1.
Sensing time
Nick Tyler
Universal Composition Laboratory
UCL

2.
What does one minute feel like to you?

3.
How long would you wait?
This
experiment
started in
1927 in the
University of
Queensland
Researchers
waited 8-12
years for
each drop to
fall – now
(2014) they
have 9 drops

4.
For about a decade, time passed very slowly
Then, for a minute, time
passed extremely quickly

5.
Looking back, the decades seemed very fast
But those final minutes
seem to be very long

6.
We think of a timeline …
About now

7.
… but the timeline is just part of a larger cycle …
About now

8.
Long term
Short term cycle
Past
Future
Present
… and the cycle is just part of another cycle …

9.
Does time pass more quickly in the past
or in the future?

10.
… past events happened more recently
and more slowly than they did
… future events will happen sooner
and more slowly than they will
Typically, people think that …

11.
… but some people think the reverse …
… and events in the future seem further away
in time and faster than they will be

12.
The rhythm of events changes over time
Events happening about now are closer
together than events in the past or the future

13.
Long term
Short term cycle
Past
Future
Present
… so our time-helix …

14.
Past
Future
Present
… becomes an
hourglass

15.
But time is an illusion
How do we perceive it?
What is its importance?

16.
Past
Future
Present
Perception of time for 1 cycle (elapsed time is constant)
Perception
Current time is
perceived to be
shorter than
distant time

17.
Past
Future
Present
Importance of time for 1 cycle (elapsed time is constant)
Importance
Current time is
more important
than distant time

18.
We are doing something exciting
and important
We are going to do something else
exciting and important
In between, we have to wait for a
bus

19.
“... waiting now is a chore …”
“the bus is not going to
come any time soon”
… so …
“… waiting is a waste of my time …”

20.
“… so using the bus is a real waste of my
time …”

21.
I feel that my waiting time is
much longer than it really is
Overestimated time
Elapsed
time

22.
Real-time bus arrival information
hopes to reduce this overestimate
to equal the actual passage of time

23.
The effect of real-time
bus information
Overestimated time
Elapsed
time

24.
However,
people routinely underestimate
the time they have spent
doing something they enjoy
“time just flew by while I was …”

25.
Time flies when you are
enjoying yourself
Elapsed time
Understimated
time

26.
We need to change the perception of
time spent waiting …
… to be something that we can enjoy …

27.
… so we design the bus stop …
… to be fun, useful, pleasant, enjoyable to use

28.
This is Universal Composition …
Multisensorial design in space and time

29.
The bus stop becomes something you
look forward to using …
… and you look back on as being
a good experience

30.
… and want to do again

31.
How do you sense time?
What will five minutes in the future
feel like to you?

32.
Nick Tyler & Sara Adhitya
Universal Composition Laboratory
University College London
ucl-squared@ucl.ac.uk
www.cege.ucl.ac.uk/arg/ucl-squared