02｜Research Questions, Concepts and Concrete Ideas

00 - Research Questions and Strategies

here to see: my miro research map
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How can an interactive experience be designed to be universal and intuitive?

When setting up my research questions, I started from my personal experiences, reflecting on the obstacles I have encountered in interactive experiences and games. I realized that in many cases, language is often the first barrier I face. We use language to communicate with others, construct narratives, and define game rules. However, when interaction is built upon linguistic structures, it simultaneously creates a threshold. Based on this perspective, I developed five research questions that explore this issue further.
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RQ1 - How can an interactive story or experience be constructed without language, relying solely on non-verbal communication?

Primary Research 01｜Non-verbal Instruction Set

To better understand how human perception, behavior patterns, and interpersonal interactions change under a non-verbal premise, I conducted my primary research through instruction sets and interviews.

For the first primary research, I set up an instruction set to observe how people communicate and collaborate without spoken or written language. Participants are invited in groups of 2, 3, and 6 people into a room, where they must complete a given task without using verbal or written communication.

In the three different rounds of the experiment, I initially instructed the participants only that they could not use language during the process and that they had to complete the task within five minutes. However, I didn't reveal the exact task in advance.

Non-verbal instruction set: Group 1

The first group was the 2-person team. The group completed all three stages of the task in just 3 minutes, and all three tasks were completed collaboratively. Here are some observations through the process:

Non-verbal instruction set: Group 2

The second round of experiment was the 3-person group. For this round, I intentionally prompted the participants to collaborate on the second task and observed how they would interact during the third task.

Non-verbal instruction set: Group 3

For the third round, it was the 6-person group. Four participants had previously taken part in the experiment, while two were new. Before starting, I informed all participants that they could decide whether to collaborate on the tasks.

Did they collaborate? Why?

• First task: All six participants worked individually. Four of them moved to the second task table as soon as they completed their own work.
• Second task: Four participants collaborated to complete the shape. (In the follow-up interview, they mentioned that they decided to collaborate because the prompt shape was more complex.) The two newer participants worked independently.
• Third task: All six participants collaborated to complete the task together.

How did they communicate?

• Body language (gestures, pointing at the drawing)
• Eye contact
• Mimicking actions to demonstrate the intended use of the object they were creating

How did they determine if a task was complete?

• When one participant stood up and moved to the next task table, the others followed.
• If someone was left behind still working on the previous task, another participant would use body language to invite them to join the next task.

Observations Through the Process:

• The complexity of the shape influenced whether participants chose to collaborate.
• In follow-up interviews, participants found it interesting that they had different interpretations of the prompt shape (e.g., 2D vs. 3D, a hamburger vs. a lantern).
• The 6-person group dynamic introduced more tension compared to the 2- and 3-person groups.
• More test samples are needed to identify clearer interaction patterns.

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Primary Research 02｜Interview

For the second primary research, I focused on the question: "Are there public places where people tend to remain silent?"

Observation & Interview:

• Observed daily life to identify public spaces where people naturally stay quiet.
• Asked friends if there are places where they instinctively remain silent, why they do so, and how they feel in such spaces.

Objective:
To understand how people behave in quiet public spaces and explore the ways they communicate with others in these environments.

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Primary Research 03｜Visualizing soundscape

For my third primary research, I created a sound montage by editing together various sound clips. I then invited friends to listen to the audio and draw the space or scene they imagined while listening.

Objective:

• To explore whether, without language, auditory experiences can construct imaginary scenes or stories in people’s minds.
• I anticipated that participants would visualize the sounds they heard in a realistic manner.

For Sound 1, I played a recording of the ambient sounds I captured while walking on the streets of Manhattan. For Sound 2, I used a recording of someone playing a bucket drum in the subway.

sound 1 sound 2

For Sound 3, I played a recording of a 3D printer in action, capturing the rhythmic mechanical sounds it makes while operating.

sound 3

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* Currently refining for the research results of RQ2-5 *

RQ2 - What is it that the body has already sensed but language has yet to capture?

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