Exploring Potential of Traditionally Crafted Textiles to Transform into e-Wearables for Use in Socio-cultural Space

Abstract

With digital wearables becoming a popular trend, this paper explores understanding user behavior and acceptance of e-textile prior to designing a textile wearable that has roots in Indian culture. The potential of traditional textile designs to become part of the emerging e-textile wearable scenario is crucial in order to preserve design traditions and also to prevent redundancy of crafts skills due to advancement of technology. In order to explore attitudes and acceptance of embedding traditional design elements by the younger generation of e-wearable adopters, a study was conducted in India, wherein prototypes were tested for their potential and acceptance of becoming interactive communication aids in the social space. A hand-embellished scarf with micro RGB LEDs named as Aster, has been prototyped with traditional motifs local to India so as to gather response for the capacity of e-textiles to aid non-verbal communication. The perception of respondents towards acceptance of Aster based on Technology Acceptance Model was analyzed. Thirty users took part in the preliminary study to understand user behavior and sixty users took part in the subsequent study pertaining to assessment of the digital wearable scarf. The analysis of responses reveal high acceptance towards textile wearables for daily interactions and improved self-expression. Usability assessment indicates positive experience of users while using Aster for daily interactions in specific social contexts. The inferences drawn from the study are encouraging and indicate optimism for inclusion of traditional craft design elements in digital textile wearables. The results provide optimism for craft makers to expand their traditional skills towards embedding electronic components thereby ensuring relevancy of traditionally skilled work without having to face work redundancy due to technology advancement.

Annexure

Parts of Questionnaire as administered has been mentioned below:

• 1. Please rate by circling a point between 1–10 on each axis indicating the limits of boundaries you would create when socializing with – (center = 0, perimeter = 10)

KNOWN FRIENDS - STRANGER - INTIMATE FRIEND

• 2. Please mention the percentage of comfort levels (0–100%) about sharing the below mentioned details with the following categories of people –

• 3. Please mention the percentage (0–100) of feelings corresponding to the contexts that may be expressed –

Pertaining to experimentation with ASTER

• 4 Please tick the emotions, aesthetic appeal and attitude associated with Aster when LIT UP in the tables below, 1 is least and 5 is highest score.

• 5. Understanding social intelligence pertaining to the usage of Aster in the given scenarios –

• 1. Do you think that Aster can create a dignified decorum by letting you understand the visual language of changing colors, thus create a better understanding among the people around non-verbally?

• 2. Do you think you were able to understand wearer’s feelings, non-verbally better with Aster if not necessarily put in words?

• 3. Do you think you could hear or feel the wearer’s feelings, non-verbally through Aster?

• 4. Do you think that using Aster is letting interaction among people around you happen smoothly and socially dignified (within social norms)?

• 5. Do you think that Aster lets wearer express his/her personality effectively?

• 6. Do you think Aster can modify/influence the outcome of people’s behavior around the wearer, if symbolic messages are sent visually?

• 7. Do you believe colors could be used as signals to communicate and interpret feelings and make people around act accordingly?

• 6 Technology Acceptance Model – Analyzing acceptance of Aster among the users. Please tick appropriate cells below, 1 is least likely and 7 is most likely, for non-verbal communication –

• 7 System Usability Scale - After using Aster for the scenarios as specified above, please tick appropriate cells below to convey how efficient, effective, engaging, easy to learn and error tolerant the experience of using Aster for communicating through visual cues was to yourself; 1 is low and 5 is high.