Juggling Designs

Online Education

So...uhh...has anyone noticed that there are certain things that you cannot do with Acrobat? I keep drawing to the same conclusion that you can make some really cool stuff, but not quite as cool as a website. I'm sure there are ways to do some of the things I'd like to do, but hey, then again, I'm starting to know this program really well...so maybe there are limitations, huh?
My final project is being done on the Rocky movies, and even though it only has to be like 5 pages, I've turned it into like a 10 page thing. And to be honest, it's not that much extra work...so anyone who complains that they can't keep up with the work clearly doesn't put any effort in.
Wow, listen to me ramble here. Well, listen some more....
There is no particular design or design element I want to talk about this week, but I do think the snow outside is pretty cool. What do you think? I hate the fact that I have to drive to school in it, but it's definitely cool to see it on the ground. Makes me know that winter is actually here, you know?
And hey, has anyone seen the Christmas decorations go up around your neighborhood? I saw some people had their stuff up before Thanksgiving...that's just crazy.
Seems that people get more and more into increasing their electrical bills...and to be honest, their yards don't even look that great.
Ok, I suppose this is design, but hardly what I would classify as a good thing. Too many lights = bright flashy mess. Just a thought.
Enjoy.
And since this Mac computer is being stupid, here are my links:
www.christmastreeshops.com
and
www.christmaslights.com
and I strongly recommend you check out this flash site:
www.homestarrunner.com

Yay, I finally got my G4 with Panther OS! How great is that? Better yet, how happy am I? Ok, enough celebration.

Recently I went to see the Blue Man Group (probably well known for the Pentium Processor Commercials they did) at the Oakdale Theater in Wallingford, CT. They were awesome to say the least!

I decided to go on their website, just to see what they had to offer. I found the design pretty cool, as it's a very simple use of lines to create the desired effect. A very simply black and white text to background is used, with what appears to be arial font.

Considering their show is so intense, the simpleness of their website can almost add to the experience....and besides, clean websites are always the best.

So that's basically all I have to say....but I strongly recommend that you take a walk around this site; especially to view some of the downloads.

And if you have the chance, get some tickets to a show...they're incredible in concert.

So after reading more in Experience Design, I really don't want to talk about it. The ideas are similar, and have become, in a sense, trite--this is, of course, compared to other design books I have seen.
Anyway, did anyone go to the Third Eye Blind concert last night? Who thought the girl before Josh Kelly was terrible? seriously, she tried just a little bit too hard to be different. Actually, I was talking with my friends afterward, and even though we come from all different parts of the U.S., we all agreed that we knew someone in high school who was exactly the same way...they just tried too hard to be different, and that in itself made them boring.
How about her lyrics? There wasn't even a chorus!
It was still nice to see Salazar come out and play with her...and of course, very nice of the band to say that she was a good friend.
I can't wait to see how Quinnipiac reviews the show...and how they comment on the lack of people.
It seemed as though no one showed up. Oh well.
This is a ramble blog. Sometimes it's good to just let go, don't ya think?
And this next part is very important rambling!!!
On Friday, November 21st and Saturday, November 22nd, the KC101 radio station will be collecting non-perishables and frozen turkey's for the Connecticut Food Bank. They will be at the shaws supermarket, in the plaza next to walmart. Please come down and donate, or if you cannot make it, drop off points are located around campus. It's a great event...and we volunteers go by one motto:
"How can we keep what we have if we don't give it back?"

I left off around page 200, as I found myself very interested in Experience Design early in the semester. Looking at it now, it is still very interesting, but not quite as interesting as I found Interactivity By Design to be. Oh well, I guess. Anyway, on page 189 there is a picture of the now discontinued Nokia 3210 and many of the face-plates you can buy for it. Quite a collection, wouldn't you say?

What on earth makes this phone so attractive to people? It's actually pretty ugly the way I look at it. However, this is one of the few phones that is totally customizable; from ringtones to number pads, to face plates, this phone can change to fit anyone's personality. Think about how many products are like that now. As it was said in the Matrix Reloaded (which was 100% better than Revolutions, by the way), "The problem is choice." Choice is everything, or so it seems.

No matter what product it is, choice has become an issue. More specifically, participation has become key to successful experiences...Some intentionally, others not. Regardless, participation can make any experience more meaningful, allowing us to be creative and unique in our idea sharing and opinions; staying involved.

Skipping around a little bit, I moved on to Storytelling...Burning man and Clubs didn't seem extremely interesting to me. Stories have been around for ages, some more popular than others. Telling stories is one of the oldest experiences and is still one of the most powerful, even though they may be more than 100 years old. Storytelling alike share two main features: Authenticity and relevancy. They also have a beginning, middle, and ending. Of course, the ending is to cure human nature's need for closure...And generally, here within lies some sort of meaning. Stories consist of generated ideas that can be expressed and written as a form of entertainment, all the while taking difficult concepts and information and making them easier to comprehend.

I was just thinking...Look at the evolution of storytelling. You can access stories on the web now. How cool is that? Your 6 year old could be surfing the web on his way to find a story like The Three Little Pigs or Little Red Riding Hood. The online versions of these stories may be more interactive than the traditional pop-up book.

Cool stuff, actually. Shedroff goes on to show different types of stories as well as narratives. Narratives are slightly different, in that they engage the reader/viewer in a different way. The understanding and conception is much different than a told story...Say, in the 3rd person. Using narration, the story can change and take different forms, still conveying the same meaning, etc.

So take your story, no matter what it is, and attempt to organize a presentational comp. Do you find it difficult to convey your meaning the same way through pictures as you do through words? Presentation, the last step in designing, can help to emphasize your points. It can also help to keep your reader/viewer enticed...Remember EYE CANDY? You can also incorporate choice into your designs, to keep the reader/viewer even more involved. Very interesting how this can all work out.

One of the great examples listed in the book is comic chat. If you have ever had the chance to use comic chat when you were younger, I'm sure you would agree that it was really fun. I enjoyed it immensely. Back before Instant Messenger, this program placed text into an interactive narrative comic strip, so to make the conversation more interesting. You get to choose the character that you wanted, and others would do the same. Then, you could change the facial expressions to match the text. It was a much easier way to communicate when a phone wasn't nearby. Fun Stuff!

Off the topic of Experience Design, did anyone go see The Matrix Revolutions over the weekend? How extremely bad did you think it was? This seems to be the only way I can sum it up: Take every cliche you've ever seen in any movie and incorporate it into one big money making scheme of a movie...do the math correctly and you'll come out with Matrix Revolutions...Watchoski (spelling?) Brothers...What the hell happened?

Just some closing thoughts on Interactivity By Design. This book is definitely one for the bookshelf or coffee table collection. Ok, so it wouldn't make the best coffee table book, but it certainly has some great stuff in it.

As Pattie Bell and I have talked about on several occasions, it seems as though I have the ability to design with ease, however, the research that I conducted, well...it left something to be desired. While all of the information on my topic was good, my research on types of design was terrible. I had no idea what kinds of presentations would and would not work for WiFi as my topic.

I suppose that if I had gotten this book sooner I would have been all set and ready to go. But certain circumstances prohibited me from having that happen. But all is said and done, and I have finally finished.

Now I must digress to what now appears to be a somewhat dull design book...good ol' Shedroff.

So with Interactivity By Design in my hands, I can finally finish this book. Part three reflects on the topic of Presentation Design, and the elements that make up an interface.

I found that my definition of Presentation Design was quite similar to that of Kristof's & Satran's, using two key words: Style and Composition.

This is the part of our jobs where we take everything we have done so far--storyboarding, drafting, mindmaps, sketches, flowcharts, etc.--and compose it so that it is visually appealing. Ask yourself: What will make my viewer stay interested? What can I use as 'eye candy?'

And as we attempt to create a view-worthy design, what kinds of rules can we keep in mind? Namely, three. 1, Keep it simple...2, keep it consistent, and 3, know when to break the rules. Of course, we can all agree that rule number three is the hardest, especially as a newer designer with little or no database of design.

Continuous research is very important throughout your designing; yes, even during your presentation stages. In order to define visual theme, style, order, structure, and control, one must first research how previous designers have done this in the past. I think it is important to remember that most of the things that we will design in our lifetime have already been done...we are merely taking a pre-existing design one step further.

Within these preexisting designs, we can tweak certain things and add others to produce our own visual appeal. Something important to remember in production is that our computers and the viewers computers need to see the same thing, no matter how outdated the computers may be. Otherwise, this is not a constant.

The survival kit section of Interactivity By Design was kind of cool to browse through, but it is stuff that most of us already know. It is definitely a noteworthy section, and can be found on pages 66-79 of Interactivity By Design.

A brief look at style...
Style is everything that you throw into your design, plain and simple. Style is what makes your design unique from all the rest. It is what gives your company, your employer, your project an outstanding view from the rest of the designs around you. As the book puts it, it is the "sum of characteristics..." Although these elements are independent of one another, a well-coordinated design will bring them together to create an overall style/theme.

Before I end this painfully long blog, I want to briefly mention the content that defines style. Layout, grids, elements (such as pictures and other information), backgrounds, windows, buttons, text and sound are what makes up a good presentation. Of course, sometimes it is not necessary to use every element, as your employer may want to leave something out. However, the general idea is that if you can efficiently use each of these elements, then you can create a winning design.

Let me tell you, I have had more problems finding Interactivity By Design than you can probably imagine.

So while I lack the necessary book to complete this blog, I am going to talk about a trip I took to the mall last night.

Walking around, and having had a lecture from my boss the other night, I've made sure to look at every detail of every design that I come across. Part of my "visual training" as he calls it.

There are cool designs all over the place, and of course, there are some really bad ones. I guess I don't really want to talk about designs, but more so I'd like to talk about the advertising and visual appeal in the store windows.

You walk around...you see toys in the toystore windows; cd's/games in the electronic store windows; ok, you get the point. So when you think of clothing stores, of course clothing would be in the windows. But what kind of clothing? And exactly what kind of image is this store selling?

You'll have to forgive me here...maybe I'm getting old...maybe it's because I don't hang out at the mall...hell, maybe I'm just not cool enough to catch the drift. But for the first time in all the years I've gone to the mall, I saw manicans wearing thongs. This wasn't a Victoria's Secret, mind you. This was a new store--a store who's name was spelled so strange that I find myself unable to repeat it--who's idea of sex sells was being pushed to the max. Kudos to the designers, if it works.

It just strikes me as odd to see thongs being advertised in a store. I suppose it was the fact that it wasn't just the thongs...no, jeans were actually covering it...but I guess they were low rise jeans or something like that, for the thong was sticking half way out.

I passed the store laughing uncontrollably, telling my friend that if I walked into that store I would have felt like I was in a rap music video.

What an image. TV's lined the entrance playing incredibly loud, demoralizing Gangsta Rap music videos. We've discussed the manicans, but left out the horrible signage and bright lighting that drew my attention.

Perhaps drawing my attention makes it a good set-up, but I walked right by the store. It definitely wasn't my scene. I found it hilarious.

But that's just me. I can't even imagine what my NEXT trip to the mall will bring. I make a trip about once every two months, if I'm lucky.

By the way, if you have any questions, please refer to Dan's magic 8-ball.