Exercise Nine: A Meeting in a Supermarket

This exercise is designed to continue to get you thinking in narrative, and about how narrative applies to user experience.

Using one of the attached grocery store receipts as your inspiration/evidence, create two narratives. Post your narratives to the blog. At least one of these narratives should consist of more than just prose. Consider images, video, poetry and sound. Be creative! Here's an example of a variety of possible responses to a single receipt.

Your receipt assignments (the page number) are as follows:

Philip: 1
Julian A: 2
Katie: 3
Kristen: 4
Gillian: 5
Kaylyn: 6
Shona: 7
Che: 8
Ki Eun: 9
Kyung-In: 10
Andrea: 11
Joshua: 12
David Brian: 13
Miriam: 14
Nolan: 15
Giovanni: 16
Derek: 16
Julian S: 15
Iliana: 14
Diandra: 13
Joanne: 12
Jennifer: 11

Post your narratives to the blog by Tuesday, February 26 at 11:59PM.

Exercise Eight: Photoshop Tennis

You have just been assigned a partner. In this Exercise, which will be completed entirely in-class, you will be working with your partner to collaborative create a series of images that will form an emerging narrative.

We will begin with a brief Photoshop tutorial, where we will go through the following steps as a group. It is important that you follow these steps carefully so that your narrative emerges as seamlessly as possible.

1) Both partners should open Temporary Storage, and one partner should create a folder with the following format: FirstName1_FirstName2. For example, Tori and I would make one folder called .

2) Mine the web for image content. Go to:

http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

Note that we should only use images that use an appropriate form of Creative Commons license. Read over the Creative Commons information on the right. The first category (Attribution License) is the most appropriate for our purposes. Click on "see more," or go to:

http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0/

Now, find 5 images that you like, and download them to your desktop. Click on "all sizes" at the top left of the image. You want the large file size (1024 x 768).

3) Both partners should open Photoshop. One partner should create a new .psd file in Photoshop with the following characteristics: 1024 x 768 pixels, 72 pixels/inch resolution, RGB 8 bit colour mode. Save this file to your folder using the same FirstName1_FirstName2 format, ie .

Now, open the images you downloaded to your desktop in Photoshop, and select one of these images as your background, which will begin your narrative. Cut and paste this image into your .psd file. Manipulate the image, and add content from your other images. There are many image manipulation tools in Photoshop - Tori and I will go over a few of them to get you started.

4) After a few minutes, you will transfer the file to your partner. Follow these instructions carefully.

Save your .psd file.

Select Save-as, select JPEG as your filetype, uncheck the Layers box, and change the name to FirstName1_FirstName2_FrameNumber, ie Jesse_Tori_1.jpg. In this way, you'll end up with a .jpg "snapshot" of your .psd file at the moment of transfer.

Please ask Tori and I for help if this is at all confusing. There should only ever be one .psd file per pair.

The second partner should now open the .psd file and add their own visual information to move the emerging narrative forward. While this is occuring, the first partner can be searching for new content and/or experimenting in Photoshop.

Don’t completely erase your partner’s work - that ruins the game and destroys the narrative. Whenever possible, use layers to separate the elements in your .psd file. This will give both partners more flexibility in re-working your collaborative creation.

5) Repeat the transfer step 4 more times, progressively adding to the narrative until the "tennis match" is over and you have a narrative that is 6 images long. We will indicate when each transfer should occur.

Take a moment to ensure that all your files are in order, and to post the six .jpeg images in sequential order to the blog in a single post. Make sure both your names are in the post.

Exercise Seven: A Psychogeographic Map

"In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period drop their usual motives for movement and action, their relations, their work and leisure activities, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there… But the dérive includes both this letting go and its necessary contradiction: the domination of psychogeographical variations by the knowledge and calculation of their possibilities."

(Knabb, Ken, ed. Situationist International Anthology, Berkley: Bureau of Public Secrets, 1995)

"Although conventional maps convey a certain abstract, geometric kind of 'truth' about the urban environment, the psychogeographical maps were supposed to convey a social, experiential or existential 'truth'. The maps show an experience of space as fragmented and discontinuous; areas which are experienced as distinct are pulled apart on the map. However, the arrows serve to relate the different areas and are based on the forces of attraction and repulsion or exclusion experienced in the course of the dérive."

(http://mypages.surrey.ac.uk/pss1su/lecturenotes/documents/nakedcity.html, accessed February 6, 2008)

At either the Weston Family Innovation Centre Phase II, or at the INTERACCESS show, perform a dérive. Enter the space with no direction, and follow your desire. Take detailed notes of your experience - the sights, the sounds, the sensations, your feelings, your reactions. Make every effort to free your mind of any preconceived notions, and make note of anything and everything that comes to mind.

Referring to your notes, create a psychogeographic map of your experience. Be creative about how your express your data, and which data you choose to express. The map should not make reference to cartesian (conventional map) space. Rather, it should emphasize the experiential qualities of the space: it should map the space of your experience.

The map may begin as either a digital or an analogue artifact, but please format the map into a digital file with the following dimensions.

1600 pixels tall
1600 pixels wide

Post your map to the blog by Friday, February 15 at 11:59PM.

You are not required to take an extensive interest in psychogeography, but you can refer to the uploaded presentation and readings if you wish. The essence of this exercise is to attempt to experience space a direct, visceral manner, and to release your mind from the constraining directive elements of our built environment. We will be presenting the results of this experimental research to the hosts of our field trips, so please make a special effort with this exercise (it will be marked accordingly).

Exercise Six: Bring a Toy

Please bring, beg, borrow or steal (OK, don't steal) a toy from home or elsewhere to class next week (February 6) Our definition of a toy is as yet undetermined, so feel free to challenge our preconceived notions. We'll be playing with, discussing and deconstructing these objects next week. Try to avoid bringing electronic devices if possible.

Class Five (Field Trip)

Class Five: The Spatial Experience will be a field trip. Depending on your availability, the field trip will take place on either Saturday, February 9 or Monday, February 11.

It is preferable that you attend the Monday, February 11 field trip. This will be to the Ontario Science Centre, where we'll be exploring the exhibits and touring the design and production facilities. There will be two sessions: one beginning at 1:00PM, and one beginning at 3:00PM.
We will be meeting at the information desk in the Weston Family Innovation Centre. Allow at least 45 minutes to get to the OSC by TTC from OCAD, and at least 20 minutes to get from the entrance to the meeting spot.















If you can't make Monday, then the second field trip will be to interacess, on Saturday, February 9. Again, there will be two sessions, one beginining at 1:00PM, and one beginning at 3:00PM.

Please make a comment on this post indicating your availability - location (OSC or interaccess) and time (1:00PM or 3:00PM). This field trip is mandatory - you'll have to visit one of the destinations on your own time if you can't accomodate any of the scheduled times. Expect to spend a minimum of two hours at either location. Exercise Seven: A Psychogeographic Map is to be completed during and after the trip.

If you're planning on coming to the OSC and are going to be late for any reason on the day of the field trip, please call me at 647.201.4255.

Exercise Five: An Object you Love, an Object you Hate

In your home, find two functional objects: one that you love, and one that you hate.

Make a brief post to the blog where you describe your love/hate relationships, using the tools and vocabulary introduced in the Basic Principles of Experience Design presentation. Before you post, review the following terms in Universal Principles of Design: Visibility, Affordance, Mapping, Constraint

Be sure to include photographs of your objects in your post. Make sure the photographs adequately represent the source of your love/hate relationship.

Exercise Four is due on Sunday, January 27 at 11:59PM.

Exercise Four: Read a Map

You have been assigned a map. In one concise paragraph, deconstruct its strategies for conveying information for the class, using the vocabulary introduced in Exercise Three, as well as any new vocabulary you've learned from reading Universal Principles of Design (hint: this is bonus mark territory). Maps contain many visual elements: focus on one or two strategies only.

Conclude with a statement describing your visceral reaction to the map: does this map work for you? Why, or why not? Is this reaction solely a product of the success or failure of the map to convey information, or are there other factors at play?

Provide at least three images of your map: one of the folded map, one of the entire map, and one detail that shows the strategies in question.

Exercise Four is due on Sunday, February 3 at 11:59PM. Please do not lose or damage my maps!

Exercise Three: Strategies for Conveying Visual Information

Your group for Project One has been assigned 3 or more examples of strategies derived from the Gestalt Laws of Pattern Perception that can be employed to successfully convey information.



Locate the relevant pages in Universal Principles of Design. In your Project One groups, create a post to the blog that summarizes this strategy for the class. Include at least one example (with a visual) that is not found in Universal Principles of Design. Be prepared to briefly present your post next week.

Exercise Three is due on Sunday, January 20, at 11:59PM. Remember to put the names of your group members in the title of your post.

Exercise Two: Make a Music Video, Make a Diagram

The instructions for Exercise Two are as follows. Please read carefully, as there are many steps and a number of deliverables.

1) Locate the source files for the music video, located in TEMPORARY_STORAGE in a folder called "Make a Music Video."

2) Check out the video clips and audio files. You're welcome to use your own video clips and/or audio files, but don't feel like you need to.

3) Open iMovie HD, and save an iMovie Project to your desktop using a title of your choice.

4) Pick the audio file that you want to make a video for. Import it to iMovie HD by drag-and-dropping the file into the bar at the bottom of the iMovie screen. Note that this automatically changes iMovie from "clips viewer" mode to "timeline viewer" mode. You can also do this with the two buttons near the bottom right of the screen.

5) Pick some video clips that you might want to use to make your video. Drag-and-drop them into the "clips" pane at the right of the iMovie screen. From here, you'll drag-and-drop them into the upper bar in the timeline, once you've decided how you want to use them.

6) Make your video! Play around. There are lots of features in iMovie, but some that you'll want to be sure to use/understand include:
-the volume control on the audio clip (select the clip, View>Show Clip Volume Levels, fiddle with the audio "line")
-how to cut the audio clip (place the playhead; Edit>Split Audio Clip at Playhead
-the fact that iMovie measures time in Minutes:Seconds:Frames, and that there are only 30 frames per second
-the fact that some of the video clips have sound in them already, which you may want to control/eliminate (again, select the clip, View>Show Clip Volume Levels, fiddle with the audio "line")
-the editing pane (the button for this is on the bottom right), especially transitions (once in the editing pane, the button for this is on the top right)

7) Keep making your video. Play for about an hour. Learn as much as you can. iMovie is a great tool for making quick videos, and this tool will serve you well for Project One.

8) Remember to save your iMovie project often. iMovie doesn't create a playable file directly - in order to do this, you'll need to perform one last action. Click File>Export, and then select "Web Streaming". This will take a few minutes, and will create a playable Quicktime file, just like the video clips you were given to work with.

9) Upload your video to Youtube, as well as to the course blog.

10) Note that step #9 contains less specific instructions than the previous steps. This is intentional. Your last task is as follows. Draw (by hand!) a diagram that explains the steps required to upload your video to both Youtube and the course blog. Lastly, scan this diagram (there's a scanner in the lab, and the monitor can help you if you've never scanned before) and post it to the blog as well, in the same post as your video. Remember to name and label your post appropriately.

Exercise Two is due on Tuesday, January 22 at 11:59PM.

Exercise Marks

As discussed in class, Exercises will be marked as follows.

1) Each Exercise will be marked out of 1. Adequate completion of an exercise will result in a mark of 1; inadequate completion of an exercise will result in a mark of 0. At Tori and I's discretion, you may receive a mark of 1/2 if you adequately complete some but not all of an Exercise.

2) Exceptional completion of an Exercise will result in a bonus marks. The magnitude of these bonus marks will be at Tori and I's discretion. It is expected that bonus marks will be rare.

3) Exercises will be weighted relative to one another at the end of the term, to reflect their relative time commitment. For example, an Exercise that takes most students 4 hours will be assigned approximately 4 times as much weight as an Exercise that takes most students 1 hour.

4) Exercises constitute 20% of your final grade. With sufficient diligence, all students are capable of being awarded a perfect aggregate score on the Exercises. Bonus marks will not used to elevate your aggregate score beyond perfect.

5) Exercises may not be submitted late for any reason other than a documented illness.

5) You will not receive regular feedback on Exercise results. An anonymous list of aggregate scores to date will be posted to the blog before Week 8.

Please post a comment here if you have any questions about Exercises.

Exercise Zero

Your first Exercise is to perform a number of administrative tasks that will help our section of Principles of Experience Design run smoothly.

1) Join the Blog. I have sent and email to your OCAD email account inviting you to join the blog. You will need to set up a Google account if you don't already have one.

2) Gain access to the TEMPORARY_STORAGE drive. I will demonstrate how to do this in class. Here, you'll find a folder that contains the class photos that Tori shot earlier. Please find your photo, and prepare it for uploading to the blog. Make modifications as you see fit - cropping, enhancing, effects - but don't spend too much time, as there's lots left to do. If you have access to another photo that you prefer, feel free to use it, but make sure the photo clearly shows your face.

3) Make a post to the blog which includes the following:
-Your full (and your preferred) name;
-Your discipline: graphic design, industrial design, etc;
-Your general level of comfort with technology, ranging from "I don't have a clue" to "I'm an expert at the use of all software and hardware." Be specific (ie name the software and hardware that you know). This will help us tailor the class to your existing skills (or lack of), and
-Your photo.

Please title your post "Exercise Zero - Name." For example, my post would be called "Exercise Zero - Jesse." Also, label your post with the Exercise Zero label provided at the bottom left of the posting window. Please consistently follow these conventions for titles and labels in the future.

On to Exercise One!