Expose the Moment
Timeline
Feb, 2026 - May, 2026
Skills
Interaction Design
Physical Prototyping
Context
Investigating people's thought processes behind taking photographs.
The brief for this project was to explore the aesthetics of everyday interactions, identifying what makes them beautiful and appealing, and using these insights to design a new interaction.
My concept was inspired by how we interact with photography: not just the physical act of using a camera, but what motivates people to take pictures, what they choose to capture, and how they interpret the results. I approached photography as an act of curation. People instinctively choose to capture and share only the parts of their lives that reflect the identity they want others to see, and whether a photo is carefully constructed or seemingly candid, it still portrays a particular version of ourselves. This led me to question whether the choices we make around what we take, edit, keep, delete, or share reveal more about our identity than the image itself.
Exploratory sketches of how people interact with photography, and the contexts, motivations, and choices that shape it
Research
Creating & deploying cultural probes to understand the existing interaction.
To study this interaction and how people experience it, I deployed a cultural probe and conducted semi structured interviews.
Using a camera that couldn’t view or retake photos, participants responded to six prompts exploring the public and private self. For each, they took a photo and wrote a note describing their experience and how the photo related to the prompt. They saw their images for the first time in a follow-up interview.
Cultural probe to be given to participants
Following the cultural probe's completion, interviews explored each participant’s relationship with photography and their experience of the probe, using their completed responses to discuss intent and the gap between their public and private self
Ideation
Generating concepts for the new interaction through mind maps and rapid ideation.
With the findings from the cultural probe in mind, I began exploring new ways to interact with cameras and photos, using mind maps combining words and sketches to organise my thinking and Crazy 8s to quickly generate ideas without restrictions.
Concept and idea generation mind maps, crazy 8s, and sketches
From this wide range of ideas, I narrowed my focus to the act of taking photos. This felt like the strongest direction, as participants found that the rawness and honesty of completing the probe resonated with them most.
I chose to explore this through a camera accessory that blocks the manual controls on a digital camera, intended to be paired with a mode that randomly shuffles exposure settings to create imperfect images. Together, these would shift the focus from the final image to the act of photography itself: the moment, the surroundings, and the feelings around it.
Process
Prototype iteration, exploring materials, methods, and aesthetics.
Initially, I explored both rigid and soft materials, finding that a textile softened the interaction, making it feel more casual, relaxed, and flexible, while contrasting the camera. When choosing a fabric, I considered structure, elasticity, and thickness, which led me to neoprene.
Initial material and shape exploration
For a higher-fidelity prototype, I made tape patterns from the camera parts and refined them for fit, testing different sewing and finishing techniques. The final version was hand-sewn with notches, and each piece was labelled with a small letter matching the part of the camera it covers.
Iterations and refinements to the pattern and method
Solution
An interaction that shifts the focus from the photo to the moment.
In the new interaction, a person fits the covers onto their camera and selects the Expose the Moment mode, so that without manual control, their focus shifts to the act of photography and the experience itself.
Planning & ideating with user flows and wireframes
Concept video.
REflection
Physical prototyping and the act of photography.
The findings from my cultural probe lent themselves to a physical prototype, which was a new challenge for me. I enjoyed iterating through different materials and seeing how they responded to each method. Considering the scope and my experience with physical prototyping, I’m happy with the final prototype and video, and how well they reflect the topic.
Although conceptual, this project was a really interesting way to explore the relationship between people and photography, and how the way we interact with a camera shapes what we notice in a moment.