3

Teaching Fundamental Graphic Design Principles Through Interaction Design and Technology or How Interaction Design Can Help Graphic Design

An Introduction to My MFA Thesis
Interaction design and technology have made new communications possible. The makers in this field, however, do not always have graphic design or typography skills. Those skills have been relegated to the sidelines in the face of new skill acquisition, specifically writing code. As technology and the physics of the screen improve, applying graphic design principles (typography, color, scale, proportion, juxtaposition, hierarchy, time/sequence, pacing…) to interactions  will be increasingly achievable and, as a result, readability will be enhanced, content elucidated, and the audience will be delighted and engaged. 

This pursuit is not a one way street. Graphic design has much to learn from interaction design. Interaction increases attention by changing the audience from passive recipient to self-directed and engaged participant. Interaction changes communication to conversation. Interaction involves far more complex systems.

Whether graphic design is a subset of interaction or not, they both are subsets of design and we are creators. 

The goal of my thesis is to create interactive products that teach graphic design and to apply these design principles to existing screen-based interactions as means of improving their functionality and beauty. I want to achieve these goals using the old adage: “Don’t tell me, show me.” Can interactive principles make learning design more engaging and effective? 

Please let me know your thoughts on this subject. Share with as many people as you think would have an interest. With my gratitude, Barbara

interaction design
graphic design
SVA Ixd
thesis
school
1

Can Dinosaurs cry?

thegruntledmudgeon:

I do not “app.”  I do not play Words with Birds.  My phone is not smart.  I am out of place among the hundreds of fellow commuters who use expensive electronic devices to play Solitaire.  The only tablet I use is my daily dosage of baby aspirin.  As for pads, I leave that to your imagination. 

(Really, these things are so small they should be called tablet-ettes).

My only electronic devices are a work-issued Blackberry phone and a Windows computer.  And, that is the reason that Google thinks I don’t exist.

Over the years, I’ve relied…maybe that’s too weak a word…my life has depended on two Google products.  First, Google Desktop, which magically keeps a searchable record of every Web page I visit, every document I create, and every email I send or receive.  This is a Godsend for those of us who are memory-challenged. 

And, second, iGoogle, a vaguely smutty-sounding Google home page that gathers together all of my RSS feeds and bookmarks. 

(Clearly, this is not MY iGoogle page.  After at least ten lessons, I still can’t follow the game of cricket).

Google, however, has decided that Google Desktop and iGoogle are no longer needed in this age of apps.  Google Desktop has been phased out, and iGoogle will be gone next year. Can dinosaurs cry?

So, before they are lost forever, here are the blogs, feeds, and bookmarks that are on my iGoogle page, and why I love ‘em.

ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY:  I love walking tours.  These blogs are like taking a walking tour with a friend who can take you to the coolest places and explain just why they’re so cool.

Nathan Kensinger Photography:  This brilliant madman sneaks into the decaying hidden corners of New York City, brings back photos, and uncovers the history of the location and how it came to fall on hard times. 

Forgotten New York: For thirteen years, Kevin Walsh has explored the forgotten alleys, cemeteries, neighborhoods, and odd historical vestiges of New York. 

Scouting New York: Nick Carr works as a movie location scout, and for that reason has his head up when most folks keep theirs down.  He creates elaborate, lovingly-researched articles…for example, where all of the exterior shots in “Annie Hall” of “Taxi Driver” were taken and what is at that location now, or the magical mystery of First Avenue and First Street (and what that ship captain’s house is doing up on roof of a building there). 

Read More

Google
blogs
scott sheldon
dinosaurs
6

Physical Computing Project created by myself and Tony Chu. A indoor wind chime that moves by sensing the motion of the wind outside. SVA coursework with Rob Faludi.

arduino
wind chime
physical computing
interaction design
wind
sensors
actuators
4
Pride and fear. Really awful reasons for failing assignments. The irony is that I know the perfect antidote. The antidote for pride and fear is humility and curiosity. With humility and curiosity, I probably would still have failed some of the assignments. Those failures, however, would have come through more sincere attempts, and I likely would have learned more that way.
Tony Chu: “Fail in Public” (via garychou)
90

Can You Teach Someone to Be an Entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurial Design, aka “Internet School” or, as guest speakers/entrepreneurs referred to it, “the class I wish that I had five years ago!,” ended last week. My description of the class crafted by Gary Chou and Christina Cacioppo of Union Square Ventures won’t do justice to the impact that the work had on us, but here goes.

Read More

Entrepreneurial design
SVA
design
interaction
union square ventures
gary chou
christina cacioppo
design
school
fred wilson
73
tonyhschu: entrepreneurdesigners: One the last day of our Entrepreneurial Design class, we asked the students to share what they learned with the class. This is what they wrote. Lessons and takeaways from Entrepreneurial Design, by far the most challenging and empowering class this semester. This is the class that’s got me writing so much this past couple months, a habit which I plan to continue. So much gratitude goes out to Gary, Christina, and all my wonderful classmates who struggled with thinking entrepreneurially this semester. tonyhschu: entrepreneurdesigners: One the last day of our Entrepreneurial Design class, we asked the students to share what they learned with the class. This is what they wrote. Lessons and takeaways from Entrepreneurial Design, by far the most challenging and empowering class this semester. This is the class that’s got me writing so much this past couple months, a habit which I plan to continue. So much gratitude goes out to Gary, Christina, and all my wonderful classmates who struggled with thinking entrepreneurially this semester. tonyhschu: entrepreneurdesigners: One the last day of our Entrepreneurial Design class, we asked the students to share what they learned with the class. This is what they wrote. Lessons and takeaways from Entrepreneurial Design, by far the most challenging and empowering class this semester. This is the class that’s got me writing so much this past couple months, a habit which I plan to continue. So much gratitude goes out to Gary, Christina, and all my wonderful classmates who struggled with thinking entrepreneurially this semester. tonyhschu: entrepreneurdesigners: One the last day of our Entrepreneurial Design class, we asked the students to share what they learned with the class. This is what they wrote. Lessons and takeaways from Entrepreneurial Design, by far the most challenging and empowering class this semester. This is the class that’s got me writing so much this past couple months, a habit which I plan to continue. So much gratitude goes out to Gary, Christina, and all my wonderful classmates who struggled with thinking entrepreneurially this semester. tonyhschu: entrepreneurdesigners: One the last day of our Entrepreneurial Design class, we asked the students to share what they learned with the class. This is what they wrote. Lessons and takeaways from Entrepreneurial Design, by far the most challenging and empowering class this semester. This is the class that’s got me writing so much this past couple months, a habit which I plan to continue. So much gratitude goes out to Gary, Christina, and all my wonderful classmates who struggled with thinking entrepreneurially this semester. tonyhschu: entrepreneurdesigners: One the last day of our Entrepreneurial Design class, we asked the students to share what they learned with the class. This is what they wrote. Lessons and takeaways from Entrepreneurial Design, by far the most challenging and empowering class this semester. This is the class that’s got me writing so much this past couple months, a habit which I plan to continue. So much gratitude goes out to Gary, Christina, and all my wonderful classmates who struggled with thinking entrepreneurially this semester. tonyhschu: entrepreneurdesigners: One the last day of our Entrepreneurial Design class, we asked the students to share what they learned with the class. This is what they wrote. Lessons and takeaways from Entrepreneurial Design, by far the most challenging and empowering class this semester. This is the class that’s got me writing so much this past couple months, a habit which I plan to continue. So much gratitude goes out to Gary, Christina, and all my wonderful classmates who struggled with thinking entrepreneurially this semester. tonyhschu: entrepreneurdesigners: One the last day of our Entrepreneurial Design class, we asked the students to share what they learned with the class. This is what they wrote. Lessons and takeaways from Entrepreneurial Design, by far the most challenging and empowering class this semester. This is the class that’s got me writing so much this past couple months, a habit which I plan to continue. So much gratitude goes out to Gary, Christina, and all my wonderful classmates who struggled with thinking entrepreneurially this semester. tonyhschu: entrepreneurdesigners: One the last day of our Entrepreneurial Design class, we asked the students to share what they learned with the class. This is what they wrote. Lessons and takeaways from Entrepreneurial Design, by far the most challenging and empowering class this semester. This is the class that’s got me writing so much this past couple months, a habit which I plan to continue. So much gratitude goes out to Gary, Christina, and all my wonderful classmates who struggled with thinking entrepreneurially this semester. tonyhschu: entrepreneurdesigners: One the last day of our Entrepreneurial Design class, we asked the students to share what they learned with the class. This is what they wrote. Lessons and takeaways from Entrepreneurial Design, by far the most challenging and empowering class this semester. This is the class that’s got me writing so much this past couple months, a habit which I plan to continue. So much gratitude goes out to Gary, Christina, and all my wonderful classmates who struggled with thinking entrepreneurially this semester.

tonyhschu:

entrepreneurdesigners:

One the last day of our Entrepreneurial Design class, we asked the students to share what they learned with the class. This is what they wrote.

Lessons and takeaways from Entrepreneurial Design, by far the most challenging and empowering class this semester. This is the class that’s got me writing so much this past couple months, a habit which I plan to continue.

So much gratitude goes out to Gary, Christina, and all my wonderful classmates who struggled with thinking entrepreneurially this semester.

1

The Man I’d Like to Meet in the Future

Who would I really want to meet in the world of design and technology? The problem I find, is that if I were to email my hero and the email was answered, would I really be able to carry on a proper conversation? I think this is especially true for the man I’d like to meet, James Bridle, the artist and futurist. James Bridle has been working on many remarkable projects, his Wikipedia work and future of the book inspired my work last semester. His New Aesthetic is making me think about what the future actually looks. like. But, short of listening to James on his many videos that one can find on the web, would I be able to craft questions? 

Below are a very few questions that I wrote if ever James returns my Tweet and we go have a coffee. Here goes: 

So you’ve been collecting images as a way of beginning a vision that might be the future… images that are unlike NASA imagery or space pak/Sci Fi imaginings. I suppose my first question is: is there a chance for beauty in the future? We are, presently, so liner in our communications, gridded, machine-to-machine. Not that beauty is easy to define or organic alone, do you see the need to redefine beauty? Will it be necessary to depart from the beauty that we know now?

(His very clever answer can be imagined here.)

If beauty is to be redefined, then is emotion the next to change as well? I feel like technology is changing how we feel things already. So much of our communication is emotionless since the machines that deliver them are lacking in expression. I notice a myriad of post modern references in the design of contemporary websites that glance back to American of the 1930’s as a way to tug at our sentiments and nostalgia. It’s certainly an emotional hack…which doesn’t seem to work for me. I may just be hard-wired aqainst it, or aware that I’m being manipulated. Apparently others find it very emotive.

(His next clever answer can be imagined here.)

I know that you have no crystal ball, but you do have the rare gift of intelligence coupled with an openness to new ideas. Do you think you mindset can be learned by an older generation? Can we learn to be unrestrained by old assumptions. 

(He is very polite and encouraging and he doesn’t let me pay the bill.)