Interaction - Bachelor
Let’s Share It! is an interactive installation that reimagines Bando, Taiwan’s traditional communal banquet, as a playful space for social connection. Through shared controls and projected visuals, two participants work together to create virtual dishes, rediscovering the joy of sharing a table, collaborating, and connecting through a shared cultural experience.
Growing up in Taiwan, I came to appreciate Bando as more than a banquet. It brings people around a shared table, where food, conversation, and celebration create a sense of belonging. To me, this spirit of togetherness is something precious—and something I worry we are slowly losing.
As I explored social disconnection and the loss of “third places”—spaces to gather beyond home and work—I began to wonder: could the spirit of Bando offer a starting point? Let’s Share It! grew from a desire to carry that warmth into a new context, giving people a reason to pause, share a moment, and connect.
How might interaction design reinterpret Taiwanese Bando culture to encourage incidental connections among people experiencing social disconnection?
The process moved between understanding people, exploring Bando culture, and making ideas tangible. Research and interviews informed the concept, while prototypes helped me explore how people could play together. Alongside this, I developed the electronics, game logic, illustrations, and physical table. User testing and projection experiments guided refinements as these elements came together into a shared experience.
Explore five games inspired by Taiwanese Bando dishes: Yearly Surplus (fish), Sweet Reunion – Tangyuan (sweet rice balls), Buddha Jumps Over the Wall (banquet soup), Five Blessings Platter, and Crab Sticky Rice.
Players work together to create these dishes and discover the meanings of sharing, togetherness, and connection behind each one.
Two players come together around the table, using physical buttons and a sensor-equipped Lazy Susan to complete each game as a team. Each game centres on creating a Taiwanese Bando dish, with cultural meanings tied to sharing, togetherness, and human connection. As players turn, press, and coordinate their actions, they are invited to communicate and discover the joy of making something together.
Let’s Share It! aims to create a small opening for connection: a reason to pause, turn towards someone else, and make something together. Through shared play, it invites moments of conversation, cooperation, and joy.
For me, the project also carries something precious from home: Taiwanese Bando culture. By reinterpreting this communal banquet tradition through interaction design, I hope to share its warmth with people unfamiliar with it and carry its spirit of togetherness into new settings.
Connection begins when we create something together.
Angel Cheng is an interaction designer passionate about user-centred design and creating meaningful experiences that bring people together. With a background in digital design and visual communication, she combines creativity, technology, and storytelling to design engaging interactions that respond to people’s needs and encourage connection.
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