishdesigns@gmail.com
UX OF
SKIN
Design Brief
Design a way to express the skin/world interface
Designers
Teddy Wang, Rayanne, Ale Nava, Lyu Min, Ananya Manish
Research Methodologies
Storyboarding, Speed dating, Affinity Mapping
Key words
Identity and Emotion through skin, Interaction, Expressive medium
Understanding skin in the context of design
To initiate our project, we dissected the essence of skin and researched its connotations in the context of design. Much like design, skin operates at the forefront of life, bodies, and products. The skin, being the interface between the self and the world, serves as a dynamic canvas conveying a spectrum of emotions through subtle cues such as sweating, pallor, and redness. Skin communicates on both a biological and cultural level, making it a rich and intricate subject for UX exploration.
Our secondary research prompted us to formulate research questions that could guide our inquiry. To address these questions comprehensively, we employed two distinctive research methods - speed dating and a creative toolkit.
Storyboarding to Speed Dating
To prepare our material for the speed dating method, we decided to create five different storyboards where we developed engaging fictional stories based on our research questions. Storyboarding as a method of exploring concepts was very effective as it gave space for creativity and imagination to flow.
We used the storyboards to conduct speed dating on 6 women from different ethnicities, aged between 20 - 35 years. We specifically seeked out people outside of our college campus to have a broader perspective and incorporate the overlooked aspects into our ideas. Prior to and after the speed dating session, we posed a critical question to the participants: "How do you see skin in relation to your identity and emotion?" This helped to establish and acknowledge the lens of the participant. It also helped to record the effectiveness of storyboards in helping the participants open and share more freely. The responses we got from these women were much richer and layered than what we had initially anticipated.
To distil insights from the diverse responses, we employed affinity mapping. Keywords derived from participant feedback were organised into themes, uncovering patterns and nuances in their perceptions. This process helped us gain a deeper understanding of the complex web of skin, emotions, and identity.
Taking our inquiry further, we wanted to delve into how women interact with their skin in response to negative emotions experienced in society. This exploration aimed to uncover the ways in which design could play a role in empowering individuals to navigate and express themselves in the face of societal challenges.
References
Using skin texture change to design emotion expression in ... - IEEE xplore. Available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8673012.
Marc Teyssier (no date) Marc Teyssier | Skin-On Interfaces. Available at: https://marcteyssier.com/projects/skin-on/ .
Hyundai Commission: El Anatsui: Behind the Red Moon (no date) El Anatsui. Available at: https://elanatsui.art/exhibitions/hyundai-commission-el-anatsui-behind-the-red-moon.
Gowland, R., & Thompson, T. (2013). The skin. In Human Identity and Identification (pp. 37-70). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139029988.003
Ali, S., Khan, M.S., Khan, A. et al. Exploring cross-cultural and gender differences in facial expressions: a skin tone analysis using RGB Values. J Cloud Comp 12, 161 (2023).