Meet the Disruptors: Pamm Hong

Designer Pamm Hong has been on our radar since graduating from Central Saint Martins, but it was her most recent project, Watermelon Sugar, that won her a place on our Top 20 Disruptors shortlist. The platform visualises a user’s browsing history as an abstract creature, exploring the potential to create digital reflections of how our attention is being distributed online.

Inspired by the 1990s Tamagotchi craze, Hong translates an internet user’s digital footprint into an abstract virtual creature. The appearance of these organisms is based on translating the meta-data held by Google of a user’s browsing history, such as website dwell time and cookies, into an organism that grows as the user’s cache changes. If you’re spending too much time on Facebook, that will be reflected in the creature that you’re nurturing, whereas a more varied online diet will also have an impact.

In line with our work on Gen Viz, Hong believes that the only way consumers are going to truly engage with their newly digital lives is through powerful visual interfaces. Projects such as Watermelon Sugar encourage consumers to engage with the online world in more profound ways.