The Prologue

At the 2014 freshman design class pop-up shop, we led people through an interactive social experience with a hands-on toy-making activity designed to encourage more self reflection amongst students.
 

Interactive storytelling product and experience

The Prologue was a space that led people through an interactive experience of self-reflection. My team, Rae Headrick, Jackie Kang and I created a space within the freshman design pop-up shop, where we had chalkboards that led people into a story, with a few interactive activities that allowed them to reflect, express, and ultimately make their own 'mini me', a personalized plush toy that is created as they go through the experience of self-reflection. 

My team believe strongly in the importance of self-reflection. When the culture of today's society is all about working hard and playing hard, it may be easy to forget the importance of taking quiet time for yourself and for reflection. Through creating an experience, we want to not only encourage people to reflect more, but to lead them through one on the spot. 

Understanding and ordering your priorities, we dissected, is key to understanding ourselves, our goals, motivation, future decisions and thus how we live our lives. Each of our lives really is the story that we choose to live out. 

Product creation: Building your 'mini-me' character

The major part of the experience at The Prologue lies in an on-the-spot session of ordering priorities in life. We prepared many plushies in the four designated shapes, which represent the four aforementioned areas of life (work, play, relationships, health). Each plushie has two snaps at the top and bottom and is sewn with a unique pattern. People can enjoy a hands-on experience of snapping the four shapes together in a chain, according to how they currently order their priorities. The experience as well as the resulting plushie is highly personalized - they pick and choose one plushie of each shape and snap them together in whichever order that reflects their own priorities.

At the end of the bench they are given a card with strings to tie in their 'mini-me' character securely (with the four shapes labelled, so they won't forget which shape denotes what), and a googly eye to place on their little creature character. With an addition of $0.5, people can pick their own add-on kit for their character, which includes an assortment of ribbons, buttons and ornaments for people to decorate and personalize their 'mini-me' character.

Interactive Exhibition I: Where are you at currently?

The Prologue starts by asking people to imagine writing a story where they are the main characters. There are four shapes that represent four important areas of our lives: work, play, relationships, health. People are given a chance to express and reflect as they are prompted to put a sticker in the area where they feel most challenged prioritising currently. 
 

Interactive Exhibition II: Moving on to the next chapter

The Prologue doesn't end with the 'mini-me' creation. In the last part, people are asked to ponder upon whether the order of these shapes (or priorities) will change as they continue their story in the upcoming chapters. An interactive flip board allows for different follow-up questions depending on people's answer to the earlier question - answering yes leads to: "What encounters along the way would create the change? Could you change them now?" ; answering no: "Do you see yourself changing them at any point in your story?"  An empty space, chalk included, is also available, for any thoughts and comments. We hope that the self-reflection that people experience at The Prologue will not cease as they leave the space - the follow-up questions are meant to linger on their mind a while more as people go on and complete their stories.