by Nikolaos Papadimas -

Proper exercise form-correcting wearable

My starting point for my research was to find a problematic subject and try to come up with a design solution for it. Before going outwards, I looked inwards to my self. My often frustration with executing gym exercises (weight lifting) with proper technique while minimizing the risk of injury surfaced. As I am relatively new to the gym culture, I thought that a possible design solution to this problem will not only benefit other people who face the same frustrations, but also myself. So I was found in a very optimistic position, because I could use myself as the target user, among others, to begin researching about this design solution. My first aim of research was to understand the bio mechanics of weight lifting.

How the muscle works ( in weight lifting)

When we are performing a movement that requires our muscles to contract and stretch, as we expose them to stress, they experience microscopic damage. The injured cells release inflammatory molecules called cytokines, that activate the immune system to repair the injury. This is when the muscle-building happens. The bigger the damage to the muscle tissue, the more the body will need to repair itself. The cycle of damage and repair, eventually makes the muscles bigger and stronger, as they adapt to progressively greater demands.

Paying attention to our form in strength training, meaning joint alignment, range of motion and tension are extremely important to achieve the desired strength and muscle hypertrophy goals, while avoiding any potential injury.

Regardless of what is the goal of exercise, proper form and technique is key to progressing in weight lifting, otherwise increasing intensity of a workout while losing proper form can lead to injury and lessen the effect on the targeted muscle.

Idea:

Create a wearable device that monitors and corrects all the parameters of weight lifting in real time as the exercises are executed. A possible wearable that monitors the relative position of joints and posture of the body while executing an exercise and communicating with vibrations to adjust the posture/form of the exercise.

Analyzing gym trainees.

The main types of people who do weight lifting are:

People who train without any education on form and proper execution.

People who train on their own but research about techniques and form.

People who train using an online coach and have more access to educational content and supervision

People who train assisted by a personal trainer and have direct supervision over execution form.

People who have assistance of a personal trainer while they perform their lifting routine, do not apply as potential users of such device.

by Michael Kernbichler -

Interactive Data Visualization: Sankey Diagrams

Sankey diagrams are a specific type of flow diagram, in which the width of the arrows is shown proportionally to the flow quantity. They are typically used to visualize energy or material or cost transfers between processes. They can also visualize the energy accounts or material flow accounts on a community level. Sankey diagrams put a visual emphasis on the major transfers or flows within a system. They are helpful in locating dominant contributions to an overall flow.

This kind of diagram is often used for voter transition analysis, so I wanted to explore different examples of sankey diagrams and also I wantred to find out how they are done.

Static examples of Sankey Diagrams:

by Ines Mahmoud -

Glossary

As is the case with any science, it is important to define the main terms in order to create an equal basis for discussion. For this purpose, a list of important terms for my research is given below. The definitions are taken from “The Handbook of Multimodal-Multisensor Interfaces” by Cohen and from the scientific paper by Karpov and Yusupov “Multimodal Interfaces of Human-Computer Interaction”.

by Milica Knezevic -

A typeface for the world / Font psychology behind it

Thinking about international, global intended design, I started my research for typography that is meant to be suitable for everyone’s needs.

While thinking about a universal typeface that suits the needs of the whole world, I want to recall to development of the idea of International Typographic Style, that emerged in Russia, the Netherlands, and Germany in the 1920s and was further developed by designers in Switzerland during the 1950s.
The style emerged from a desire to represent information objectively, free from the influence of associated meaning. In some way, this can be very useful considering that the typefaces like Helvetica could be endlessly interpreted for everything from signage (the New York City subway, for example) to web pages and logos.

The New York City Subway uses Helvetica.

This style was guided by the principles that design should be as invisible as possible. All traces of the designer’s subjectivity should be kept hidden in order to let the “core” of the work comes in the front.
The style highlights cleanness, readability, and objectivity. Many of the early International Typographic Style works featured typography as a primary design element in addition to its use in the text, which refers to the style’s name.

International Typographic Style thought us that this kind of typography can be applied to anything and used across the globe, but sometimes it could be helpful to think in the opposite direction.

While designers try to make the typeface that will suit the needs of every language, on the other hand, every language has to have the typeface that reflects its qualities the best. Before entering this sphere, we have to consider font psychology first.

Font psychology means, simply said, that the more specific the font style is, the more unique the brand personality can be, and the easier the brand recall.
Referring to font psychology Helvetica is the most popular and one of the more “readable”.
But font psychology is also connected with the users’ psychology. That is why I’m wondering, is it possible to associate certain fonts to a certain language to understand their meaning better?

Can font psychology influence our ability to compare and learn different languages faster?
What typeface is the best for designing the language app? Can it influence our ability to learn or our speed of making conclusions?
What do we have to think about, when designing for other languages?

All these questions lay open for now because we can not give a precise answer yet, but the truth is that every design has a goal. And by choosing the fonts that inspire the right emotional response in your audience, it helps you reach your goal.
That means that we can definitely choose the font that inspires people to learn and to find similarities and differences between different structures of part of sentences, and what fonts work the best for which language needs to be tested.

Sources:

https://material.io/design/typography/language-support.html#language-considerations

https://en.99designs.at/mobile-app-design/contests/app-design-language-learning-472768

https://www.canva.com/learn/font-psychology/


by Michael Kernbichler -

Interactive Data Visualization: Voter transition analysis

The voter transition analysis allows the user to see how the votes transitioned from one party to another after the elections. The idea is a simple one: if a party gains most votes in those municipalities in which another party had the most votes at the election before, it is interpreted as a vote transition between those parties.

This method is very popular in countrys like Austria and Germany but doesn’t really work in 2-Party systems like the US.

Below you can see some examples of interactive voter transition analysis:

100 Jahre Wählerströme // Der Standard
by Ines Mahmoud -

Why multimodal multisensory interfaces?

During my research I read some excerpts from the book “The Handbook of Multimodal-Multisensor Interfaces” to understand the basic principles of multimodal interface design and to familiarize myself with the vocabulary. The book was published in 2017 and deals intensively with various aspects of interface design and conception based on neuroscientific and psychological research. In my blog entries I would like to excerpt some passages and take a closer look at them.