Summer is over
It was hard to write that, but it’s true. It was a very interesting summer and I feel like I learned a lot. It’s weird not to have to be somewhere every morning. I guess I’m starting the transition from working to schooling. I planned to do all my reading over the past three months and have a clear framing of what I wanted to work on for my thesis paper and project. That didn’t really work out, so I’m back to square one re-thinking everything. It’s hard for me to focus down onto one particular situation to spend time on, so I will probably need to start drawing some boundaries. Right now I have some very broad topics for my project, which I will be whittling down into one proper proposal within the next week:
Spontaneity and fluid interactions: One thing that mobile and ubiquitous technology can potentially allow for is interactions that are happen naturally. This could mean products that are simply low-attention or products that let people do what they wish. A simple example is the camera phone. Whereas before people had to intentionally bring a camera somewhere, now things like citizen journalism have emerged where people only have to be at the right place at the right time. The challenge here might be finding a specific context or group of people to design for. So maybe its for journalists, for public events, for the environment, for education. Essentially I would want to find out how people already do spontaneous and fluid things and how a product could be designed that takes advantage of those needs.
Social cooperation: We already have lots of situations where we are in the same physical setting with others and we are cooperating. It would probably look at a type of people: construction workers, restaurant workers, bands, offices, groups of friends, people traveling together, etc… understand how they work and communicate and how a product could serve them. This could also look at people who are strangers and who cooperate. Reminds me a bit of Fred’s goPlay project. That said, it could be related to gaming a bit.
Representation of digital media: I’ve always been interested in how the representation of different media changes and how people interact with it and value it changes as well. Do we as people just adapt to new forms or is there something inherent in older representation that should be preserved? I think it’s fascinating because it’s something that is constantly changing and has an effect on how we interact with each other and society. I would probably focus on one type, like photographs or music. The only “drawback” is that we have kind of dealt with media in two previous projects already, so I might just want to try something else.
Privacy and notifications: With the potential for all kinds of recording of data in the future as well as stuff that is being recorded right now, what are people comfortable with? In terms of privacy… is it something people will just get over and accept that they are already being tracked and traced? Do we have a responsibility as designers to let people know what information is being collected about them regarding the products they use?
In terms of notifications… with all this information, how do we let people know about things? What’s the proper way to let people know something. How much control do you give people over notifications? How are the notifications manifested or visualized? Especially related to relevant contextual information. How do you find out what people care about and what they are willing to be bothered about? Ie, how do you design for those things? An incoming call is a notification. Today we represent that using obnoxious ringtones. A text message is a buzz. How are you notified if your friends is near? How are you notified if your bank account is low. Again, I feel like I need to focus on a specific context of people or situation.
While these are only a few of tons of other topics, I feel like they are the most relevant and have been on my mind. So I hope I can do something interesting with one of them.
Documentation and Process
The other thing I’ve been doing is setting up some system of documentation for my thesis. I was looking at google docs, which is nice, but maybe not as straightforward as a wiki. So I’m using pbwiki for now. The 10mb limit is kind of troublesome, so if I have time I might go through the hassle of installing my own wiki on this server. Otherwise, I’m leaving it open to anyone. I’m a fan of having a transparent process, especially in school.
It’s a little scary relying on an online service, but it might be more trustworthy than my janky laptop that is slowly dieing. Hopefully I’ll post worthwhile consolidations of my notes every so often.
Classes
Another anxiety inducing issue is choosing the two classes to go along with thesis project and paper next year. There are so many good classes to take, but I don’t want to jeopardize my thesis by getting in over my head. I think I might be set on taking Graduate Typography since I find myself always wanting to improve my visual design skills. For the second class it’s a toss up between Jodi Forlizzi’s Advanced Interaction, Shelley Evenson’s Designing for Service, or Osman Khan’s Circuit Bending. They all seem fascinating, so it’s going to be a hard decision.
