Nearly There!!!

Last night I worked on the mock ups for the home page, course outline page and forum. I had to match these to Vin's design.

Things are starting to get hairy now as we hit "crunch time".

Here are the designs.

Homepage/Login

















Prospective Students / Restaurant bookings

















Forum

A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss.

Things are really starting to heat up now with the project. Our team met up again to day with our designs to see which we preferred and the overwhelming response was the one Vinnie had done was best. Vinnie's design uses photography to create the website and is fantastic looking. Our group doesn't have the skill to create the website though we are going to make a mock up of the said design to show how it works.

Here is Vinnie's initial mock up.


















We've divided the work up between myself, Vinnie and Aleisha. I'm taking on three pages which include the home page (needs to tie in with Otago Polytechnics homepage), prospective student and course outline (also includes the restaurant reservations panel) and the forum. Hopefully I'll get those done tonight so Vinnie can get on with creating the presentation.

menus or younus?

SO, after our meeting and our move into creating a more metaphor based website around a cooker here is what I have developed so far.




















As you can see it more resembles a microwave than an oven, this does not change the cooking metaphor at all. The style I have gone for is a graphic one instead of photography based. I fell, however that a photo based one would envelope the user more into the world of the kitchen.

Tek Otago

Otago Polytechnic's website seems like a strange affair, between the main home page and the hospitality page there are a few similarities but not enough to make them coherent. With this in mind I figure that they should either look identical or each have their own identity. Here are their current looks as of the 14/10/07.

Tek Otago
















Hospitality




















I prefer the look of the Hospitality page over the Tek Home page. The Tek Otago home page seems to cluttered which is strange since they have a full page to play with but only use a small section in the centre. The Hospitality page is nice, simple and clean but theirs not a lot of depth to it so once you've seen it, you've seen it!

C.A.V.E.men meet!

Our group got together again today to talk about the direction we are going in. So far all our efforts have gone towards creating a more standard DVD/website interface. With today's meeting we all decided to move in a new direction and create a more metaphor based project.

Vinnie came up with the great idea to actually set the menu/site in the form of a stove. The idea is to have the heat dials as parts of the menu etc.

Looking around the net for a similar idea I found a website (www.ign.com) that reports on video game and movie news. When you choose a format, be it Playstation 2, Xbox 360, DVD or a myriad of other options it takes you to a subsection of the site. The interesting thing is that the top of the page they have designed it to resemble the format that it represents. Here are few screenshots to show what I mean.

PS2



















Xbox360



















DVD



















The cool thing about this is that it instantly creates a theme that lets the user know exactly where they are.

First Digital Drafts.

I've been having a little go at the DVD menus and mocked up a couple of simple jobbies. They are both basically the same just different colour schemes. I started with the black just to create the basic template and then coloured it using a bright orange (similar to the food websites that I have pointed out earlier).

Text is not currently present as I just wanted to see what it would look like. The pages are for the video menu selection on the DVD.

Road Map 2

Quick post just to throw sketches of the website and DVD plan. Both are designed to be superficially similar so the design can easily be adapted to either format.

Here ya go!

Big Thoughts, Big Icons!

One of the ideas I have is to have a completely icon driven interface, where big bold icons are used to help the user navigate their way around the DVD/website. I've drawn out a few samples but I'm not 100% convinced the idea is a good one just yet. Here are a few of the sketches I've done so far.




























UPDATE: After playing around with the idea and talking to the group we've decided it may not be the direction we want to go in.

Conclusion, dropped.

A New Direction

During our weekly meeting our group, The CAVEmen (Chris, Aleisha, Vinnie and Erin), decided, much like all the other groups have, to focus our efforts onto an interactive DVD instead. This isn't to say that the interactive website is dead, just that it will take a different form and take its cues from the DVD menus instead.

Work does seem to progressing slowly at the moment. I feel another project we are working on for The Seriously Good Chocolate Company is monopolizing our time somewhat. Hopefully soon that will be finished and we can get ont track with this project again.

New Look

No, not the title of a bad magazine but what has happened to this blog. After looking at various websites dedicated to the fine ninja assassin skill of cooking I have decided to give the blog a similar feel. You may remember on your last visit here the website was aligned with the forces of darkness and was mainly black. Now, if you can't tell, it;s white and much cleaner! The ability to add colours was limited to say the least but I think It looks ok, for a blog!

Overview

Here are a few of my notes regarding the kitchen project and what it entails.

The website will give students the ability to learn visually and at their own pace. The website needs to contain:

1. Contents

• course descriptor
• sample area (for non students)
• Login

2. Media

• PDF's
• video

3. Contact us

• email
• forum (where students who have graduated can still go and interact along with current students)
• memos
• possible cell phobe interaction

Website Analysis 002 - BBC Food

When you open the BBC Food website the first thing that you notice is the freshness. The use of colour to portray a clean and enticing area is paramount on this website (and many other, see post below). The white along with the brights and pastels really make the site an inviting one.

Although the site is from a multimedia broadcasting corporation it doesn't shy away from the use of text. The tabs on the top left could very well have used icons to get their message across but stick with text (there are ome tiny icons next to few of the tabs but these are quite small and inconsequential in my opinion). Video is used on the main splash on the home page but is not over powering (only two of the choices use flash video and are kept very short). Depending which small picture you mouse over in the splash window changes the larger image.

Video

One of the main parts of the project is to ensure the video is easily found and used. Currently the videos are hosted on youtube. Although this isn't an ideal solution it does work currently.

Here is their creme brulee.

First Mock Up.

After a bit of messing around I've come up with my first mock up. It's not the greatest thing in the world but it's a starting point. It's kind of based around a wordy kind of website, so I'm probably going to look at refining it a bit first and going for a bit more of a visual feel.

how to decorate a web kitchen.

The one thing I have noticed about almost all the food related websites I have visited is that they are all very "clean" looking, much how you would imagine a professional kitchen to be. They vary on their colours, but one thing that flows through the majority of them is the use of white. This is most probably because the use of white is associated with cleanliness and purity among others.

Other colours used on websites are brights or pastels and are generally reserved for secodary and third colours.

Pictures are used in an interesting way. Good food is as much about the presentation as the taste and the websites tend to go out of the way to present their food in an attractive manner.

Websites to check are BBC Food, All Recipes.com, Recipes.co.nz and Food in a Minute.

Road map of information

looking at how websites behave is interesting. I imagine most people look at how a website works similar to a road map, you choose a direction you want to go in and take turns where applicable. Thinking about the hospitality website and trying to keep it as simple as possible I have created a basic equation.

Homepage>video+written+contact us+forums.

Video>entre+mains+desserts>alphabetical list>ingredients +video.

Written>Entre+mains+desserts>alphabetical list PDF's (downloadable.

Contact us (Email) +forums.

Deborah Lupton - The Embodied Computer/User.

In Deborah Luton's article she talks about how she has an emotional relationship to her computer starting with the beep her computer emits when turned on. Usually this relationship with her computer comes to the fore when something goes wrong. As a heavy computer user myself I know how this feels. Whilst writing this entry for some reason I could not turn off the underlining feature after inserting a link. The feelings Deborah Lupton feels, impatience, anger, panic, anxiety and frustration are ones shared worldwide by millions of people everyday. In fact almost everytime I use a computer I'm constantly aware that something may go wrong at anytime. This is not something I feel when I pen and paper. When Lupton says "A pen now feels strange, awkward and slow in my hand, compare to using a keyboard." is also true to me. Like her I find it easier to put my thoughts down in ones and zeros than I do with pen strokes.
Deborah Lupton goes on to say how the relationship people have with their computer is completely to other technologies we use around the home and office. The smiley faces and paper clip helpers can't be found on VCRs or dishwashers. Maybe this is the reason we invest so heavily (emotionally)in these pieces of plastic and silicon. We humanize the computer, talking about how they catch viruses or how they are feeeling stubborn and wont do what we ask..

The disembodied Computer User.
"A central utopian discourse around computer technology is the potential offered by computers for humans to escape the body" (Lupton, 2001). More and more people are finding themselves in the digital realm where only the mind is needed. As Lupton reminds us we still have our "fleshy body" with all its distractions (such as eating and sleeping) within which we have to live. Indeed it has even been reported of a man who apparently had a heart attack after playing a MMORPG for 50 hours with barely any breaks. Lupton goes on to say "the dream of cyberculture is to leave the "meat" behind and become distilled in a clean, pure, uncontained relationship the computer technology" (Lupton, 2001). The other "option" of course is to become a Cyborg, intergrating computer technology into oneself such as Robocop, the Terminator or the Six Million Dollar Man, becoming faster, stronger, better than human.
This, of course is the myth of the heavy computer user. The reality is just as well perpetuated in modern culture, that of an overweight, pimply, socially withdrawn computer nerd with pale skin and acne. These people are stuck in a vicious circle, their habit (the computer) draws them in increasing their social awkwardness which in turn makes them invest in the computer ad infinitum.

The Humanized Computer.

Lupton explains how we, as a society tend to put our values on computers. They are delivered, live a life doing different things, get slower as they age, maybe catch a terminal virus and die. Our obsession on looks also involve computers, we forever desire them smaller, sleeker, even sexier. Lupton says (and I agree) "Not only do humans approach such technologies in heightened emotional states but they resound to the technologies with emotions such as vindictiveness and spite". We look at computers as emotional entities. Like humans, computers work best when with others of their type (networked) be that local or via the internet.

Website Analysis 001 - Pocket Clouds

When the user first arrives at Samuele Granzotto's "Pocket Clouds" one cannot help but see the metaphor between his site and classic 16-bit games from the late 80's and early 90's such as Sonic The Hedgehog and Rainbow Islands. The index page informs the user s/he has one credit inserted, can choose to press play or choose a one or two player experience whilst a jolly tune plays that is reminiscent of so many other 16-bit classics. Unfortunately the experience is not as in depth as one would hope with only the "Press Start" option (activated by left clicking the mouse on it) been available.

Once into the site truly, the music stops (which, to be fair, I could only take so much of before over-dosing on aural sugar), a rainbow appears some jelly like hills pop into existence, a candy can drops from the sky with the sites name attached to it, an information pane appears in the centre of the page and several small characters rise from the ground, each relating to various parts of the website. When the mouse rolls over the hills the wobble like jelly on a spoon with a matching noise, the icons grow and wobble pleasingly whilst creating an appropriate sound (one which I am sure is appropriated from Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Megadrive) all the while bitmap style clouds roll over the jelly and glass landscape at a rate of knots.

This interface although fairly sparse is appealing to me as a designer and as a child who grew up in the 80's. It offers the end-user a window into the world of Samuele Granzotto, showing his work in a fashion that befits them whilst also allowing the user to mirror the feelings they may have felt way back in 1991 when they first plugged that copy of Sonic into the Megadrive.

Overall, though the site is appealing it is a fairly simple one and one that can easily be dissected and storyboarded as in the end all it is an index/about/works/contact/download/links with various sub menus appropriate to each section.

In my opinion "Pocket Clouds" is good concept which is well executed but does not quite live up to its promise of interactivity.

Welcome to the other side...

Hello, welcome to my blog for Interactive Design at Otago Polytechnic. I am a second year student (lets call me "Chris") and I'm currently studying Communication Design at Otago Polytechnic.

The aim of this blog is for it to act as my handbook for the paper [Interactive Design]. It will track my personal learning and show my personal contribution to the project which is made up 4x4 teams.

The project brief is still been finalized although what I can tell you is that it is based around a hospitality interactive learning interface. Overall it should take 10 weeks to complete. Please feel free to comment on any of the posts I make.