We haven’t said much here in a while but with Foundry 2011 drawing to a close I feel that there should be an update about what we’ve been up to over the past 2 weeks. First though, tomorrow we’re have a launch/farewell event/presentation discussing all things webby, thingy, smelly and Foundry and you are invited to come along! We will be showcasing the culmination of our 3 months with Mint Digital (but don’t want to give it all away just yet!).

For more information on the event, and to sign up, visit here: http://foundry2011.eventbrite.com/

Anyway, to fill in the chronological blanks, following on from Steve Jobs memorials and cardboard models we stepped into the digital and began 3D modelling prototypes. Using Google Sketchup, Ben and I knocked together a fair few digital model variations inspired by the forms and functions we had been playing with using card, glue and tape. After a bit of exploration, each of us had designed models which were aesthetically similar, however had different means of construction and interaction. We got both of these models manufactured at 2 different places using 2 different methods of 3D Rapid Prototyping. This gave us an initial run of 4 prototype models, 2 were produced using Laser Sintering while the other two consisted of a plaster/glue mixture. It quickly transpired that, though quite a bit cheaper, the plaster style models had a terrible finish, were incredibly brittle and justified the slightly more expensive (and more detailed) SLS method.

With the manufacture method chosen the four of us discussed things the two different designs so that Ben and I were able to go back to the modelling screens and produce a product that combined the best of both designs. There was still a bit of testing to go through, we wanted to try a friction locking, “lego block” approach however the output model showed us that the tolerances were tricky to get right and the material wore down  easily under friction meaning that the model quickly became loose.

So our final model uses a slide locking mechanism with very tight tolerances which works very effectively. It really highlights the perfectionism that goes into the most underrated interactions we have with objects We could easily spend another month working on the locking mechanism alone but we just don’t have the time (and it starts to get pricey with all these 3D printed models!)

Along with the construction method, the models helped us to define how the user interacted with smell input (which became a drawer) and the what the most effective logo is (which went though a few iterations to discover something that printed onto the model with a high resolution).

So as I write this, our models have been refined, then refined again and are at the 3D printers getting rapidly produced in time for tomorrow. On top of this, Chris and Genis have been busy working on a website detailing all you need to know about the project. This has highlighted the interesting challenge of, how do you visually sell an aesthetically subdued object that has a primary function of outputting invisible scents. Seems a bit counter intuitive but the guys are doing a great job and if all goes well the site will be launched tomorrow - keep an eye out for that!

So it’s been awfully busy and despite the inevitable last minuiteness of things, all is looking to be grand tomorrow for our launch. Come along and say hi, it’s nicer to meet in the physical than the digital!

-Tim

If you’ve been following our flicker feed you’ll have noticed that over the last few days, we’ve been knocking together quite a plethora of prototypes. Its been fun! It’s allowed us to develop (and generally just play around with) the look, feel, interaction and of our smelly device as well as explore what it could be made from and how it could be made. Anyway here’s some snaps of our ‘finished’ models with a bit of a description about the intention of each iteration. Enjoy.

So following on from the cups-and-vaporisers approach, we went out and bought a few computer fans. Our visit to ScentAir identified that fans and scent cartridges was the most common method they used within their electric automatic model (albeit not with computer fans but a similar effect). Plus we had been faffing around with the vaporiser for too long. The above image was the first working model off the back of this - pringles tub with a few drops of essence inside with a fan taped to the top. Plugging into the computer via USB, the fan activated and released the smell within and contained it nicely while it was off, perfect, but not all that pretty!

Meanwhile, Ben was playing around with a different fan and constructed this helix approach to pump the air out as efficiently as possible (below).

Chris, using yet other fan, began playing around with a more towered approach. This development helped to look into how we can start layering the different aspect of the design - the electronics, the scent oil and the fan.

Getting an understanding what goes where was helpful in highlighting some design routes. The geometric restrictions of what we were using helped to open up some avenues that were not expected, like Tim’s design below where the device has a hinge for it to open and close allowing the user to change/replace the ‘smell cartridge’. The image below it is a further development which also incorporates housing and working connection for the arduino.

We began to see a problem emerging with our model thus far which was that none of them were really oriented towards your nose - kind of important to experiment with if you what immediate, alerting smells! This one from Genis leans back, at such an angle that it fires smells directly from your desk to where you are sitting. Below that is one from Tim which rotates to allow the user to specify where it is pointing.

That’s not to say it was all fans and function, Ben made this bellow style approach which was certainly the most effective smell puffer but we struggled to work out how it could operate electronically whilst also being silent

Where are we not then? We’ll there’s a few more prototype photos on the flicker page with some more weird, wonderful and primarily cardboard models for you to check out. On top of that we have been discussing some development ideas for what the smell cartridge actually is and what the most effective way it could plug into the device is and there are undoubtedly a few more card models to follow. Plus there a whole web connection to sort out… The cogs are still turning within the the Foundry!

On Tuesday Ben and I took a day trip to Slough to visit the UK office of ScentAir, a global scent dispenser manufacturer with catalogue of well over 1500 unique fragrances. They specialise in working with brands and companies to explore how they can apply scent as a means to enhance the customer’s experience. As they explain:

Now marketeers are starting to realise the importance of appealing to all five senses and using brand fragrance, too. For while a picture can say a thousand words, or 140 characters can make a Tweet, a whiff of scent is proven to be far more powerful in terms of brand association and memory recall, and has a more direct link to our emotions.

Once a smell is embedded in a customer’s memory, visual clues are enough for the odour, and its associated memory and emotions, to be reactivated. Research shows that this recall is especially effective if there is a particular name accompanying the scent. Equally, first-time exposure to a particular smell is crucial in how that aroma will be recalled, and what it will be associated with.

We wanted to discuss our project with them to get an idea of any industry interest or insights they may have towards it. What was particularly interesting for us though was that as a company so focused on using scents to enhance brands, they had not really considered digital companies and web applications so were eager to hear more about our project. In return, we had a great discussion with Chris, who works for the marketing side of ScentAir, and he introduced us to the various dispensing models they had on offer helping us to identify a few clearer routes we could go down with our model.

It got really exciting though when Chris showed us samples of some of the fragrances they have – there were utterly loads of them and this only scratched the surface. Those we got a sniff of included the pleasant white tea and thyme, double chocolate cookie and Mcdonald’s apple pie; the uncanny oily machinery, wood-stove and baby powder; and the slightly less pleasant faeces, sewage and damp. All the smells they produce are synthetic though and (we were assured) had been rigourously tested to comply with various health and safety regulations meaning that, though some smelt like shit, we could be safe in the knowledge it was harmless shit stinky chemicals!

For a while we had been toying with the idea of distilling our own essences but due to our lack of available equipment it would be a big investment to get this set up so we had to know for sure that it was the way we wanted to go. Our visit to ScentAir highlighted an interesting avenue which may involve our future collaboration with them in using the scents they have on offer but we’ll have to exchange a few more emails to see how that turns out. Regarding the diversity of output smell then, we may well be quite nicely on track, however there’s still work to do on refining the actual dispenser itself and exploring how it can connect to the web.

-Tim

We’ve had a few requests from people asking to have a look at the code for Smell of Success or just generally being nosey about how we made it so we thought it would make sense to create an instructable!

So if you want to make your own and have a good old smelly narcissistic basking then this is the link for you:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Smell-of-Success/

But please share with us your finished creation - we’d love to see how you expand on our starting point! Fire an email over to foundry@mintdigital.com and show us what you have made.

-Tim

Last week I was mostly in Denmark exhibiting at a new technology event called NEXT. This was for my personal work so I was a little out of the loop with The Smell of Success progress but it was great to get back on Friday and see what the other guys had been up to in my absence. There had been a lot of talk of pushing what Smell of Success could be - exploring how the inclusion of odours can enrich interactive systems and what specific effects they can have on us. This was all sounding pretty exciting so I wanted to get involved with some further idea development.

Previously, we’ve been playing around with a few different techniques for idea generation surrounding the basis of having a starting point on a sheet of paper - either a concept, insight or question - and then passing this around between the four of us to each further develop, refine or expand upon the starting point. This has had mixed success but I thought I would try out a new idea generation technique I had picked up from a workshop I attended in Denmark where I was in a group alongside Ted Howes - Former Global Lead on Sustainability at IDEO - the kind of person you want to pinch idea generation techniques from! There where a few formal rules to the process but I forgot to note them down so in summary it was, get some post-its, start churning out ideas, be quantitative, share your ideas and insights (but do this quickly) and then collate the ideas into coherent groups. This seemed to work really well as it allowed us to collectively work on various tangents of which one in particular started to sound really interesting, that of synaesthesia. We started asking questions like, can you smell colours, what do smells sound like, are bad smells heavier than pleasant ones.

I thought it would be fun to do an experiment surrounding this so I put together three mystery smells made from stuff in the Mint Digital kitchen. Starting with 3 cups each containing rooibos tea, a smell which I figured would not be too familiar, I then added to one cup a spoonful of strawberry jam; the next cup, a dollop of HP sauce; and the final cup, a mix of orange juice and washing up liquid (warning was provided that they should be smelt and not tasted). The guys where unaware what was in each cup so I asked them to consider the mysterious, and unique smell through a series of questions:

• what is the colour of the smell?

• what is the shape of the smell?

• what kind of personality does the smell evoke?

• what memory does this conjure up?

• what are the ingredients of the smell?

Strawberry Jam and Rooibos Tea

Though not a wholly indistinguishable smell, the spice of the rooibos effectively disguised the fruity, sweet, identifiable strawberry. Ben and Genis both related to it a reddish colour, explaining assumptions that there was berryish smell to it. Chris however chose a light green as, for him, the smell recalled notions of summer time, flowers and iced lollies. This was an early insight into how smells are easily interpreted in different ways, perhaps even more so when the smell is unfamiliar.

The shape Ben chose was numerous circles grouped together which was really interesting as he assumed that there was some raspberry ingredient in the mix however did not consciously make the connection between the shape he created in his minds eye and the fact this shape very closely resembled a raspberry. This may help to explain how easy it is for a smell to trigger a memory or thought – perhaps faster than you can consciously comprehend. This notion of memory triggering was furthered by Genis who explained that the smell reminded him of a sweet from his childhood, memories of primary school and a particular person, a bit of a bully, who he had not seen for 15 years. An interestingly specific memory - Genis went onto explain that though he did not recognise the exact smell of strawberry, they were something he ate a lot of when he was young so that may be why his memory harked back to Primary School.

HP Sauce and Rooibos Tea

Imagining that this is not to most pleasant of flavours (did not try it) the smell of this had a real spice to it through combining both the musky spice of the rooibos with the fruity spice of HP sauce. The colours chosen for this smell were auburn, burgundy and maroon. It’s interesting that these colours are all very deep, rich colours, not dissimilar to the dark brown of HP sauce. Not sure what the conclusion is from this but either HP sauce uses colouring because we commonly relate the smell/taste to a particular shade of brown or perhaps it’s vice versa, our notions of the colour are derived from previous experiences of the smell/taste – that is what brown sauce should smell like.

The sauce highlighted a cultural divide in our group too. Genis was completely unfamiliar to the smell, it was not part of his Catalonian background and therefore quite literally foreign to him. He said that the smell had an ugly personality. Ben almost guessed the ingredient right as he said it reminded him of a friends father who used to smother everything he ate in HP sauce though Chris had no idea what the ingredients were and claimed it reminded him of Christmas time and wintery spices. Perhaps this could be a festive rebrand route for the sauce… In contrast to Genis though, Chris said the smell also had a spicy and masculine personality and possibly also wore a smoky jacket – very sophisticated! Interesting how different backgrounds can affect interpretations of smells though, can you create a completely unique smell that can be universally recognised? We got talking about how coca-cola is such a massive global brand but could people distinguish the smell without the logo?

Fresh Orange Juice, Washing Up Liquid and Rooibos Tea

A surprisingly not-disgusting smell (though one which was again not tasted) this had zesty notes which complimented the rooibos spice and the fresh (apple?) odour of the washing up liquid. It was also slightly bubbly when stirred and had a bit of a horrible murky brown colour. Chris said the the smell had a bit of a “fake natural” personality which perhaps was due to the real smell of orange mixed with the artificial smell of the washing up liquid. Both he and Ben related the smell to hygiene, cleanliness and medication however, conversely, it reminded Genis of adventure and going trekking with the shape being that of a kind of palm tree.

I think this smell threw the guys off a bit as it was pretty weird but again, the diverse responses were interesting. We discussed if interpretations of smells could be used more widely as personal identification – such as a password reminder being a specific smell which only you would understand based on how you respond to it.

Conclusion

I am not too certain what to make of this experiment. The concept was devised in about 20 seconds, lasted around 20 mins and has taken far longer to write up so perhaps a bit of pre-consideration of the outcome would have helped but here is what I think we have gained a better understanding of:

• Your sense of smell of a very unique quality and open to very specific interpretation for each particular person. Perhaps it is that odour information has not gone through the same semantic enlightenment as visual information (whereby a smell could be designed in a specific way to trigger universal interpretation). If it is relevant I would like to call this research scentmantics because I love bad wordplay.

• Our diverse interpretations of smell should also be something to embrace. Smells, unlike much other sensory stimuli will often trigger a memory of how you know the smell before you interpret what the smell actually is. This link between smell and memory is really cool territory however will require some hefty reading to make proper sense of beyond pseudo science speculation.

• Quick and impulsive ideas are great and can lead you down unexpectedly intriguing paths so embrace them and go with the flow!

And that’s me done now! This was an unexpectedly long post so well done for making it this far, go have a cup of tea but give it a sniff before you drink it.

-Tim

Following our live steam from last Thursday we though we would put together a quick video to show the Smell of Success in action in case you missed it. We made a polished fancy one but it was pretty boring so here’s a more rough and ready version. And just to mention, massive thanks to Shaun McWhinne for being a total champ, helping us getting our code put together and getting the twitter connection up and running on Processing.

Note: we are yet to test The Smell of Success emitting the aroma of leather bound book and rich mahogany - it’s currently fresh linen.

BONUS clip here for pyroheads - if you didn’t spot the puff of perfume in the above video you will in this one!

-Tim

On Monday we received a new brief – putting aside, for now, our coffee research we were asked to research into clothes shops and bars. Not being a particular proponent for the flowing trends in fashion and its surrounding sub-cultures, I knew I would prefer the latter research to the former but regardless, off we went on a shopseeing tour to Shoreditch.

In contrast to our analysis of coffee shops, we found the retail research a bit of a struggle primarily due to none of us feeling overly inclined to buy into the faux-vintage aesthetic so prominent in Shoreditch. It was interesting that, as more often open-minded designers, our prejudices seemed to get in the way a bit when it came down to fashion. Perhaps this is due to clothing very much being a public display of your identity, whether intentional or subliminal, however, once we noticed this was happening we had an understanding that we should not be looking into this from a personal perspective but as design researchers.

The next day we went to Covent Garden and Carnaby Street giving us the opportunity to see some more diversity in style. We parted ways, each went to see different shops and regrouped to discuss any insights making for a much more successful approach. Ben and Chris have already touched upon the madness that was the Build-a-Bear shop and I was quite drawn towards the madness of the Ted Baker décor (though, disappointingly, not so much the clothes). It was also interesting to see comparisons in aspects such as staff service, changing rooms, window displays and floor layout – all aspects clearly designed and implemented with the intention of effectively promoting sales. A few routes for development emerged from here but they are currently being developed so will plan for them to fully emerge, making a bit more sense, in a later post.

Anyway, returning to the previous day in Shoreditch, that night we went out to explore some bars with the idea being that there would be some clear comparisons with our coffee shop insights but there would also be some fresh ones. As with coffee shops, bars are also a place to socialise and can have scope for you to be educated about the product being sold however the outcomes of a lecture in a bar is usually somewhat more detrimental than that of a café or clothes shop!

The first port of call was Book Club which had quite a trendy and lively vibe about it so I ordered a cocktail from their list doing my best to pick one requiring obscure ingredients. The barmaid was unfamiliar with how to prepare the drink (possibly down to a mean choice) but when it arrived it was rather tasty! The bar was host to an eclectic mix of people, from goths to businessmen, and as such had a laid back and welcome atmosphere. In contrast, our next destination – Shoreditch House (fancy pool-on-the-roof image of it at top), had a very exclusive feel to it, primarily down to its paid members only policy (conveniently there was a member in our midst who managed to blag his way in along with surplus guests!) Again, I ordered a cocktail and again it was a purposefully persnickety one. This time, however, there was no hesitation and the preparation was as professional as the presentation. We stayed for a game of table football (Chris beat Genis and Ben beat Utku – though Utku will probably deny this) and had dinner to get a full appreciation of “the research”. Finally we rounded of the night at a near by pub called “The Owl and The Pussycat” so that we could meet up with a few other Mint’s out and about but mainly so that Chris could have his much sought-after pint of ale.

As hazy as insight finding became towards the end of the night, it was great to see comparisons between the three very different venues. The one key thing they had in common however was the aspect of sociability – the seating was always arranged in groups around a table and there was scope to also play games with friends via pool tables, foosball tables, board games and even a ping pong table which was found in Book Club. It was interesting though to consider the solo aspect of bars, it’s something which is still even considered slightly taboo yet is having a drink at a bar on your own so dissimilar to going to a café on your own? We will be further exploring some thoughts on bars this afternoon so I’ll finish up these musing for now.

-Tim

As Chris has already mentioned in the last post, there’s been rather a lot of caffeine consumed this week, all for the cause of research though! Whilst he provided a summary into a few of our idea generation techniques experiments, Ben and I will give you a bit of background into where we got our insights…

Firstly, on the suggestion of Tom and Utku (who deserve some grand introduction as they will undoubtedly crop up a lot throughout this blog) - the guys that tell us what to do - we went off on Tuesday morning to check out Prufrock Coffee. Having no knowledge of what to expect other than “don’t ask for a cappuccino with chocolate, you’ll find out why”, we entered, prepared for the pretentious, and were met with a welcome aroma of fresh coffee, friendly faces, and a whole heap of pseudo-scientific-coffee-contraptions. Their minimalistic menu consisted of either espresso or espresso with various volumes of milk so we ordered a round of coffee– none of us ordered a cappuccino.

Our task here was to gain an understanding of the place and highlight avenues for potential development through observations and taking to people so we began by enquiring about the coffee machines but ended up learning a whole lot about coffee. It turns out that the flavour of a coffee is not only dictated by the beans but also by the filtration process – hence the array of machinery. Each one provided a different means for the water to interact with the ground coffee which in turn meant that each one created very different styles, textures and tastes within coffee. Alongside the recognisable general coffee machine there was one which filtered cold water though ground coffee over around 8 hours to result in a caffeine intense yet very smooth chilled coffee; one which required the coffee and water to be manually pumped through a filter into the mug; a device for weighing out to-the-milligram quantities of ground coffee then pouring to-the-millilitre volumes of water at equally specific temperature; and one which worked through an iterative process of evaporation, filtration and (seemingly) magic. There was also a nifty wee device called a refractometer which was used to calibrate the automated machines each morning though analysing water temperatures and the coffee extraction rate. We were further informed that the owner of this small chain of coffee shops is world renowned among barristas having won a number of worldwide lord-of-the-coffee awards (not the official title but this conveys the general idea and my impressed reaction).

What came from this crash course in coffee was an understanding that the team behind the bar really were the experts in what they do. They were not pretentious, they were passionate and happy to share their passion! What’s more, the minimalist menu was really just a result of their understanding of how coffee should be made – not with chocolate sprinkles. This was an interesting area: they are a business trying to educate people about the diverse complexities of coffee though many customers will be content with just an americano. This provided a starting point for us to develop our ideas – “how do we share the passion and knowledge of the staff at Prufrock, to generate a wider community of coffee lovers, without sounding like a dickhead”.

One approach to this was inspired by a handy visual map / shelving unit on the walls of Prufrock connecting coffee packs to their place of origin and their recommended preparation device. We felt this was a great means to make background knowledge in coffee more accessible to your usual coffee drinker. Another point of interest was that elsewhere on the walls around the café, there were pictures of other coffee shops around London. These places were not united under the same business banner, they were cafés which Prufrock admired as peers, with staff which Prufrock were mates with. This chivalry among competitors was pretty admirable and another great kick start for ideas.

Anyway, we left Prufrock buzzing on caffeine and ready to embark on some idea development. Not to give everything away right now, we will save the ideas for later posts as we begin to develop them but, for the time being, Chris’s post shows a few methods we used to approach the idea creation. Thanks to the team at Prufrock for providing a thoroughly enjoyable, albeit brief, tea and coffee masterclass!

I’ll hand you over to Ben now to continue.

-Tim