stop motion

This is a stunning stop motion film by Carlos Lascano. Wonderful expression of love and hope through various styles of animation. 

A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

I particularly like the switch from 3D characters to 2D characters at 1:06 and then back to 3D at 3:00.

One of the reasons I love Vimeo!

visualizing friend networks

Sebastian Van Sande has developed Visualizer, a tool that allows you to explore your Facebook social network graphically. This is the "Visualization" of my Facebook account.

It's great as I can see friends connected to other friends and also the ones who are only connected to me. The tool allows for filtering your network by gender and relationship status.

However I'm confused as to the length of the connecting lines. What do different line lengths represent? Some of my close friends appear close to me on the map, and others far away. Does the program determine who is close and who is further away through a friends activity?

It would be even more useful if short lines represented close friends and vic-versa. This way, we would be able to visualize not only our map of friends, but also the various levels of relationships between each other. 

Imagine if we were able to connect our maps with each others! If everyone on Facebook did this then I would inevitably be connected to, say, Barrack Obama (presumably through 6 corresponding people considering the "6 degrees of separation" theory to be accurate).

Wouldn't it be great to see a whole world networked graphically using a social networking site?

As a visualization tool, Van Sande has created an interactive application that communicates a complex network greatly. As with the underground maps, credit is given to those who achieve simplistic communication of labyrinth-like infrastructures.

However in comparison to Nexus by Ivan Kozik (Below), Visualizer is lacking as both an interactive and informative tool for the search for information within a complex infrastructure. 

Nexus is another friend grapher for Facebook. It calculates friend similarity by parsing profiles, and highlights links between friends who share interests and groups. The visualization resembles a costilation and looks far more striking than Visualizer. 

And the method of retrieving information is far more straight forward. Another great example of a "walk up and use system."

Subway Map (Re)design

Above: The Tokyo Subway Map.

Not being fluent in Japanese, it must be said, I find this map very confusing however I assume that for a resident of Japan, it must be easy to understand. I make this assumption because the above map follows all the rules laid down by Harry Beck in 1933 and followed by Massimo Vignelli in 1972; The various lines are represented by different colours; the lines are all at 45 or 90 degrees; each station is represented by a box (rather than a circle, presumably to accommodate the form of the Japanese symbols); and the appropriate geographical liberties have been taken.

Are these the unwritten rules of railway map design?

Korean designers Kim Ji-Hwan and Jin Sol plan on redesigning underground maps from around the world starting with Tokyo, Seoul and Osaka. According to them, each cities subway and railway structures should reflect the character of that city in some way.

The above image shows the intricate network of Tokyo's subway, lightrail and monorail with over 1500 stations covering the metropolitan area.  The centre of this map has the Imperial Palace, and the subway lines circumvent the grounds that surround (are claimed by) it. This characteristic is visualized in this map by the concentric circles spreading outwards through the city. This representation of circles is suggestive of the Japanese national flag and the subsequent Japanese identity expressed in the flag. 

I think it looks great, yet I can't help but wonder if a stronger suggestive visual effect could be achieved if the map was made white. I'll do a bit of photoshopping on this one I think, I'm too curious.

White background. Is this another unwritten golden rule of map visualizations? 

New York Subway (a comparison)

Further to my obsession of the London Underground, I thought it would make sense to have a look at how other underground networks from around the word have been visualized.

In 1972, Italian designer Massimo Vignelli re-designed George Solomon's New York Subway map; and I think it is a fantastic piece of work. 

All the lines are represented by different colours, and each station represented by a black dot. In contrast to the original map design, the visual problem of awkward angles of the lines was solved by making each line 45 0r 90 degrees. Although this simplifies the map immensely, an obvious number of geographical liberties had to be taken. For example the map shows Central Park as a square rather than a rectangle.

However I do not see this as a problem. The aim of any map is to provide information in a way that is simple to understand/read. Re-proportioning certain geographical aspects of the map would certainly be detrimental to this objective. 

Do you spot a resemblance in this map? 

Obviously Vignelli was inspired by Harry Beck's design of the London Underground map (1933). Beck was the one who made all lines 45 and 90 degrees; and more importantly made the map a representation of the underground infrastructure, not influenced by the geographical layout of London itself. 

This makes me think about how visualization works. Do aspects of a design/map/flow chart etc need to be neglected in order to achieve ultimate simplicity?

Freakonomics

I thought economics was about price elasticities, interest rates and diminishing marginal utilities. Then I read Freakonomics.

Authors Levitt ("rogue" economist) and Dubner (journalist) stray far from my perceptions of economics in search for solutions for some interesting (and extremely varied) questions. How do parents of different races choose names for their children? What sort of contestants on "The Weakest Link" are most likely to be discriminated by fellow competitors? And, my personal favourite, "If crack dealers make so much money, why do they still live with their mothers?"

Not the questions I'd expect an economist to ask. Yet Levitt insists that these enigmas are fair game for any economist as their solution involves understanding how people react to incentives.

What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world is not impenetrable, is not unknowable and unpredictable, and "if the right questions are asked" is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Levitt shows how to see through all the clutter.

Freakonomics is about "unconventional wisdom", using the raw data of economics in imaginative ways to ask clever and diverting questions. It makes me think about my area of research in visualization in that Levitt asks a question, takes the relevant raw data of economics, processes it and then articulates his solution to the wider audience through words.

Levitt has re-designed the stereotypical boring economist. 

communicating complex (or simple) information

We have an overwhelming amount of information all around us. We can see it and we can understand it, however one of the greatest challenges for a designer is to make sense of this information.

Don't take the word "information" too literally. Bear in mind that everything around us contains an element of information for us to interpret. For example, a ball has affordance in that it sends a visual clue as to how it should be used. We know to bounce, throw or kick a ball; and we know not to eat it!

Some information is often difficult to communicate to others. This hypothesis is something I have began to expand on in my area of research for my Master of Design degree. How can designers be good "Visualization Artists?"

It has proved useful to me in the past to be able to articulate my ideas/thoughts/research to others through giving examples. For this example, I'd like to write about one of most fascinating visualizations of complex information from one of my favourite cities, London. 

The London Underground has 11 lines and 268 stations. Approximately 4.25 million people use the underground everyday. 

The sheer complexity of the infrastructure of lines and stations was simplified beautifully by Harry Beck, an engineering draughtsman, in 1933. The London Underground map a perfect example of great "visualization" as it demonstrates how complicated information (the line and station infrastructure) can be communicated in a graphic language (a map) that is both easy to understand and remember. 

Over the festive season I plan on taking a little break from my studies, but I will be keeping my mind active by reading a few books on the topic of visualization:

Kress, G (2006) Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Language. Routledge, London.

McCloud, S (1993) Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Kitchen Sink Press, New York, NY.

Carroll, J (2002) Usability Engineering. Scenario-Based Development of Human-Computer Interaction. Kaufmann Publishers, San Francisco, CA.

Kim, S (2004) VizAbility: Learn to Communicate Visually. Course Technology, Boston, MA.

stick figures with body language

I found a website which is series of Stick-figure comic strips featuring humour about technology, science, mathematics and relationships. Not the most common of themes you would associate with humor.

I am interested in the actual stick figures themselves. The illustrator(s) give a wonderful insight into the personalities, moods and emotions of the stick men by the way in which they are drawn.

I love this cartoon. Besides the dialogue between the 2 characters being so randomly funny, it's the characters that make me laugh the most, just by how they are drawn. 

It makes me think about visualization, and in particular storyboards, in the design process. A picture can tell a thousand words, so they say, but in this case, a stick man can do exactly the same!

See more at xkcd.com

ethnography study: is online time "good for kids?"

I have a Facebook account which I use now and again, and I find it very useful for keeping in touch with friends whom I may otherwise have lost contact with. It's true, if Facebook did not exist then I would have lost touch with some friends from High School, so why use this new tool as a method of communication with people I would otherwise have forgotten about? 

I suppose in a way it makes me happy to keep in touch with these people. After all, these friends from the past are tagged with many memories, some of which would have evaporated if it weren't for the occasional email from them to my Facebook homepage.

However my opinion of social networking sites is not all that of hope, happiness and reminiscence. children and teenagers are spending far too much time surfing the internet and socializing online through the likes of Facebook and MySpace. 

There are many dangers related to these past-times such as childhood obesity and the risk of meeting pedophiles disguising themselves as teenagers through the mask of the virtual world. In fact,  25% of 8-15 year olds in the UK admit to having "Facebook" friends; people they have not met in real life but have befriended through the social networking website.

However this morning I read how a study has shown that spending time on social networking sites is important for teen development. 

The report really counters my opinion and probably the stereotypical views of parents and teachers nationwide.

"They are learning the technological skills and literacy needed for the contemporary world," said Dr Mimi Ito, the reports author. 

"They are learning how to communicate online, craft a public identity, create a homepage, post links. All these things were regarded as sophisticated 10 years ago but young people today take them for granted."

The aim of the Digital Youth Project was to provide an ethnographical view of how children use social media to socialize, learn and relax. More than 800 teenagers took part in the study.

Dr Ito also says that the internet provides teenagers the opportunity to explore in their own creativity whilst providing a "hang-out" place for teenagers, rather than public places where some are perhaps likely to cause nuisance or even commit petty crimes.

This has made me realise that there are opposing advantages and disadvantages to online socializing. On one side we can argue that children are not getting out enough to exercise, for example, as they spend so much time in front of a computer screen; surfacing issues such as childhood obesity which then leads to health problems in later life. There is also the danger of children not always knowing who exactly they are talking to online. 

However the on the other side, the argument is more related to the younger generations ability to use technology and explore their creativity. 

As a designer interested in technology, it would make sense for me to now argue for the latter, however I am indecisive (for a change) and find myself swaying between both arguments. 

So here is a final thought: "Modern" learning has become very peer-based and networked, so with more teenagers now possessing technical abilities partnered with creative thinking, will this path the way for a new breed of designer?

evolution of design during financial turmoil

I was speaking to my 1st year students on Friday about where their research is taking them for the G2 project. A lot of the students are looking at the current financial crisis and how the coming years of financial struggle will have an effect on design.

One student has really focused in on a specific topic regarding the credit crunch and is looking at how "high-end" design will be effected however I am more curious as to how design will evolve over the next few years.

There is no doubt that the challenging economic environment is going to have a huge effect on everyone and everything related to design world wide. Economists say that with so many families in the UK in debt and negative equity, people will no longer be able to afford the luxuries we are so often used to buying.

When people stop spending, companies stop making money; simple. So in terms of products, gadgets and sophisticated developments in technology; what will we be being sold in 5 years time?

More importantly, are design and technology about to change they way they have evolved of the past decade?

I love this image (above). It illustrates just how much both design and technology have evolved over the past 20 years or so. And the image below shows how little time it takes for a designed object to become obsolete and aged. 

In an ever changing financial environment with economic restraints, in what way will the ideas, thoughts and opinions of designers have to change in order to design for people who don't have the money to spend?

child's play

I often find myself afraid of the judgment of my peers when it comes to my design work, my views and

opinions and even my comments on other peoples work. I don't know why, but as an adult, I allow peer pressure and expectation to negatively effect my innate need of expression.

Innovation and creativity are very important in my field of work as a designer, but are also especially vital in education. Teachers prepare their students for a world that is not yet created, a world that changes. And yet, so many education systems focus almost exclusively on memorization and conformity as a learning method. 

But what about the paradigm of play?

Tim Brown from IDEO, in the following video from ted.com, talks about the connection between creativity and playfulness. 

In my opinion, the 3 types of "play" (exploration, building and role play) are vital to the materialization of innovative product and service design solutions.

But don't you agree that there already exists a phenomena that enables us to be childlike in our creativity?

Mind Mapping!

A mind map is a useful method in recording a high volume of information in a way that filters the complexity and amount of information given to us, whether it be from a book or an oral presentation. It is childlike in a sense that we draw and add bright colours to mind maps to remember key points, so the idea of playfulness is evident in this method.

Childlike maturity. How about that for an oxymoron?

Introducing Ethnography

On Friday, Lauren and I introduced Ethnography to our 1st year Design Studies students; encouraging them to be visual listeners and critical thinkers. As it is important to publish our work, thoughts and ideas as designers, we also offered the students a chance to be published on our blogs. 

Lauren gave the students a quick presentation on Ethnography, referencing the work of IDEO and showing examples from Thoughtless Acts by Jane Fulton Suri. We the asked the students to go away and observe people and how they interact with the world around them, giving them 3 days to take a photo of a particular observation and write a little insight description.

AND THE WINNERS ARE... (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER):

GAVIN BORTHWICK

 for his excellent portrayal of his critical thinking.

DOUGLAS WOOD

 for his excellent illustration of "adaptation"

Congratulations to these guys. Here are the images and insights they produced.

GAVIN

"I chose to look at the unusual tradition of using old newspaper as a wrapping/ packaging for chip shop foods.

To notice something lying infront of your eyes, is a process that can be processed in a very short period of time. Before your mind can begin analysing information, it searches for anything that stands out or seems a little more unusual than anything else. In my case, the newspaper clipping used for the packaging for a deep fried food seems almost rediculous. When the object or thought is identified, the unusualness of the item is emphasised until it cannot be taken to any further stage. As the newspaper is and has always been designed to present news and information to the reader, the connection between news and food is non existent. Although people may identify that they are recycling their paper goods and 'saving the trees', their is no reason to combine the overall idea together".

DOUGLAS

"The cooking pot. Not only a utensil for suitably cooking foodstuffs in but when next to a sink, a useful place to store cutlery waiting to be washed or if the pot is clean, a place to store clean cutlery needing to be dried and/or put away. One of the main reason why the pot is used is because there is a lack of storage space in the kitchen area for the individual to put their cutlery and other utensils. This does however make more sense than leaving forks and knives etc lying about were someone could injure themselves. Some other uses for the pot (not shown) include a helmet or hat and a low value drum (both of these are mainly practiced by children)".

week 7

Designers tell stories.

design against terrorism

These images show barricades which have been built in front of Westminster, presumably to prevent terrorists driving a vehicle filled with explosives into the Houses of Parliament. 

Could it not have been designed to look a little more pleasing on the eye?

I don't understand the purpose of this sign.

the value of prototyping and where I went wrong

I had a conversation with Richard Banks a few months back about communicating ideas and concepts for multi-touch products. He showed me some of his ideas in the form of sketches which had a pair of hands "photoshopped" on top of the image to suggest the idea of multi-touch.

These images got me thinking about other ways to communicate my own ideas, not only for multi-touch application concepts, but for some of my other ideas for interactive products.

On Tuesday, a board of industry designers and researchers came to Dundee to answer questions from undergraduate Product Design students. Richard himself was one of the members, along with Tim Reagan and Nicolas Villar, fellow researchers from Microsoft Research in Cambridge, Anab Jain from Nokia, Bill Gaver now at Goldsmiths and Charlie Rohan from NCR, Dundee.

Above from right to left: Bill Gaver, Nicolas Villar, Anab Jain, Richard Banks, Charlie Rohan, Tim Reagan and Jon Rogers (member of staff from the UoD)

Some interesting points came up from the discussion, particularly about the relevance and value of prototyping. 

Richard said we "using our hands helps us to think" which I found very refreshing. I have often said I like to get my hands dirty when it comes to design but have of late doubted such an approach. During the Fable project, I spent around 3 months of the 7 month project prototyping the software with the immense help of my tutor Andy Law. And all I wanted to do was prove a point and the value of the concept. But was it really worth months of neglecting the people I was designing for only to produce a tangible and physical artifact which was the materialization of my research and development?

Above: an early prototype of Fable

In some ways, yes. I proved a lot of people wrong when they told me I didn't have enough time to make a fully working prototype and it meant a lot to me (and my ego) when I was able to show Fable, my creation, to the public in Dundee at my Degree Show, and London at New Designers. But as I mentioned in a recent post, people were more interested in the story of Fable itself, from my research into people right the way through the application of technology. So should I now focus on communicating the story of my work rather than the physicality of the work itself?

Tim Regan answered this question without me even having to ask. He said "When I prototype, I often use it as a way in learning new software. Don't do this! Use the materials you are comfortable with."

Why spend weeks computer programming when I am not a computer programmer? I am a communicator.

Richard's advice was to "understand the question" and "get precious [with prototypes]," giving an example of how Anab Jain communicated her "placebo" prototypes from a postgraduate project in a short video. play full film

From both Richard's and Tim's advice, I think I got halfway there with prototyping Fable. I understood the question and who I was designing for and I was very precious with my prototyping.

I just didn't use the materials I was comfortable with.

week 6

This image is inspired by one of my students in the Design Studies class.

She is interested in the way designers differ from others. Which made me think that of course as designers, we aspire to understand people. But paradoxically, people don't understand us as designers.

So this a metaphorical illustration of how I visualize. I don't see the bigger picture, I see lots of little ones.

can hope defeat fear?

Tonight is the night the people of the United States of America and the rest of the world will find out who will be the next US president.

If the United States elect Barack Obama to the presidency, that event will begin a huge change in US history and culture; we will see for the first time a triumph of hope over fear.

Yet in my view, a victory for the African American is all about the man himself and not the politics. It seems almost ironic that Obama may have the power to transform the spirit of a country, without having to change the essence of its politics.

be a story teller

For Architects or product designers, communicating ideas visually can be illustrated in a number of ways depending on the designer and object being designed.

A building can be quickly sketched (above: Renzo Piano sketch) and then later generated as a scaled 3 dimensional model using CAD software.  A product design concept can be illustrated in a similar way, perhaps in a little more detail at the initial stages of a project in comparison to an architects way of working. So you see the connection between these two very different design disciplines in terms of the way they can visually communicate.

A web site can also be quickly sketched, as the above image shows.

But what about interaction design?

As an undergraduate product designer tackling Interaction Design, I suppose in a way I was (and still am) a futurist: I proved a problem existed through extensive user research; I communicated a solution to this problem; and finally brought the solution to reality and demonstrated how it would fit in to this changing world.

With Fable, I found it difficult to prototype my ideas quickly and efficiently. In fact, apart from a few sketchy concept videos, my only real prototype came in the form of the final prototype itself.

Which leads me to ask, is visual communication that important in Interaction Design as it is in other disciplines, such as Architecture or Product Design? What else do employers look for?

When I was in London exhibiting Fable at New Designers exhibition, most of the people who I spoke to were more interested in my process rather than the final artifact. It was almost as though Fable was a prop in the "about me" performance.

Thinking back to ND and my Degree Show, communicating the essence of Fable was a story in itself. This is what I found in my research; this is how I interpret the research; Fable is the solution to the problem; and this is how Fable works.

No marker renders, no fancy photoshop graphics and no posters explaining the concept. 

Fable has a story behind it, and as a designer, I told the story.