WEEK 1:
Introduction to Designing
Digital Experiences
Aaron Siegel |
| Spring 2023
What does it mean to be DIGITAL?
What is the practice of DESIGN?
Forms digital experiences come in:
Screens
Using visual metaphors to create graphic user interfaces for communication and engagement.
Objects
Physical products with the ability to respond to interaction or outside influences.
Environments
Interior or exterior spaces under the influence of their inhabitants.
What are attributes of digital experiences?
Interactivity
The ability for those undergoing the experience to engage with or influence the outcome.
Sensing / Actuating
The awareness of, or ability to influence, their surroundings.
Logic / Algorithms
The capacity to make decisions based on input.
Connectivity
The ability to send or receive information.
Forms digital experiences come in:
Utility
Logistics, practicality, efficiency, affordability.
Communication
Multimedia, fidelity, experience, education.
Entertainment
Engagement, fulfillment, understanding.
You will spend the next 16 weeks collecting data on a daily basis about some activity you perform. This can be production or consumption oriented.
Data you Generate
Regular Activities
What are some things you do on a regular basis in your daily life?
Life Patterns
What are the patterns you can see between different regular activities you perform?
Personal Performance
How might you analyze and reflect on your behavior in order to change it for the better?
Recording Data
Passive Recording
Is your activity already being recorded in some automated fashion that you can read from?
Active Recording
If you need to create a method to record your activity, how might you go about it?
Data Modeling
What properties of data will you be recording and in what mediums?
Displaying Data
Interest
What is it about the subject matter that is interesting and how do you highlight that?
Communication
How do you most effectively communicate the most important facets of your data?
Analysis
What are the most effective modes of display for understanding and analyzing the activity?
Interfacing with Data
Perspective
How many perspectives can you create to communicate your data, and which is the most effective?
Better Questions
Understanding your subject matter better will improve the quality of questions you pose against it.
Sorting and Filtering
How might sorting and filtering your data enable a viewer a more refined understanding?
Previous Student Projects
Journal Project Pitch Presentation (5%)
Create a 2 minute presentation in slide deck form with three ideas for data for your journal project concept. Cover your data type, mechanisms for recording data, and initial ideas for representation and user interface functionality. Your records should be happening at least once a day, but the more frequent they are, the more interesting your results will be. Your journal should not be a blog, instagram account, or series of tweets… think outside the box!
Data Collection (5%)
Begin recording regular activities about your life. Showcase what you have collected so far, the different properties you are collecting, the potential values for various properties and the range they fall within, as well as the granularity of the recordings.
Database Progress (6%)
Use phpMyAdmin (or equivalent tool for your database system) to view the structure and content of your database tables. Include all different tables and views that tie your data recordings together.
API Progress (6%)
Document the application programming interface you have developed to serve up data for the front end of your application as well as potentially receive input of new data from you or visitors to your application.
Frontend Moodboard (6%)
Submit a moodboard of visual material to inspire the design of your frontend interface. Make sure you include consideration for colors, charts and graphs that have been used in other projects, as well as typographic design decisions.
Frontend Mockups (6%)
Submit some mockup illustrations of your frontend interface. Start with considerations about the most effective chart/graph model to implement for your data and the questions you are posing against it, then get into further detail regarding color, typography, iconography, and user interface elements.
Frontend Development (10%)
Submit code and screenshots of your frontend development progress.
Journal Project Final (30%)
Your journal must provide an interactive visual interface to your content that allows users to navigate it in an interesting way. Consider the potential for users to sort and filter your data, view it in the macro and micro perspective, and what story you might tell about the dataset through your interface design.
Readings (16%)
Write 5 bullet point responses/reactions to the content of each assigned reading.
Participation (10%)
27 in-class lab exercises.