reading response #8

"Attributes Needed by the Modern Designer" by Adrian Shaughnessy, from How to be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul

I can relate to what Shaughnessy says about album covers being a huge inspiration for a lot of designers. I, too, am extremely inspired by great album art, CD packaging, book covers, any entertainment medium really. I've got this in my own collection that I ogle constantly:

Of course it's Metallica's newest album, Death Magnetic, which the designer, Turner Duckworth, won a Grammy for! I don't have that special edition package collection on the bottom, but I do cherish my plain album version.

I also have this, Foreigner's Records. The great thing about mine is that it's missing the front labels so you can see the record through the slots, but I still love the original intent of the packaging. The inside picture shows the band at a diner, flamboyantly dressed and seemingly making the other patrons feel distressed.

I wish I had this, NIN's Ghosts I-IV. The whole design just rocks my socks off.

The three attributes a designer needs according to Shaughnessy are Cultural Awareness, Communication, and Integrity. I feel like we are learning these thoroughly at PSU; cultural awareness involves a lot of research that we take on ourselves to learn about our audience and their culture to appeal to them more sensibly, we constantly communicate with our professors and each other and constantly learn how to communicate our points clearly so that a client can understand them, and we have to have integrity with everything we do because our name is on it and our work is a reflection of our stance in the world. 

One thing that hit me the hardest was what Shaughnessy emphasized the most: the single most important thing you can do when discussing a job with a new or potential client is to demonstrate understanding, openness, and receptivity. The designer who shows only signs of self-absorption and narrowness of focus isn't going to inspire his or her client. He goes on to say that demonstrating knowledge about the topic you are designing for is more important than talking about your own work excessively; if you can show the client you know their industry well, you can spend more time listening to what they want for their design and how you can achieve their goals. 

thesis progress

So for my deadline on Monday, I wanted to focus on producing a full-scale model of my packaging to show my group and Lis how the thing is actually going to work. Since I have a tendency to wait till the last minute to put my packaging together, I wanted to avoid that by doing it first and having it planned out before I start doing the really time-consuming part: the actual game.

This is a dieline for the whole outside of the box, keeping in mind that the actual visuals on the box were done quickly just to differentiate between the sides. The red/green/blue folds in half over itself and is attached to the bottom/top with 1" strips. The yellow squares fold in half diagonally to form triangles. The tabs created by the triangles and the squares in the center slide into the red/green side pockets created by the fold. The box is all attached as one piece, minimizing the amount of cutting and maximizing visual potential.

This would be the view of the box all folded out and laid flat. As you can see, the folded sides are perfect spaces to put some kind of placeholder for the pieces or activity supplies. The center design is a placeholder design that would be permanently attached (and covers the 1" piece attachments to the top/bottom. Corner holders would then keep the removable boards in place during play, allowing them to be changed depending on the problem, issue, argument, or scenario.

This is a dieline for the insert tray that would hold all the pieces, boards, cards, and activities. The multi-colored rectangles on the right top/bottom are the barriers that section off the tray. The center square on the right is actually the bottom piece (I want every inch to be considered and not show and places where its been glued or attached). This also folds much like the box itself, but will be permanently assembled to make it slide out first before the box opens completely. 

As I've said before, I want this to be completely different than other board games, showing the couple that the designer cares about them and their problems and wants to help solve them easily and efficiently. 

UPDATE: Thanks Jimmy for suggesting the use of magnets to keep the corners from coming apart so easily. It will also look nicer too because it won't make me have to mangle the sides of the board when it's folded out.

reading response #7

"Personas: Practice and Theory" by John Pruitt and Jonathan Grudin

I thought that Personas were a very tedious way of learning about a target audience. It seems like a lot of steps and work to interview people in the audience, enough to get the kind of data you're looking for, make the profiles, create screening groups, etc. etc. But I did see some benefits of Personas.

One, they create a strong focus on users in a fictionalized setting, which allows for more variables and possibilities when dealing with the scenarios. They can be more shallow or really in depth. For example, I found these personas created for public use by Penn State's Teaching and Learning with Technology Unit as models for any digital medium. They had to have been created by studying many pictures and features of different ethnic groups, because otherwise their portrayals would not be accurate. However, they do not need to delve into the personal lives of the people they're modeling because that is not a part of the rendering of the illustration.  

These persona profiles seem very in-depth and research intensive, but not very design oriented. I don't think I get much of a personal response to these people because there is nothing dynamic about the presentation.

This does a better job of visualizing the different facets of the target audience's concerns and priorities. The persona becomes the focus by being the center from which everything radiates. There's not as much information as the one above, but you are a bit better connected to the real 'Angie.'

reading response #6

"Is it Possible to Touch Somebody's Heart with Design?" by Stefen Sagmeister

First of all, I really love how this is laid out. Sagmeister pays so much attention to every detail, and he really knows how to design books so they're not exactly how you expect them to be. Already this is inspiration for my project; I do not want my board game to be 'typical' or look like the other board games on the shelf, because I think they're crap. They have no visual hierarchy, the colors are everywhere, and there's no more attention paid to the package than the game because it just plasters pictures of people playing it all over. Get creative! Do something innovative with your box! Here are some examples of board games with amazing designs that don't fit the norm:

I know I've used this one before but I still love it! A design student re-worked the Monopoly packaging, bringing it down to its most basic elements and using a warm yet neutral color palette. This makes the game look more classic and timeless, making its history apparent to the person playing it. 

Another design student created this packaging for the Swedish game Pendago. It is so elegant, rich, and modern. I love how the instructions are on the inside top of the box and is reflective. He really thought about using every inch of the packaging to represent the intellectual side of the game, and I want to use every inch of mine to represent the process of working through issues but while being fun.

This cute banana-shaped pouch holds pieces that go to the game Bananagrams. This Scrabble-like game is more fast-paced and has less rules and counting points, allowing the players to think less about how to play and more about what words they'll use. It has a very universal feel; people that speak other languages would probably be able to still play with the addition of a few other characters. I like the simplicity of this game, and I would like mine to be just as simple so the couple can get to the root of the issue without worrying about how they're going to get there.

Overall, the whole notion of designing to touch someone's heart is sort of foreign to me. I am a very, what you would say 'corporate' designer; I like my logos and my layouts to be clean and efficient with little clutter, and although this can touch your heart if done in the proper way, it's never been my goal and often can come off looking sterile and rigid. I've never thought about this concept, but I guess it's what we've been learning all along; we need to learn our clients or our products to properly design for them or it, and the logo or design needs to speak to them if it's going to speak to anyone else. With this project though, my design HAS to touch their hearts. I am, after all, dealing with the subject closest to the heart: love and relationships. 

I may end up solving this problem not through the look and feel, but through the intimate experience of the game. It's only for two people, making it so you have to have alone time with your partner to play it, and it requires you to set the mood to make the experience more enjoyable. The activities that the couple plays are going to be designed to allow them to learn more about each other and create a stronger connection. I think this touches the heart in many ways; the couple should feel like I really understand relationship issues because I've been through them and it's very important to me to keep my relationship healthy and the lines of communication open. 

I feel like that a lot of what Sagmeister says in this pertains to some very personal projects, and the things that touch someone's heart may not do it for others. The t-shirt he wore for his mom during the interview was a nice design, and it was a nice gesture, but how many other people appreciated it? But is that what's important; should we aim to make as many people happy as possible or do a really good job at making one person happy? I think I want to make as many people as happy as I can, and this game should do that.

term long project logos

So I've been working on some logos for my term long project, which you should know by now is a game that guides couples through relationship issues and helps them to better understand each other. I've decided on the name "Work It Out!", which I think follows a fun, retro theme that I'm trying to go for.

This style is more of a 50s-60s game feel. It's coming straight from my love for the retro game show style, thus the color palette. It's more fun and wacky, I think I could make the charts something unexpected if they use this style.

This aesthetic comes from a vintage French card game, and it's much softer than the other logo. I like this one because I can really play with the logo using the idea of the flowcharts and have a very simple iconic system. 

Any ideas on which one I should go with?

reading response #5

Directed Storytelling: Interpreting Experience for Design by Shelley Evenson

Ethnographic research through directed storytelling seems like where I'd like to go with my research. I am developing a survey to figure out what issues I should deal with in my game, now titled Work It Out! This article gave me some clues as to how to ask my questions in the survey. 

1. Describe your partner in a short paragraph. What are some positive and negative aspects of their personality/characteristics? How is your relationship with this person doing at this current point in time (if you have a hard time describing it, use a 1 to 10 scale, 1o being amazing and 1 being terrible)? 

2. When was the last time you and your partner argued? What was it about? Did you talk rationally or yell and/or fight? Was this a usual fight for you and your partner to have? 

3. Where were you when you had this argument? Do you feel your location effected the argument, i.e. made it worse or helped calm it down? 

4. Were you physically with your partner at the time of the argument or was it over some kind of technological device like the internet, phone, or cell phone? Do you think this effected the argument?

5. Think about the argument you had. Restate what it was about. Then really think about the cause behind the argument. What set it off? Is there some reason you continue to have this argument, or is this the first time you've had it? 

6. Name some things that both you and your partner need to work on in your relationship. Then name some things both you and your partner do well in your relationship. Do you feel the positives outweigh the negatives?

7. Describe a time you and your partner solved an argument positively using a discussion method rather than a fighting method. What do you think made this discussion successful? Was this an argument that you had before, or something new? Judge whether or not you have resolved the issue; have you had another incident based around this argument since this positive discussion?

8. What do you think makes your relationship with your partner strong? What are some things that weaken it? What do you think makes a relationship strong in general? Do you have these qualities in your relationship?

9. Name the top 5 things you and your partner argue about. Rate their intensity and importance on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being very important/high intensity argument and 1 being not important at all/zero intensity.

10. If there was one thing that you would want to say about your relationship that you haven't already, please let me know for the best possible guide to solving your relationship issues.

These could get edited, but it'd be cool if there's one you see that you want to answer and you comment!

Now, onto more about the reading...

I like how Evenson describes when to use direct storytelling; it seems perfect for my project. I am making diagrams, and direct storytelling seems to lend itself to that. 

This is a diagram from the article that I thought was really lovely. Although mine won't be in this style, I thought it was a nice illustration on the kinds of information graphics you can make out of the data collected from direct storytelling.

I find it interesting that direct storytelling can be used for a variety of purposes, not just for graphic design purposes but for marketing and demographics as well. This diagram breaks down the steps to really broadening your consumer base and ultimately marketing a successful product or idea. The blog I got this from, The Innovator's Sweet Spot, goes on to explain each step and talks about using direct storytelling as a method of marketing research.

term long inspiration

I've been searching the web for some inspiration for my term long project. I'm thinking about doing a game/kit for couples, similar to these kinds of games (but a lot less sex oriented):

  
  

I especially love the Truth or Dare packaging (top left), using old-fashioned type and silhouettes and a card-based system. 

But for the actual look and feel, I have a couple different ideas.

I just about died when I saw this AMAZING Monopoly re-design. The icons are simple, the color palette is muted and subtle, and the whole thing just looks classy as hell. This was my first idea, going with a simple color and type palette and relying on icons to convey information visually.

I've always admired packaging (and everything else) from the 1950s; the bright colors with halftone photographs is an aesthetic that I think will work really well with my concept. 

And my 'just for fun' link:

Undoboy is a Portland, OR based designer that loves robots and bright colors, and his packaging is an interactive, integrated part of the product itself. I love his ideas and hope my packaging can be as fun as this is!

My next step is to now create my survey that will help me to find out what subjects, issues, problems, or arguments couples have the most. Here are some links to articles that talk about some of the problems "experts" find most common:

• WebMD.Com talks about 7 common problems in relationships, including communication, sex, money, division of chores, prioritizing, conflict, and trust. 
  
• Suite101.Com points to fears that cause issues, including fear of commitment, fear of intimacy, and fear of change.
• Suite101.Com has another article about the 10 most common problems couples face, including lying/cheating, imbalance of power, isolation, lack of self-knowledge, etc.

These articles are helpful for narrowing down what issues to focus on, but I want to pick a main 3-5 that are universal enough to design a flowchart for. Please help me out by commenting to this post with an answer to one (or all if you want!) of these questions:

1. My partner makes me so mad when they ________.

2. The thing I find myself arguing about the most with my partner is ________. 

3. Something my partner and I never fight about is ________.

4. The hardest issue for my partner and I to work through is ________.

5. I most want my partner and I to solve our problems with ________.

objectives + audience + deliverables, methodology and schedule

PHASE ONE: DEFINE THE PROBLEM    

STEP ONE: IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM
Communication is always a key factor in relationships between any persons in a community, whether it be family, friends, or partners. Sometimes communication between parties can break down, resulting in arguing that can often about recurring issues that never seem to get solved. People in relationships often feel lost and don't know where to turn for help; it may not be serious enough for professional help, but the relationship is starting to weaken and could deteriorate if nothing is done.

STEP TWO: STATE PROBLEM (OBJECTIVES)
The idea is, to through a comprehensive packaging identity and information graphics, guide couples through some common relationship issues, such as commitment, finance, parenting, and compromise, in the privacy of their own homes. This is meant to be an honest, sincere effort to open the lines of communication between partners and help them deal with their situations in a healthy, logical manner. I would like to provoke a sense of relief in a community of couples who feel lost in their relationships and there is no way to help them communicate better with their partner. The readability, easy-to-follow graphics, and accessibility of the information should draw the audience in, and the design should make it easy for them to keep this around to use over and over again.

STEP THREE: ANALYZE TARGET AUDIENCE
The audience I am trying to reach is couples, more specifically those who are having problems in the relationship but cannot, will not, or do not want to get professional help, couples who would like to learn better communication skills to avoid elevated conflict in common arguments, and couples who are looking for an easy and fun way of working through their problems. To first understand the issues I should address in my project, I will talk to couples or people that are in relationships and find out what their most common relationship issues are; this could be a survey that delves deeper into the reasons why people argue and yell instead of rationally work through their issues to come to a more thorough understanding of each other, or finding couples that have been married or together longer than 25 years and ask what they think has made their relationship so strong. I would like my audience to be co-authors in the content development of this project; I am in a relationship and know what my boyfriend and I fight about, but are our problems ones that others experience?

STEP FOUR: DELIVERABLES
- folding flowcharts that lead the couple through their situation or problem and are separated by topic (to be determined through audience participation)

- toolkit to help set the mood to ease the couple through the stress of the problem

+ candles

+ candy

+ MadLib-type love notes

+ music

- instructions on how to use the flowcharts/toolkit

- packaging and visual identity

- promotional materials

+ store display

+ internet/print ad

DUE WEDNEDAY, APRIL 13TH: Objectives + Audience + Deliverables posted to blog and presented to class 

PHASE TWO: AUDIENCE RESEARCH    

STEP ONE: DERIVE HYPOTHESIS
People in relationships tend to have a certain number of common arguments or conflicts with their partner that can be identified and worked through in a logical, rational manner.

STEP TWO: CHOOSE A METHOD
Through interviews and questionnaires, these main issues will be identified by the audience.

DUE MONDAY, APRIL 20TH: Survey developed and given out

STEP THREE: DOCUMENT RESULTS
The results will be recorded and taken into consideration for the final number of flowcharts to be designed.

STEP FOUR: REACH A CONCLUSION
A conclusion about the most common issues will be decided and research will begin on how to resolve them.

DUE WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22ND: Surveys compiled, data sorted and main relationship issues decided upon

 

PHASE THREE: DESIGN

STEP ONE: RESEARCH AND WRITE COPY
Accumulation of surveys, articles, books, and other sources will develop content for the flowcharts.

STEP TWO: CREATE GRAPHICS
Flowcharts will be designed based off the set color palette, type palette, etc. Other graphic elements will be made in coordination.

DUE MONDAY APRIL 27TH: Deliverables with 3 variations for each
- logo, type, color palette
- promo materials

STEP THREE: LAYOUT
Content will be placed within the flowcharts with accompanying visual elements.

DUE MONDAY, MAY 11TH: Deliverables with 3 variations for each
- flowcharts
- toolkit

STEP FOUR: EXTRA DELIVERABLES
Instructions other packaging elements will be designed to encapsulate the flowcharts.

DUE WEDNESDAY, MAY 27TH: Deliverables with 3 variations for each
- packaging

 

PHASE FOUR: FINALIZE

STEP ONE: PRINT DELIVERABLES

STEP TWO: PACKAGE
Final packaging assemblage with necessary materials.

DUE MONDAY, JUNE 1ST: THESIS PROJECT COMPLETE
- final packaging
- final deliverables

DUE WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10TH: DOCUMENTATION
- process: documentation of audience participation/research
- photograph final product and post to flickr

reading response #4

"Audience as Co-Designer: Participatory Design of HIV/AIDS Awareness and Prevention Posters in Kenya" by Audrey Bennett, Ron Eglash, Mukkai Krishnamoorthy, and Marie Rarieya

I found the whole process these artists took to produce such wonderful work is an excellent model for audience participation in graphic design. This article was so thoroughly researched and I feel like it's a great accomplishment to help a country that is so desperately need in a design aesthetic to rally this campaign around. I think it's a wonderful idea to use the actual culture and its cultural symbols to create the awareness posters.

This got me really inspired to find some other audience-produced art and campaigns around AIDS awareness.

This poster for AIDS awareness on the Ivory Coast has a definite impact in the viewer, and the aesthetic seems to fit well with the culture.

The London SE1, a community website, reported a story about this triptych, the Keiskamman Altarpiece, that was being shown at Southwark Cathedral. 

"Each of the ten panels tells a modern story of life today with images depicting loneliness, hardship and confusion and restored pride.On the front are scenes of mourning where the community is suffering from AIDS. The first opening reveals the never ending circle of village life. The second opening uncovers the bereaved grandmothers assuming responsponibity for their grandchilden."

The triptyth was created by 130 South African women and men. It is such a touching piece that exudes the African culture's aesthetic with intricate intricate embroidery, appliqué and beadwork.

AMAGUGU, South African National Cultural Heritage Training and Technology Program 

A Durban Institute of Technology / Department of Design Studies led the Siyazama Project, an initiative in attempting to proactively face reality of the sweeping Aids epidemic in Southern Africa. They had rural women of the Zulu society create crafts based on the hardships they faced in their society, including the AIDS epidemic. Bringing crafts into the project fits into the Zulu society's tradition of the revered position of the craftswoman; she is seen as an opinion-maker in their community. These crafts truly reflect the aesthetic of the Zulu women and have a powerful message about the tragedy of AIDS.

And just for fun, this adorable (yet sobering) image from Mohamed Abbas, a designer in Cairo, Egypt.

reading response #3

"Cultural Probes" by Bill Gaver, Tony Dunne, and Elena Pacenti 

I think the probes were a great way for these artists to bring out the kind of answers they wanted from their audience of elderly people. Not only did they include textual cues, but visual cues that invited the audience to interact to generate their answer. I especially liked the different maps they included, and how they didn't just ask them to tell them where they had been or lived but these "zones" of more irreverent nature, like where they would go to be alone or where they liked to daydream. I think these questions make the audience feel like the designer cares about them as a person, not just as a demographic or statistic. Using these probes is a non-traditional way of researching your audience, and getting to know them will ultimately serve them better. Why would you spend so much time designing something if your intended audience doesn't understand it?

It almost seems like a project in itself to develop these cultural probes. Do Not Disturb, a senior thesis project website I found, is an interactive campaign much like Gaver's. From the Do Not Disturb website: 

"Do Not Disturb is an interactive campaign to promote awareness of nuisance noise. Instead of following traditional hard-hitting campaign approaches Do Not Disturb is about giving the issue a buzz feeling within the community.  Using three different approaches Do not Disturb encourages people to interact and participate with the issue through the Noise Poster, Noise Bomb Pack and the Do Not Disturb Website. By adding elements of interaction in to the campaign, it allows the issue to be communicated between people without it having to be verbal."

The designer's project is very well researched and she used cultural probes to find out about what kind of antisocial behaviors bother people and why. She made her audience think about what these things are, how much time they take away from you, what the person that engages in this behavior looks like, and where they happen. This allowed her to see how her audience responds to her idea and what they get out of it. It even helped guide the course of her project:

"This has led me to steer my project towards anti social noise.  Instead of concentrating on anti social behaviour as a whole I can focus my attention on the noise side of it. I feel that although I did not get the results that I had hoped for my probes have still been successful in influencing my project."

Therefore, I feel that cultural probes are important to my project as well, especially as it deals with relationships. If I made a cultural probes package, it could include some of these things:

- stickers of men and women that the user can place in home environments to show where, when, how, and why the couple argues

- pre-made flowcharts that ask the user to fill in the most common directions of arguments with their partner from beginning to end

Here are some cultural probe packages that I love for the design: