The Studio - Purin's Marble Wall April 2010: May 2010

1. Modularity Beats All

We had hoped that people would build around the teeter totter & the marble wheel p

ieces, but we quickly learned that these w

ere not often used. Because of

the connection to the power source, they were difficult to move around compared to the simple tracks and peg

s that were easy to grab and plug into the peg board. In the second round, we instead built multiple, simple and modular pieces — just like the tracks — so that the users can move them around more easily. Even a somewhat complex element such as the pachinko p

iece was used quite often.

2. Unexpected Uses

I was caught off-guard when a lady and her son constructed a marble-reverser out of the water wheel piece I made — something I did not expect. This sparked me to realize the importance of keeping the pieces at a certain level of abstraction. Compare this to the motorized marble wheel, with clear in&out points, the water wheel is much more "undetermined" on how it should be used. If only

we had known this in the beginning...

3. Depth Precision

The teeter totter and the marble wheel pieces taught us that the elements should not be too far off the wall. That was not enough. It did not struck us until the end that depth precision, how far a piece comes off the wall, is quite important. This should be constant across all pieces, as most failures spark from the pieces being misaligned.

4. Clear Tubes Clearly Win

It is worth noted here that clear tubes are far more superior compared to opaque ones (including plastic and copper pipes). Seein

g the balls move through the clear tube is just plain satisfying.

5. Distance Between Stanford / Exploratorium + Busy Quarter

This entire project could have been done in less than a week had I based at the Exploratorium. Traveling up to the Exploratorium was quite an effort. Add an extra busy school schedule on top of that and we have a project that doesn't quite move as quickly as I had hoped. Maybe I can camp out in the tactile dome next time...