Award: Best industrial Design (Microsoft Design Expo 2012)
In 2012 I participated with four other Design for Interaction students, from TU Delft, to the Microsoft Design Expo in Seattle. Our team designed a social elevator, called Liftlife. Living in an apartment complex does not necessarily mean sharing and interacting with your neighbours. In order for this social cohesion to occur in a group of people, the very fundamental feeling of familiarity is essential. To create this feeling of belonging to the building’s community, Lift Life was introduced.
We started with coloured drops that represent the people and eventually created a tree with coloured leaves (collected from the colours of clothes the people are wearing). What Microsoft liked about the concept, was that it did not only raise interesting questions about how people interact in elevators, but also about how communities can become invisible, because of increased individuality. The social elevator aimed to change that with a playful interaction, without being very obtrusive.
