Mehuli Patel

www.whatexactlyisadesignsite?.com

2010-10-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

www.doodlebuzz.com is a site that I’ve never come across, or thought something as such would exist. I don’t know if it’s necessarily needed but its clever, and exciting on the perspective of design, typography and maybe even visual graphics. It’s also a very fresh take on representing or viewing the news. It is most certainly innovative and different.

When you look at the website initially you think of it more as a design website than a search engine for news, it completely changes the way you think and/or go about looking for an article, if ever you were searching for something that may not be pleasant to find, this way of looking for it will certainly make it less scary. The fact that it states it is news in a typographic experience, just shows how different it really is. It’s a strange interpretation of what it is, but I really liked it, in such a way that I literally became fascinated with the way it worked, and how I could make it look, solely by the way I wanted, and that at anytime I could change it.

It’s a way of looking, searching, reading the news for hours on end in what I think is a very sophisticated yet charming form.

www.whatexactlyisadesignsite?.com

2010-10-14T18:33:00.001-07:00

The other website I took a look at was, www.liquidbubble.com/en/. It’s a design site that shows what the company is about, what it offers and their portfolio of clients they have worked with and for. What’s interesting about their site, is their simplistic set up, but multiple ways of seeing what they are, and the website itself. The website gives 3 small yet sweet options of how you wish to view the website, with a word that describes that option, and each time you click, the descriptive word changes to one that is similar. It isn’t exactly every word that is ever known, but it changes enough times for it to be playful and a little bit silly for at least 5 minutes then after you can get on with what your looking for.

The website is direct, straightforward, and just easy to navigate.

www.whatexactlyisadesignsite?.com

2010-10-14T18:18:00.000-07:00

So the first task it seems is to look at design sites, and the first one that popped into my head was the weird yet wonderful website: www.tokyoplastic.com. The website is fun and interesting and I don’t know about others but it took me a little while to figure out what I had to do with the cursor to see what animated button took me where, and how.

When you go to their link and click on the ‘website’ option to view, they have a crazy way of animating a sort of introduction to your next link some are more simplistic than others. There are also sounds and movement to it, which can get slightly irritating after a while, but the best bit of their work is looking at the way their animation interacts and flows within the characters they have created. It flows amazingly and has like its own story without words, to a limited colour scheme as well.

The only difficulty in looking at that part of the site is that once you click on a specific link, whether by accident or just wanting to get to the point, its impossible to skip past the animations, however long or short they are, though after a while they do seem like they take forever.

When I tired to find info on who the artist or artists were, it was a little difficult as what they had to say about themselves was this: ‘ In 2002 the industrial designer DC abandoned all worldly ties to follow the path of digital enlightenment. With the creation of tokyoplastic he entered the 7th circle of wisdom and following certain auspicious signs united with the international photographer and artist LJ. Together, using a secret technique developed in their underground laboratory these vector scientists are concocting mind-burning experiences in design, motion and broadcast. Soon they will have occupied an area of the Internet the size of North America.’

It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but that all I could understand of them, regardless, their designs are quite enjoyable.

'Complete Beginner's Guide to Interaction Design'

2010-10-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/complete-beginners-guide-to-interaction-design/

This article that was given as a reading assignment was really insightful. I'm slightly shy to world of web design, and words such as 'interface' and 'interaction designer'. But the article really did have a good way of breaking down the essentials and components needed to what I would soon be learning how to do and deal with.

Andrew Maier, the author of the article states that there are 5 key components as to what interaction design is made up of: 'goal-driven design, “interface as magic,” usability, affordances, and learnability.' He explains these components within the article, and also goes on to show what software or tools can be used to help have a grasp on the understanding of how interaction designers, or teams get to work and what you can use.

The article also makes you understand then when designing, you have to understand the basic principle of knowing that the client you are going to create for, means you need to make things clear and simple, and do exactly what they were originally thinking when coming to the site that you have created. 'Users typically have a number of goals in mind when using your website. Perhaps they want to balance their checkbook online. If so, your application should do this one thing quite well. Adding user research to the equation and forming a clear set of user goals, enables the successful marriage of form and function.' The idea is to fulfill the purpose in a way that makes it easy to use, work with, as well as navigate.

Being able to use this information, and its uses tells us that the process required to make a sufficient interface, requires thoughtful decisions from the interaction designer, knowing that what they create should always have learnability: 'In sum, if the design problem at hand calls upon a truly unique interface, interaction designers should take great effort in making that interface learnable, or, easily learned. This, in and of itself, requires a strong knowledge of current design conventions, affordances, and overall web usability.'

The article was full of helpful knowledge, at first i wasn't quite sure what I was reading, and I thought, 'what have I got myself into' but, reading the blog, and briefly looking it, I think its something that is really going to help me in the near future.

IMP = Interactive Media Pathway

2010-10-08T18:16:00.000-07:00

I am now a second year multimedia student, and lets face it, blogging isn’t my thing. But I’ll give it another go: new term, new year and all that. I’ve been looking at other peoples work, and as the phrase is used ‘dipping my toes in the water’ in the world that relates to web design and media. I looked at fellow students blogs, random people blogs, sites of companies that specify in web design, graphics and much more. To be honest its slightly intimidating, I can tell already this year is going to be a challenge for me, but I guess I have to just really and truly go with it, and see where the information and learning process is going to take me.

2009-11-30T03:27:00.000-08:00

When doing the animation i tried to keep the camera in the same position, or tried not to move it around too much, because i wanted it to be a more smooth sequence, one that flowed well...
so i made sure that wherever i had placed the camera, everything that i needed was within view.
i took a few test pictures to see how well everything looked, and that the angle was head one, not in any odd directions, i also had to play around with the camera settings on my camera, so see what looked best, and what gave a much more clean cut and clear look...
this is one of the test pictures i had...

2009-11-30T03:18:00.000-08:00

For my idea, just like the video done by ford and the video i had done previously in my art foundation, i wanted to do the animation on using an inanimate object, where it would then become a moving object that has a life of its own... i wanted something really simple... so i chose the concept of a moving 'star shape'... the idea being that the shape makes its way into the persons possession without them knowing, and then the reaction of seeing this object come to life and then the actions after it...

2009-11-30T03:15:00.000-08:00

To help me with what i wanted to do for my animation, i remembered an ad by ford that i really liked, which i also think was made by a lecturer who used to teach or go to NTU...
what i like about this video is that it is, very detailed... but it comes across effortless. the concept is something really different, and every time i saw this ad i really enjoyed watching it, because i found it so interesting...what i also thought was incredible, is that you feel alot of time and patience may have gone in to the video, and the outcome shows that it was really worth it... so enjoy...

2009-11-30T01:29:00.001-08:00

as ive found it really difficult to find an idea for the flash project i moved on from it, and thought i would come back to it after, so the next project was the animation/ pixilation project where the task is to take photographic stills as frames, to make a short animation that would last about 30 seconds or so depending on the amount of pictures you had taken... this had to be atleast 360.
i really liked the idea of this project because in my foundation, we did the same concept... but not with as many frames, and the idea that we did, was of a oreo cookie that moved and broke up into pieces and then came back together... before its about to get eaten... we did it because, at the time we really liked the song 'cookie jar' by gym class heroes... hopefully il be able to upload it but for now il jus put the song up.

Cookie Jar Video

2009-11-24T01:14:00.000-08:00

and before i forget... this is my blog... i really hope that you enjoy it... =D

2009-11-24T00:47:00.000-08:00

as im still having trouble regarding what to do as an idea for my flash, i was given an example that i thought was really good... this was given on a website: folksonomy.org.uk which had this to say about the video:

"Nottingham based filmmaker Simon Ellis has been making quality short films for ages now. His latest short 'Soft' won a TON of awards including being nominated for a BAFTA.

He's recently finished directing a commercial for a big anti knife campaign that will be running both online and on TV. The online commercial is different in that it's interactive, allowing the viewer to decide the destiny of the main character.

The key to this is it puts you slap bang in the centre of a world and you decide what choices the main character makes. Through great acting and camera-work, the result is something very effective. The point is to show you the consequences of the multitude of different choices when it comes to knife crime."
(BritFilms TV, 2009)

what i really liked about this video, as the the links within narrative are interlinked to different scenarios through other videos, rather than just a sort of 'next' click motion. the concept is really good, and the way its been shot, and the use of how you feel you are the person being spoken to or in the postion itself is really clever and unique, and it makes it slightly personal and more intense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFVkzYDNJqo&annotation_id=annotation_139703&feature=iv

the begining... from the middle

2009-11-24T00:27:00.000-08:00

right... so i haven't really had a chance to do this, because i have had alot of other events occur which has made this difficult to start on... but i am here to give it ago, because ive never done this before... here goes...
i wasnt sure about the idea of doing multimedia, i didnt really know what to think of it, because im not that good with computers, but i did know that i like the idea of design, no matter what formand none the less i went to my first lesson, where i found out about our first task, which was making an interactive narrative using flash. we were given a flash template, to play around with so that we could familiarize ourselves with what kind of components of the software we would be needing and using. at first i was quite baffled... but then i had abit more of an in depth explanation, and understood the jist of how to use it a bit more... although the only problems ive been having even till now is trying to come up with an idea... the concept should be short and simple, but im having a really hard time on thinking about what i should do to base my theme on for the flash...