Good luck this week. Remember, this is an interview setting. You will be presenting your concept, process, and prototype in front of a panel of four professionals, including myself. We will assess you based on your market research, consideration of design factors, attention to detail, and the overall user experience. View order here for Monday and Wednesday.
Ready? May 9 and May 11. You will not know which day you’re presenting until the last minute to guarantee fairness. This is the first semester where I’m going to be treating the final showdown as an interview. You, me, and a guest critic from NYC’s creative industry. This how it’s going to work.
Styleframes due 09:00pm on Wednesday. A minimum of five pages. You know how do these. No need for additional explanation. However, remember, styleframes are like screenshots that have not yet been coded. This is a preview into what your site will look like – consider it your promo or trailer for this awesome technology you are about to unleashed.
You just finished making your paper prototypes. Through that process, you probably realized a lot of the gaps that you still have. Did you really think things thoroughly? Many of you had a great start. Now, lets make these sketches into schematics. Thinking like the architect you are becoming, I want you to refine your drawings into schematics. Read criteria.
Mood boards (sometimes called inspiration boards) are used in a variety of disciplines. The term is used frequently when referring to the creative process in Interior and Fashion Design. In essence they are a compilation of inspirational elements used by designers to flesh out ideas at the beginning of a design project. Along with a refined site map, this is your homework. Read more.
Please provide a detailed site map tomorrow. These will be tweaked of course over the following week. But I would like you to get a head start in terms of organizing all the things inside that head of yours. We’re makers now – don’t start things at the last minute. Give your idea a chance to grow over time. Look at some of these beautiful site maps.
Make a paper prototype of the key interactive component of your Museum 2.0. Depending on your project, this is different for everyone based on your topic and design pitch. This could be the part of your site where a user logs into add an entry to a database of images. It could be where the user enters the site, searches for content, and then rates the results he/she finds. Read more!
Your next big project is designing a “museum” that will eventually be built using the skills you gain in lab. It must have a participatory mechanism that serves as the root of the institution. Can be whatever you want. From James Bond to color spectrums to vintage cars, you just need to pick a data set to which is housed in your museum. Read for more criteria.
You must have a minimum of five (5) functional pages of your prototype. One of these pages must include the homepage of your redesign. If you are working with another member of your original collaboration, each of you must undertake a page of your site. Meaning, if you are working as a team of three – that’s 15 pages altogether. Read all additional criteria.
Yes, it’s time we start putting your fancy lab skills to the test. I would like you to code the homepage of your site by Monday, March 28th at 06:00pm. You should be using xHTML (transitional) and external stylesheets (CSS). Your midterm prototype should be built on your Parsons server space in a directory you should call: midterm.
Styleframes are a snapshot of what your real website pages will look like. Whatever you design here are the assets you’ll be using in your code. Via styleframes, you define font classes and a wide range of various design conventions to be followed throughout your prototype. Follow my guidelines.
Please rework your wireframes for Wednesday after considering the feedback you received in class today. I am expecting these to look sophisticated and clean. Your wireframes should look like you’re handing them to a client – no sloppy boxes, no badly aligned text (unless completely intentional). Have some OCD with these.
In today’s fast-paced society where first impressions can make or break a Web site, information architecture (IA) works to make the user experience a positive one. Make sure you have these required diagrams and schematics refined and completed by next week. They should be done professionally with care to detail.
IMPORTANT: YOU MUST COMPLETE THIS BY 09:00PM. I’m not here tonight but we’re all online at the moment, no? Currently, we have access to several means of searching for resources, data, and really just about anything. In reflection to all the readings you have done thus far, take a step back from your current projects for the next hour or two looking for two interactive interfaces to dissect. Read more so you understand full criteria for my expectations tonight.
This is an overview of questions that will help guide your research exploration. Once you have answered these critical questions, you can move onto preparing the visual documentation that helps support your forward thinking and ideas.
Edward Tufte’s works on information have been highly recommended reading for many WWW designers and developers. But really, anyone interested in the practice of structural systems, organization, and taxonomy would enjoy his words. You’re required to read the first chapter and (again) write a response of a minimum of one (1) paragraph on YOUR blog.
Norman’s guidelines have been preached and used throughout the entire creative industry. His commentary on the psychology behind design definitely pioneered some of the debates modern makers have. Usability is surely first, but that doesn’t mean that the final product has to be boring and plain. Norman mentions this as “tension between aesthetics and usability”. You got commentary due tomorrow – I’ll check it later since I posted late.
In one of the most fast-paced cities, where we’re bombarded by commercialism and corporatism, we can easily overlook the little man. In rough times when budgets are low yet the desire to make the world a better place is higher than ever, I’m assigning you to redesign for change.
Before class, I would like you to comment to this post by letting me know what intrigues you about the domain of interaction design as well as the reading. Your respond should be a minimum of one (1) paragraph. For twenty-four (24) waking hours of your life, produce a visual map of your everyday interactions…. +