I built installations as a mode of exploration over the course of my thesis works. During each project, I went through a five-step process to design my installations. My insights begin with opportunities that I find, and things I want to achieve. It’s not a linear process and each step includes different studies and experiments. This process enables me to know what I should do at each stage, and make sure I won’t go off the track or focus too much on one of the stages.

When I started my exploration about interactive installations, I know that I’m interested in the integration of physical and digital experience, telling stories about objects and spaces, but not sure how I can provide my own approach. I began by researching the history of interactive art, and started a series of milestone projects.

There are three important lessons about creating delightful experience with interactive installations that I learned over the course of my thesis study.

1) I have to incorporate what people naturally do in the space, and use that action to trigger unexpected experience. This way the installation will quickly catch people’s attention to initiate the interaction, and help them understand immediately how to interact with it.

2) To make sense of what people could do in the space, I have to think about the metaphor behind the interaction. It helps people associate with the thing they already know, so that they don’t need to learn about the technology when interacting with it.

3) In order to keep people engage and continue the delightful experience, the expressive range of the installation should be dynamic so that people can keep exploring and find out unexpected rewards.