MashUp
Materializing the Brixton Pound Blockchain
"MashUp" is a UX design project aiming to materialize the Brixton Pound Blockchain through a culture or talent mashup experience combining both the physical interactions and the digital ones.
Background
The Brixton Pound chose the Algorand blockchain on which to develop a tokenized version of their innovative complimentary local currency, the Brixton Pound. However, blockchain, the distributed ledger technology helps to verify and establish an exact and transparent order of events, is is still an abstract concept that is difficult to understand due to the complexity of its overall mechanism. The brief of this project is to design a way to materialize the blockchain, so that the local people can better understand the blockchain technology and the tokenized Brixton Pound by actual experiences. This is a project in collaboration with This Ain’t Rock’n’Roll Ltd.
Research and Design Focus
My research focused on the exploring the ways of materializing the blockchain and investigating the possibility to incorporate the most significant feature of Brixton in the experience design to realize indigenization. I have also researched on the ethical concerns people may have for the experiences of interacting with the blockchain technology. The final design outcome is a system design combining the digital web interface design and the physical setting design.
Contribution
Literature Review
Street Research
Co-creation Activity
Design Synthesis
Storyboards
Prototyping
Speed Dating
UI Design
Space Setting
Research
Literature Review
Site Visit and Observation
Street Research
Directed Storytelling
Reviewing some literature like research paper, news, blog posts, and videos for understanding the mechanism of the blockchain technology and its applications in different fields. Paper suggesting the possible ethical concerns of using blockchain technology and guidelines about privacy examination of digital technology were also reviewed.
Visiting Brixton, observing people’s interactions and transactions there, feeling the vibes of Brixton, and taking photos for documentation and further analysis.
Passers-by shared their opinions and stories about Brixton and its cultures, while most of the interviewees wrote down keywords of their thinking on the T-shirts. The white T-shirts at the beginning were used for initiating the interviews and co-creation in Brixton; the co-created T-shirts with words and patterns were the results of the street research.
Conducting a directed storytelling when chatting with the owner of Courtesan, a modern Dim Sum restaurant, tea rooms and late-night cocktail bar in the vibrant heart of Brixton which is collaborating with the Brixton Pound. He shared the story of why he want to begin his business, and how his business is structured. By the storytelling, a deeper insight of what using Brixton Pound means to the local people and businesses was gathered.
Video Documentation of Site Research
Synthesis
Photo Analysis
Research Mapping
Diagram
The photos taken in Brixton when conducting site visit and observation were sorted out and analyzed. Some keywords and key phrases about Brixton, such as “Love and Peace”, “Diverse”, “Care and Understanding”, “Inclusive”, were concluded from the photos analyzed. Those keywords and key phrases were considered as the main features of Brixton and could inspired later ideation.
Synthesis of the images we took during the research.
Synthesis of what people mentioned during the research.
Mapping the keywords and key concepts according to different categories for further ideation
Synthesis of the images we took during the research.
The images and notes got from the street research were mapped and grouped together to draw out the key findings about Brixton's cultures. It is revealed by the map that fashion taste and music taste are the two most diverse cultural elements in Brixton, which are also the ones people would not be hesitated to share.
Concept mapping according to the storytelling.
Concept mapping according to the storytelling.
According to the storytelling and follow-up interview with the owner of Courtesan, I listed out the main concepts and keywords, and made a diagram accordingly.
Synthesis Map: Primary and Secondary Research
Ideation, Prototyping, and Testing
Idea #1
The first idea is to situate the experience in the music festival Cross the Tracks, which is a Soul, Jazz, and Funk music festival that is held in Brixton in summer.
Basically, the concept of this design idea is for us to exchange and remix music with others there.
Sketches
Tap card to record the good things happened in the festival onto the blockchain ledger.
Tapping cards to make remixes with other and to record the remixes onto the blockchain.
To visualize the the blockchain records by an installation.
Tap card to record the good things happened in the festival onto the blockchain ledger.
Storyboard
Step-by-step Explanation
Testing & Feedback
Feedback got from participants after testing.
More feedback from peers and tutors, suggesting to test the concept again by randomly putting songs together, and to think of more proxies.
Analysis results of testing.
Feedback got from participants after testing.
Final Design - MashUp
Physical Experience
Digital Experience
Project Summary
This project experience, although full of challenges, is meaningful and impressive to me. It provides me with the opportunity to better understand the blockchain and to consider the digital present and the possible future with more and more digital technologies.
Right now, the Brixton Pound group is working on the collaboration with Algorand and is making use of the NFTs for protecting the marginalized young artists' creations. We can see the shadow of our project in the actual Brixton Pound blockchain development.
A research essay was also drafted along with the progress of this project, which has discussed the necessary concerns facing the digital future.