Check it out....

I love this... its kinda like project the U 0f T prof showed us, but without the politics and more fun :)

A (Second) Reading Break Message from Jesse

Hi Class:

Thank you to all of you who posted concepts and feedback. To those of you posted either requirement late, you were penalized 25%. To those of you who haven't posted at all: don't bother, it's too late. It troubles me that so many of you saw fit to abandon 10% of your final grade.

I've given feedback to all students who posted concepts - take a look. In some cases, the feedback is very brief, especially if you had already received substantial feedback from your colleague(s). Everyone should take a moment to read my feedback to David, Nolan, Julian S and Kristin, as it is widely applicable. Links that I sent individual students to are listed below.

On Designing for Flow, another GUI-centred concept with wide applicability

On Johannes Itten and The Art of Colour

On Georg Simmel, Fashion, and "the dialectical tension between the individual and society"

On the Narrative of Collecting via Benjamin and Baudrillard: "It is invariably oneself that one collects"

On OCAD instructor Todd Falkowsky's use of colour to create a self-generated narrative of place

At this time, you should be focussing your effort on a single prototype, for user testing in class next week by a group that (conveniently) represents a cross-section of your target audience.

I very much appreciated the degree to which many of you are targeting your efforts towards this audience, which is a difficult nut to crack. Young adults (and I include myself in this group) have complex needs - specifically, complex needs of creativity/self-actualization, to make reference to the Hierarchy of Needs page from Universal Principles of Design. As I noted to David, much of this complexity is a result of the conflicting demands of identity: a desire to relate to one's peers while maintaining individuality. This tension is especially pronounced in the art world (and in the extreme, the art academy).

On a lighter note, check out Homies for a sophisticated (and hilarious) synthesis of collectibility (another common theme in many of your propositions), narrative and personas.

See you next week.

ps: Are/were Homies popular in Toronto? In California, circa 2001, they were all the rage, selling in coin machines in every supermarket. I'm totally clueless when it comes to popular culture, so you'll have to fill me in.

pps. Some of you have missed the boat on the function of Comments and Labels. Learn them. Live them. Love them.

Interesting stuff from the inter-web

Facebook for Seniors: Pensionbook.
How the facebook interface might look for us in 50 years time!!

http://www.straightfrommybrain.com/indexhibitv069/pensionbook/

& demographic and geographical mapping at its finest.

http://cluttermagazine.blogspot.com/2007/12/new-map-of-london.html

Website (and book): Designing Interactions

http://www.designinginteractions.com/

Another Famous Map . . . and links from Week 3

John Snow's map of London's Cholera Outbreak, which "not only convinced the world that cholera was a waterborne illness, but ultimately brought about profound changes in science, cities and modern society."

Also, here's some more information about Charles Joseph Minard's thematic map of Napoleon's ill-fated march on Moscow. If Minard could establish structure and convey information through a map/diagram in 1861, then so can you!

Lastly, here are links to Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Map, Mark Lombardi, and IntellectSpace, as shown in class during Week 3.