Laura

My initial brief was to design a device that could measure potential levels of loyalty. But my research told me that factors relating to a person’s level of loyalty cannot be tested by immediate measures.

I decided that it would be useful to test someone’s actual level of enthusiasm by looking at their fluctuations in voice tone and heart rate. My initial designs had the interviewee knowingly having these measured. But in the pin-up forum it was decided that this would produce highly skewed results as they interviewee would act differently if they know they’re being monitored.

I’ve found that I can’t test someone’s heart rate without them knowing in an interview situation. So I think I’ll rely on testing speech patterns and that could tell me two useful things in an interview situation; the interviewee’s honesty and their level of enthusiasm. While people interviewing often get a strong ‘vibe’ relating to these factors sometimes this may be disputed in a situation were there is more then one interviewer. This measurement could be deciding factor. It could also be useful just as a neutral analysis for interviewers who are confused about an interviewee.

My main focus this time was making the device undetectable by the interviewee so I tried to disguise this as a regular piece of office equipment like an intercom and it would sit to the side of the desk but with the microphone in the direction of the interviewee.

I’m not really intending on making final design for the week so any comments would be greatly appreciated!

Laura.