For this project, I teamed up with Ben, Keyin, and Yeji. Our first discussion led to quite a few different ideas (as shown at the left bottom corner of the picture below), among which we settled on one about a “3D calculator”.
The idea originated from our brainstorm of everyday activities, where Ben came up with coding and programming. He suggested we could alter the action of programming in an alternate reality by making it more intuitive and graphic. Instead of typing, the programmer can drag around cubes that represent different functions or values and put them in sequences to present algorithms. I liked the idea, but thought programming wasn’t “everyday” enough, so we later switched to the idea of calculating with a calculator, which is similar to programming in a mathematical and logical way.
Basically, the core idea here is to reimagine the interface of logically creative processes within a VR context, and we are only using calculator as an example to present it. In order for the user to feel “everyday” in the alternate reality, they will first find themselves in a very normal bedroom scene, where there is a calculator in front of them. Once they touch it, the scene switches to a sci-fi-ish enviornment where there are cubes floating in the air, which tempts the user to drag them around, combine them, or separate them.
3/16 Edit: I saved this as draft but forgot to post it on the due date