Sep 11

7 in 7 for Day6 information visualization storyboard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Japan1

 

In sixth day of 7 in 7 , I tried to do something I never done before.

And I’m used to interested in how can information present in a more visible and helps people to understand information in a more effective way and how to deliver information in an accurate way.

I  choose to present the forest coverage rate of four countries to arouse people’s attention on about the nature resource. The global forest coverage rate in fact is keep reducing every year , the majority reason is because the human being activities.I did this  four picture as a storyboard for a video. In order to accomplish a data visualization to deliver information, in fact after we select topic, a data visualization is not as simple as I imagine. Every data visualization project need in-depth survey. Like in this project , I need more time and resource to find an accurate data and detail behind data to present them in a good way. However I still think this is a good way to explore the designing method.

 

 

Norway2

Brazil3

US-4

Sep 10

7 In 7- 6th Project- A collection of Fall.

Fall is coming soon. It is most colorful during a year.

My 6th Project is a collection book that let help collect colorful leaves in the Fall, also records best memories from nature.This book is made by strong absorbent paper to help dehydrate leaves and the color of leaves can stay for years.The note mark on each page records  the location, date and species’ name of the fall leaves .The double side stickers help to set leaves on each page.

 

Play this video:

101

Sep 10

7 in 7 – Day 7 WeedSee App

The more I read about the concept of weeds, the more I realize how closely tied to human intervention of nature.  A weed is not a botanical classification, rather a term that people use to describe plants that is growing where humans do not want it to grow.  While weed is mostly a negative term, a plant that is considered a weed in one context, may not be in the next. Some weeds have beneficial aspects to neighboring plants or insects.   For example, there are plants that flourish in agricultural areas alongside the crops that people have planted.  These plants are deemed unwanted and must be controlled to protect the crop yield of the desired plant.  The ironic part about weed growth is these plants typically follow the paths of human migration and cultivation.  We are the ultimate cause of what we don’t want.

Due to the ambiguity of the term “weeds” and lack of clear definition for when something is a weed, I want to create an educational tool/field guide for identifying different weedy plants while outside and learning more about them.  An app like this already exists, called “leafsnap” that different tree species through identification of their leaves.  This project is a joint effort with ColumbiaU/UMD/Smithsonian that uses visual recognition software and crowd-sourcing of leaf images and locations to create a database of trees and their leaves in different areas.

My WeedSee app would employ similar techniques in identification but provide more information that could be useful to gardeners or casual plant enthusiasts such as:

-Invasive species status: has there been an adverse effect on other species in the habitat?

-Attracts/hosts/repels certain insects: could be helpful as an insecticide

-Companion plants: do they help another plant grow?

-Medicinal uses

-Edible: can humans eat it or is it poisonous?

-Animal uses: can animals eat it?

 

weedsee_snap

weedsnap

Sep 10

7in7 Day 7- Sorry not Sorry

My last project is a board game modeled off the Hasbro game “Sorry”. This game is meant to be played as a board game or an online interactive game. The game play is similar to the original but the representation and meaning of the game is completely different. The idea is to make the experience of factory farming accessible to children.

Game Pieces:

Each player picks a character (Chicken, Cow, Pig, or a Factory Farmer)                                                                               Each player controls 4 pieces from their chosen character

Object of the Game:

To be the first player to get all of their pieces from start to home.

In the case of the animal characters, they are born into factory farming when they leave start and spend their lives trying to escape until they are free- when they reach home.

In the case of the factory farmer character, when they leave start is when they realize the animals are trying to escape until they get home. For each piece they bring home- they capture an animal on the board (send hem back to home)

 

Game Play:

In order to get a piece to move from start the player must draw a 1 card. On all other turns, each player moves a piece the number of spaces on the card that is drawn.

Captures:

If a factory farmer lands on an animal they capture it and send it back to start. If an animal lands on a factory farmer they throw them from their scent and send them back to start.

Notes:

There are slides on each side of the game board. If you land at the beginning of a slide your piece slides backwards.

 

Sorry not Sorry

Sep 10

7 in 7 – Day 6 Weeds Javascript

For today’s project I wanted to remake my Processing sketch of “Weeds in NYC” into a Javascript canvas.  This proved to be much more difficult than I thought because I learned JS doesn’t have simple mouseX and mouseY detection commands because it  detects window X,Y events, which then must be converted to relate to the canvas dimensions.  I read through many tutorials about how to get around this and successfully program the interactive aspect of my project (click on thumbnail and detailed image appears), but in the end my prototype isn’t too succesful. In the future, I’ve read that CSS/Jquery is easier for this type of image changing that I want to make.

Screen Shot 2013-09-09 at 11.18.19 PM

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Screen Shot 2013-09-09 at 11.18.05 PM

Sep 09

7 in 7: day 5

With this project my initial idea was to find another way for the Ikea parts to represent music. After playing around with different layouts and shapes of the parts, I found that if organized int he right way some of the parts can actually look like sheet music. From there I created a simple melody using 7 different notes and recorded it into garage band and then created a stop motion video as a visual representation of the music.

 

Here is the video:

 

Sep 09

[7IN7] 005 – Madlib Bloggie

Built on my personal blog.

Screen Shot 2013-09-09 at 12.08.13 PM Screen Shot 2013-09-09 at 12.08.21 PM Screen Shot 2013-09-09 at 12.08.39 PM

 

 

LINK:

 

http://a.parsons.edu/~linx137/myblog/

Sep 09

reading response for mon the 9th

The readings this week focused on defining the strengths and weaknesses of prototyping, mock-ups, and sketches. However the tone of each piece differed greatly with each author’s intention for the articles. “What do Prototypes Prototype?” gave a very comprehensive reference on the function of prototyping to a reader who might be approaching the terminology for the first time. “Cardboard Computers” focused on defining mockups and provided some historical context to the problems that prototyping sought to solve. “What Sketches (and Prototypes) Are and Are Not.” compares and contrasts prototypes with sketches from a functionality standpoint. However, Buxton directs his opinion seemingly towards teachers or practicing designers. Finally, “Experience Prototyping” illustrates the differences in prototyping when applying it to user experience design, a discipline that IDEO had a hand in redefining personally.

All and all, I found the differing opinions and approaches to be helpful at giving me a wider range of what prototyping can be. However, I would argue that these readings, particularly “What Sketches (and Prototypes) Are and Are Not”, might limit what designers can get out of prototyping as a tool. The assertion that I see as missing is that prototyping can also be used for initial ideation, similar to how we draw mind maps and mood boards to provoke ideas. Often I come up with ideas by just messing with the limitations of coding languages, such as testing how a certain physics simulation differs from reality. This freeform coding could lead to coming up with an interesting game mechanic (i.e. letting the player reverse gravity), where the prototype was the origin of the creative process and communicating the idea would take a secondary role. I can see an argument that this process is outside the definition of a prototype, but nonetheless, when the target audience of the articles are students and teachers, i find it relatively limiting.

Sep 09

7 in 7: DAY 4 – The Herald

20130909_094432

 

Pre Work Write Up:

The Herald

v Precedents and their themes:

  • Professor Oak from Pokemon
  1. Origin: Professor Oak is a Pokemon enthusiast who begisn the journeys in the games and gives the main character of the show, Ash, his first pokemon to begin the journey. He serves as a source of information on pokemon and the world for ash as the story progresses.
  2. Weapon: Pokemon
  3. Token: Pikachu (given to ash)
  4. Clothes: Lab coat.
  5. Ethos: Lawful / Good
  6. Personality: Enthusiastic, knowledgeable in a wide variety of things, however, he does not apply that knowledge as a trainer.
  7. Gift/Talent: Revered world wide as a pokemon Scientist.
  • Gandalf (again, dual archetype)
  1. Origin: Gandalf the Grey – Gandalf the White, one of a handful of powerful wizards who are meant to protect middle earth and guide the “goodly” races to peace and cooperation.
  2. Weapon: Staff and Sword
  3. Token: Pipe
  4. Clothes: Gray and White Robes
  5. Ethos: Neutral-Lawful/Good
  6. Personality: Sometimes playing the simple old man he defers to his wisdom as a weapon more so then his magic. Depending on the timeline of the story he wishes greatly that he had taken more decisive action The ring and the other wizards when he had the chance. This is also the moral question of his character.  Showing his faith in good people to do the right thing instead of unnatural magic changing the world.
  7. Gift/Talent: Extreme magical talent
  8. Dual Archetype: With most good stories characters play different roles. Gandalf, for example, plays both the mentor to the hobbits and the Herald for the overall journey in both trilogies. He gathers together both groups for the grand quest and leads them with updates on the status of their quest and the world at large.
  • Hagrid – Harry Potter Series
  1. Origin:  A half-giant, half-wizard, who both begins Harry’s adventure and always is the one to break the silence code of the teachers of what is going on at the school. He is also the one who carries Harry’s supposedly lifeless body at the end of the story.
  2. Weapon: Wand hidden as umbrella
  3. Token: Pets
  4. Clothes: Gameskeeper furs.
  5. Ethos: C­­­­­­­­­haotic / Good
  6. Personality:  Hagrid is a very “simple” character in his motivations, but he has the stereotypical heart of gold. While he has a chaotic alignment when it comes to the lawful spectrum (always breaking the rules to aid harry and to keep extremely vicious pets and his half-brother near the school), he is generally a happy and positive influence in the main characters world.
  7. Gift/Talent: Somewhat of a wizard, handling animals.

 

v The Herald’s Seven Themes

  • Origin: The Herald Can have many different backgrounds. Unlike most of the other archetypes  he does not really stand alone, their power as a character is in relation to his relevance to the character. Many times it is someone who has suffered at the hands of whatever evil the hero is fighting. If it is a main character in the story they might be similar in attributes to the hero but with different look and feel. If the hero is a warrior they might be a fellow soldier in the hero’s company. Or if the hero is a wizard, it might be a fellow mage. Generally, however, they are less powerful then the hero, allowing the hero the opportunity to shine. Next to someone.
  • Weapon: The Axe, Polearm, specialty magic, something that is similar to the hero to make them relatable to the hero, but different enough to make him seem like a stand alone character.
  • Token: Some momento from home or from the organization or circumstance he finds himself in. Often used as a device to give the herald some personification without having to go to deep into his background (the soldier’s lovers letter or photo)
  • Clothes: Generic apparel for his occupation
  • Ethos: Nonspecific, though normally it is Good oriented to follow the Hero.
  • Personality: If they are a main character they tend to have either a friendly or antagonistic relationship with the character. They can become the side-kick almost. Always providing helpful information about the task. If they are one time characters, are multiple characters who appear at different times, then they will have some direct feature that makes them relate to the hero either in empathy are disgust or angry. They are almost emotional punctuation for the story.
  • Gift/Talent: None, or something simple. Normally, not as poignant as the hero.

Post Work Write Up:

Couldn’t really think of any border design that adequately portrayed the Herald thing but I think the horns and the banner work decently well. At the very least these projects have reminded me that I need to keep working on my drawing skills. I have lost a LOT of refine ment **sad times**.  I do however like that I got to incorporate the shield into the border again. Kinda makes the projects seem more interrelated.

Sep 09

7 in 7: Day 3 – The Threshold Guardian

20130909_094523

 

Pre Work Write Up:

The Threshold Guardian

v Precedents and their themes:

  • Heimdall – Portal Guardian from Thor Movie/Comic
  1. Origin:  Mysterious warrior charged with guarding the portal too different realms. One of the most powerful warriors in his kingdom, guarding the greatest source of power: transportation to other worlds.
  2. Weapon: Two handed sword.
  3. Token: Horn to warn the other “gods” of the gate opening.
  4. Clothes: Golden armor of the gods
  5. Ethos: True Neutral
  6. Personality:  No true personality beyond his sense of honor and duty to the great task he has been given.
  7. Gift/Talent: Ability to hear single leaves fall. Said to be ever watchful and so
  •  GLaDOS – Sentient robot overseer of Aperture Science in Portal
  1. Origin: Scientist Wife of Cave Johnson Transformed into a diabolical sentient machine with the single goal of using human subjects to test puzzles even after humanity has all but been eradicated. She prevents the main character from escaping only to have her go through an infinite gauntlet of test.
  2. Weapon: Science
  3. Token: “potato”, and a hard drive copy of her human memories.
  4. Clothes: Technology
  5. Ethos: Lawful Neutral
  6. Personality: (no empathy or sympathy as a computer but she is bound by the laws of her programming clashing with her human memories)
  7. Gift/Talent: Science
  • Tsun – Guardian of the Bridge to the Hall of Valor in Sovngarde of Skyrim, TES
  1. Origin: Great Nord Warrior who was chosen to guard the bone bridge leading into the Hall of Valor the Nord place for those who have achieved an honorable death.
  2. Weapon: Two Handed Weapon
  3. Token: The Bridge
  4. Clothes: Hide Armor
  5. Ethos: Lawful /Good-Neutral
  6. Personality: An honorable warrior who was given the place of honor at the bridge for his bravery in life and death.
  7. Gift/Talent:  Great Nord Warrior

 

v The Guardian’s Seven Themes

  • Origin: Something Shrouded in mystery but almost always a former great person who was rewarded with their position for their honor. These characters are often simple in their development, but are marked by a significant and dramatic sense of purpose.
  • Weapon: A large powerful Weapon, are some power or gift that makes them near unstoppable.
  • Token: No direct token, but they are often gifted with some weapon or object they protect that is meant for the one who defeats them
  • Clothes: Same as armor, magnificent but left with flaws meant for the hero to see and exploit.
  • Ethos: True Neutral most often.
  • Personality: Once again a mysterious thing. They are often people of honor or bravery who were charged with their position because they had the patience and diligence to wait for the right one or moment.
  • Gift/Talent: Some power that would stop those who are not meant to “cross the threshold”.

 

Post Work Write Up:

This character took the least time to write up so I took a little extra time to play with the border and incorporating that into the design. I did however distort some of the proportions for the arms and legs.