Assignment 1:

Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2003
CREATIVE VISION STATEMENT (Extended Version)

Presently, I see myself as a nomad of design. I am continually wandering from one aspect to another, neither mastering or meandering long enough to get fully involved with one medium. My attention is going in ten different directions, but I believe that my strength still comes from my starting point, which is drawing and painting. I do not yet feel comfortable in these technological shoes. I have been testing the waters for the last year and a half, since transferring to this department. I am at a point where I do not know whether to turn back to my comfortable past or venture further into design multimedia until I find another, more modern niche. My first love is still painting. I try and weasel it in whenever I can into print design and animation, but my work always loses something in the digital translation.

My vision is for my art to come alive on screen or in print with the same energy as raw materials and wet, drippy paint. There must be some meeting point where the digital/artificial meets the organic and spontaneous.

What are my interests? Well, i like hand craft, I like ornate patterns, color, bright color, dramatic, bold marks, mixed with delicate detail. I like ink marks, drippy paint, layers of information, collage, contrast, concept, humor, word play, and irony. I want to take all of this stuff and organize it into something more polished, more salable. I do not want to be in the poor house. I want to do something that will provide some sort of job security and without giving up creative freedom. I think that I have a strength in conceptualizing and articulating but something is slacking in my execution. It' important that I grow in such a way that my ideas are polished and sensible enough to display to the public.

My creative vision is based on survival. Ideally, I would like to work in a design firm based either on print or animation. I would like to make a living in the entertainment industry or in advertisement. I would continue to paint and illustrate as a hobby, maybe a long term professional goal. I'll be happy if I can incorporate my creative sensibilities into everyday life, and extend it to a commercial audience.

Creatively, I want to hone in on one aspect of design. My work lacks completion, professionalism, and consistency in style and medium. As I come closer to graduation in the spring, I want to corral my talents, interests, and styles and focus on something that can speak to others in a communicative field. Where do my interests meet popular demand? Although I am currently frustrated, I remain optimistic. I enjoy the challenge of experimentation, and am simply impatient to see how they manifest.

Assignment 3: 1/29/03

Interface: A Paradigm Shift, Observations on Interface Design

- Submitted by Michel Balasis

http://arttech.about.com

TERMS:

INTERFACE is generally defined as "the place at which independent systems meet and act on or communicate with each other". 

GRAPHIC WINDOW INTERFACE: Human to computer interaction is driven by a form of software commonly referred to as the Graphic Window Interface. First developed by Apple Computers, it is now the universal standard interface called "Windows". Windows is based on a more visually oriented interface, which follows the recent conditioning of our society to immediacy in all forms of communication.

MAJOR POINTS:

communication: human to human interaction, involving all senses interface Graphic Window Interface

negative: digital interface eliminates 1/2 of the equation required in human communication. human to interface interaction is not as engaging. I agree with this statement. "The partial loss of some of the most primal forms of communication such as gesture, feeling and the sense of touch will no doubt have a negative impact."

nevertheless, I think that a digital interface allows for new and unconventional ways of communication. Many of these new ways are yet to be discovered.

cross-generation benefit: I disagree. As of right now, the generation gap is the most glaring problem with digital communication. Most of the older generation is unaware of or against digital interfaces. hypothesis: "The most effective interface will be one which most closely matches the natural human senses and their reaction to visual and audible stimuli."

Assignment 4, part A: 12/1/03

Midterm Assignment Proposal:

A Question of Contact

Brainstorm/Preliminary Ideas:

What are the limitations of the web? Is communication via interractive pieces more of an emotional experience for the viewer? What are the limitations to what can be expressed through digital interraction? I have an idea where the viewer is taken through a series of interractive events where, if in a natural environment, they would undoubtably feel a strong reaction. I want to show the limitations of the web and push the viewer to question the differences of experience. Can a person live through digital media? Can one feel pain, sorrow, happiness, hunger, freedom, love, through an interface? Is the mouse really and extension of our fingertips? is the screen an interpretation of an artist's vision, or world? I would like to present the following examples:
1. if you (the viewer) "touch" a tac, or the edge of a knife, would that rise an impression of "pain" ? would the sound react to the viewers intended or simulated thoughts, saying "ouch" or crying out?
2. if you are presented with a smorgas board of food, would you pick your favorite, or, to you at that moment, the most apetizing? Say, a hamburger, a strawberry, a chocolate cake, a lasanga, and a lobster; what would your choice say about personalizing a web experience? Would the result bring satisfaction, that you chose your favorite food? what if the mouse became the fork and every time you clicked, you took a bite? What if you could compose whole meals on a plate by dragging from a menu and having at it? A zero calorie meal with 100% satisfaction.
3. What if you were presented with a situation that was clearly disorganized? would you clean it up? would you recieve satisfaction from doing so? what if the "trash" or "laundry basket" said "thank you" every time? Would someone in the scene yell at you for not cleaning? Would you get a different reaction if you put something where it didn't quite belong? OR, if you were presented with a clean virtual room, would you mess it up for fun? would you pour fertilizer on the kitchen floor just for laughs? would you break things if there was no consequence in reality? With how much seriousness, respect, or humor do you treat the digital world?
4. What about physical appearance? what if you could do a virtual mr. potato head and select from a variety of features? what if you made a picture of yourself? your boyfriend or girlfreind? would you approach with humor/experimentation, or would you try to make something from a fantasy?

Note: these ideas are kind of like a video game world, but more personal. You should feel an emotional attachment to the game, happy if you win, sad if you lose. What's worse in a video game? to fall off a cliff or blow up? Does seeing the flames have the same kind of effect as seeing a car in the movies blow up? Does it prepare you for every day defensive driving and numb ourselves from accidents on the news or in passing on the freeway?

Note 2: What flash pieces seem to do as far as I've noticed is limit the function or purpose. If someone was presented with so many options, they could really make something unique. I like the person idea because every one will turn out different, as a reflection of the viewer, not of the artist. (although the choices are presented by the artist) I want to make something that would challenge the viewer and surprise the artist.

Click to read ARTIST'S STATEMENT

Click to view project

Assignment 4, part B: 2/10/03

THE ARTIST'S STATEMENT, DECONSTRUCTED
Read the statement and analyze its structure and content. What KIND of content does the artist include? How is it sequenced? How are transitions between ideas made?
Make a list of the kinds of content in the order they are presented.
Include the transitions in the list and indicate what they are and how they are accomplished.
The kinds of content you may find include: concept, motivation, strategies, production methodologies, cultural relevance, background etc.

.........................

GLEN RHODES: http://www.glenrhodes.com

CONTENT: Under an 'about me' link from the artist's home page: A pop up window titled 'About Me' is a simple animation where the three main categories of the artist's career come out of his cartoon head. Broken into three categories by three separate clickable icons, music, games, and information. When clicked, the text about the relative topic covers the window. Content is strictly text and links. He has links to his friends' sites and places where you can purchase the projects that he has participated in creating. Transitions are abrupt, no real segways, but breaks up content by paragraphs. The hardest part about this sequence is that the navigation is in the bottom right corner and wasn't recognized for a good while into playing around with the links.

ABOUT ME (// =paragraphs)
INFORMATION: greeting // intro, list of professional titles, background on experience, flash // vision statement, contact info
GAMES:career history, how he got started // experience, motivation,// flash glorification, cultural relevance // links to friends' sites and amazon.com, where you can purchase his work.
Ideas are arranged in chronological order, with main ideas separated into paragraphs.
MUSIC:background, personal relevance //experience, more personal relevance, link to recent song, relevance and good wishes for listening to the song// history of a musical he co-produced, motivations, basic facts about the musical, hopes for the musical, request for producers // Today, vision of Flash + music, reference to flash works on the web site.

......................

SCOTT SNIBBE: http://www.snibbe.com/scott/statement.html

CONTENT:

(lettered by paragraph)

A. Introduction to major theme that brings work togeather, thesis

B. How idea is executed in the work, how to interact with the work in order to fulfill idea.

C. Theory, how express theory, function

D. Purpose, result of work, influence, relation of subject to the world,

E. Working process, approach, motivation

F. How medium expresses concept.

G. Relationship of work to viewers, emotions evoked by the work. challenges, rewards

H. History, related works and artists, inspirations, finding a place in tradition/ placing himself in a history, overall purpose/goal.

Transitions in this Artist's Statement are made by a conclusive statement at the end of each paragraph. The paragraphs are tightly focused on the central idea, the purpose of the work. He does not go into detail about any specific pieces, but instead thoroughly explores the background of his work.

Assignment 6, part B: 3/3/03

WHAT'S IN A WORD?
The Semantics of Usability
–Excerpts of the article by Bruce G. Allen and Elizabeth Buie

"Semantics is all about the very meanings of the words we use, the intention with which we use them, and the understanding they create in our audience. In communication, nothing is more important than semantics.

USABILITY TERMS:

1. Intuitive: If intuitive means natural, in the sense that comprehension requires no thinking, where is the division between those things that are natural and those that are familiar?
An intuitive interface asks no more of a user than what he either already knows or can immediately deduce from previous life experience.
Implied is that intuition, as a term in usability, is wisdom shared within a community-the community of users familiar with the task and with the environment in which it is performed. No Windows program, for instance, could bear the burden of being "intuitive" to someone who's never before seen a Windows program!

2. User-friendly: [The first computer] developers thought of users as constraints–ill-informed and hostile ones, at that–and they reluctantly cobbled user interfaces together as concessions to crankiness.
Users don't want the computer as a friend–they want it as a tool that will do stuff for them.

3. Logical: Whose logic has been applied and why? All of those practitioners had a reason for building their product the way they did–reasons that seemed sound to them at the time and within the scope of their work. Their logic applies to the internals of the application–the plumbing within the walls.

4. Heuristic: "heuristic evaluation" is a critical scrutiny of the interface by trained examiners who look for potential problems that a user might have, with reference to guidelines derived from research and practical experience. The guidelines may be a list of desirable features that the examiners look for and comment on, or it may be a full-blown rubric of the sort teachers use for student assignments.
Heuristics are generals principles; they are not the only kind of guidelines on which a usability inspection can be based.

5. Subjects: This term comes to the usability field from human factors research, where studies compare design features and their support for human performance (effectiveness and efficiency) and safety.
Usability engineering community has come to view the people who participate in our studies not as subjects but as partners. We collect users' feedback and impressions of our products (subjective satisfaction) as well as look at the overall performance of the interaction between the two. It is not they who are being tested, but that they are helping us test the product.

6. Subjective: Intent to say that there are no firm rules or principles governing the design process or the quality of its results. People who say that design is all subjective are not talking about design for usability they are talking about style. Style is vital to brand identification. You don't design interfaces like that by having the graphic arts department try Miracle Pink for the first time, not matter how much they like it. There is a time to be pleasing, but this isn't it. What the operator needs is an interface that has been designed and tested to get that particular job done.

7. Tester: Usability testing does not want the user to focus on cataloging perceived defects but on performing the tasks. The user's participation in the testing allows the usability engineer to learn about how well the product is likely to support real users in doing the work that it's designed to support. We want the performance to be as natural and realistic as possible, so we want the users thinking about the tasks and not unduly about the interface.

8. Testing: Testing is only one method of evaluation, in usability as in other engineering disciplines. Software and system engineering, for example, define nontest methods such as analysis, simulation, inspection/examination, and demonstration. Testing in usability is empirical, relying on observations and sometimes measurements. Usability testing includes measurements of user task performance, observation of user behavior and identification of problems, or assessment of user satisfaction–or all of the above.

What we insist is that if you haven't subjected your product to an empirical method in which you observe users using the product to perform typical tasks, you haven't tested its usability.

Read the whole article–PDF

Assignment 6, part C: 3/3/03

WILL IT WORK?

USABILITY TESTING FOR FINAL PROJECT
The Panther Protection Device

USABILITY CRITERIA:

1. Does the device feel comfortable in your hand? More or less comfortable than original?

2. Is the weight difference noticeable or cumbersome?

3. Is the stripped design distracting from the screen or the function of the device?

4. Does the device always land on the correct side, screen up?

5. Do the padding extensions come out only when the device is in dropping motion?

6. Do the extensions properly and effectively protect the device? After one, twenty, one hundred falls?

7. How effective are the extensions when the device is dropped from a high distance? Ten feet? Twenty feet? One hundred feet?

8. At what point is the falling impact too much for the ciliar extensions?

Reference Article: –PDF