1. ASSIGNMENT 5 | Data Analysis using the Elito Method
I 543 Interaction Design Method | Zan Morris, Melissa Tang

2. CONTENTS
CONTENTS Page
Basic Information 1
Concept #1 Self-cleaning food processor 2
Concept #2 Coffee Table with Built-in Fridge and Freezer 3
Concept #3 App on Electronic Album 4
Concept #4 Digital Gaming Cards 5
Concept #5 Mega-PC 6
Concept #6 Style Switcher 7
Concept #7 Shifting Knife 8
Concept #8 Home-Centered Headset 9
Concept #9 IoT location system 10
Concept #10 Laundry E-Tag 11
Reflection 12

3. 1
INFORMATION
Basic
Date: Feb 23, 2014
To study clutter and hoarding in the home, we conducted an ethnography research in two Chinese International
students’ home.
We used Elito Method to analyze the data. We listed all the observations, our judgements, possible values of users,
our conception drawn from the observations and key metaphor. In total we have 79 oberservations and came up
with 44 concepts. Finally we narrowed down to 10 final concepts.
I 543 Interaction Design Method | Data Analysis Using the Elito Method | Zan Morris, Melissa Tang

4. CONCEPT #1
2
Self-cleaning food processor
Description: Food processor with a special mode to
clean itself. Basically, users can replace the knife with
brush in the food processor. When he/she puts some
dish detergent and choose the “clean mode”, the food
processor can clean itself.
Rationale: This reduces cleaning work of food pro-
cessor. Many people don’t use food processors fre-
quently even though they’re a very useful kitchen tool,
just because they don’t like cleaning it. This (or other)
self-cleaning techniques could be added to a variety
of objects (Blenders, for example), to make them more
appealing and easier to people who just want to make
food quickly.
I 543 Interaction Design Method | Data Analysis Using the Elito Method | Zan Morris, Melissa Tang
Brush

5. CONCEPT #2
3I 543 Interaction Design Method | Data Analysis Using the Elito Method | Zan Morris, Melissa Tang
Fridge:
provide cooled
drinks
Freezer:
provide ice
cubes
Coffee Table with Built-in Fridge and Freezer
Description: Simply a coffee table equipped with a
mini-fridge and freezer underneath
Rationale: People would have more convenient access
to cooled drinks and snacks, along with ice. Many peo-
ple have mini-fridges in their homes for quick access to
avoid the treck to the kitchen. Especially helpful when
guests are over and you don’t want to miss out on a fun
conversation. Finally, the space under coffee table is
well used.

6. CONCEPT #3
4
App on Electronic Album
Description: This is an app to help people learn new
vocabulary. Basically, it’s a flash card, which can be set
in the user’s physical environment, and remind them
about the words as the pass through every day. It can
also connect to a language learning or dictionary app.
So users can use the album to review new words.
Rationale: The electronic album blends the worlds of
flash card and photo frame. It can serve as both deco-
ration and learning tool, and its digital frame allows it
to display more than simple physical concepts (In our
subject’s home it was more theoretical or academic
words that he had trouble with). Passing through the
room where this is every day could simply be a helpful
reminder when learning a new language.
I 543 Interaction Design Method | Data Analysis Using the Elito Method | Zan Morris, Melissa Tang

7. CONCEPT #4
5
Digital Gaming Cards
Description: Thin e-paper cards which are blank to start. A player loads their decks into a set of these from a
central location (which keeps track of what the player owns).
Rationale: This allows players to play their favorite game with physical cards, but without the hassle of trying to
organize and store masses of cards. In addition, this could be a universal system across all types of card games,
so it allows for quick switching of games. Finally, many games could have special animations or interactions de-
pendant on the playstyle.
I 543 Interaction Design Method | Data Analysis Using the Elito Method | Zan Morris, Melissa Tang

8. CONCEPT #5
6I 543 Interaction Design Method | Data Analysis Using the Elito Method | Zan Morris, Melissa Tang
Mega-PC
Description: A centralized processing hub for an entire
household - One mega pc could control a vast array of
user profiles and processing. Users would not usually
interact with this pc directly, but through any number
of devices (Tablets, Gaming systems, TVs, etc.)
Rationale: People spend a huge amount of money on
technology and must upgrade each of them separately
- in addition this means that there’s a huge amount of
processing power just “floating there” unused. If kept
in a central location and used as needed, people would
have less need for many devices, (The same device
could be set up with separate profiles for different
uses) and could do much more powerful processing
with what’s available.

9. CONCEPT #6
7I 543 Interaction Design Method | Data Analysis Using the Elito Method | Zan Morris, Melissa Tang
Style Switcher
Description: An inner-wall system hidden behind cho-
sen ‘art spots’ which people would use to curate and
save examples of their favorite work. These could be
catalogued and set to a certain ‘style’ or setting - with
the touch of a button the user could switch out all the
art in a room to display different styles for different
moods or guests.
Rationale: This one is a little bit more ‘for fun’, but has
practical uses as well. We may have specific artwork
which we love but are uncomfortable with certain
guests seeing. Also, people may have eclectic tastes,
but feel like each piece doesn’t necessarily fit together
- we could restyle our houses just as easily as changing
as PC’s desktop wallpaper. May also entice people to
explore varieties of artwork as well.

10. CONCEPT #7
8I 543 Interaction Design Method | Data Analysis Using the Elito Method | Zan Morris, Melissa Tang
Shifting Knife
Description: This is a dual system which uses a knife
and cutting board. The cutting board would have a sen-
sor which would detect what type of food is set upon
it, and send a signal to the knife. The knife would then
transform into the specific type of knife best suited for
dealing with the food. Users could of course override
this if they preferred a certain setting.
Rationale: This would be instrumental for reducing
clutter in the kitchen, and could be a huge time-saver,
keeping you from hunting down a misplaced knife. In
addition, the switch might challenge users to use the
new kinds of knives which they hadn’t yet experienced,
and could bring them further down the path to being a
master chef.

11. CONCEPT #8
9I 543 Interaction Design Method | Data Analysis Using the Elito Method | Zan Morris, Melissa Tang
Home-Centered Headset
Description: A gaming/work headset which could have
alerts tied in from the physical home environment. This
could be linked to any number of things, such as the
Doorbell, a laundry alert, a kitchen timer, a fire alarm,
etc.
Rationale: This is pretty self explanatory, but when
we’re busy at work or play it can be incredibly easy
to forget another responsibility even in our direct sur-
rounding environment. Even setting phone alerts may
not be enough in some cases (such as for when they
laundry’s done or someone showing up at the door.)

12. CONCEPT #9
10I 543 Interaction Design Method | Data Analysis Using the Elito Method | Zan Morris, Melissa Tang
IoT location system
Description: Each item in the person’s environment
would be equipped with a descriptor chip, which sends
a signal to a central device. The person could then vo-
cally query the device to locate a hidden object.
Rationale: Our use case is specifically aimed at houses
usually occupied by many people - in this case items
may be moved around and resorted without any defin-
ing organizational structure. Usually when other people
are around, the user would simply ask where an item is.
If alone, this safety net is missing, and thus this system
gives the user help locating an object.

13. CONCEPT #10
11I 543 Interaction Design Method | Data Analysis Using the Elito Method | Zan Morris, Melissa Tang
Laundry E-Tag
Description: Attached to the normal tag on the back
of clothes, we suggest placing an e-tag. These tags
could be queried by a central device (such as a phone
app), and used for a variety of things. Sorting laundry
is our main focus though, and through a trigger an LED
would light up allowing the user to quickly compare
information for each piece of clothing.
Rationale: When laundry piles up and is left over time,
it’s pretty hard to quickly sort through a huge pile of it.
By shining lights (such as a bright Red for “Worn a lot
and hasn’t been cleaned recently”), it allows someone
to quickly grab for the lights, sort their laundry in a few
minutes, and get on with doing more interesting work.

14. REFLECTION
12I 543 Interaction Design Method | Data Analysis Using the Elito Method | Zan Morris, Melissa Tang
Melissa’s Reflection:
I think the Elito Method is a connection between observational study and design concept. It does help us to sum-
marize and analyze the raw data (notes, recording, video...etc). When we tried our best to list all the observations,
we reflected many details of the ethnography research. The challenge is to find out which observation is worth to
go deeper and to frame a design problem space.
But I’m not sure why we have to investigate the value behind each observation. I do know it may help us think the
motivation behind the observation. But the value we listed are quite subjective. Maybe we should go back to revisit
our subjects to verify our thinking. Or it’s so difficult to speculate the value behind certain behavior by ourselves.
Another question is why we don’t have “insight” column and just come up with concept directly from observation,
judgement and value.
Zan’s reflection:
I’m not sure what to think of the Elito method. Granted, some of its shortcomings might have to do with our eth-
nography (which itself needed work), but it seemed like in most cases just jotting down any observation didn’t
lead to much. Certainly revisiting the study in depth gave us a lot of insight, but I’m just not sure that this method
in particular was helpful. I definitely agree with Melissa that the specific columns don’t quite seem to add up to the
concept necessarily. The ‘Key Metaphor’ especially seemed extraneous as we usually ended up talking about rows
by their Observation or Concept.
And although we came up with a number of concepts I like, it seems like it took an inordinate amount of time to
do so, and more time was spent trying to figure out or re-word whether something counted as a Judgment or an
Observation. And finally, reorganizing an out-of-order spreadsheet isn’t simple. While it was nice to dig deeper into
this Ethnography, I’m not sure that this process of doing so in particular was helpful. I’m looking forward to doing
the structured Affinity Diagramming, to see how it compares and contrasts with Elito, as it was very helpful in the
past.