Desiree's

Introduction

Machines are tools that are intended to make life easier and more enjoyable. This intent is often overlooked by programmers who design software with their interests governing decisions and not taking the consumers’ needs and desires to heart. These design flaws can lead to frustration, inefficiency, and in the most extreme cases, death. The future of design lies in making machines simpler and more compatible with the four senses. In this way, users can intuitively understand the concepts that govern interactive devices.

There is no perfect system for designing products for the public. Simply asking people what features they want doesn’t work because the public is wary of new ideas, therefore, collecting consumer feedback can produce unreliable data. Ultimately, interactive designers must make informed decisions that they believe will make their product enjoyable and easy to use.

Crazed Programmers on the Loose!

In his book, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum (2004), Alan Cooper discusses his views of the problems and pitfalls of the information age. He tells the story of the most deadly case of poorly designed interactive technology: the 1995 crash of American Airlines Flight 965. All but four of the 164 people aboard this flight died because the captain inadvertently selected the wrong airport on the computerized navigation program’s list of airports. Cooper’s argument is that from this fatal error to the kinds of “fatal errors” that cause your computer to crash, poor planning in programming causes many problems in our society. Inefficiencies and frustrations could be avoided with the use of better interactive design.

With the goal in mind of creating a product that will be user-friendly, a focus group would seem ideal. But as Alan Cooper points out, these groups prove to be of little use. “The biggest problem is simply that most people, even professional software users, are ignorant as to what software is and what it can and cannot do.” Cooper also quotes a Stanford University study has shown that it is wrong to assume that focus groups are able to be subjective about their interactive experiences. Additionally, they often will reject an idea that is unfamiliar to them, which proves useless when it comes to cutting-edge technologies. Likewise, consumer testing as Cooper glibly points out, “doesn’t work.” After thousands of hours of development, a company is not going to throw out its product because consumer testing has shown that it isn’t user-friendly.

How to Design for Humans

In this video, interactive designer David Kelley discusses new inventions that are designed with the idea of user interaction in mind. He calls this type of design human-centered. The inventions are made to appeal to users because they take human behavior into account. The dressing rooms at the Prada store in Manhattan are designed so that the shopper can model her new outfit without leaving the room. With the press of a button, the walls become transparent and onlookers can give the outfit a thumbs-up.

Other aspects of the Prada store technology have caused some controversy. As this article from 2002 discusses, many customers fear that the “smart tags” on the store’s merchandise which employees scan to keep track of stock could be gathering too much personal information. This new technology seeks to make the shopping trip easier and more enjoyable, but these innovations can also be used to track what customers are trying on and make sure that there is no funny business going on in the dressing room. Upscale boutiques like Prada seek to separate the hoi polloi from those who can afford to shop in their stores. It’s possible that their new technology helps them keep track of who are (and who are not) their serious clientele.

Four Interactive Approaches

In his book Designing for Interaction, Dan Saffer describes four approaches to interactive design. User-centered design involves feedback from potential users. The designer translates this feedback into a working product. This method may work if the feedback is coming from someone in the vanguard of the field for which the product is intended. This person in-the-know may have some specialized information that may prove helpful to the designer. The second method is activity-centered design. It focuses on the tasks that a product is destined to accomplish:

Like user-centered design, activity-centered design relies on research as the basis for its insights, albeit not as heavily. Designers observe and interview users for insights about their behavior more than about their goals. Designers catalog users’ activities and tasks, perhaps add some missing tasks, and then design solutions to help users accomplish the task, not achieve a goal per se. Ultimately, activity-centered design allows designers to focus narrowly on the tasks at hand and design products and services that support those tasks.

An important thing to keep in mind when utilizing activity-centered design is Hick’s law, which implies that the best design should make the menus simple and not bog them down with too many options.

The third design strategy is systems design. This method follows a set of pre-established criteria and by fulfilling these criteria, a design is created. The fourth approach to design is what Saffer calls “genius design.” This system requires an autocratic designer who understands the and wants and needs of others so well that he alone can make decisions about how to satisfy them.

The genius design system is put into use in Tim Aidlin’s article, How we work (and sometimes skip some steps). This blog entry discusses the limited resources available to website designers who are forced to skip some of the steps of user-centered design because of budgetary and time constraints. Instead of utilizing feedback from potential users, the designers create a plan based on sketches and diagrams conceived on the office white board:

We generally start out in a conference room in front of a wall of whiteboards, markers in hands, laptops fired up, and ready to roll. At this point we’ll generally use one whiteboard to write down and brainstorm features, then translate that featureset into a set of *crude* wireframes, thrown up in blue, red, green, and black. Of course, the complexity of the problem we’re trying to solve may require a few rounds of this, but at that point, we simply pull out a digital camera and take a photograph of what we’ve worked out. Then we start again with the next problem we have to solve, continuing to do this until we have enough to at least start trying to build out the framework of the site or application we’re working on.

Though this method may be low tech, Aidlin and his cohorts are considering design problems and solutions methodically and carefully. Keeping in mind the problems that Cooper points out regarding focus groups and consumer testing, this may be the best method of interaction design that is currently available. Only humans can design for other humans and humans are inherently flawed. With all of the strategies for determining problems and finding solutions, all of the techniques boil down to people making informed guesses as to what designs will be successful and which will be flops.

Believe it or not, 3D TV’s will be available for sale in 2010. Who knew that our HDTV’s would become obsolete so fast?

3D football, anyone? Intel offers peek at 21st Century television

See how I made this logo:

Click here: Nuclearswan Logo

Benchmarks

There are many great interactive websites for famous artists that serve as a benchmark for my Jan van Eyck interactive website proposal.

www.michelangelo.com

This Michelangelo site contains a well-illustrated life of the artist. It was created by a design firm and has been visited by over four and a half million people. The site’s minimalism and clarity make it easy to navigate. Like my proposal, this site offers a gift shop for visitors.

A Virtual Whistler Exhibittion

This James McNeill Whistler site is described as a virtual exhibit that goes along with the Smithsonian’s current exhibit Freer & Whister: Points of Contact. There are dozens of artworks in this online gallery; arranged chronologically, geographically, and by the medium. The site is gorgeous and highly informative at the same time.

Competitors

The existing van Eyke websites may contain useful information, but they lack the refined design of the Michelangelo and Whistler websites.

Van Eyke Webmuseum

Most van Eyke websites are part of a larger structure of websites devoted to famous artists. This is true of the Van Eyke Webmuseum. Images of van Eyke’s paintings are included in the Webmuseum, but they are not arranged as appealingly as the benchmark sites. One of the features of the Webmuseum that pleases me is the webmaster’s explanation of international copyright laws. As I imagined, no one owns the rights to a 500 year-old painting. Therefore, the works of Jan van Eyke are public domain. Another feature that I plan to utilize is the option to add my site to the Webmuseum hotlist.

This van Eyke site is visually very boring. There are two meager, poorly reproduced images on it. This site ranks high on Google, but it is not useful or interesting. Unlike all of the other sites I mentioned, this site lacks credibility. The facts are not precise (it is not known when van Eyke was born or died and the site lists exact dates for these events). This site links to a larger site about Renaissance artists that is even more pitiful. It doesn’t have any pictures on it.

Conclusion

There is plenty of room online for an interactive van Eyke website. I believe my site will be welcomed with open arms considering what is currently available.

In Ryan’s Blog, Ryan discusses Dan Greenberg’s article about promoting viral videos. She writes, “Dr. Alex’s spoke about this new wave of communication professionals in his Module Four lecture. I view Greenberg as one of these new communications professionals who is helping his clients raise their profiles through viral marketing.”

I disagree that Greenberg is truly a communications professional. While he does have specialized knowledge of viral videos, this knowledge was not achieved through formal education. In fact, Greenberg’s degrees from Stanford University were in Economics and Management Science. He describes himself as an “entrepreneur.” This makes sense as Greenberg lacks the morality of a legitimate informing professional (see my blog entry: All the News That’s Fit to Print to PDF).

Entrepreneurs are not formally bound by the moral code of any professional organization. They are solely bound by the laws of the land, which Greenberg overtly acknowledges following. Other than that, they are free to do anything it takes to make money.

Yes Ryan, Greenberg does make his living through communications. But that does not make him a “professional.”

Introduction

As newspaper advertising steadily declines and readership falls by the wayside, those in the informing professions must adapt to the sudden and dramatic changes that have occurred in the media industry. In order to stay current, industries blog to their customers, create viral video campaigns, and tailor their ads to loyal followers of the most esoteric genres. Interactive communications professionals work diligently to attract the attention of consumers who are increasingly selective about what they are willing to watch or read. In order to grasp their attention, informing professionals must provide useful or entertaining content to subtly advertise to consumers.

In a June 2009 study, it was estimated by Internet World Stats that 74.1% of Americans use the internet. Not surprisingly, this is the highest penetration rate of internet use in the world. With the vast majority of the population using the internet, newspapers are becoming anachronistic.

The power of the newspaper was arguably at its height when William Randolph Hearst cabled artist Frederic Remington, who had been sent to Cuba to record a supposed revolution, when in fact there in fact was no war: “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” Hearst and his Yellow Journalism actually caused many deaths. Printing stories of the revolution on the front page of his newspapers caused the Cuban government to send in military might to crush its protesters.

News Goes Online

Today, the power of the newspaper is a thing of the past. Stories that newspapers refuse to cover receive exposure through blogging. Those that are covered are closely scrutinized. Their business models are now considered a joke. Even in major metropolitan areas, newspapers are filing for bankruptcy. Readers have moved online, where they read the same newspaper articles for free. There are plans afoot to charge users a fee to read newspapers online. One news source that plans to remain free is the news counterpart of Wikipedia, the “Free Online Encyclopedia.” Wikinews is the subject of an article by creative industries professor, Dr. Axel Bruns.

Wikinews is a free news service which aspires to be as respected as Reuters or the Associated Press. Its users act as journalists and write stories that they have researched themselves or their reactions to current events. Errors and omissions are corrected by members of the community, thus promising accuracy to the reader. This system, however does not guarantee full news coverage nor does it fulfill its promise for preciseness.

There were only two postings on Wikinews yesterday (September 21, 2009):

• Students in Rhode Island school attacked by wasps
• Premier League: United snatch victory in dramatic Manchester derby

It could be argued that neither of these stories are of any import (especially if you don’t care about soccer or wasp-related news). Serious journalism professionals (who possess specialized skills and knowledge) have nothing tangible to gain by working gratis for a free news service. Therefore, they are clearly not drawn to the prospect of writing for Wikinews. The few writers for the site are most likely wannabes and self-promoters.

Filtering the News

In Cass Sunstein’s article, “Democracy and Filtering,” Sunstein argues that current technology allows the populace to filter content in ways previously impossible. Consequently, people are not exposed to a broad range of ideas and opinions, but rather the ideas and opinions that they seek out from like-minded individuals. He goes on to assume that people with extreme views will find others with similar views and, as a result of interacting with them, become more extreme in their beliefs.

The implication is that more extremists will emerge in the Twenty-First Century than in previous eras. It is hard to believe, however, that there could possibly be more people holding extreme points-of-view than were seen in the 1930’s. Radio is often credited with enabling the ascent of Hitler and the rise of Nazism. Perhaps the enthusiasm that the masses feel for new communication devices allows them to be driven to extreme points-of-view.

A less sinister form of filtering (at least if you’re not an advertiser) is the Adblock add-on which allows Firefox users to further filter the content they view: eliminating ads from web pages. If this tool becomes commonplace, it could have devastating effects on Google AdSense, which generates site-specific ads to entice web surfers. Bloggers often use AdSense as a source of revenue and would also suffer from widespread use of Adblock.

Blogging for Fun or Profit

Robert Scoble and Shel Israel’s book Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers contains the stories of bloggers from many areas of business. Scoble and Israel argue that if not today, than in the near future, it will be necessary for companies to blog in order to connect with the public. Those not blogging will be considered suspect by consumers.

Scoble was responsible for starting the Microsoft employee’s blog Channel 9. Channel 9 purports to be an open conversation between employees and consumers. According to the site’s guidelines, “Channel 9 is a place for us to be ourselves, to share who we are, and for us to learn who our customers are.” One wonders how free and open people can be when they are warned, “Don’t be a jerk. Nobody likes mean people.” Many people are jerks. How can someone who is a jerk be themselves and not be a jerk? Obviously, it would be very easy for an employee to dramatically hurt his career by being too open on one of these kinds of forums.

Viral Video Outbreaks

Another way that companies are now beginning to connect with their customers is through viral videos. Dan Greenberg’s company, The CoMotion Group, works to have 100,000 or more hits on Youtube videos for their corporate clients. Companies employ subtle marketing through these entertaining video nuggets. Greenberg breaks down the strategies of getting viewers to click on these videos.

These tactics, he assures his readers, are completely legal. They are, however, of dubious moral quality. Some viral video “secrets” include staging phony UFO footage, “fake headlines,” and exhibiting scantily clad women. These are hardly the ideals of a serious informing professional.

Conclusion

The future of the informing professions is not clear. Changes in the way news is disseminated and in how the public interacts with private concerns are dramatic and rapid. What is clear is that informing professionals must be mailable in their medium and creative in the way that they seek remuneration. Those who refuse to change will find difficulty in the world of bloggers, viral videos, and free news outlets.

I have decided to expand my third project idea and make an interactive website for the artist Jan van Eyke. I have studied other interactive website for famous artists such as Leonardo and van Gogh and I have come to the conclusion that van Eyke needs an equally cool website. This site could include my idea to have “your face” on artwork–in this case, on the works of van Eyke. I’m working alone on this project. My goal is to please myself, my professors, and the art community to some extent.

The Arnolfini Wedding

This website would be targeted to everyone who has interest in fine art. There will be fun things on it to appeal to children and biographical/historical information for adults. Through this site, I expect to display all of van Eyke’s work (he was not prolific) and tell the story of his life (all of what is known about him). I believe that this site will be an important educational tool that will be relevant for years to come.

I expect this site to use a lot of bandwidth so that I may incorporate elaborate interactive features. It is important that this site show up near the top of Google so I will make sure a lot of pages link to it.

I am planning to link this site to a Zazzle store where I will sell van Eyke postcards and other merchandise.

I played CSI Hard Evidence because it’s not the kind of game I’d normally play. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game rated M (for mature) before. The kinds of images and details in this game made me feel queasy (a corpse lying in the morgue, a soiled condom, a hair from a bald man). The graphics were really outstanding for a PC game which only added to the grim and unpleasant feel of the game.

This game is structured as a procedural. The player goes through the motions of a crime scene investigator: putting on rubber gloves, taking evidence down to the crime lab, analyzing it with forensic technology. This doesn’t quite make for a thrilling action-packed adventure.

Suspects were questioned, but there was no real strategy for the questioning–it was simply necessary to click each question one after the other until the detained suspect informed you that they weren’t going to answer any more questions.

Gathering evidence involved scrolling around with the mouse waiting  for the arrow to turn green. To make it more “challenging,” some things you click on are not evidence, but, since you were a good detective, you are given a point for being oh so thorough. This was just annoying. I think that this game should have incorporated more strategy in the questioning of the suspects and in the gathering of evidence.

The forensic details seem to be educational, but I don’t really need to know which chemicals expose fingerprints on which kind of material and I don’t really care. I actually took an undergraduate course in forensic science and that kind of thing was not really the focus. One thing that was covered in detail in that course was the collection of DNA evidence. This is something that was actually misrepresented in this video game. I realize that it’s a common mistake, but there is no DNA in a hair. There is DNA in the root of a hair. There is mitochondrial DNA in a hair. But this is something that the game programmers–who are not forensic scientists obviously didn’t know.

So does this game provide any educational content? Not as far as I can tell. The rudimentary and misleading information would do little to help a forensic science student or someone plotting a murder for that matter.

My final analysis: Some may enjoy playing CSI Hard Evidence, but it’s not going to teach them much of anything and it was certainly not for me.

I have been playing Beatles Rock Band for nine days now and it is awesome! It was very easy for me to learn the game because I am familiar with other Rock Band/Guitar Hero games and VERY familiar with the songs of the Fab Four.

In this game, the player can step into the shoes of George, John, Paul, and Ringo. She can play along with Ringo on the drum controller, strum along with the other Beatles on the guitar controller in either bass or guitar mode, or even sing along with some of the catchiest lyrics of all time on a USB microphone. The player can play in career mode and try to beat every song or simply play one song at a time. Unlike other games in this genre, you do not have to beat the songs using the same instrument throughout your “career.”

This game is a lot less challenging to me than the other Rock Band games because I know all of these songs so well. Beatles Rock Band has one feature that is unavailable in those other games. Up to three players can sing along (each player needs her own USB microphone). I find this feature adds an extra level of complexity to the game–players need to understand harmony and melody in order to sing the different parts of the song. Learning  this skill will help me to understand music in general. As I said earlier, I believe that these games can teach a player a lot about music.

The graphics in this game are amazing and each song has its own animation to go along with it. I don’t feel there is any room for improvement in the game. I’m just dying for new songs to download!