Light It Up: Designing Electronic Textile with a Light as a Design Material

We are living in the era where digital futures are emerging and the technological development is rapid. Digital transformation is also happening in designing with soft materials, as the digital technology is integrated with fibers, yarns and fabrics. Therefore, the role of the textile and clothing designers changing and they are dealing with e-textiles and interactive materials. This paper explores a way to support textile designers in designing interactive artefacts. The aim of the research is to study and identify characteristics of technology as a tangible design material that designers could use along with other conventional materials, even if they are not technology experts. In this research, we are interested in developing better means for designers to prototype interactive and physical artefacts, allowing them to focus on their design vision, aesthetics, and normal practices used in their specific profession. Our goal is to identify characteristics of technology as a design material. We report of two workshops with altogether 17 design student participants using a fixed functionality electronics and a non-programmable microcontroller. We present the designers’ overall experiences with the process as well as the resulting interactive prototypes. We discuss on the characteristics of ready-to-use technology that ideally would support the design, as well as integration of interactive technologies from the design education point of view. Our findings show that removing the need to do the actual programming allows the participants to focus on their design and to scope their concepts more tightly. Design students had positive opinion and experiences from the workshop as they managed to produce a functional prototype within three hours. The process forced them to work with the limitations of the technology and to process the idea how to integrate technology and light in their design. The paper contributes to the understanding of adoption of technology as a design material, and adds on to HCI education discourse which typically has emphasized the programming skills.