Week 9 - Interface Design

This week is a little tough for me because I was extremely sick, so I could not make it to class this week. None the less I have the teacher's word document hand out for the week telling us what he discussed, so I will get my information from the internet this week rather than from my memory of the lecture in class.

Interface Design 

Wikipedia states :

Interface design is involved in a wide range of projects from computer systems, to cars, to commercial planes; all of these projects involve much of the same basic human interactions yet also require some unique skills and knowledge. As a result, designers tend to specialize in certain types of projects and have skills centered around their expertise, whether that be software design, user research, web design, or industrial design.  When I think of interface design, I think of apps for my IPhone. There are so many apps these days I think it would take you a whole week to look through ALL of them, including the ones that are free AND the ones that cost money. I view the app store from my IPhone and there are so many different categories that it takes me hours to find the right one I want to buy. Or I look at all the free ones and I swear there are more free ones than ones that cost money. I could spend literally too much of my life on my phone looking through apps.

Look at these pictures. There is a lot of apps in these pictures and I can guarantee this is like 1% of all the apps that exist out there.

This is an example of an interface app design. This is the home page, the first screen you see. I like this screen because it is clean, and it has a purpose. Most apps out there are literally as dumb as looking at a picture or something. This app is actually functional, and also it looks educational. The colors are nice too.  

This one is sooooo cute!!!! I love dogs, so I purchase dog apps sometimes, or I always look for free cool dog apps. This one is called screen cleaner, and the point of it is to pick a dog to clean your screen for you. It obviously doesn't really clean the screen but it looks like it and its just so darn cute.

Look at this adorable pug!!  I'm a pug owner and I'm obsessed with anything pug and this is something I had to get!! 

There are many different apps, from telling you where the nearest bar is, to telling you where the nearest doctors office is. From games, to email, apps have evolved everything. Just another huge technological advancement for us to conquer. Whats next!! I'm so glad I have many, many, years to come. Maybe we will be like the Jetsons and be driving around in flying cars, I don't know.

Week 8 - Museum Field Trip

This week we went on another field trip!!!  We went to two museums, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, and The Henry Art Gallery. They are both located on the University of Washington campus. I enjoyed myself tremendously. I had never been to either of those museums let alone UW campus. I know, most people my age that live in Seattle know their way around the campus, but I'm one of the few people that is still in awe as I walk through the campus and stare at the beautiful architecture. We were supposed to be paying attention to the way-finding systems, but I have to admit, it was hard not to go and just look at the art. I did take some pictures of some way finding systems.

The Henry Art Gallery was much larger than the Burke Museum, therefor the Henry Art Gallery had  more way finding systems.                                                         



This is the first way-finding system we came across. It told us which exhibits were where and which way to go. That is the purpose for these way finding systems, so that people know where to go to find these different things.

This is another way-finding system we found at the Henry Art Gallery. The picture on the left was this sign that had all this information about the tech lounge so that you know what your walking into, and if you even want to waste your time looking at it. The picture on the left was the entrance to the student tech lounge. The student tech lounge was really cool. It had a huge green screen, it looked like students were using it for making movies or something. Plus they had the nicest computers and huge TVs for viewing their projects probably. They had very nice, new equipment.

 The Henry Art Gallery also has this amazing architechure. Here is a picture of one of the hallways, it was just beautiful. The Henry Art Gallery was definitely my favorite of the two museums, I would return for sure.

The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture was much different. Maybe it was just the exhibits that were on at that time, but it seemed to be all about Indian and Asian cultures. It felt like one of those museums that you go to when your in elementary, learning about different cultures. It wasn't my favorite, I liked the Henry Art Gallery much much more. I unfortunately only took one photo in the entire museum for some reason. That tells you how interested I was, lol.  This photo was of this huge wood statue of some Asian emperor, that was all I remember reading about it. I was just really intrigued in the art, and the effort and time it took to create this masterpiece. 

Overall this field trip was very fun and educational. I actually liked looking around at the campus a little more than looking in the museums but none the less it was an awesome experience. This class has opened my eyes to all sorts of different elements of design and for that I am thankful that I chose this class, not knowing anything about it.

Week 7 - Web Effects

This week we talked about web effects; viral campaigns and flash mobs, and memes. First of all the web has changed our world in so many ways. The Internet has changed the way we communicate with people, the way we research information, and it has changed us as a society to depend on Internet for many of our needs.

Facebook has single - handedly changed the Internet. Now everything is on Facebook, from my grandma, to the soda I'm drinking right now. It's insane! The Internet is so depended on! If some technology bomb went off and disabled the Internet, the whole world would be in a panic state. Whats funny about all this is that the Internet will probably never go away. It might change in some ways over the years, but I can almost guarantee that it wont disappear over time. In fact the only form of technology that has gone away is the telegraph and floppy disks. The rest of technology is still here, even though it isn't used often its still here. For instance, snail mail. Very few people send letters, (unless you know someone in jail), but it certainly hasn't gone away.

Viral Campaigns

  Wikipedia states that Viral marketing and viral advertising are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of virus or computer viruses. It can be delivered by word of mouth or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.^[1] Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or text messages.

    When I went on google and typed in viral campaign, the most frequent thing that came up was that Old Spice campaign, with the old spice guy. Now when I think of viral campaign I don't think of those commercials?!?!. I have to admit though, those commercials are hilarious!

I think my favorite viral video is this Quicksilver ad, where the guy jumps in some urban lake, and his friend goes up on the bridge and throws a dynamite stick in the lake. It then blows up and gives this guy the gnarliest waves ever in a lake. Whether the clip was real or not was never really discovered I found out, but its a really cool video. The creative agency was Danish Saatchi & Saatchi and the client was Quiksilver, trying to create positive brand awareness in Scandinavia. It has so far been watched by more than 20 million people. Four days after launch, it appeared on approx. 95 per cent of all surfer related websites. The viral won a Silver award at this year’s Cannes Lions. Here is the link so you can see the whole ad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xfBNxNds0Q

Here is another viral campaign that I thought wads so cool. The funniest thing about this viral video is that neither Coke nor Mentos had anything to do with this ad campaign. It was simply these guys from this website called Eepybird.com, but it has started a nationwide phenomenon about watching your soda explode by throwing a mentos in the bottle, Everyone is doing it!!  LOL Anyway, watch the video. http://www.eepybird.com/

 

Meme

 A meme is a cultural occurrence associated with the Internet where a single idea takes shape and is transmitted naturally via the web. When our teacher explained memes, I had no idea what that was, but then I started searching the web, and I soon found out what memes were. A funny meme is The Xzibit phrase,  and now of course,  there are a million variations to it. The phrase, in its entirety, goes something like, “Yo dawg, we heard you liked ____ so we put a ____ in your ____ so you can ____ while you ____.”

These are just a few of the variations I found with the Xzibit meme.

The Ice T Variation meme is so funny! That is my favorite one out of all of them.

Netiquette:  Netiquette, network etiquette, is the social code of the Internet. A network is a collection of computers that can communicate. Etiquette is a social code of behavior according to contemporary and conventional standards. Therefore, netiquette is the social code of the Internet because the Internet is a network and etiquette is a social code.

There are social codes, netiquettes, for internet categories and domains. Currently, netiquette is a movement to establish a code of good behavior on the internet. Good internet manners matter! The Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have done to you.

Net Neutrality: Net Neutrality is a policy that prohibits Internet Service Providers from showing preferential treatment to websites for a fee and requires Internet data traffic to flow without preference to a given provider. What if you were in a coffee shop and noticed someone streaming video while you could not check your e-mail? What if the video streaming site paid the cable company so that their content gets preferential treatment? That is not fair, it is biased.

Flash Mobs: A flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails. Immediately when I think of flash mob I think of the T-mobile huge flash mob dance. I know it is made for a advertisement, but it is still genuine. I love looking at the people that were at the train station that weren't actors, just seeing their reactions is priceless. Here is the link, check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUZrrbgCdYc

It's a shame that flash mobs are now linked directly to advertising. A flash mob could be a grand art project of some sort, or a huge protest, either one would get their point across. The Internet is a huge plethora of information. Information that's good, bad, and ugly, you have to decipher through it. Maybe by 2020 we will have something new and fresh and the Internet will be old news, you never know what our technology is going to bring us.

Week 6 - NO SCHOOL

We had no class this week because of Presidents day, so all the more time to catch up on homework!

Week 5 - Tool Presentation/ DIY Aesthetics

This week we did our presentations for our tool design. We had the pleasure of having some designers from MAO studios come and critique our projects and show us some designs that they have produced, which was really, really, cool! My group was hectic to say the least. First, week 4, the week we had the whole day to work on our projects, both of my group members were gone. So we didn't have a lot of work to show everybody, but thank god Ryan did a lot of work in a short period of time. We decided to name our brand SimpleCraft. Our tag line was " Because Everyone Can Create"

This is the logo

Basically our design was this little hand drill that was tiny enough to be one of those "impulse buys" next to the register. Our demographic was the crafty, stay at home mom, or the not so good with tools kind of man. Our drill was just a craft drill, like for putting up pictures on the wall or something like that, not a big Makita drill that is too heavy for the average woman to hold with one hand. So we didn't have many other drills as competition because we were almost one of a kind. I thought it was a fantastic idea, I stand by it one hundred percent, but I just wish we had more time to revise it. We could have made the package design a little more refined maybe, and also we could have had a better, practiced, presentation. We could have all three worked on illustrator or whatever and drew out a drill on the computer so it looked more professional. Sure there was a lot of things I would have done differently, but at least we did have a great concept, and great logo.We simply just didn't execute our ideas well. That was all we did this week, because we ran out of time. We still have a lecture for this week to blog about though. 

DIY Aesthetics and Design: working class and design 

What images are used to create images of the working class?

 Here are some images of  "the working class" that I found online. It seems like all of the images had people in work clothes and they all looked kind of distressed.

However, when I typed in " middle class" I got images like these :

Some of these images look a little more like upper class but I guess everyone's perception is different.

 What products are considered middle class?

These products are products of the middle class. They are considered middle class because they are a little more expensive than the average things people buy for their family. There are many more products but I chose to stick mainly with electronics because people kind of judge you by your electronics these days. For instance when your on the bus and you pull out an Ipad, people are going to look at you differently than they would if you pulled out a old 80's boombox.

How much money does a middle class family make?

    I found out that the average middle class family earns, according to the 2009 Census,  $50,221 annually. Now that is not that much money a year, especially if your family has more than one child. In this day and age the cost of living is going up dramatically.

Could you briefly write about how this might be political?

 This could be turned into a political debate because the president has something to do with the economy, which, in turn, kind of determines the gap between upper class, middle class, working class, and poverty level.

Ultimately when I researched this working class vs. middle class info, I discovered that the more our economy gets worse, the bigger the gap gets between upper class and working class. In other words, the rich are getting richer and the people that were struggling to pay their bills are now losing their homes. I know alot of people that were pretty well off, and now because of a layoff in the family, they are fighting to keep the house. I think that is so sad. What else is sad is the fact that the people living in poverty are hungry, and we shouldn't have a hunger problem in the United States! Something needs to change. Obama isn't changing it fast enough, and I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking that. That's just my opinion, I don't mean to offend anyone if I have.

Week 4 - Aesthetics of the Extreme

When you think "extreme", what do you think of?

Tattoos? Piercings? Extreme sports? Well those are the first three things that came to my mind. In this day and age extreme could refer to many things, but overall, things just aren't as shocking as they once were. I can remember when I saw a face tattoo for the first time and I was so shocked, I thought, wow, that is crazy. Now you see people with tattoos on their face all the time, especially neck tattoos. Neck tattoos are more popular than ever. What about those ear extenders called plugs!?!?! I remember when I was younger, me and my family went downtown to the science center and as we were walking on the street I saw a guy with these weird things in his ears. Now everybody has plugs. The bigger they are, the cooler they are. I don't even notice people with them anymore, and actually now the new thing is nose plugs! People are actually putting plugs in their noses, so that their nostrils are extended. Now that's extreme.

 

What about this new extreme fad called flesh removal tattoo. I think this is VERY extreme. I had never seen this until I searched extreme tattoos on google. I cant believe people actually do this, and don't they get infected?!?!

With all these extreme activities, there is, of course, going to be some extreme design. These extreme athletes like these very busy, extreme layouts. For example, every MMA fighter has their own "look". MMA fighters have these extreme t-shirt designs that they wear before the fight to promote themselves. Its very smart, because not only do these fans know who you are by your "look",  but now they want to buy that merchandise that these fighters are wearing.

MMA isn't the only sport that has extreme design, motocross is also a very good example. Motocross riders have all these sponsors on their jackets and shirts. They also have these designs that usually have this distressed font as well as a bold graphic of some sort. 

These extreme designs usually have distressed fonts like these ones I found. These fonts are all relatively new to the design world.

How much more extreme can we get? That's the problem here is that nothing shocks anyone anymore, so whats next? At least we know as long as there is anything extreme there will be extreme design. Extreme sports aren't going anywhere, so as long as Shaun White is progressing in the half pipe, or as long as Twitch keeps doing tricks on his dirt bike, there will be a need for designers to create extreme designs.