questions

The "Designing Interfaces" reading kept reminding me of pet peeves I have with websites and software, and explained why some of them are so bothersome. Do you have any pet peeves related to the functionality of websites?

Also, I completely agree with the reading that certain features have come to be "expected" and should be placed in the "expected" locations. (global navigation, previous/next buttons, etc.) No doubt this makes navigating a website a hell of a lot easier for people, but i wonder how designers that do a lot of websites find ways to keep composition interesting when everything goes in the "expected" loction.

Reading IV, The Order of Order

Reading four gave me hope that somewhere out there, people are good at workplace communication. This reading was all about how to go about gathering data about your client, their target audience, their goals, desires, self-image, money, etc. as well as how to "grease the wheels" by forming relationships with decision makers and other key people in the company. This is exciting to me because every workplace I've ever experienced has been plagued with embarrassingly bad communication. At my previous job at the Lawrence Public Library, I saw a lot of little project eat up too much time and cause too much stress due to lack of a clear plan or shared priorities.

The Order of Order - This was just a little musing on how we can categorize the world in an infinite variety of ways, and how these ways can impact the user experience of the content

The link to the Ladislav Sutnar reading wasn't working for me - any other ideas on how to get to it?

round 5! feedback plz!

1.do you have enough time to understand all the words?
2do you feel like you understand the relationship between the images and the statistics?
3.is the sound appropriate?

hmm progress

so i made a bit of progress this weekend on the ol' motion graphic. i need to render a smaller copy to post here, so i can get feedback. on thursday my round four render was pretty heavily under construction (some photoshop layers had been edited and as a result disappeared) so i don't think it was that helpful to my crit group. what we did determine was that my text needs to stay on longer, and the correlation between the numbers and the colored vs. gray stars and stripes needs to be more clear. also i got the suggestion to add a slide after the 72% slide with some sort of "you should vote" message.

so basically this weekend, i : added transitions to several of the beginning slides, added repetition and transitions to the stats slides, worked a whole lot on timing, added an additional message before the end "designfordemocracy.org" slide, and added sounds effects and music.

video coming soon.

Reading III

PROCESS BRIEFS
are well-written highly useful documents that serve to keep the designer on track while working on a project. The brief contains the blueprint for the work to be done as well as the goals for the finished product; as the project moves forward the brief assumes the role of documenting process work. The brief facilitates team communication as well as designer-client communication; it is a place where the designers and client can refer to for all relevant information as well as gain mutual understanding as to the goals and context of a design problem.

ANATOMY OF A PROCESS BRIEF
client information
client sector
client's competition
target audience
context
project overview
hierarchy
project information
tone
problems
opportunities
use of technology
schedule
budjet
hours

PERSONAS
are (usually fictional) user profiles that are meant to give the designer a clear idea of how a typical user or audience member relates to products and what factors influence their behavior. Personas include demographic information (age, gender, income, education level, etc.) as well as psycographic information (personality traits, goals, attitudes, opinions, values, interests, habits, lifestyle). Often the client will provide much of this information about their customers. Because target audience may include a range of people with a range of psychographic and demographic profiles, designers often draw up more than one persona per project - usually about 3-5. These personas are then prioritized in order for the designer to understand what audience segment it is most crucial to appeal to. From these personas, designers construct scenarios describing how these personas interact with the information design. Both personas and scenarios are essential tools for effective information design

keywords, to suggest list

ASSOCIATED WORD LIST

economy::money::save::work::blog::involve::engage::educate::knowledge::elect::turnout::fight
bills::pay::taxes::health::care::war::fight::pave::prove::secure::transportation::oil::drive::pump
gas::cash::register::ATM::credit::graduate::loan::check::energy::energized::empowered::street
savvy::text::message::change::responsibility::growth::inform::information::say::voice::power
media::peers::group::donate::organize::canvass::volunteer::call::future::green::issues::youth
community::slick::bright::sharp::smart

DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS

energy :: available power
exertion of power
ability to act or effect
forcefulness of expression

future :: concerned with the time to come

youth :: freshness, vigor, spirit
the condition of being young
young persons collectively

progress :: advancement
forward movement

economy :: management of the resources of a community

engage :: to attract and hold fast
to occupy
to enter into conflict

secure :: to get possession of
to be safe

MY DESIGN IS TO SUGGEST...

...a feeling of accomplishment and empowerment to young voters
...voting as a right of passage, like having a job and a degree
...a connection between voting and other aspects of daily life
...that young voters are fully qualified to make this important choice for themselves.

PERSONALITY

independent, personal, collective, experienced, inviting

reading II

"Information has always been designed." - Brenda Dervin.

This was nice reading about how design can be put to use to meet the practical needs for the audience and make every day living better for people. I'm a practical girl - I'd so much rather design for substance over style. The endless creation and marketing of products is probably the least appealing part of design for me.

The quote above made me think about the crossroads between design and psychology. I'm not sure I agree with Brenda Dervin - it seems to me like our brains are pretty good at sorting though information in the environment subconsciously and making intuitive decisions. And it seems like a lot of designers know this and exploit it - why do food and sex show up in so many advertisements for products not related to food and sex?

So my question is, do you think that all information has to be spelled out, or can design just set the stage for the viewer's intuitive reasoning to take over? Does it depend on content?

designers

EDWARD TUFTE

"Clutter is a failure of design, not an attribute of information."
American statistician who is considered an expert in information design; writes about visual literacy and makes work distinguished by the use of data-rich illustration.

NIGEL HOLMES

British graphic designer who focuses on information graphics and motion information graphics. Most famous work is "explanation graphics" for TIME magazine.

RICHARD SAUL WURMAN

American architect and graphic designer who coined the phrase "information architect" (which I love!). His work features the simple use of colored text, such as in the ACCESS travel guides.