Developing the structure, the 1st user test, concept of the demonstration

First step was to create a main core of the project, a logical puzzle of a crime story that could be solved by calculations. The story was tested on hogeschool and university students and adjusted several times until we have reached the goal. The goal is that the puzzle should not be too obvious but still students on would make a good decision on who is the murderer. 

When we reached this point we have created additional evidences. These should not have any influence on the choice of the solution but just to confuse the participants.

In the beginning of the installation, the core of the project would be given to participants and they would need to decide who is the killer. After that the given information would grove and it would be harder to chose the right suspect. 

During the installation, the instruction would be given by an audio guide from the wireless headphones and the choices would need to be made twice (in the beginning, after the core information is given) and in the end (when there should be the state of information overload) of who from 2 suspects is the killer (by a chosen device, that is not decided on yet). 

The evidence will be given by a phone recording of one of the suspect, photos of the crime scene, video recordings of the witnesses, personal belongings, autopsy, testament, alibis of suspects.

The participants would need to calculate and would need a note book, in the end of audio guide and after the final choice, they would be asked to stick their notes on the wall. After 2 weeks there should be a nice collection of information. 

From the statement to the installation theme

The process of selecting statement was quite complicated phase. From the feedback of our teachers and teachers from the Hogeschool in Den Haag we have been said, that the final statement would be a challenge to demonstrate. We analyzed the pros and cons and went for the challenge.

Statement is set and we agreed on the way of demonstrating it. After a brainstorm we concluded that for us the interesting way of presenting it is 'the proof of concept by experience'. The users would test on themselves if the statement works. 

We discusses that the best theme would be "a detective office". The installation invites the participant to find a solution to a difficult murder case through interacting with several forms of evidence and media. Eventually the participant will find that more evidence does not necessarily account for a better decision regarding the solution of the case. 

The final statement

The final statement that we selected is "The less information you have, the more accurate your decision is". 

We are pointing on the 'information overload', that can be caused by too much information and further troubles with choosing the relevant and useful. With the invention of the internet and mobile computing, the amount of information a human person is exposed to has never been greater. Every day we are faced with the need to keep up with our email and to stay updated on news from all around the world. Furthermore, gathering information on any topic is as easy as entering some keywords in a search engine. If there is any truth in the saying ‘knowledge is power’, mankind has never been more powerful. However, not everyone has this optimistic view on this astronomical amount of information. Recent studies indicate that when the amount of information a person is exposed to increases, the quality of his decision can be severely decreased due to the limitation of human capability for processing information. This phenomenon is often described as ‘information overload’.