Imaginary Forces Website

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Task exercise - Go to Imaginary Forces
 Using your blog as a notepad, track/log your steps as you complete these two tasks
 Find their project featuring web videos (what's its name - how many "clicks" and "backtracks" to find it? is this a reasonable task? do you see how this task differs from "find a project"?)
 Find a map to their east coast office (did you note any "error" message?)
 What was this experience like? Also, please comment on the visual/interface design, based on what you learned from the readings. Did the site behave like you expected or like you would have wished?
 Note: This is the type of analysis you'll do for the design analysis project due at the quarter's end ...
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Finding Web Video:
• Click on web link.
• Click “projects” receive Quicktime error start over
• Click on web link.
• Click on “projects”
• Select from list of “featured projects”
• “interactive”
• Click on Honda web videos

Directions to east coast office:
 Imaginary Forces icon
 contact
 map and driving directions

Experience:
Because the first click results in error, many might want to give up on this site immediately.
After exploring more the site seems interactive, however the disappearing/hidden “imaginary forces” content icon is frustrating as well as the back button taking you out of the site.
Hidden icons make the user feel a sense of loss of control which is not desirable.
The artistic features are somewhat aesthetically pleasing but do not win points for bad usability.

Recommendation:
Make the site more “user friendly,” explaining user friendly is difficult, however one goal would be to have more user control when viewing the site with a constantly visible content bar.

Expectations:
My expectations going into the site were already geared toward difficulty so I explored more than I would normally. Expectations were confirmed but I imagined more difficulty, please note that is “imagined” and not “wanted.”

Week 4 -- Task Identification

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Everyone:
Gestalt Principles of Perception and Gestalt theory in visual screen design: a new look at an old subject
Two essays from Don Norman based on concepts from The Psychology of Everyday Things. Affordance, Convention and Design and Affordances and Design ; HCI Design

How do these HCI design principles relate to Gestalt Theory?
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Gestalt Principles of Perception things are “more than the sum of their parts:”

Figure and Ground – merging together as one; illusion.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/YoungGirl-OldWomanIllusion.html

Similarity, Proximity or Contiguity, Continuity, Closure, Area, Symmetry – all basic and important principles for artistic design, how the human eye creates images; in websites we want the eye to like what it sees!

Human-Computer Interface Design
Computer interface design has certain expectations such as the mouse cursor or scroll bar. Without those recognizable conventions, a website appears to be out of place, confirming Gestalt Theory where design is heavily connected to perception. He “eight golden rules of interface design” emphasize features that allow the user to feel familiar and at ease explaining that creativity is only great if it still offers simplicity and clarity in design. The Gestalt Theory is helpful for the visual aspects affording basic principles to follow in order to create something aesthetically pleasing to the eye. A website should satisfy the audience artistically and practically.

Perception and Prevention
One should be able to navigate effortlessly and accomplish their objective when visiting a site. Keeping things simple is sometimes the best option, especially to avoid functionality frustration. Having a similar menu on each page or opening in a new window allows one to avoid going back in search of the original page. The goal is not to get “lost” in a site but rather feel like you are able to do and find everything you desired from the site; perceived affordances.

Question: What sites maximize these design principles and satisfy you as the audience?

Week 3 -- Project Management User Centered Design

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 Everyone:
Notes on Design Practice: Stories and Prototypes as Catalysts for Communication, Thomas Erickson [A version of this paper appeared in Scenario-Based Design: Envisioning Work and Technology in System Development. (ed. J. Carroll). New York: Wiley & Sons, 1995.]
Information Interaction Design: A Unified Field Theory of Design, Nathan Shedroff
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Communication – the word no one can escape. Every aspect of life can be improved or degraded by it. One thing which can be certain is most things are not usually hindered by communication but more likely the lack of. When describing design Erickson writes “it is also very much a social process in which communication plays a critical role” explaining how designers must communicate with users and their own organization. Terms such as “team building,” “collaborative,” “involve” characterize the successful practice of design. Something that stood out to me was the discussion of stories and their importance to compliment information gathering. Design is a collaboration of research, ideas combined with skill in communication and story telling to seamlessly satisfy the audience and design team.

One size fits all? Shedroff says, “Many people create or engineer interactions, presentations, and experiences for others. Almost all interactions—whether part of a book, a directory, a catalog, a newspaper, or a television program –can be created or addressed by one process.” The fact that some things stand the test of time over and over again regardless of technology advancement is comforting to hear. The design process is a foundation; building blocks which can be carried from one area to the next. Like many things learned in the classroom they have a purpose outside too.

Snow Day Continued - Assignment 4

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Assignment 4:
Final assignment has three parts:
1. Make sure you have a blog post that specifically outlines your goals and the roles you are willing (and not willing) to take for the team. This is very important -- it may result in a realignment of the class.
2. Find two or more sites that reflect the end product you think you'd like to produce (or be able to produce by the time we conclude in June) - either as an individual or through group effort. Post these to your blog by Monday (when reading is due). Give us the URL and your reasons for selecting them.
3. Finally, think about standards and adoption (fall quarter lessons!) as it relates to interoperability of instant messenging clients. Why do you think IM is not as seamless as e-mail? Share your arguments for or against interoperability in IM.
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1. My goals for the quarter are to create group success with everyone having a role which suites their talents and interest best.
2. Websites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website#Types_of_websites
Something clean and simple - http://www.localnewscomesfirst.com/
Something colorful - http://www.nick.com/
3. IM is not as seamless as e-mail because it is distracting, has not reached critical mass and is not a supervening necessity at work. In the office there are many options for communication, in-person, phone, email. Each of those interactions allows someone to respond in their own scheduled convenient time. IM however requires instantaneous response which at times may be best but lacks time for reflection and quality of the response. However if used similar to a scheduled video conference meeting those issues could be solved. The most pressing reason hindering IM adoption is that email is more widely known as one of the first popular work tools and IM does not offer something more competitive over email. IM is like a written phone conversation; useful but is not necessary. Email on the other hand has become necessary reaching critical mass from supervening necessity, which is why companies will more likely offer and require use of an email address but not an IM.

Goals and team roles reassessed

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Now, rethink your goals in the light of what has been expressed by the class. Post to your blog three personal goals (design, group dynamics, whatever) for our next five months of working together. Also list two team roles that you are willing to take on and two that you would prefer not to be assigned. Try to express this as a story (narrative) rather than a bulleted list.
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Goals for the next couple quarters ~
It is a shame that a genie can only grant three wishes as it is always hard for me to decide what I truly desire…for this quarter I will try to narrow it down to three. First I would like to better understand my strengths in a team and design role. Second I will strive to “stretch” myself by learning the technical side of design, i.e. computer skill. Third I want to master efficient research/writing skills.

Team roles ~
In the past I have usually taken the role of an organizer and mediator, gathering people together initiating team roles, responsibilities, deadlines and acting as a neutral party communicator to help resolve any conflict that may arise in the process. Those are two roles that come naturally to me. Other roles I enjoy are the creative aspect, coming up with ideas and imaginative content. A role that I am capable of is researching; although it is not my favorite. When it comes to creativity and research I can get carried away and need to remind myself to come out of dream clouds back to reality. There are no roles that I am absolutely against. My overall goals with team roles are for everyone to have a role that matches them :-) your unique talents!

Snow Day Assignment - Virtual Project Management

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Assignment 1 Scenario:

You have been made project manager for a web redesign for your corporate
internal (intranet) website. Employees in the division are geographically
dispersed, and your boss told you that your team will come from all parts of
the division. This means that most (maybe all) of the work is going to need to
be performed via a virtual team.

What are the benefits and drawbacks to such an arrangement? How will you help
the team develop a feeling of "we-ness"?

Thinking back to teams that you have worked on before ... what made them
effective or not? Why?
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The drawbacks to working across time and space are simply not being able to interact in-person along with the time difference of spread out geographic locations. The benefits to such an arrangement are an emphasis on written communication over spoken.

To develop a feeling of "we-ness" I would recommend constant written communication and clearly assigned group roles. Additional communication could be done via phone and/or virtual teleconference.

A personal example of a successful team project – thinking back to the keys of past effectiveness:
• Created a timeline with incremental deadlines
• Assigned work fairly – took into account members’ interests and strengths
• Diverse personalities worked well together – we had an online cheerleader who kept our inbox full of updates, a researcher who constantly shared information, a creative person who brought unique ideas to make our project standout, a diligent worker who was always willing to take on additional assignments
• Helped one another – saw success as our team as a whole (i.e. "we-ness"), not individually

Obstacles – How we overcame them:
• Sick team member was bedridden for most of the quarter – we made an extra effort to communicate with her via email and phone
• Stressing for time – helped everyone stay on track by checking in and sharing information
• Fear of presenting – “practice makes perfect,” we made time to rehearse so everyone was comfortable presenting our final findings.

Most importantly we HAD FUN and thought about the AUDIENCE using creative ways to improve the assignment, making everything aesthetically pleasing, adding music and pictures to add ease to heavy information.

Week 2 -- Project Management

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 Everyone:
"The Publishing Team," Chapter 11. Content Critical: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through High-Quality Web Content by McGovern et al ; "Web Team Roles," Chapter 2. Real Web Project Management
by Shelford et al; Web ReDesign 2.0: Chapter 3, Define The Project
 Blog your reading assignment: Two "ah-ha's" from these readings as well preliminary thoughts on your goals for the quarter and how these readings might apply to your goals.
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“Ah-Ha’s”:
Everything is reliant on a team even digital media. According to “The Publishing Team” the term “webmaster” is meaningless because working with the web requires more. A successful project is the result of many efforts combined into one through teamwork. There are many roles to play as described in “Common Web Team Roles” and knowing the purpose of each is essential for productive interaction which is why training and communicating are always suggested. This is similar to the concept of education and schooling – it is important to understand the basics of many subjects while at the same time emphasizing your specialty in order to work with others, seeing the big picture and using your expertise for the benefit of the whole. Teamwork is inescapable!

All this talk about timelines, questions and goals are important! “Define the Project” says “set parameters and expectations – develop methods for clear communication throughout the project’s lifecycles.” This holds true for any project. All the team projects I’ve ever worked on whether middle school science projects, college business projects or work projects share a similarity, success revolves around understanding and execution. Communicating specifically what you intend to accomplish, how you intend to accomplish it using realistic time schedule and distribution of work among the team recognizing members’ strengths and weaknesses keeping the flow of communication each step of the way! Most problems can be prevented or resolved from constant communication and that is very valuable especially when time and success mean money. Taking the time to talk pays off!

Goals: for the quarter are to better understand team roles, gain knowledge and skill that will enable me to tackle any design project with technical know-how and confidence. To explore talents, strenghts and weaknesses in the design process, master the basics, creating a foundation for the future.

*Over the Holiday - Digital Xmas & Lifeblood of the Digital World

DIGITAL Christmas

Inside a warm home, sharing memories, chatting, eating and exchanging gifts with family and friends gathered around the fireplace watching “It’s A Wonderful Life”. The holidays are a time of celebration and togetherness. Every year our family spends Christmas at “Grandma’s house” where we play games and have a shared experience of family time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, in-laws and cousins. This year togetherness was individualized by digital gadgets separating everyone from the communal Christmas experience. Instead of listening to Grandpa tell stories and watching old family film clips on a reel, each did their own thing; grandpa got his first DVD player and thus watched his favorite comedian on DVD, grandma asked mom for assistance with her computer, uncle showed his latest design project accessible via his latest PDA (personal digital assistant) while cousins played games on their psp (PlayStation Portable) and watched downloaded movies from their iPod. Gone are the days of “mass media” family time where you sit down to watch one show all together. Today you can be in the same room but in a different world…digital device choice makes that possible.


ELECTRICITY – the bloodline of the digital age: thoughts from the December windstorm and week-long power outage

A world where everything is at your fingertips with the touch of a mouse can be cut off by the disappearance of energy i.e. a power outage. Over the past 48 hours and currently still, much of Western Washington, myself included (I finally made it to one of the last lights standing, downtown Seattle to run the laptop) is forced to do without electricity after Thursdays wind storm. Washingtonians and the digital generation are at a loss, sent back to caveman days without their necessary digital tools (computer – no “Google it” solution, phone – no cell and dead landline, credit – cannot buy your way out) to survive.

Blackness throughout, trees fallen through roofs, houses flooded by excess rain and clogged drains, drivers fighting for the last drop of gas, hour long grocery store lines for one cup of drip coffee (Starbucks natives in times of desperate measure). When there is no power to run gas for transportation, generators, computers, phone and landlines are down…people go back to basics – in search of food, water, shelter and heat. Nature is powerful until humans can control it, watch out! It is more than an “inconvenient truth!”

Lessons from the power outage:
• Never underestimate the fury of the weather!
• Proceed with caution at your own risk if caught driving a vehicle in super speed wind or areas without traffic lights.
• It is never possible to be too prepared! (Mom…I’m listening now  I have the space blanket, flashlight, first aid, emergency food etc.)
• Required class – Cave Man 101 – how to build a fire, hunt and find food and locate water in a non-electric world.
• Discover/invent the source for limitless energy fast – solar, wind, water, gas, electric, battery, future-power so if one fails another is ready.
• Be thankful if you are lucky enough not to live in a frequented blackout prone part of the world.

My Christmas and birthday wish (on the 18th):
• Please restore power (that may help with my other wish)
• Peace in every heart throughout the world 