The exhibition space is an important part of presenting the work. A bad idea can be perceived as a ‘fair’ idea if it is presented with very good graphics and layout. So by that logic a pretty good idea could be perceived as a great idea.
Last year each student was given two large boards about 3m x 1m each on which to display their work.
As such there has been some illustration and concepts about what the exhibition space will be like for the three projects there are to exhibit.
RSA – 4 x A3 boards, 1 x A4 board
Collaborative – 4 x A3 boards, 1 x A4 board
Final Major Project – 6 x A3 boards, 4 x A4 boards
Read on for a concept for the presentation of the exhibition area. It consists of the two large boards, papered in white with the project boards stuck to them. Read more…
Today people were asked specifically to ‘pick holes’ in the concept as it is easier for people to see what is wrong rather than suggest what might be right.
There were no major issues raised or functionality that had been omitted but there were a few perspectives that had not been considered. Read more…
After some deep brow rubbing and a headache, the realisation is that the funtional aspect of the toolbar will not be able to be demonstrated so time has been spent making an animation that was as natural as possible. Based on mouse clicks starting animations when others have completed but also inclusing text input and browser functions.
A test has just been run with a piece of online screen recording software called ScreenToaster and a small animation.
The results were automatically uploaded and are now displayed below. Just click the full screen icon to automatically play in full screen.
Today there was an insight into years gone by and what would be expected and required for the summative assessment on June 17th.
The main thing that came out of it was focus on conveying the idea when you’re not there to explain it. To this effect there were several videos and interactive walkthroughs. This is something that needed to be addressed in the current project timeline. There was little time for a prototype due to the complexities of creating one and what aspect to focus on.
Today was spent creating a browser in Flash made of screenshots and illustrations of the toolbar concepts and trying to make them dynamic so someone can use the service themselves. This was done using actionscript and not animating directly in the timeline, something that needs a lot more knowledge and thought. The result was a very realistic browser with a slide-down toolbar that acted as it was designed. The features are static images at current but the hope is to make them dynamic too.
Frankly it is more likely that the ‘journey’ the user will take will be done using pre-determined animations and ‘gotoAndPlay’ rather than scripting. This will be quicker and then can be videod using screen capture software so it can be looped to explain the process situated in the exhibition space. Read more…
The project log has seemingly disappeared due to doing too much work and simply forgetting to update it each day. This could be problematic in documenting progress but there is still a huge amount of sketches and scribbles, some of which are dated.
Since the last blog post there has been instructions to become more ‘visual’ and to look at how to best present the concept to engage people and really get the points across. There is a really great video about presentations here which gave a number of insights into what to do as well as what not to. It is little surprise that the presentation of the video is very good and engaging. On the back of that some books have been ordered to try and really push the presentation skills to be the best they can be. ‘Made To Stick’ by Chip & Dan Heath and ‘The Back of the Napkin’ by Dan Roam.
The concept itself has been through ‘what it does’ phase and has progressed to the more visual and more enjoyable phase of UI development. They are yet to be tested, that is the next phase, but the elements have been influenced by some existing elements that can be found in leading applications so hopefully they will only need some tweaking.
The best way so far to convey what the project does was to write an FAQ as it would appear on a website. This allowed real questions that could be asked by people will lower levels of technical knowledge to be anwsered in a way that alleviates their concern and also enlightens others to the purpose of the project. Whether this will be included in the final report is yet to be determined but it is entirely possible.
The project yet to gain a name but the working title should contain the words ‘content aware’ as the main feature is dependant on what information is displayed on pages. Perhaps an acronym like C.A.R.S – Content Aware Relational Suggestions.
This is a shot of the development of the UI and UX.
More images to follow. Read more…
The initial idea was to find new and innovative ways to organise data. This then evolved into organising and navigating photos which in turn mutated into a new approach to photo sharing. Throughout the whole process there has never been one ‘big’ idea until researching future technologies and the future of the internet. Reading into web 3.0 or ’semantic web’ (as opposed to the current ’social web’) provided some insights into what may be possible in the future due to the restructuring of the information on the back-end of the internet. Read more…
Below is a mock-up of one of the concepts that is included in the final major project.
The basis is a JavaScript widget that users can paste into any web page that allows them to post that page directly to twitter with a tinyURL already in place. The benefit of a JavaScript widget is that it can be made into a Greasemonkey script for any site, so the site itself doesn’t need to implement it for users to be able to take advantage of it. Read more…
Yesterday everyone presented for a formative assessment. What made this different fom normal was the fact that the work was graded as if it was the final summative presentation instead of giving an indicative grade as if the work continued in its current direction.
The presentation was helpful and provided valueable feedback about what to concentrate on and what to avoid.
The project is about photo sharing. The best ways to do it and what areas need to be addressed. The presentation uses Flickr as a base for example and comparison but the principles and concepts that come out of this will hopefully be able to be used by any sharing site.
More presentation slides to follow. Read more…
There is a presentation on Monday for the final major project and I have been trying to decide how to represent it and display it. Below is a concept, each being an A3 sheet (A4 may do) showing the ‘life of a photo’ from being taken to being viewed, shown from three distinct user perspectives. The Hobbyist, the professional and the happy snapper. They are based on real people and their general workflow.
The aim is to create something that makes the process more seamless, or make the experience better for a specific user group. There may not be one BIG idea that does this, maybe there are a few smaller ideas that can be used to create the same effect. Only more research will tell which steps need to be improved or perhaps more importantly, which steps can be removed. Read more…
Today was very helpful for the individual major project thanks to Helen. There were some problems last week as the presentation was too specific and too narrow for this stage of the project. Today was a post-it frenzy looking at various user profiles for photography and the result of those profiles. More specifically, why do people in those profiles exist in those profiles? Read more…
« Previous
