PEEK PECK - AN EVER-CHANGING PUZZLE
interaction design | product design
2020
An everyday phenomenon can be a source of inspiration of design. Take for example COVID-19, that has changed our way of living to create a new normal. Extracting elements unique to COVID-19, such as its quality of elusiveness, how could it be applied to inspire new designs?
by Aileen Ooi, Lewis Ten & Sen Fong Ling
Taking inspiration from COVID-19
COVID-19 has changed us. We constantly worry if we might be wandering into a hotspot, or if we have caught the virus from a passer-by unknowingly.
Such behaviors have never been so prevalent in other pandemics before. And it is all thanks to this uniquely COVID characteristic, elusiveness (being hard to catch and always on the move). Taking this negative quality of COVID that just evokes anxiety and fear, could it be turned around and used for good?
APPLYING ELUSIVENESS
What could elusiveness be combined with to produce an inspiring outcome?
Like an elusive clock that shows the wrong time to make you more punctual. Or a sly apology card that delivers appropriate-timed apologies by revealing the message later?
This uniquely-COVID property led to interesting outcomes, but never the right context to exist in reality.
FINDING THE RIGHT CONTEXT
Where would elusiveness naturally exist, so that it could thrive?
We found an interesting effect when we applied this to treasure hunt-like games, where unpredictability was finally welcomed, like in Where's Wally.
Peek Peck - a more elusive Where's Wally
What if there was a Where’s Wally, where Wally could move?
Peck the penguin (the one with shades) hides in different spots of the scene everyday. Just when you think you have found him, with the help of some thermochromic pigments and heat, Peck will be gone the next day.
