Week 3 - Launching into a Design Odyssey

The Waterfall Method, and the Spiral Method, are two ways of thinking about the steps that can be taken to produce a good final design. From my cartoon, it can be deduced that I would rather use a different mental construct. However, if I wanted to make a patron think I'm doing epic things to produce their design (because I would be),  then these two methods at least paint a decent picture :D

This week we began our first group project, but I'll start with my thoughts on the lecture.

Lecture 3

This weeks lecture was mostly about design methods, particularly those that pertain to software development. Design Methods aid us in ensuring that we approach designing in a way that will hopefully produce the best results. It was also pointed out that 'design methods' are good for giving patrons/clients/customers some idea, and comfort, about the effort and sequence of events that a designer is putting into their project. To properly perfect something, it usually involves working on it over and over, which means iteration. So most useful design methods will have iterative steps.

The Waterfall Method (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_model) does not natively have iteration in it's basic presentation, but loops back to earlier steps are added to give it greater validity. The Spiral Method (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_model) at least has iteration at it's core. Other methodologies such as Prototyping, Incremental Development, Rapid Application Development, Agile Software Development, Object Orientated Development, and Top Down Programming can be found following this link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_development_methodology). Yet there can be a myriad of design methodologies, each to suit a different job, or simply to reflect a companies own devised procedure.

My design about design :P

For a more simple and effective methodology, we can look at Iterative Design, which follow the three steps of Design, Prototype, and Evaluate. A methodology does not necessarily need to be complex. This methodology will produce successful results mainly due to it's fundamentally recursive nature, even if it does look a bit like child's play :D

In terms of learning, an important point that I thought I should keep in mind is that experts tend to be more context sensitive. In other words, an expert will look at a problem and automatically bring the appropriate information set to mind. Being an expert is not just about 'knowing', but also 'filtering' as well.

Another point to always keep in mind is that, when designing, there can be different weights given to the products physical, aesthetic, and symbolic aspects. Going back to 'Dear Esther', that we examined in week one, it was a game produced more for it's aesthetic (and perhaps symbolic) attributes, rather than its physical (game play) aspects.


Lecture Material that was looked up

• Dino Dini (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dino_Dini) - a games developer who specialised in football games, and seen as the godfather of the soccer game genre. No wonder I didn't know him since I'm not a fan of sports games myself.
• IDEO (http://www.ideo.com) - a successful design firm to be noted for possible future professional endeavours.
• Donald Schon (http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-schon.htm) - most known for his theory about reflective thinking and learning, which is a key part of this design subject that I'm studying.
• Half-Life 2 (http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2006/GDC2006_HL2DesignProcess.pdf) - although I have not played Half-Life 2, I was already aware of it as a well designed game, and know some of it's design elements. So I looked up the Half-Life 2 design process, as I thought perusing that process would perhaps give me more insight as a future designer. I noted the strong focus on the 'game player'.

Group Project - "Flow" (week 1 of 4)

• The aim is to be able to produce some built object that would be placed in the Botanical Gardens, that is a representation of 'Flow', and visually communicates this to the viewer. Part of the design is for it to be illuminated at night.
• This first group meeting was all about brainstorming as a group and producing basic unrefined ideas.
• We had four members in our group. There should have been five, but one person assigned was not present.
• The pictures that follow are 'as is', as they were done in the group meeting. Since this whole project is a learning exercise, I thought it would defeat the purpose if I 'improved' anything afterwards.

These are scans of my own 'ideas' map.

My Thoughts on this Brainstorming Process:

• I felt constrained by lack of space. In my next group project, I'll just start with thinking each page is a quadrant, with the 'start point' being in the centre of the 'four' pages. That way I'll be better able to draw, and still keep related thoughts connected.
• I need to work on my quick drawing skills. There is technique even for basic drawings, that do not contradict intuitive/creative thought.
• As a group, we came up with ideas that I would not have done so on my own. Some of which I would like to develop if the group also agree.
• Sometimes seeing each others simple pictures did spark new lines of thought, that may not necessarily of been what the picture originally represented. For example, on seeing my 'hearts', that lead another group member to bring up all the different deeper 'flows' of emotions. My picture was based on a simpler idea, expressed quickly by 'hearts'.
• There are many ways to depict flow. At best, any end product design will only capture a fraction.
• Some ideas which I think would make great cartoons, would make a bad built object, which is what the project is about. So exploring directions outside what I'm normally inclined to do, was a good thing.

This was the representation of brainstorming of another group member. There were three pages, but one picture was out of focus. The ideas captured here are by graphically linked words, minimal pictures.

A third members brainstorming. Ideas are a lot more graphical, yet not so obviously linked. Although I suspect that the member who produced this can see understandable links. For example, their 'bookcase' picture may hold linked ideas. That is a technic I will remember.

I do not have pictures of the forth members work, as he was packed up and wanting to go at the end of the workshop. However, his thoughts/ideas are included in the all of the above photos/scans.

Other Groups

There were 6 groups present at our time-slot. Our group went first, and with each group that went after, there was a lot of repetition of course. I will list what I thought where the main ideas that were different from each group.

2nd Group

• Ecosystems - while our group had the cycle of life/nature, they took it a step further.
• Flow of Traffic/People - they identified that congestion makes it more notable.
• Fibonacci sequence.
• Dreamtime- the flow of culture.

3rd Group

• Assembly Lines
• Music - styles, ambient, metronomes.
• Momentum - Pi and rhythm.

4th Group

• Fashion & style
• Migration
• Black Holes

5th Group

• Fate and Destiny
• Mexican Waves

6th Group

• Magnets and Perpetual Motion

Final Thoughts for Week 1 of the 'Flow' Project

There are many ideas that I thought were great ways of representing flow. However keeping in mind that we have to devise a built object, that makes certain ideas difficult. If I were to pick the top five ideas based on what I currently envision, I would pick:

• Emotional Flow - A plus is that this could be done so as to get great impact (For example - Edvard Munch's 'The Scream'). A minus is that the concept of flow might be lost amongst other projections.
• Lava Flow (Hardened) - Easy to identify as flow if well made, but might risk merely being a reflection of nature rather than being 'designed'. Abstraction required.
• Momentum - Fun possibilities for displaying kinetic flow, but could possibly be dangerous to people/children if there are moving parts (or large moving parts).
• Vibration - another fun possibility, but results in noise pollution.
• Water Flow - who doesn't like an interesting water feature. But could result in something more commonplace and ordinary if not done very well.

Of course, after discussion with the rest of the group, better selections may arise. While I was very tempted to draw things on my own, I thought I shouldn't yet, since this is a group project. In the next group session, there should be the start of some idea selection and refinement.

But frankly, I think one of these inflatable people (as pictured below) would satisfy all the criteria of this first project. Can I not pretend that our group designed and made it :P
(Please Note: It could be made out of paper and powered by an air-bladder/bellows, which would making it smaller, less durable and no good for advertising. Yet it would still be a good 'flow' design. So it's not a total joke.)

Picture from http://www.inflatableairdancers.wavyads.com/inflatable-advertising-australia.php