Experiment 1: Decentralized Design Jam

We kicked off a 24 hour period with 4 teams of 4–5 people.

The Design Prompt

How might ephemeral tattoos be used by Mesh Members to construct the (message of the) future?

Rules and Constraints

You have 24 hours, plan your time with your team accordingly across timezones Take the design prompt any way you want — no further explanations Your users: ConsenSys Mesh members. Interview at least two users about their needs prior to design and user-test your solution afterward. Your research plan is up to you Final output: vector file(s) sized to 2”x2”, 2 minute presentation on your process, what you learned, and feedback you got from users to share in the closing ceremonies Stages: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test Skills: Project management, User research, Ideation and iteration, Sketching, Visual Design, Remote collaboration

Results

Team Eternally Ephemeral:

Celine Park, Andrew Cohen, thessy.mehrain, Carl Fairclough

“We started talking and realized pretty quickly we had no idea how to approach this. So we opened up a Mural and started throwing in a bunch of information for structure, and then immediately made a few action items. We talked about going outside the box and did a few different creative exercises.

Ideating in Mural

We came up with interview questions with the intention to just see where they took us — it was interesting to see what people thought about their relationship with the Mesh. People we talked to had interesting thoughts about how we will relate to each other in the future.

We started talking about generative art and wondering how far we can abstract this idea. Does it have to be a tattoo? Does it have to be 2x2 inches? How far can we push these constraints? We broke down concepts and what the words in the prompt really mean—tattoos are often a signifier of a life event or related to one’s identity for instance. Identity could also mean an Ethereum address.”

A tattoo as generative art and interactive experience from an Ethereum address.

Team Rick and Morty:

tj blanchflower, Sandra Song, Laura Giron, Christian Jeria

“We weren’t really focused on user research and wanted to have a wholly irresponsible design activity where we were selfish and egotistical. We did get some interesting responses from our interviews, but we didn’t use any of them.

We had discussions around far-future ideas (augmented reality) to near-future ideas (QR codes and uPort), but ultimately landed on the value of humor and the way it allows you to think differently.

Early ideation

What will Ethereum give you? ETH is the future and it’ll be so well understood that, yeah, of course you’ll be able to buy burritos with it!”

“You can easily replace the taco with any everyday item to communicate the message.”

Team 5tat:

Saraswathi, Jonny Howle, Yunyun Chen, Bill Bodell, Victorjoshua Done

“Our first plan of action was to jump into generative research. What came out of the interviews was this problem of getting to know new Mesh members and how to facilitate getting to know one another and the culture here.

We refactored the brief in this discussion: we decided the message of the future was decentralization, and that decentralization brings with it certain hurdles, such as getting to know one another and building relationships.

Remote “Exquisite Tats”

The idea we came up with is “Exquisite Tats”: During remote coffee chats of ideally 3 people, participants can use a collaborative drawing app to conduct an Exquisite Corpse exercise. This would automatically output a 2x2" tattoo for the group to share that commemorates their meeting in a unique way.”

“That’s it, we made a monster-tattoo-generation-as-a-service.”

Team Eight Silver Nuggets Forever:

Nguyet Vuong, Jeff Silva, Octavian Todirut, Eva Shon

“We kicked it off immediately; it was critical to build off the energy from the first call. We did a lot of slacking since we had such a wide range of timezones—it was the thread between our group.

When our survey results came back, some of the words that stood out were: abstract, intrigue, curiosity, transformation. If people were at a conference, what would they want the tattoo to evoke? A lot of people said they wanted it to be an invitation to come talk to them about Ethereum. Decentralization empowers people and emphasizes the individual, while still being part of a whole.

We took these concepts to make a modular tattoo system, emphasizing each element, but that can be layered with additional tattoos to create a story.”