TINK - sketching product experiences of connected objects

68 - TINK
4.1 Sketching TINK
Following the program of requirement
an ideation phase started. Several ideas
where produced based on the insights
gained trough the user research and the
market analysis; the ideas however felt very
connected to each other, as if they where
just different features of a bigger platform.
As soon as I started drawing pieces of
the interface I started connecting the
different ideas together. The sketching
helped me taking out the ideas from my
mind, iteratively reflect on those and make
modification to the initial concept.
This ideation process resulted in the
design of TINK: a web platform that
connects products with one another via the
Internet. Think builds upon the program of
requirements laid out in previous chapters
of this report offering designers a complete
Internet of Things (IOT) development
environment to sketch experiential
prototype of connected objects. TINK
is a user-friendly, visual, collaborative,
open-source tool for designers to build
connected interactions among objects.
User-Friendly
TINK targets interaction designers with
minimal Arduino experience who are able
to read and understand at least some
Arduino code.
This visual platform has a low barrier to
learning and its full functionality is easily
discoverable through use.
Visual
The interface hides most of the complexity
of the system, allowing users with different
skill sets to explore it, and learn the
different components of the platform.
TINK provides users with visual building
blocks to create functionality without
requiring any code to be written. Users
more comfortable in writing code can do
so within TINK and open, modify, or create
new building blocks to share with the
community.
TINK is composed of 2 main components:
one for editing the system and one for
monitoring it.
• The edit view combines system
diagram sketching environment with
a building block library and an code
editor
• The monitor view combines a map
displaying the locations of the
entities and graphs visualizing data
recorded by the entities.
Collaborative
This web platform allows different users
will be able to access, modify, and monitor
the project remotely and simultaneously
Open Source
As an open source tool, similar to
Wordpress and other content management
systems (CMS), it will be possible to use a
central version of the system, or install a