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Published by dennis101294, 2019-12-06 06:22:49

Compendium

Research, reference, and prototype for thesis project.

THESIS RESEARCH FALL 2017
COMPENDIUM DENNIS KIM

2



TABLE OF
CONTENTS

4

Generation Research 1
7 15

Research 2 Idea Dump
37 65

Experiment 1 Experiment 2
69 79

Thesis Proposal
89

Citations
91

5

6

Generation

Developing ideas for thesis through
learning about yourself

8

UNIT 1: RESEARCH “ A collection (or any other form of representation) can be + 10 past works + 10 projects
The 100 organized as if somehow to deny this aspect of how the + 10 events + 10 words
world, and all of its objects, works through us. Or it could + 10 books + 10 people
be a set of living parts that tells us something about how + 10 objects + 10 quotes
we are put together.” + 10 information + 10 spaces

— The World as a Printing Surface
Paul Elliman

9

Questions to Consider Brainstorming Questions Primary Questions

One product or mass production? What thesis project
What do I like about playing with exceptions? will hold my attention
How can I tie in production into the concept? and interest through
What type of aesthetics do I prefer? out the year?
What type of designs could I use?
Why do I use patterns in my designs? How could I express
What point would the project make? myself through the
How important is the concept behind the project? thesis project?
What historical reference could I use?
How can I show case the creation process? What kind of narrative
How can I improve the functionality of the object? can I include?
What kinds of surprise factor can I include?
What kind of illustration would it suit? How can the creation
How much will it cost? process of the project
How long would it take to develop the project? be show cased?
What type of materials will I use?
What kind of technique will be involved? What kind of object
What types of design element can be used? would benefit from
What kind of typography could I use? redesigning?
Does the product have common conception?
Is it something that is part of daily life?
What type of visual element will be required?
Is there an item that can be renewed?
What benefit will the re-design process bring?
What is the common discomfort experienced?
What project would make me happy?
Would it need a packaging design?
Who is my target audience?
What type of project will I be doing?
Who will I adjust my project at?
What object is hardly used anymore?
What kind of annoyance do I experience daily?
What is declining in usage?
How can the project be applied outside of class?
Do I want to do print or digital design?

10

Focus Point for Thesis Project with multiple different aspect
for me to design.
Connecting the subject to
something I am familiar with.
Relatable narrative without
complicated explanation.
Through research about the topic
and usage of materials.
Object that lost its intended
propose, but still retaining its unique
niche role in the world.

11

12

Mind Mapping

“ I believe that the abominable
deterioration of ethical
standards stems primarily
from the mechanization and
depersonalization of our lives ”

— Albert Einstein

13

14

Research 1

Finding out informations regarding
social interaction problems

PROB

16

BLEMS

17

Is Digital Connectedness Good
or Bad for People?

As our world becomes more closely intertwined, we
want to hold on to the elements of our identity that de-
fine where we come from. It can be sharing our home
or showing pride in our local government.

Online Sharing and Selfies Erode the Value of
Our Private Lives
A Way to Explore and Build Relationships We
Wouldn’t Otherwise Form

As social creatures, we seek out opportunities to con-
nect with others. The internet is particularly effective in
helping us do that.

THE CONSTAs a child growing up in the United States with foreign
parents, every summer we would visit my mother's About a year ago, I attended a meeting in Geneva

family in Israel. There I would marvel at the artists on focused on gathering 450 "changemakers" to tackle

MTV Europe. And every four years, my Chilean father some of the world's most pressing challenges. I

would hole up in our New Jersey basement to watch thought the participants would emerge with new rela-

tionships and perspectives on complex issues such as
poverty and climate change. But very little meaningful
conversation took place. Instead, participants spent
the summit glued to their phones.

This experience is representative of a values shift
taking place in society toward concepts such as
authenticity, transparency and vulnerability. Arthur C.
the Mundial on Univision — a cultural phenomena in IS
other parts of the world, but unknown to our North
American neighbors.

Nowadays, music, sport and culture spread eas-
ily across the globe. Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is the
darling of the art world. Shakira's fans go beyond Latin

SHARINGAmerica. And even Black Friday sales are now a global
phenomenon. It’s clear that the internet is having an Brooks, of the American Enterprise Institute, describes

impact on much more than our preference for music. this shift through what Jean-Jacques Rousseau called

For 18- to 24-year-olds, the heaviest social media us- "amour de soi" to an "amour-propre"; that is, individu-

ers, it is the top source of news. For millennials, it is the als partake less in activities for the sake of activities'
biggest influence on voting behavior and the reason
that they are more likely to give to global, as opposed
to local, causes. The success of economy superpow-
ers such as AirBnB, which has inspired millions to
travel differently, points to a generation that is more
open to connecting with strangers based on mutual

US COMPEinterests and a willingness to trust people based on
intrinsic worth than for their use in satisfying others.
Indeed, it is virtually impossible to spend time on social
media without coming across friends sharing random
thoughts, requests for advice and updates on personal
relationships. Although heartfelt, the authenticity of
these activities is often suspect, often more an attempt
to curate a particular image than an expression of a

their online profiles. person's actual beliefs and convictions.

But the internet, like all platforms, can be used for We celebrate this behavior, and see it modeled by
positive and negative interactions. We cringe with many of society's leaders. As a Canadian, Prime
horror at hateful speech and people who leverage 140
character sound bites to further their anti-openness DEPREMinister Justin Trudeau comes to mind. Recently
agenda. In the wake of the U.S. presidential election,
many observers claim that social media has created named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential
“filter bubbles” that reinforce our views as opposed to People and appearing on the cover of GQ as the
"Prime Minister of Suave," Trudeau is active on
ANDopening us up to new ones. Instagram and is considered by many to be the sort of
Source open and authentic leader that we need in the world.
New York Times Trudeau's visit to the White House, for instance, was
https://www.nytimes.com/ accompanied by numerous "candid" Instagram photos
roomfordebate/2016/11/28/is-digital- and clever hashtags with the Obamas. Among these,
connectedness-good-or-bad-people

18

TANTa photo of the Trudeau and Obama families captioned careers developing in an uncertain world. Through
"Meeting the neighbours," and a second with Trudeau these discussions, a theme of "ruthless comparison"
in black tie, tagged #StateDinner. Though an important emerges, where we become acutely aware of how
meeting between Canada and the United States, the our friends and colleagues portray themselves online.
Trudeau Instagram feed was at times more sugges- Noa highlights campaigns such as the ALS Ice Bucket
tive of a Vanity Fair shoot than a serious gathering Challenge and Lean In, where the collective action
between national leaders. of celebrities and average citizens creates a social
pressure for others to engage in a particular socially

In our digital world, it comes as no surprise that these conscious activity. While useful in generating real-life

posts play such a central role in our lives, and that action, this pressure to engage is in large part based

carefully curated social media images and comments on social comparison: a need to portray oneself in a

gain such traction. But I cannot help but wonder what particular light to appear to other as to be a person
S it is that we lose in the process of sharing so much of
ourselves publicly. Social media "likes" and new fol-
lowers provide us with public approval, but this need
for constant sharing of ourselves — and the immediate
gratification that comes with it — diminishes the mean-

MAKINGing and significance in the things we share.
committed to doing good.

This sharing has psychological consequences. A
handful of studies, including one recently conducted
by the University of Michigan, suggest that increased
Facebook usage contributes to anxiety and even de-
pression. By constantly seeing what others are doing,

Lost in the online sharing and advice-gathering is the our anxiety and uncertainty as to whether we are lead-

ability to reflect on questions ourselves, coming to our ing lives that fulfill our own potential deepens.

own decisions in whatever amount of time is required.

In her book "How to Be Alone," philosopher Sarah This vicious cycle is difficult to escape; it requires a

ETITIVEMaitland wonders how it is that in a world that glorifies significant amount of confidence in oneself to both
the individual, we have become so afraid of spend- remain connected and see past the charade we col-
ing time alone. And she is right: Our digital lives favorlectively engage in. For every +SocialGood campaign
public image at the expense of private reflection. that legitimately builds in-person dialogue, there are
countless online campaigns fuelled by individual or
When it is possible to share widely, the approval we corporate need to "curate" images that compare favor-
gain from followers leads us to forget that something ably with those of society's influencers. Based on my
even could be private, and moreover, that some parts interviews with early and mid-career professionals,

of our lives are worth keeping private. Indeed, our many individuals are at a crossroads in how to act in

digital connections might increase the ease in sharing their online worlds. Skeptical of the authenticity of on-

certain parts of ourselves, but we must ask whether line activity, they nevertheless feel trapped in a society

these are things better worth protecting. where sharing is celebrated.
ESSEDThe Constant Sharing Is Making Us Depressed
The relationships we form are superficial at best, and Indeed, we must be weary of the comparisons that
the social comparison that these connections fosters our connectedness encourages, knowing that these
can be psychologically damaging. comparisons are often psychologically exhausting and,
Over the past three years, I have conducted hun- in some cases, harmful.
dreds of one-on-one interviews with early and mid-
career professionals on how they see their lives and

19

The iPhone Effect

The Quality of In-Person Social Interactions in the
Presence of Mobile Devices
This study examined the relationship between the
presence of mobile devices and the quality of real-life
in-person social interactions.
In a naturalistic field experiment, 100 dyads were
randomly assigned to discuss either a casual or
meaningful topic together. A trained research assis-
tant observed the participants unobtrusively from a
distance during the course of a 10-min conversation
noting whether either participant placed a mobile
device on the table or held it in his or her hand.
Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling, it was found that
conversations in the absence of mobile communica-
tion technologies were rated as significantly superior
compared with those in the presence of a mobile
device, above and beyond the effects of age, gender,
ethnicity, and mood. People who had conversations in
the absence of mobile devices reported higher levels
of empathetic concern. Participants conversing in the
presence of a mobile device who also had a close
relationship with each other reported lower levels of
empathy compared with dyads who were less friendly
with each other. Implications for the nature of social life
in ubiquitous computing environments are discussed.

Source
Virginia Tech
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/
abs/10.1177/0013916514539755

20

21

Preference for Online Social
Interaction

A Theory of Problematic Internet Use and
Psychosocial Well-Being
The model introduced and tested in the current study
suggests that lonely and depressed individuals may
develop a preference for online social interaction,
which, in turn, leads to negative outcomes associated
with their Internet use.
Participants completed measures of preference for
online social interaction, depression, loneliness, prob-
lematic Internet use, and negative outcomes resulting
from their Internet use.
Results indicated that psychosocial health predicted
levels of preference for online social interaction,
which, in turn, predicted negative outcomes associ-
ated with problematic Internet use. In addition, the
results indicated that the influence of psychosocial
distress on negative outcomes due to Internet use is
mediated by preference for online socialization and
other symptoms of problematic Internet use.
The results support the current hypothesis that the
individuals’ preference for online, rather than face-to-
face, social interaction plays an important role in the
development of negative consequences associated
with problematic Internet use.

Source
Scott E. Caplan
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/
pdf/10.1177/0093650203257842

22

23

IS ONLINE HARASSMENT A
CONCERNING PROBLEM?

A MAJOR A MINOR NOT A
PROBLEM PROBLEM PROBLEM

62% 33% 5%

HAVE BEEN NOT BEEN
HARASSED HARASSED

ONLINE ONLINE
41% 59%

24

Online Harassment 2017

Roughly four-in-ten Americans have personally experi- to reputation damage or even fear for one’s personal
enced online harassment, and 62% consider it a major safety. At the same time, harassment does not have
problem. Many want technology firms to do more, but to be experienced directly to leave an impact. Around
they are divided on how to balance free speech and one-quarter of Americans (27%) say they have decided
safety issues online not to post something online after witnessing the
harassment of others, while more than one-in-ten (13%)
To borrow an expression from the technology indus- say they have stopped using an online service after
try, harassment is now a “feature” of life online for witnessing other users engage in harassing behaviors.
many Americans. In its milder forms, it creates a layer At the same time, some bystanders to online harass-
of negativity that people must sift through as they ment take an active role in response: Three-in-ten
navigate their daily routines online. At its most severe, Americans (30%) say they have intervened in
it can compromise users’ privacy, force them to choose some way after witnessing abusive behavior directed
when and where to participate online, or even pose a toward others online.
threat to their physical safety.
Yet even as harassment permeates many users’ online
A new, nationally representative Pew Research Center interactions, the public offers conflicting views on how
survey of 4,248 U.S. adults finds that 41% of Americans best to address this issue. A majority of Americans
have been personally subjected to harassing behavior (62%) view online harassment as a major problem, and
online, and an even larger share (66%) has witnessed nearly eight-in-ten Americans (79%) say online services
these behaviors directed at others. In some cases, have a duty to step in when harassment occurs on
these experiences are limited to behaviors that can be their platforms. On the other hand, they are highly
ignored or shrugged off as a nuisance of online life, divided on how to balance concerns over safety with
such as offensive name-calling or efforts to embarrass the desire to encourage free and open speech – as
someone. But nearly one-in-five Americans (18%) have well as whether offensive content online is taken too
been subjected to particularly severe forms of harass- seriously or dismissed too easily.
ment online, such as physical threats, harassment over
a sustained period, sexual harassment or stalking. Around four-in-ten Americans (41%) have been
personally subjected to at least one type of online
Social media platforms are an especially fertile ground harassment – which this report defines as offensive
for online harassment. Frequently these behaviors name-calling online (27% of Americans say this has
target a personal or physical characteristic: 14% of happened to them), intentional efforts to embarrass
Americans say they have been harassed online someone (22%), physical threats (10%), stalking (7%),
specifically because of their politics, while roughly harassment over a sustained period of time (7%) or
one-in-ten have been targeted due to their physical sexual harassment (6%). This 41% total includes 18% of
appearance (9%), race or ethnicity (8%) or gender (8%). U.S. adults who say they have experienced particularly
And although most people believe harassment is often severe forms of harassment (which includes stalking,
facilitated by the anonymity that the internet provides, physical threats, sexual harassment or harassment
these experiences can involve acquaintances, friends over a sustained period of time).
or even family members.

For those who experience online harassment directly,
these encounters can have profound real-world con-
sequences, ranging from mental or emotional stress

Source
Pew Research Center
http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/07/11/
online-harassment-2017/

25

Is technology killing the human touch?

The end of intimacy People have been avoiding exes and have lacked the
courage to end relationships the traditional way for
John used to look forward to the evenings—the times ages. But in the world it can seem more abrupt as the
when he and his wife would catch up, watch some constant communication and feed of information about
television and mutually unwind from the day. their life—via Facebook, Twitter, texts and other meth-
ods—dries up immediately and without warning.
That was five years ago. Today, he says, the two spend
more evenings staring at their phones than they do at Some wonder, though, if the technological way of
each other. And though it frustrates him to no end, he meeting people today—through apps and sites like
has accepted it as the new normal. Tinder, Plenty of Fish, Match and OK Cupid—removes
part of the human connection. Rather than working up
"Between the time we spend on Facebook, Twitter and the courage to ask someone out, you pick them from a
Words With Friends, I feel like we sacrifice the time we catalog, and if it doesn't work out, there's a near end-
used to use to bond—but it's not like either of us is will- less stream of other potential mates to choose from
ing to give up those things," he said. just one swipe away.

As we become more and more connected as a society, It's an accusation that even some people behind some
behaviors are evolving—some for the better, some of those sites say is hard to argue with.
for the worse.
"In the real world, you have to make an effort when
In 2012, in fact, scientists at the Chinese Academy of you go out, work up the nerve to approach someone
Sciences found that the brain chemicals of people you're interested in and be charming and person-
who habitually used the Internet (and were perhaps able," said Michael Manes, founder of Mixxxer, an
addicted to it) had abnormal connections between the app for no-strings-attached sexual connections. "With
nerve fibers in their brain. These changes are similar to Mixxxer, you find lots of people at once and pick a bed
other sorts of addicts, including alcoholics. partner with little effort, and some might argue that
this can create a social disability in regards to future
That can impact communications, relationships and relationships."
our day-to-day interactions with others. But while some
of these behavioral changes are being touted as new, Another seemingly new social app-driven behavioral
they're really just updated versions of old conduct, change—mirror investing—isn't as new as it might
claim experts. seem. Started in the early 2000s, it has seen its usage
slowly grow, with dedicated sites letting you link your
Take "ghosting," which has been discussed regularly in trading account to that of another person.
the media lately. The name refers to someone simply
vanishing from another person's life, usually after the The immediacy is new, but that's simply an age-old
two have gone on several dates. It's a frustrating, market practice: following the moves of a successful
confusing and, certainly, impolite way to end a relation- trader in hopes of emulating their success.
ship, but it's not new.

"People change very slowly; tech changes very quick-
ly," said Jeremy P Birnholtz, professor at Northwestern
University. "Everything we see online has usually hap-
pened somewhere else."

Source
CNBC
https://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/15/
gy-killing-the-human-touch.html

26

THE TWO SPEND
MORE EVENINGS
STARING AT
THEIR PHONES
THAN THEY DO
AT EACH OTHER.

27

Is Technology Making People Less Sociable?

With the spread of mobile technology, it’s become As a research psychologist, I have studied the impact
much easier for more people to maintain constant of technology for 30 years among 50,000 children,
contact with their social networks online. And a lot of teens and adults in the U.S. and 24 other countries.
people are taking advantage of that opportunity.
In that time, three major game-changers have entered
One indication: A recent Pew Research survey of our world: portable computers, social communication
adults in the U.S. found that 71% use Facebook at least and smartphones. The total effect has been to allow us
occasionally, and 45% of Facebook users check the to connect more with the people in our virtual world—
site several times a day. but communicate less with those who are in our world.

That sounds like people are becoming more sociable. Our real and virtual worlds certainly overlap, as many
Unfortunately however, some people think the op- of our virtual friends are also our real friends. But the
posite is happening. The problem, they say, is that we time and effort we put into our virtual worlds limit the
spend so much time maintaining superficial connec- time to connect and especially to communicate on
tions online that we aren’t dedicating enough time or a deeper level in our real world. With smartphone in
effort to cultivating deeper real-life relationships. Too hand, we face a constant barrage of alerts, notifica-
much chatter, too little real conversation. tions, vibrations and beeps warning us that something
seemingly important has happened and we must pay
Others counter that online social networks supplement attention. We tap out brief missives and believe that
face-to-face sociability, they don’t replace it. These we are being sociable, but as psychologist Sherry
people argue that we can expand our social hori- Turkle has so aptly said, we are only getting “sips” of
zons online, deepening our connections to the world connection, not real communication.
around us, and at the same time take advantage of
technology to make our relationships even closer. Worse, we don’t even need a beep or vibration to dis-
tract us anymore. In one study of more than 1,100 teens
Larry Rosen, a professor of psychology at California and adults, my fellow researchers and I found that the
State University, Dominguez Hills, says technology vast majority of smartphone users under 35 checked
is distracting us from our real-world relationships. in with their electronic devices many times a day and
Keith N. Hampton, who holds the Professorship mostly without receiving an external alert.
in Communication and Public Policy at Rutgers
University’s School of Communication and Information, Anxiety drives this behavior. As evidenced by a rash
argues that technology is enriching those relationships of phantom pocket vibrations, our constant need to
and the rest of our social lives. check comes from anxiety about needing to know
what is happening in our virtual worlds.
Connecting Virtually Isn’t Like Real-World Bonding
In one study, we monitored anxiety levels of smart-
So that I won’t be branded a Luddite, I will start by phone users when we wouldn’t let them use their
saying that I have embraced technology in my life phones, and found that the heavy smartphone users
and in my 40 years of teaching. I talk to parents about showed increased anxiety after only 10 minutes and
responsible technology use and educators about that anxiety continued to increase across the hour long
enhancing its classroom efficacy. study. Moderate users showed some anxiety, while
light users showed none.

Source
Wall Street Journal
https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-technology-
making-people-less-sociable-1431093491

28

29

30

If we are constantly checking in with our virtual worlds, ring as true today as when they were written, in 1909.
this leaves little time for our real-world relationships. They were the observations of one of America’s first
and most renowned sociologists, Charles Cooley,
A second issue is the difference between connecting about how morning delivery of the newspaper was
and communicating. While we may have hundreds undermining the American family. Thank goodness the
of Facebook friends—people we never would have scourge of the newsman is in decline.
met otherwise, with whom we can share many new
things—do they really provide the kind of human inter- We are now no more addicted to communication and
action that is so essential to our emotional health? ignore our relationships as a result than we did 100
years ago. In studies with my students and collabora-
Psychologists define social capital, or the benefit we tors, we have found that Internet and cellphone users,
derive from social interactions, in two ways: bonding and especially those who use social media, tend
and the more superficial bridging. Research shows to have more diverse and a larger number of close
that virtual-world friends provide mostly bridging social relationships. What has changed is that communica-
capital, while real-world friends provide special tion technologies have made many of our relationships
bonding social capital. more persistent and pervasive. This, in turn, is trans-
forming how we relate to those around us, in what are
For instance, in one study we found that while empa- mostly positive ways.
thy can be dispensed in the virtual world, it is only one-
sixth as effective in making the recipient feel socially Social ties that we once would have abandoned as we
supported compared with empathy proffered in the left high school, changed jobs and moved from one
real world. A hug feels six times more supportive than neighborhood to another now persist online. Today,
an simple emoji. high-school friends stay with us on Facebook in a way
that they wouldn’t have done in the past. The same is
We need to examine our technology use to ensure that true for professional acquaintances, distant relatives
it isn’t getting in the way of our being sociable and get- and friends from all phases of our life. In our closest
ting the emotional support we need from the people relationships, today’s technologies don’t replace in-
who are closest to us. person interaction, they supplement it.

We need to put our phones away in social settings and It is tempting to dismiss as trivial many messages ex-
consider making phone calls when we want to contact changed online. But together, the small sips that come
people instead of a series of brief texts. from the steady contact of social media can add up to
a big gulp of information about the activities, interests
NO: Relationships Are Being Enhanced, not Replaced and opinions of the people we connect with. They
communicate mutual awareness and closeness along
Don’t believe the hype. New technologies are not with information that we wouldn’t otherwise receive.
making us less social.
We shouldn’t fear information overload as a result.
Yes, some things have changed—but maybe not as My recent studies have found that for some, especially
much as you might think. Consider “what a strange women, the exchange of informal support and op-
practice it is…that a man should sit down to his break- portunities for social sharing online contribute to lower
fast table and, instead of conversing with his wife, levels of stress.
and children, hold before his face a sort of screen on
which is inscribed a world-wide gossip.” These words

31

32

All that information also contributes to our awareness
of the world around us. Social-media users are more
likely to know people from many diverse backgrounds.
Among real-life friends and acquaintances, topics that
are traditionally taboo, including politics and religion,
are suddenly visible online in the places people visit,
the photos they share and the opinions they endorse.
Of course, not all of this information is welcome or
appreciated, or leads to better friendships—but it
does not isolate us.
We all know of individual cases of technology use that
might be problematic, such as that strange practice of
some men, or women, sitting down to their breakfast
and, instead of conversing with their spouse or chil-
dren, holding before their faces an actual screen on
which is inscribed a world-wide gossip.
But, for the majority of people, most of the time, com-
munication is not a psychological ailment. Technology
does not come between us. For most, the persistent
contact and pervasive awareness made possible by
technology provide a wide range of benefits we have
never enjoyed before.

33

Readers absorb less on Kindles
than on paper, study finds

A new study which found that readers using a Kindle visual sense of progress when you're reading. Perhaps
were "significantly" worse than paperback readers at this somehow aids the reader, providing more fixity
recalling when events occurred in a mystery story is and solidity to the reader's sense of unfolding and
part of major new Europe-wide research looking at the progress of the text, and hence the story."
impact of digitisation on the reading experience.
Mangen also pointed to a paper published last year,
The study, presented in Italy at a conference last which gave 72 Norwegian 10th-graders texts to read
month and set to be published as a paper, gave 50 in print, or in PDF on a computer screen, followed by
readers the same short story by Elizabeth George to comprehension tests. She and her fellow researchers
read. Half read the 28-page story on a Kindle, and half found that "students who read texts in print scored
in a paperback, with readers then tested on aspects of significantly better on the reading comprehension test
the story including objects, characters and settings. than students who read the texts digitally".

Anne Mangen of Norway's Stavanger University, a She is now chairing a new European research network
lead researcher on the study, thought academics doing empirical research on the effects of digitisa-
might "find differences in the immersion facilitated by tion on text reading. The network says that "research
the device, in emotional responses" to the story. Her shows that the amount of time spent reading long-form
predictions were based on an earlier study comparing texts is in decline, and due to digitisation, reading is
reading an upsetting short story on paper and on iPad. becoming more intermittent and fragmented", with
"In this study, we found that paper readers did report "empirical evidence indicating that affordance of
higher on measures having to do with empathy and screen devices might negatively impact cognitive and
transportation and immersion, and narrative coher- emotional aspects of reading". They hope their work
ence, than iPad readers," said Mangen. will improve scientific understanding of digitisation,
thus helping to cope with its impact.
But instead, the performance was largely similar, ex-
cept when it came to the timing of events in the story. "I don't think we should assume it is all to do with
"The Kindle readers performed significantly worse on habits, and base decisions to replace print textbooks
the plot reconstruction measure, ie, when they were with iPads, for instance, on such assumptions. Studies
asked to place 14 events in the correct order." with students, shown that they often prefer to read on
paper," she said.
The researchers suggest that "the haptic and tac-
tile feedback of a Kindle does not provide the same
support for mental reconstruction of a story as a print
pocket book does".

"When you read on paper you can sense with your fin-
gers a pile of pages on the left growing, and shrinking
on the right," said Mangen. "You have the tactile sense
of progress, in addition to the visual ... [The differences
for Kindle readers] might have something to do with
the fact that the fixity of a text on paper, and this very
gradual unfolding of paper as you progress through a
story, is some kind of sensory offload, supporting the

Source
The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/
aug/19/readers-absorb-less-kindles-
paper-study-plot-ereader-digitisation

34

" WHEN YOU READ ON
PAPER YOU CAN SENSE
WITH YOUR FINGERS
PAGES ON THE LEFT
GROWING, AND
SHRINKING ON THE
RIGHT. YOU HAVE
THE TACTILE SENSE
OF PROGRESS. "

" THE HAPTIC AND
TACTILE FEEDBACK
OF A KINDLE DOES
NOT PROVIDE THE
SAME SUPPORT
FOR MENTAL
RECONSTRUCTION
OF A STORY AS A
PRINT POCKET
BOOK DOES. "

35

36

Research 1

Finding out informations regarding
solution to the problem

SOLU

38

TION

39

A Golden Age for Board Games

Tell most people that you’re a “gamer” nowadays and “I was watching two friends who were fantastic
they’ll subconsciously add the prefix “video”. But while Scrabble players, and I realized that the part of the
digital games are grudgingly acknowledged as part game I liked most was when players could make more
of the entertainment mainstream, the past decade than one word with a single move,” she says. “That
has also seen unexpected growth in an industry that night I had a dream about a similar game, but one that
many assumed would become redundant in the era of used shapes and color instead of letters. As soon as I
screens: tabletop board games. woke up I started putting a prototype together.”

Sales are still dwarfed by the latest PC and console That idea went on to become Qwirkle – a tile laying
blockbusters, but the past four years have seen board game that dispensed with words, letters and even a
game purchases rise by between 25% and 40% an- game board. Players lay square wooden tiles directly
nually. New titles are released each year, and the top on to the table, trying to form lines showing matching
games sell millions of copies. shapes or colors.

Nicholson points to one game in particular as an It’s a straightforward design – far simpler than most
influential example of the European design philosophy. of the games McKinley Ross played herself – but it
Designed by German dental technician Klaus Teuber, proved popular. Qwirkle initially sold well in the US, but
The Settlers of Catan has sold 18M copies since its interest in the game spiked when it was awarded the
release in 1995. Players compete to colonise an island, 2011 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) prize – board
building settlements, laying down roads and trading gaming’s equivalent of an Oscar for best picture.
goods to build the most powerful faction.
“I grew up playing board games with my parents and
“It influenced a lot of games that came afterwards, grandparents, so hearing about families playing to-
and over the last 10 years or so the two design spaces gether at a time when people are increasingly turning
have collided. It used to be that American games to electronic games is a real thrill.”
would prioritise story at the expense of mechanics and
European games would have smooth mechanics, but What the past five years has taught us, however, is
very thin themes; today, with a lot of games, it’s hard to that there is ample room for both digital and analogue
claim that they’re one thing or the other.” gaming experiences. The two seemingly very different
formats are learning from each other, borrowing ideas
The success of Settlers of Catan brought a huge num- and conventions and evolving accordingly. This is a
ber of new players to board gaming, and the rapidly game that every one wins.
expanding marketplace gave rise to new publishers
and designers who brought a wave of creativity and
innovation to the hobby.

Among them was Susan McKinley Ross, a toy designer
who hosted a monthly get-together at her home
where she and a group of friends would play mainly
European-style games. But it was a more familiar
mainstream title that inspired McKinley Ross to create
a game of her own.

Source
The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/
nov/25/board-games-internet-playstation-xbox

40

" The past four years
have seen board
game purchases rise
by between 25% and
40% annually. "

41

The Full History of Board Games

The First Board Game (5000 BC)
Most people don’t realize board games are actually
pre-historic, meaning we had board games before
we had written language. So, what was the very first
game?.. Dice! A piece that’s essential in most board
games today was the basis of humanity’s oldest
analogue games.
A series of 49 small carved painted stones were found
at the 5,000-year-old Başur Höyük burial mound in
southeast Turkey. These are the earliest gaming piec-
es ever found. Similar pieces have been found in Syria
and Iraq and seem to point to board games originating
in the Fertile Crescent. The Crescent is comprised of
regions around the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates River in
the Middle East. The same region that invented booze,
papyrus, breath mints, and calendars, which are also
required when planning your game night!
Other early origin dice games were created by paint-
ing a single side of flat sticks. These sticks would be
tossed in unison and the amounted of painted sides
showing, would be your “roll”. Mesopotamian dice
were made from a variation of materials, including
carved knuckle bones, wood, painted stones, and
sea turtle shells.

Source
Medium
https://medium.com/swlh/the-full-history-
of-board-games-5e622811ce89

42

The First Evidence of Backgammon (2000 BC) on college campuses, in discothèques and
at country clubs. People young and old all
The oldest game with rules known to be nearly across the country dusted off their boards and
identical to backgammon described it as a board checkers. Cigarette, liquor, and car companies
with the same 24 points, 12 on each side. As began to sponsor tournaments and Hugh
today each player had 15 checkers and used Hefner held backgammon parties at the Playboy
cubical six-sided dice. The object of the game, Mansion. Backgammon clubs were formed and
to be the first to bear off all of one’s checkers, tournaments were held, resulting in a World
was also the same. The only differences with Championship, which was promoted in Las
modern backgammon were the use of an extra Vegas in 1967.
die (three rather than two) and the starting of
all pieces off the board. Instead they entered Most recently, the United States Backgammon
in the same way that pieces on the bar enter in Federation (USBGF) was organized in 2009 to re
modern backgammon. popularize the game in the United States. Board
and committee members include many of the
The popularity of backgammon surged in top players, tournament directors, and writers in
the mid-1960s, in part due to the charisma the worldwide backgammon gaming community.
of Prince Alexis Obolensky. He co-founded
the International Backgammon Association,
which published a set of official rules. He also
established the World Backgammon Club of
Manhattan, which devised a backgammon
tournament system in 1963. He later organized
the first major international backgammon
tournament in March, 1964.
The game became a huge fad and was played

43

44

Board Games Become Part of Childhood (500 BC)

Board games were primarily played by adults in
ancient cultures and with their deep roots in society,
were quickly adopted by children. Although not techni-
cally a board game, one of the first games centered
towards kids was Hop-Scotch. That’s right, it’s much
older than you thought!

The first references of Hop-Scotch date back to Roman
Children around 500 BC. There are many variations of
the game all over the world, but the general rules stay
consistent. The first player tosses the marker (typically
a stone, coin, or bean bag) into the first square. The
marker must land completely within the designated
square and without touching a line or bouncing out.
The player then hops through the course, skipping the
square with the marker in it.

The game’s first recorded references in English-
speaking world date back to the late 17th century, usu-
ally under the name “scotch-hop” or “scotch-hopper”.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary the etymol-
ogy of hopscotch is a formation from the words “hop”
and “scotch”, the latter in the sense of “an incised line
or scratch” and that is the origin of the word Hop-
Scotch the game.

45

The Birth of Chess (400 AD) The rules concerning stalemate were finalized in the
early 19th century. The results of these rule changes is
Chaturanga was played on an 8×8 uncheckered board, what standardized the game of Chess we play today.
called Ashtāpada. The board sometimes had special
markings, the meaning of which is unknown today. During the Age of Enlightenment, chess was viewed as
a means of self-improvement. Benjamin Franklin wrote
Soon after, the game was turned into its European vari- an article titled “The Morals of Chess” in 1750.
ant, Chess, which is played on the same 8×8 tile board. He stated: “The Game of Chess is not merely an idle
The earliest evidence of chess is found in Sassanid amusement; several very valuable qualities of the
Persia around 600 AD. It’s theorized Muslim traders mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be ac-
came to Euro-pean seaports with ornamental chess quired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits
kings as curios before they brought the game of chess. ready on all occasions; for life is a kind of Chess, in
which we have often points to gain, and competitors
The game reached Western Europe and Russia by at or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is
least three routes, the earliest being in the 9th century. a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some
By the year 1000 it had spread throughout Europe. degree, the effect of prudence, or the want of it. By
Introduced into the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors in playing at Chess then, we may learn”
the 10th century, it was described in a famous 13th-
century manuscript covering shatranj, backgammon, Chess was soon after implemented into schools,
and dice named the Libro de los juegos. where the first chess clubs began. While chess isn’t
officially in the Olympics, it’s recognized as a sport by
Around 1200, the rules of Shatranj (the Persian form the International Olympic Committee. It even has its
of Chess) started to be modified in southern Europe, own Olympiad, held every two years as a team event.
and around 1475, several major changes made the Most countries have a chess organization as well.
game essentially as it is known today. These modern
rules for the basic moves had been adopted in Italy
and Spain. Pawns gained the option of advancing two
squares on their first move, while bishops, and queens
acquired their modern abilities. The queen replaced
the earlier vizier chess piece towards the end of the
10th century and by the 15th century had become the
most powerful piece. Consequently, modern chess
was referred to as “Queen’s Chess” or “Mad Queen
Chess”. These new rules quickly spread throughout
western Europe.

46

“ The Game of Chess is not merely
an idle amusement; several very
valuable qualities of the mind,
useful in the course of human life,
are to be strengthened and
acquired by it, so as to become
habits ready on all occasions”
— Benjamin Franklin

47

48

The Landlord’s Game (1903)
What? You’ve never heard of The Landlord’s Game? It
was invented by Lizzie Magie, one of America’s very
first board game designers. The game board consisted
of a square track, with a row of properties around the
outside that players could buy. The game board had
four railroads, two utilities, a jail, and a corner named
“Labor Upon Mother Earth Produces Wages,” which
earned players $100 each time they passed it… Sound
familiar to Monopoly yet?

Magie had invented and patented The Landlord’s
Game in 1904 and designed the game to be a practi-
cal demonstration of land grabbing with all its usual
outcomes and consequences. She based the game
on the economic principles of Georgism, a system
proposed by Henry George, with the object of dem-
onstrating how rents enrich property owners and
impoverish tenants.

She knew some people could find it hard to under-
stand why this happened and what might be done
about it, and thought if Georgist ideas were put into
the concrete form of a game, they might be easier
to demonstrate. Magie also hoped that when played
by children the game would provoke their natural
suspicion of unfairness, and that they might carry this
awareness into adulthood.

In 1935 Magie sold her patent for The Landlords Game
to Parker Brothers, which is now what we know as
Monopoly. This game, which launched Parker Brothers
into a massive success, was originally rejected by
them due to many reasons.

After their success with Monopoly, They went on to
produce Risk, Sorry, Trivial Pursuit, and more.

Lizzie Magie sold her original patent of the original
game for $500.

49

The Oscars of Board Games (1978)
The Spiel des Jahres is a German title that simply
translates to “Game of the Year”. It’s considered the
most prestigious award for board and card games and
is awarded annually by a jury of German game critics.
The Spiel des Jahres has the stated purpose of
rewarding excellence in game design, and promoting
top-quality games in the German market. It is thought
the existence and popularity of the award is one of the
major drivers of the quality of games coming out of
Germany and Europe.
A Spiel des Jahres nomination can increase the typical
sales of a game from 500–3,000 copies to around
10,000; and the winner can usually expect to sell
300,000 to 500,000 copies.
The criteria on which games are evaluated are:
Game concept: originality, playability, game value
Rule structure: composition, clearness,
comprehensibility
Layout: box, board, rules
Design: functionality, workmanship
The Spield Des Jahres has been responsible for the
popularity and growth of games like Settlers of Catan,
Dominion, Hanabi, and Dixit. It’s also considered
one of the main drivers for the popularity of the Euro
Games genre.
Euro Games are a class of tabletop game that gener-
ally downplay luck, have indirect player interaction,
and focus on economics and strategy.

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