Thesis Spring 2007

Production Example

2007-04-04T14:10:00.000-07:00

Rundown of Index for My Booklet on Tech Etiquette

2007-03-21T13:37:00.000-07:00

Yeahhh, my thesis is now taking a form I'm really excited about..Took a long and windy road to get here. For now I'm ditching the idea of concentrating on design aspects in a restaurant considering etiquette, and rather focusing on making the Eatiquette booklet. I'm marrying technology and etiquette together to enable us to continue paying conscious attention to the comfort of those we interact or share public space with (in this case looking specifically at restaurants). I want to look at pre-existing notions of etiquette and combine these with existing tech functionality. I hope to enable people to gain grasp of social situations that involve tech and create a common and simple language for tech etiquette, while having it not affect our sense of daily engagement with technology.

Production Schedule

2007-03-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

Click on the production schedule below to see it in a larger form in a new window...

On Signs

2007-03-20T18:36:00.000-07:00

Checked out Matt Jones and thought about signs and symbols...

*Whats the difference between drawing an object vs. action?
*Ubiquity (across the globe, genders, age etc.)

Photos:

U-Wink over Spring Break

2007-03-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

My spring break took me to the coast of California where I had the opportunity to go visit U-Wink. I had hoped to check out a dark dining spot as well but since I stayed in Los Angeles for one night only it gave me time for U-Wink alone. Luckily I did manage to speak with the manager of the restaurant and get some information on the U-Wink concept.

Notes
*Women 21-35
*Design: Gaming Section (children, younger hip adults - higher stools/low tables for active games), food section (above 30 crowd - lower tables, more intimacy), bar sections (nightlife, young people, social, games, order drinks).
*Swipe card at tables, soon at bar
*Games have notably worked as conversation starters
*Designed to induce talk, break the ice
*No probs with these age groups using the technology
*Easy touchscreen interface design
*Help around the corner
*No waiters except to bring food
*Max time for ppl to spend was designed but surprisingly ppl get hooked
*Surprised by amount of children using it as meant for adults
*Feminine design
*Easy games that attract females, non threatening, puzzles, horoscopes, the scoop etc.
*No interaction between the tables as of yet but in the works
*Future plans do include more social interaction but more ubiquitously -> monitors have lights on them - idea to start wine tastings where monitors tell who is taking part by the lights on them - idea for bar area - thus induces more conversations maybe -> can be used in group functions or then at special nights
*Considerations of etiquette here: is this the appropriate environment to do it? How to enforce it so that men still play the role of the picker upper? Control over who you want to talk to?
*Rules and regs - more on etiquette? --> they have a clear help page and page that answers most questions about the restaurant experience, monitor experience, and attends to basic restaurant goer needs --> a set of insturctioins has therefore been implemented into the design of the technology) --> there is also however, someone that has to explain to new patrons who acts as a hostess at the front of the restaurant to explain all functions of the monitors should new visitors need information...

Observations
*Games struck conversation
*Surprisingly limited space between tables
*Very loud environment
*Gimmicky, slightly feminine design, slick in part
*Not sure if it was initially intended towards females or just grew that way
*People did not seem to mind me on the phone
*People did not seem to mind me taking photos of them either
*Things were being fixed right in front of patrons noses and they did not mind
*Games, prize games, premium games, love and horoscopes, scenic tours of far off places, quizzes, celebrity facts, food service and drinks service, easy help, easy refill or nbotify waitor system, very easy to use overall.
*Distinct design choises over privacy (monitor spacing around a foot from each other or designed to face so other groups cant look, but close in enough for conversations)
*Awareness of the different age groups that attend put into the design aspects

Here's Some Pix:

Week 6: Plans for Midterm Presentation

2007-02-28T10:57:00.000-08:00

We have 5 minutes to present our midterms. I'm likely to do PP again and this is how I planned on breaking it up...

1) Brief Background
2) Explain thesis project (brief)
3) Research and conclusions
4) Field Notes
A) Brief findings from comparison chart
B) Sketches
5) Brief Conclusion

Week 6: Gathering Together Field Research

2007-02-28T10:53:00.000-08:00

Comparison Chart 1

1) Name
2) Category (these being retail, restaurant, public space)
3) Space Description
4) Customers/visitors
5) Time spent there
6) Interactive Components
7) Desired Interaction
8) Actual Interaction
9) Location
10) Notes

Comparison Chart 2
1) Interactive component
2) Positive Aspects
3) Negative Aspects
4) Notes

Blind Restaurant

2007-02-27T19:22:00.000-08:00

Interesting... Diners led to a restaurant where you eat in darkness.

View Article Here

There is also apparently a blog about interactive kiosks...Fun cruising...

Interactive Kiosk Blog

Week 5: Organization of Ideas

2007-02-21T12:41:00.000-08:00

Main points of observation over the past few weeks:
1) Ineractivity leads to community building.
2) Community is governed by felxible rules (of etiquette).
3) Etiquette shows us about the values of that community.
4) It doesn't matter if people are already accustomed to a form of etiquette in one space (wether or virtual or physical) - any type of change evolves etiquette. When technology is intoduced into a setting new rules of etiquette must be enforced.
5) In temporal communities rules must be taught quicker in order for people to easily adapt to these rules.
6) Design can help to a) teach new forms of etiquette faster b) thus make these experiences more friendly and help build community.

This is what I came up with this week based on the talks I had with people. I feel like I want to take a step back from going immediately into sketching and organize myself better. The following is what I want to concentrate more on and have answered by the following weeks:

Point of Consideration
1) What are the differences between virtual and public communities?
2) How do temporary communities succeed if at all? What are the policies that strengthen them? --> look at games, interactive plays, conferences, public protests, communities that develop after natural disaster etc.
3) What is the difference between physical vs. virtual experience?
4) What can we expect to happen to social rules when the two are combined?
5) What are existing products of interactivity that are currently being placed into a restauarnt setting? Why do they fail? Why do they succeed? What rules govern them?
6) What suggestions can be made to make them better -> how do you redesign these with etiquette in mind?

Week 5: Notes on Conversation w/ Tucker

2007-02-21T12:32:00.000-08:00

* There is really no forms of etiquette built into technology today. Most designers fail to consider it.
* Teleconferencing example (V-Tech) -> how to design etiquette into it? greeting between people etc...Before you had someone connecting two people until Bell realized that most people answer the phone by saying "hello"
* Prompted me to go visit a teleconferencing center
* Spoke about how ppl on tv look great vs. now implementing these designs that put us in public view and we are apprehensive about the way we look - is there any way to change that or make us comfortable about that (social embarassment)

Week 5: Clearing Out My Thoughts

2007-02-21T11:46:00.000-08:00

Notes and Organization:

Based from Reading of "Etiquette and Trust Drive Online Communities of Practice", Preece J. 2004 Journal of Universal Computer Science

Communities

1) Share experitise by telling stories sharing info, support each other by sharing expertise, interact to solve problems
2) Shared solutions contiribute to common knowledge that acumulates over time
3) New communities focus on gaining members and speficying policies whereas established communities are concerned with domain-related issues.
4) Communities of practice develop shared communal resources, such as routines, artifacts, vocabulary, and styles of doing things that help create a sense of community and and that socially binds members.

*trust, empathy, and reciprocity are the building blocks for relationships that unite members

Bonding vs. Bridging Social Capital
shared goals, values, norms vs. shared artifacts

Norms reflect values of the community. Most norms, like etiquette are learned through experience in a community. Go to other culture and you'll have problems -> especially when differences are subtle.

*Without knowing the norms, we threaten empathy and trust

Check Out Reading -->
1) New Telecommunications Technologies Require New Manners by Marx G.T. (94')
2) Supporting Communities of Practice. A Survey of Community-oriented Technologies. Wenger, E. (01')
3) Read Clifford Geertz

What are the ways that communities can learn established norms:
Looking at online communities
1) Moderators
2) Mentors/role models -> norms develop by imitating
3) Automated filters to remove content that does not adhere to the norms
4) Human participation

What about the restaurant experience:
1) Build community into a temporal setting -> interaction
2) How to quickly teach everyone the norms?
3) What in the design allows for this?

Week4: Sketching Out Ideas

2007-02-14T14:20:00.000-08:00

I've been looking at a lot of various design lately from chair to airplane to telephone booth design and reading up on them...Heres some of my fave chairs

And here is a chair I propose for my restaurant...Its been a week of sketching. I have a lot of rough drafts at home going in different design directions...

Heres some crazy booth designs off the web...

And here is a start on my mobi room proposal...Fun sketching :)

Hmm...I'm slowly startng to think maybe I should just concentrate on one of these ideas. We shall see...

Week4: Notes on Meetings

2007-02-13T17:43:00.000-08:00

This week we were instructed to meet up 2 people. An industry professional who would know about the specific field we are interested in proposing our thesis in, and a person whith no knowledge of the field whatsover. We were instructed to sit down with them and tell them about our thesis. The professional I chose to contact is Tucker Viemeister. He is a very well known industrial and product designer (known for Smart Design) who I admire (I had him as an industrial design professor in ITP). Unfortunately he is out of the city until next week so I was not able to meet up with him but he promised to take a look at my thesis proposal which I sent to him and perhaps meet up with him next week some time. So as a result I ended up speaking with two other people. One of them is a recent graduate student who finished his degree in Culinary Management this winter. Mark has a vast interest in what he is doing and was adviced on his thesis by the owners of the restaurant Public in New York city, which was designed by AVROKO, a design group that I admire greatly. Lucky for me, he might be able to hook me up with them to talk about my thesis idea. Below is what Mark had to say to me:

Mark told me that interactive design really seems to be seeping into the restaurant industry. He is aware of several quicktime service restaurants where interactive design is implemented such as certain Subways and McDonalds. There is also apparently a new Popeye's concept called Lousiana Kitchen (w/ self ordering kiosks). Companies go out of their way to customize software for these types of kiosks to suit customer needs. He believes that this is revolutionary design that gives more control and privacy to people. With these types of kiosks customers can indicate exactly what they want through touch screens (i.e. I want tomatoes on the side and no broccoli), while being able to avoid being upselled by waiters. On one hand they benefit a restaurant because people could feesibly pay for their food with credit card (which by research indicates they will spend more money then by paying cash), while the customers themselves can gain a sense of privacy from waiters judging them on what they eat (ex. sometimes people feel intimidated ordering specific foods, or in Marks case he recounted stories from the South where people would mock him as being vegetarian when he did not want to order specific foods). Mark liked my idea of the cell-phone booths (to encourage people to step out of the table to pick up a phone call) and recalled several places where he knows there are booths to make a phone call from (with a landline). We discussed Mark's bacground as far as etiquette goes. He comes from a family where his mother was very strict on etiquette. Mark thinks that it might become concern when technology is introduced to a setting, but more then that he thinks that the people that would want to dine in this kind of a setting might be specific types of people. Mark personally does not want to be intruded in a restaurant setting. To him, privacy seemed to be a big thing when dining at a restaurant. He believes that a setting should be quiet and intimate, and prefers sitting at the sides of a restaurant then the middle. But at the same time, he believes that technology like the touchscreen, if ubiquitously introduced into a setting, can help people maintain even better levels of intimacy. He also thinks that it would introduce levels of turstworthiness about a restaurant. For example, if people can order food off a touchscreen maybe they can see the ratings of other people, and drive people to come online and check out the restaurant later on. Likewise, there would be less mistakes, and less selling on the part of the waiters, which he finds truly annoying in these settings. He suggested I also contact someone who is a behavioral scientist for some discussions.

The second person I spoke with today is my friends boyfriend TJ. Because my friend has been dating this guy for a while, I hardly know him, along with the fact that he lives outside of the city. TJ comes from a business background and doesn't deal with design. I first showed him examples of what interactive design is and then told him about my idea. It was good to explain my project in as clear terms as possible to someone who has no knowledge of the field. TJ believed that my concept could well suit people of a specific type (interestingly similarily like what Mark had to say). Although he himself has never been big on etiquette, TJ was intrigued by the idea of introducing interactivity into a setting for more play. While he agrees that interactivity needs to introduced into a setting in a ubiquitous manner in order to address etiquette concers, TJ seemed more interested in the aspects of play that it could introduce. I told him about U-Wink as well as Planet 212 and liked the quirks of both places and the social interaction that they introduced to a setting.

Week 3: Article on Etiquette (Cellphone/Comp Use) & Public Space

2007-02-07T11:35:00.000-08:00

I found this article at the Center for Ethics website. Did not know such a thing existed...Interesting article...

View Article Here

Week 3: Notes on Meeting w/ Greg

2007-02-06T18:53:00.000-08:00

So I met up with Greg on monday. I put together some notes for him which can be found here:

Download Notes Here

Sitting down and talking with someone else about my project really helped me understand how I should explain the project. He also brought in some interesting insight on my project. I'll be showing the presentation I prepared on Greg's idea in class and might post it here later.

Week 3: Notes on Urban Computing Blog

2007-02-06T18:51:00.001-08:00

Notes will be posted here later...

Week3: Urban Environments for Thought

2007-02-06T18:51:00.000-08:00

Last friday I went out to walk around downtown and take some pictures. This was as a part of my classmates thesis experiment. She wanted us to explore an urban environment and record our surroundings through photographs taken with either a digital camera, a cellphone camera, or both. I enjoyed doing this experiment partly because it gave me an opportunity to relax and do something non-school related for a couple hours on a random friday. I guess I wanted to write a couple of random thoughts that came up when I was walking around. These circulated mainly around the moments I was taking pictures with my cellphone camera. I've been trying to teach myself to use the phonecamera a lot more as of late...But there was one distinguishing difference between using a cellphone camera to using a digital camera. I really noticed how much I felt like I was invading someone elses privacy whenever I was taking a photo of them. I also noted that people would run away or duck as I was trying to take a phonecamera picture of them versus a digital camera. Although they are easy to use, I think cameraphones hold certain implications to them when thinking about privacy. I think this is because most people are aware of the fact that once someone captures your picture with a cellphone, they can walk around with that picture for ever, send it to others, or put it online instantaneously. Just thought I'd note this in case there's something there to think about of rmy thesis in the future...

MobilePixHere"

Week 2: Revised Paper

2007-01-31T13:27:00.000-08:00

I think my last paper effectively proposed the direction I want to take for thesis. Since we are in the initial stages of starting out writing thesis ideas, I have a tendency to ramble on in various directions so I hope that most of my writing made sense. I'm much less concerned with pinpointing specific ideas at this point and more interested in figuring out exactly what I have been observing. I used this revised paper to address the issues that my classmates and instructor brought up when I presented my topic in class. I spent time looking through the notes I gathered over the past week, reflecting on readings, field observances, and new ideas that I've come up with. As suggested I tried to spend time being more open minded and broad about the topic and thus took a long time thinking about public versus private space, virtual and public space, the audience I have in mind, why I want to place my experiment into a restaurant setting, and how this project is best carried out (concerns over ubiquity). You can find the revised paper below for download. It comprises mainly of several points I have added on, which I hope can clear out my idea much better or lead me in the direction of a solid idea.

Revised Proposal Download Here

Week 2: Field Research: Remote and Planet 212

2007-01-30T21:43:00.000-08:00

This week I decided to take the advice of my thesis instructor and peers into account by visiting several spaces that integrate interactive media into them. In my thesis presentation in week 1, I mentioned several public spaces in New York City that have incorporated technology into the design of the restaurant, including the restaurant Planet Thailand 212 (PT212). My peers also recommended I visit a bar downtown called Remote. Since Remote is next to my house I ventured out to visit the bar on an early weekday night. Remote Bar has been up since 2001, and has attracted customers to the spot for the past few years because of a set up of interactive tables on which patrons can spy on each other, zoom into other people, and take pictures for the Remote website of other bar-goers via 60 cameras placed throughout the club. My classmates did, however, warn me that this place was already out of commission, and that most of the video systems were broken long ago. The Remote Lounge website boasts tag lines like "You Are The Star" or "You Control The Action". Pictures of youngsters making out in dramatic black and white stills from some of the wilder nights at Remote adorn the front page of the site. Unfortunately, my visit was quite a disappointment. Upon paying 20$ for entrance to an event I had no interest in, I was ushered downstairs....It looked a bit like this: Pic1
There were large TV screens placed around the main stage that were portraying various advertisements for events to come. The bar area was crowded, and from the website it appeared like there were supposed to be screens on top of the actual bar tenders showing various patrons who were being zoomed in on by others...These, however were all not working. I worked myself upstairs only to find that the upstairs lounge with the remote controlled stations was closed. I did spend time peering at them through the windows of the doors but was never able to observe people using them. The systems comprised of tv monitors that looked like they were pulled from the eighties, and an otherwise 70s looking setup with joysticks. Could have been fun to play around with. I did find the following interesting however... Pic2 I think the warning got me thinking more and more about the public vs. private. According to the warning set up at the front doors of Remote, all actions that took place in the bar (including the photos that other people took of you) become property of the bar (and can be placed on their website). It's a little weird to think that once you place yourself into a public setting like this you should have to be more aware of yourself then posting things online, where you might have a public presence but can monitor your privacy settings. For some reason I keep being drawn to the issues surrounding public and private. I guess its weird to think that it should take a sign to figure out that one could potentially be taped without their aknowledgement and all their actions would be the property of someone else, whereas we live in Manhattan, one of the most monitored cities in the whole world (I've heard of the stories about the hundreds of cameras distributed around the city). The second spot I visited today was Planet Thailand 212.
Pic3
This spot is a restaurant in NYC that I read about online which integrates video cameras throughout the restaurant (such as these) and places patrons on monitors across the front entracne into far off settings or art pieces. I went with a friend of mine and I spotted the system immediately, all though she did not take note of it at first. The monitors were placed in the front entrance where people normally wait for tables.
Pic4
Few people stood to stare at the monitors as they waited for tables but there was little more to them then amusement at first sight. To me, it felt like they were creating a sort of bottle neck in the front... This might have been a strategic idea in the part of the designer, considering that there was little else to amuse patrons in the front entrance. When I sat down I started looking at more of the design of the place. I was a little shocked at first to see that there were two video cameras cunningly placed on poles next to our table, staring straight into our food and conversation.
Pic5
It was interesting to see that they had been disguised behind panels so that patrons would not notice them, and I'm not so sure an ordinary diner would have noticed them necessarily. Overall, I wasn't so impressed by this installation. There was something flat about it. People seemed to have noticed it at first, but seemed to forget about it, and it didn't flow into the rest of the dining experience. I think I would have been far more interested if the monitors were placed at my table and I could have spied on other people.

Week 2: Research (SmartBrief and Fast Casual)

2007-01-30T18:43:00.000-08:00

My friend who has degrees from a culinary school as well as a masters degree in food management tipped me to some of the websites that he acquires weekly feeds from. So, I went online to check out and gain some feeds for research from Fast Brief and Fast Casual. I signed up for a few tech oriented feeds from Fast Brief as well as the National Restaurant Association's feed from their pages. The second portal, Fast Casual turned out very interesting... In fact, one of the first feeds that made my attention was an article called "Minimum wage, maximum impact" which can be found here. The article discusses how the increases in minimum wage suggested by the House of Reps. could potentially effect the restaurant industry in the sense that it could reduce the amount of wait staff restaurant owners might want to hire in the future (this would effect those in entry positions in the industry). Furthermore the article states "Businesses offering self-service technology are hoping for a boost as restaurants seek to replace unskilled workers with devices such as self-service order pads". What caught my eye above this was a mention on U-Wink as such an innovator, as well as Baltimore based Chosen Media Inc., which sells kiosks with touch-screen based ordering capabilities. Chosen Media Inc. reportedly states that this kind of touch screen capability in restaurants would cut wait staff to "two servers per shift". My curiosity in the article lies not on the implications of this kind of media being offered to restaurants in the future, but the way that it will change the dynamic of restaurants. Would the social atmosphere be more intimate without someone butting into the conversation? Or perhaps it would feel less intimate as people are gathering in conversation over a piece of technology. In my opinion its kind of like television... Before television people would exchange stories, sit and have intimate conversations with each other on a nightly basis, now they stare at a piece of technology for hours without saying a word... The rules definitely changed there, but what are its implications when such a piece of technology is introduced to a public setting...?

Which brings me to point out that Fast Casual introduced me to a new concept in restaurant dining... So I went through the articles on the Smart Casual site to get a better understanding and took note of a couple of things...1) They appear to be the new thing, and especially suitable for urban places 2) Lower prices, good food 3) Emphasis is placed on design 4) They welcome interactivity wholeheartedly... In fact the web site Fast Casual has a whole section on technology that is being integrated into these restaurants. Here are some of the bullets that can be searched on the site under Technology: POS systems, Cashless Payment Systems, Digital Display and Menu, Online Services, Music TV and Gaming, Self Service, Software.

The article "Fast Casual Diners Eat Alone" describes the type of customer behavior going on at these types of restaurants. According to the article Fast Casual diners are often single people that enjoy coming in and having a meal by themselves. Based on the article it seems that there needs to be an increased amount of stimulation in these sorts of settings to attract customers to stay longer. Two restaurants mentioned by the article, Artuzzis and Spicy Pickle, have introduced carefully implemented sound design into the restaurant design (one even brought in an audio architect). It also mentions Pyrogrill, which introduced WiFi into its setting. It almost seems as though the interactivity introduced to these spaces creates more of a private space for diners who come in alone. It also implies that the typical dining experience we are used to is also changing.

Other articles of interest I found on the site include one that mentions a restaurant in which customers can pay with their cellphones (here) and another that implements self order kiosks and games in interactive media screens based around the restaurant (here).

As a result of this site I've been taking a few looks at restaurant concepts in this field around NYC (and abroad). One that stuck to my mind was WagaMama (based from Australia and around the world). Its one of my favorite restaurants to dine in every time I go to Dubai... I remember one thing that struck me about the design, which was the long tables set throughout the restaurant (to encourage conversations between random people). The other day I also visited MamaFugu (the guy who set up this establishment used to work for WagaMamas... I might post another blog entry just based on my observances there... I took some time to think about private/public space in the spot as well as my interest, etiquette...One thing I'll note is that there were lots of singles eating there....

Class Reactions

2007-01-30T17:24:00.000-08:00

People in general seem to be interested in my idea of the exploration of social etiquette and interactivity in public spaces. Our thesis instructor Heather gave me some good tips on research. She suggested I take visits to public places that are media heavy or have some interactivity built into the design. It is my plan to make a few visits to such places this week (in fact I have already done so by now). Her other suggestion to the class in general was that those with broad ideas in mind should use this week to limit their ideas down, and those with specific ideas in mind should go ahead and view our projects from a broader angle. As a result I spent a lot of time reading up various articles and thesis papers on interactivity in public spaces this week. Heather also made me think of the audience of my project. She noted the way in which I began my presentation (I spoke about how I grew up in a tech oriented family - where phone calls would be taken during dinner time - and the entire social etiquette of such behavior in public spaces), and suggested that I examine where my project should be "placed in this world". That is to say that not everyone grew up with the benefits of technology around them, and in fact (being surrounded by tech geeks) I often loose sight of how educated people still feel nerved by technology that surrounds them. It was interesting to see that there is another person in my class who has quite opposing viewpoints on technology then me. While her project focuses on the intrusiveness of technology, I believe she is more interested in exploring the idea of 'guilt' that is associated with having to always be available through our tech devices. It's good to have someone in the class with a similar take but different direction on a subject. My class mates really drilled me on the ubiquity of these experiences I plan on designing. I agree that ubiquity is important in design, I suppose especially when I'm trying to take light of some of the irritants in social settings that interactivity proposes... I guess I'm just fed up by hearing about it all the time as most of our classes at ITP address this notion often, and I really don't want my project to become about making an interactive restaurant based on ubiquity.

Week 1 Contd.

2007-01-30T17:01:00.000-08:00

My written proposal for my thesis idea can be downloaded from here:

Eatiquette Written Proposal

I also made a power point presentation for my first class...Which can be downloaded here:

Thesis Idea Powerpoint Presentation

Enjoy....

Week 1

2007-01-24T13:46:00.000-08:00

This is the first week of thesis classes and the semester as I prepare for thesis in May. The past week has been mostly about refining my ideas around what I want to do for my thesis project. I already knew that my thesis project would be a design project, and my fascination for public spaces fueled a lot of my ideas about what I would like to pursue. The past one and a half years most of my class choises have evolved various design issues, from developing assisstive technology to refreshing my mind about the basics of design, to pursuing interface design, and thinking about social networks. I suppose that when pursuing a four month project one would naturally lean towards that which they have experience with...And I am definitely one to speak about many of the mishaps that I've had as a world traveller in getting accustomed to the new and often times puzzling ways of other cultures. I think this is what really got me thinking about etiquette. Wether it was being told to put my laptop away in classes during undergrad, or the times I've been lectured on by my friends for not calling them instead of using the phone to text message people instead of calling them, it seems to me that etiquette is in one way or another linked to many of the developments in technology today. Having been involved in developing various social networking sites, it came to my attention at one point that people on the internet have really developed a set of their own rules and standards on socializing. I suppose in one way or another, the internet has lent itself as a medium of expression to generate new rules of etiquette. If that's the case, I wondered, then perhaps these new rules need to be recognized as interactive design flows over into public space. My idea for thesis centralizes around the notion that as interactivity seeps into public space, it would be irrational to ignore the questions in etiquette it proposes to those that engage with it. The project I hope to pursue revolves around the idea of an interactive restaurant, that would introduce social milieu and the notion of play through careful design choises based on the various breaks of social etiquette in public space that interactivity introduces. The past week I spent a lot of time researching the subject. To my delight, a researcher at the Royal College of Art in London developed a paper on the insight of what happens when virtual space spills into physical or real space. It's a great paper to support my topic, and shows that other designers are thinking about etiquette...However, I found that Bilsland simply used existing notions of etiquette in public space to apply it to industrial design, rather then introduce a way that these breaks in etiquette can be used in creative ways to create social milieu. Businesses seem to be using interactivity to gain the interest of customers. Nokia, for example is a leading forefront in this, with the development of the Nokia Shops now scattered across the world. Their interactive display systems are surely engaging and propably encourage customers to engage with more of their products in the stores, however, in these setting little thought is brought to concerns in etiquette. In fact, there needen't be any because hardly any social interaction between customers is introduced into the concepts. One of the closest examples I found to my design idea is a restaurant from California called U-Wink. U-Wink (along with Chuck E. Cheese - also the owners brainchild) introduces gaming and monitor displays among its clients. An interesting concept, but I feel that U-Winks customers really don't have a chance to share much intimate information. Customers are still confined to the safety of their tables, and the concept does not play into the existing rules of etiquette as well, nor in as much a ubiquitous manner as it could. J.T. Sliders, and Planet Thailand 212 are restaurants with similar concepts, one with internet station, the other with a display that shows patrons in far off lands...In my opinion these are great forms of entertainment, and surely sustain customers in the restaurant in the restaurant for a moment longer, but don't introduce social milieu beyond that of those who are in a private group together. I hope that my project will exemplify that those hindrances offered by interactive design that are often considered obtrusive and breaking etiquette in public spaces can lead to surprising and delightful new meanings for those that engage with it and those that design it.