Moodboards

The task this week was also to create a moodboard for Johnny Smith who would most likely be using our toaster. Below is a bit about Johnny.

Johnny Smith

John is a 75-year-old retired carpenter who still enjoys hikes in national parks and ridding his Harley-Davidson. He looks forward to the local club raffle and a catch up with the boys on a Thursday evening. He also enjoys playing bingo, listening to local radio and watching old western movies with his wife Jill. As he gets older and has to visit the hospital more often, he prefers quick and efficient healthcare with simple, bold instructions and hospital signs. He aims to enjoy the rest of his life traveling a little and spending time with family, especially his grandchildren.

· Location: Hobart

· Toaster Usage: Unfortunately Johnny has never used a fancy new electric toaster. (Poor Johnny.)

· Computer/Internet Usage: PC, Occasionally browses the Internet with the help of his grandchildren.

· Computer Skill: Novice user. Finds things too complicated on the computer to use. Has an email but doesn’t know how to use it properly.

How To Make Toast: A Storyboard

This week's task was to represent a part of our toast flowchart as a storyboard. Below I've chosen to show the middle part of my flowchart from deciding what type of bread to pick up until the toast pops out of the toaster.

Thanks to Ben (http://sttimmypro.com/blog/?p=17) for the image of the toaster.

Examples of Information and Instructional Design

Here are some examples of information and instructional design.

Pentagram Posters

These posters from Pentagram that shows how the relationship between crime and drugs. The size of the typography gives the person a direct idea as to how the size and colour of the type relates to the crime and drug statistics of the country. This is a strong example of information design as it correlates the size of the type directly to the data.

To have a better look at the series have a click on the link below:
http://pentagram.com/en/new/2009/10/unodc-maps.php

Naughty Fish Rubbish Poster

Another example of information graphics is of Naughty Fish's poster about the amount of rubbish people are getting rid of in Australia. They use a grid to create a strong visual and can quickly convey the vast amount of rubbish the is disposed of by a single person in a week. The imagery allows the user to quickly understand the concept.


More of their work can be found at:
http://www.naughtyfish.com.au/#

How to Make a Paper Plane

These are some instructions for making a paper plane. Even though it is very basic it contains all the elements of a good piece of instructional design. It outlines the steps clearly with an image to help the user understand how to do something and is numbered so it is easy to follow. The text is also straightforward and simple.

Available from: http://www.knight-foundation.com/images/instructions.jpg

Information and Instructional Design

Information and instructional design are two important elements of design that serve very different purposes. Information design is about presenting data and statistics using charts, graphs or tables in an effective visual way. Instructional design is about teaching the user how to do something, similar to a procedure.

To make a distincition between the two one might understand instructional design as a recipe on how to make cupcakes, while information design could be a table about how many people like vanilla, chocolate or strawberry icing on their cupcake.

Both on these must be clear and conise in order to best communicate the message. A recipe that is too complicated or missing steps will mean the user cannot understand what they are trying to achieve. In the same way a graph that leaves out data or tries to skew or misrepresent the data will mean the user will not be able to get accurate or truthful information.

It is for this reason that these two types of design must be constructed carefully, with the designer considering what will it be like for some else trying to understand what I am trying to say.

Examples of Interactive Design

Here are some examples of great interactive design.



SMART Boards
This video, which can be found under the Design Links section, shows how a classroom SMART board works. These boards are now found in classrooms all over Australia and shows interactive design in practice. These boards replace whiteboards in classrooms but can store data electronically. A teacher can still write on the board but is able to easily erase and move things around. These are very practical and useful in terms of what they offer to the user.



Leo Bernatt's Website

This website allows the user to draw on the website and move around the site. The letters change size and postion, almost appearing three-dimensional, and the user is able to click on links and be provided with exciting information and animations. This website provides a number of ways in which the user can interact with the website.



News.com.au

This news website is a prime example of how interactive design has become an important feature of web 2.0. This site allows the user to click on the different links and post their own comments on the news articles. This is an example of interactive design as the user has the ability to make decisions in what they read and well as getting the opportunity to respond using the comments section.

How To Make Toast: A Flowchart!

To get a grasp how to build an effective piece of interactive design, our tutor showed us how to make a flowchart. By breaking things down simply into steps it makes it much easier to understand and if there is a problem or something that is unclear one can pinpoint exactly where that is.

Below is a basic (and humorous) example of how to make toast, as long is one is not too picky about their bread. Realistically this step could probably be broken down into a simple step.

A written example of how this chart would be set out is as follows:

1. Place toaster on a flat surface.
2. Plug in toaster.
3. Switch power on.
4. Adjust dial to between 1 and 2.
5. Get bread out of cupboard
6. Feel like white bread? (YES: Go to 10. NO: Go to 7.)
7. Feel like multigrain bread? (YES: Go to 10. NO: Go to 8.)
8. Feel like wholemeal bread? (YES: Go to 10. NO: Go to 9.)
9. Have cereal then.
10. Decide on having 1 or 2 pieces of bread.
11. Place bread in toaster.
12. Pull down the lever.
13. Prepare to catch toast.
14. Catch toast.
15. Is toast dark enough? (YES: Go to 16. NO: Go to 11.)
16. Spread butter on toast.
17. Spread on jam, honey or peanut butter.
18. Eat toast.

Note: This flowchart should more accurately be named "How to make and consume toast."

Interactive Design

Interactive deisgn is purely about the user. It is about the users ability to have control over technology and what they want to do with technology and making the best possible use over the two-way communication that has developed as a result of Web 2.0.

When picking this subject, aptly named Interactive Design, I was rather worried as I have no knowledge of how to use Flash. But in terms of understanding how interactive design I feel as though I have a much better grasp on how interactions work. interaction design gives the user the ability to choose and make decisions as seen in the flowchart, that I will soon post.

In the video by Bill Verplank, which can be found under Design Links, I think he makes the concept of interaction design perfectly clear. He sums up beautifully and simply that interaction design is about considering how does the user do, know and feel? I find one of the most exciting things about design is that we have to consider how the user feels by tapping into what and how they control the interactive that they are confronted with.

The empowering of the user is paramount. It is about decision and response by the user. If the interactive responds poorlythen the user will get bored, confused or frustrated. We as designers need to make it clean and simple enough for the user. I believe that if you need to read a manual to use it it must be badly designed.

To sum up, Linda Leung, which can be found under Design Links, explains that we must be both 'a user and a learner' in order to create effective interactive design.