Educational activity around the short film Sisters
Understand the function and functioning of manufactured objects.
Use drawing in all its diversity as a means of expression.
Sisters © Anchi Shen
TitleSisters
ThemeFamily relationship, Communication
Genre & keywordsComedy, friendship, sister, parental relationship, telephone
Age (for film)6-11 years old
Duration01 min 32 s
DirectorAnchi Shen
MusicChi-Hsuan Chia
ProductionCalarts (United States, 2014)
Do an emotional analysis of the smartphone object.
UX design (from the English User eXperience design) is a recent notion involved in the method of designing products or services, which considers the relationship of the user to the object or service as a global experience including, in addition to instrumental relationships (efficiency, ergonomics, satisfaction, etc.), components of aesthetics, pleasure, emotion, etc. It is part of a more general movement to reorient the design process towards users rather than towards the sponsors of the product or service.
Among its tools, we find practical use case studies or analyzes of user expectations. We propose to apply this approach to the case of the smartphone and in particular to situations of capturing the attention of its user, on the basis of the feelings expressed in the film. The goal is to design a fictitious function for a smartphone (without a real technical basis) which would improve the overall relationship with the object.
The activity takes place in two phases:
A first phase consists of listing with the children their significant experiences in terms of emotions (pleasure, desire, frustration, etc.) with smartphones (or, if you like, with mobile phones in general – the important thing is the alibi of the cutting-edge technological product to stimulate the imagination). When sharing, the role of the teacher is to help formulate, with the children, the emotion felt as produced by a function (or an absence of function), and to list these functions. The formulations can be very abstract, such as “quickly becoming very important or conversely very insignificant”, “allowing you to cook without interrupting the conversation”, “learning a multiplication table by watching a music video”, etc.
In the second phase, each child chooses one of these functions and develops through drawing and text (captioned sketch, comic strip) the scenario for its implementation. It involves both imagining a shape sketch and a practical demonstration. The result is then displayed together, producing an overview of the functional imagination of a smartphone.
You can consult the Wikipedia page dedicated to the challenges of User Experience in design.
Activity sheet written by: Bruno Pellier
