Assignment
For this assignment, I had to create a design that reflects my core values. With this design, I aimed to convey to pessimistic individuals that the news may present a distorted worldview. One of my core values is optimism and believing in the goodness of people. Through this design, I hope to reach pessimists who believe that the world is going downhill and show them that what is portrayed in the media may not be the complete picture. There is also a lot of good happening in the world.
Process
When starting the design process, I wrote down four of my core values: Humor, optimism, dedication, and innovation. Based on these values, I sketched numerous small prototypes, as shown in the image to the right. I ended up choosing the bottom right sketch to iterate on because this design could communicate the message I was trying to convey the best, and it would challenge me to learn something new.
Challenges
While making this design, I had to learn how to connect and control LED lights with an Arduino. I had never done this before, so it was quite a challenge. The biggest challenge was learning to use an infrared receiver connected to an Arduino so I could create an input triggered by a TV remote that could control a servomotor and LED lights.
Result
The Optivision is based on my core value of optimism. It is a TV with a globe inside, featuring depressing words written on it, meant to symbolize the media in today's day and age. When the user switches to a specific channel with the remote, the globe in the design turns, and positive words show up. With this design, I aim to show pessimistic people that the news may give a distorted worldview