Sunday, October 26, 2003
Ok, at this point I owe two blogs.
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.
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.
Thursday, October 09, 2003
Organize this!
Remember...set your goals before you start!
Once you set your goals you can organize, making things a little more simple in the final step of designing.
Excersize your organizational skills! You'll need a pen, some paper, some tacks, and a wall. List your categories and tack em' to the wall. Group the stuff by its topic and you're on your way.
It's safe to now say "Structure is KEY!" Structure is the most important thing in any design, and it starts before you ever hit ctrl-n in photoshop. Working either with pen and paper, or with the computer, structure is created through flowcharts and mindmaps and various other brainstorming/idea grouping things.
--This is our organization.
Part Two--Interaction Design
Just to touch on this briefly (even though it's most of what I read), this guidance system is what directs your user where to go and how to go about it. Navigation and access is very important in your design, and we know from our own projects that flowcharts are the way to create smooth access to each page we create.
As navigation fits into our design, we are organizing what occurs with each page and "in each screen" we create/design.
Again I have to say...I'm enjoying this book very much. Great stuff that I never thought about lies within.
Until next time...
"Rip away the tears, drink a hope to happy years." DJM
Once you set your goals you can organize, making things a little more simple in the final step of designing.
Excersize your organizational skills! You'll need a pen, some paper, some tacks, and a wall. List your categories and tack em' to the wall. Group the stuff by its topic and you're on your way.
It's safe to now say "Structure is KEY!" Structure is the most important thing in any design, and it starts before you ever hit ctrl-n in photoshop. Working either with pen and paper, or with the computer, structure is created through flowcharts and mindmaps and various other brainstorming/idea grouping things.
--This is our organization.
Part Two--Interaction Design
Just to touch on this briefly (even though it's most of what I read), this guidance system is what directs your user where to go and how to go about it. Navigation and access is very important in your design, and we know from our own projects that flowcharts are the way to create smooth access to each page we create.
As navigation fits into our design, we are organizing what occurs with each page and "in each screen" we create/design.
Again I have to say...I'm enjoying this book very much. Great stuff that I never thought about lies within.
Until next time...
"Rip away the tears, drink a hope to happy years." DJM
Wednesday, October 08, 2003
Finally a chance to read the new book...
Well, I'm very happy I have now had the chance to read parts of Interactivity By Design, even though I still haven't gotten it from Amazon yet. Yes, that means I had to borrow the book from Prof. Hastings; not something I had planned on doing.
Anyway, after merely opening this book, I like it more than Experience Design. This is one of those cool little books to keep on your bookshelf for reference or just for fun.
The first thing that really caught my attention was pg nine's step by step information design, showing how things should be organized within a design. The concepts are as follows: Organization, Planning, Tools, Audience, and Goals. So we can relate this to the project we are doing now--Mine happens to be on Wireless Fidelity, incase you haven't been reading my other posts.
We have already accomplished the organizational part by creating our mind maps and flow charts. This also fits into the planning of how our design/project is going to run. Although no actual designing has taken place yet (with the exception of rough sketches of information design), our audience has basically been chosen for us by our topics. WiFi will probably pertain to more computer-savy people...and maybe some nerds...who knows?!?! As far as tools go, we have all the tools, but now need to accomplish the design of these tools to complete our goals.
Our goals come from our products, and what we hope to accomplish in our designs. Most likely it is simply to sell the product. Duh. In order to set these goals it is important to think about our product, and how that should affect our design. From there we can think about how our design will work, before finally deciding how our design should look. Cool stuff, wouldn't you agree?
So by talking to our audience and researching certain things, we can develop our design choices and further our TOOLS, too.
Very cool stuff. I'm not really sure what page I was supposed to end on for week one of this book, but I ended on page 24.
Anyway, after merely opening this book, I like it more than Experience Design. This is one of those cool little books to keep on your bookshelf for reference or just for fun.
The first thing that really caught my attention was pg nine's step by step information design, showing how things should be organized within a design. The concepts are as follows: Organization, Planning, Tools, Audience, and Goals. So we can relate this to the project we are doing now--Mine happens to be on Wireless Fidelity, incase you haven't been reading my other posts.
We have already accomplished the organizational part by creating our mind maps and flow charts. This also fits into the planning of how our design/project is going to run. Although no actual designing has taken place yet (with the exception of rough sketches of information design), our audience has basically been chosen for us by our topics. WiFi will probably pertain to more computer-savy people...and maybe some nerds...who knows?!?! As far as tools go, we have all the tools, but now need to accomplish the design of these tools to complete our goals.
Our goals come from our products, and what we hope to accomplish in our designs. Most likely it is simply to sell the product. Duh. In order to set these goals it is important to think about our product, and how that should affect our design. From there we can think about how our design will work, before finally deciding how our design should look. Cool stuff, wouldn't you agree?
So by talking to our audience and researching certain things, we can develop our design choices and further our TOOLS, too.
Very cool stuff. I'm not really sure what page I was supposed to end on for week one of this book, but I ended on page 24.
