Touch Screen Electric Guitar

So I came across this touch screen electric guitars and thought they are really cool to share - The Misa Digital Guitar



So you can make a whole lot of different sounds from this guitar just like an electric piano but with a guitar. Creating special sound effect doesn't seem so hard now:)

And with the technology improving everyday, I believe daily object with the need of interactivity will become bigger and bigger.

Interactive Music Videos

I've always loved watching music videos. And as I find interactive music videos very interesting, why not use this topic for my Context 3 assignment.

Here are some inspirations:
10 interactive music videos powered by flash
and this one I posted already

I really like the 'I've seen enough' and 'Bell' video, but I am thinking more of the 'Keep Your Head Up' type video, where you have choices to choose from and form your own story.

Or like in the 'mirror' video, you upload a photo of yourself or you connect to facebook/twitter, so it takes some of your personal information from you to put into the video, so it becomes your own 'personalised' video.


I need to start writing something soon.

Web 2.0

From the article 25 Examples of Web 2.0 and Traditional Design Rules Coming Together, I've chosen this Viget Inspire website as I found it inspiring. It is a blog-based website from the designers of the web company Viget Labs.

I really like the colours and the watercolour theme and feel. It feels calm when I was looking through the site.

I like the header a lot, I think the word 'Inspire' associated with the rising sun worked really well. And I think it's clever that they have their name and logo look like the sun coming up, looks like its telling you there are inspiring things behind the website, you just have to dig them out.

The font looks professional and it works great with the overall design.

I love their avatar, I didn't even realized there is an avatar on each post until the article pointed out. They are so nicely done they don't distract you from reading the posts at all which, many other avatars do.

I find the boxes in the sidebar really cool, the design is unique and contemporary.

It has a lot of information on this website but they are very clear and the content is not just about their work or company, but they also "write about design news, trends, techniques, buildout, inspiration, CSS, and our project" from a more general angle.

The content in the sidebar is rich and very useful. The information is also really well organized.

The site hasn't been changed since 2009, I think it's because the website works well and it's probably representative for them. It looks professional yet interesting for people to look at.

I would very much like to create my own avatar as clever as theirs. And I wish I could make a website which is clear and easy to use but yet content-driven too.

Adit Shukla

I just thought this web designer Adit Shukla's portfolio website is so wise that I need to put it up here.

I find the header and the sidebar work together really well and the idea is really clever. I think the choice of colour is quite daring but it works out quite well. Although this is a simple website with not much content, the design of the website is really clever.

Photo Donuts

So I found this website called Photo Donuts from my previous art teacher's twitter (That's when I feel twitter and my network useful).

Photo by Valerie Chiang

It is a photography website with different photographers presenting everyday. They are different in style and they are from all over the world. It has some inspiring photos and I think the website itself is quite nice too. It has a clear layout and instructions, I like the home page where its like a portfolio page with the daily photographers photos.

Shigeo Fukuda

When I looked at the Design Is History website, Shigeo Fukuda immediately caught my attention - a graphic designer which I had came across briefly before.

 

1979 Fukuda Illustration Exhibition Keio Gallery, Tokyo

Shigeo Fukuda is a Japanese graphic designer, famous for poster designing. His work is simple but yet effective. He then created illusion illustrations which I found really interesting too. His works are rational reflective rather than commercial, like his most famous work Victory 1945, an ironic illustration of the war.

 

1975 Victory Poland Poster Museum

He is good at communication therefore had created impacted works using simple illustrations. A lot of his works look simple and easy to understand but yet have complex meanings in them. His works shown concerns about social, cultural and environmental issues if the time. I like his works as they are inspiring and his style of design is so unique and thought provoking.

“I believe that in design, 30 percent dignity, 20 percent beauty and 50 percent absurdity are necessary"

"In terms of my graphic design, I feel visual communication is the most important element.

by Shigeo Fukuda 

Illusions

As we were talking about senses in the seminar yesterday, it reminded me the TV program called "Horizon" I was watching on Monday on BBC 2.

Is Seeing Believing? Interactive Experience

I found it interesting when I think about how our senses work after watching this program. Our senses work separately yet together to enable us to define information we receive. The ways we think, reason and act can be changed by different senses. And I think this could be applied to our multimedia field too. I believe in the future time, there will be more 3D devices within our lives, products like 3D computers and mobiles, and maybe 3D glasses are no longer needed for seeing 3D images or movies. Maybe even 4D products is coming, with our senses like smelling food from a movie? 

Illusion quiz

Because our senses work together, although visual design is the most important element in web design, sound effect plays an major part too. If the right sound/music is playing, they can add effective impact to the audience while they are looking through a website. It keeps the audience's attention on the site and maybe concentration too. 

Since scientists are working on developing a new sense on human body, I believe there are a lot more interactivity will be developed with the multimedia industry in the future as well.

We Think

Charles Leadbeater - We Think



I think this is indeed true. I agree with what its saying in the video.

"Information is everywhere", and to me, the web is like a massive brain which stores information from everyone (who's willing to share their information of course) and everywhere.

"New ideas usually come through conversations" and because "More ideas being shared by more people than ever", it leads to mass innovation.

"Mass innovation comes from communities"
"It's like building a bird's nest, where everyone leaves their piece", just like people from different communities sharing/leaving information and ideas on the web which motivate innovation and creativity.

"That should be good for - Democracy because more people will have a voice; -equality because knowledge can be set free to help people who need it"

Yet country like China who has approx. 298 million people have internet access do not have the right to speak even on the web. They have lots of online media restrictions and many of those famed media sites such as Youtube and Facebook are blocked from the government.

Also,
"How do we protect what is private?"
"Are we always safe sharing?"
"How do we earn a living when everyone is freely sharing their ideas?"

So, What do We Think. What do You Think?

website reviews

1) Roth Aniko - http://www.rothaniko.hu/



This is a website of an artist called Roth Aniko from Hungary. Her illustrated-style is strongly presented within the website. I like that she combines her own face with the illustration on the front page, it makes people remember who she is. And along with the colour and the font, it makes people feel looking at this website is going to be interesting and joyful.



The layout is quite clear when you go in to the website, I could say it's user-friendly in terms of the interaction design. I really like the 'ship-carriage' and the balloons and even the fish because it flee when you click it. I also think the way that you can pick at the thumbnail of her works is effective as a work display, and when you enlarge it, there are 2 'angels' on the top which make the whole display more elegant.
I don't really like the font when I was looking at the info bit, as some of the words were not very clear because of the font. But overall I found the font and the website's style matches really well.


2) The Egg Republic - http://www.theeggrepublic.com/



The Egg Republic is an agency which specialized in 3D animation, branding and interactive works based in New York. The website itself is very computer game alike. The little robot is like controlling the screen and I like it acts like a human too. There is a little helicopter flying in the home page and when you poke it, it disappear like it had been shot by guns which I found it quite interesting.



You can pick on the works they produced and also pick the ones at the back like a pile of folder, the way that the information presented was like in a computer game too, where it appears like typing in the computer. It's also really cool that the links are all connected like a runway and I think it represented the meaning of transporting information well. The whole website is very 3D based, you can tilt around the works, which is fascinated but I found it hard to handle after times as it keeps moving when I tried to read the text.


3) Earth Pilgrim - http://www.sachabiyan.com/

This is a website of a photographer called Sacha Biyan. This website is very simple and clear, very easy to use and very understandable. No fancy fonts or designs. The website is based on grey and brown which echoes with his works really well as most of his photos are black and white. And so is the calming background music.



I think the layout of the website looks like a book which makes his journal and photos even more professional and serious. Also in contrast of the clean design, his works look appealing and fascinated. This simple design gives people an image of a composed person which I think suits Biyan as he had travel around the earth and has a lot of different and precious experiences. It's kind of a reflection on his website and works.

Summary of Complete Beginners Guide To Interaction Design

"Interaction Design bridges the gap between man and machine"

http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/complete-beginners-guide-to-interaction-design/


This article basically tells you the basic info of interaction design and a few things interaction designers should be aware of and what they should do while designing.
Interactive design hasn't got a long history and it's all about the interaction between users and machines.

5 concepts of IxD

• Goal-Driven Design - It is essential to know what the users' goals are before designing. And this is the constraints designers have, which need to be considered in order to meet the users' needs.
• "Interface As Magic" - The best interaction designs should be simple, easy and unnoticeable, because users don't necessarily think of the interfaces when using the website.
• Usability - Should be easy to use and understand in order to give users to get what they want easily.
• Affordances - The functionality behind a website or service gives the best interaction designs. It should look like what it is.
• Learnability - Familiar components are important for a usable interface, and interaction designers should make interface learnable.

Interaction Designers do...

• From/inform a design strategy - Designers need to know who she's designing for and what their goals are in order to design a usable interaction.
  
• Identify and wireframe key interactions - Design and sketch out the interactions wanted.
  
• Prototype interactions - might include XHTML/CSS, prototypes, and paper prototypes.
  
• Stay current - Keep explore new interactions from the web. Be aware of the industry.
  

useful websites

One of the good points of using twitter is I got to know some interesting and useful websites from other people from the industry

Here are some I looked at recently:

• 17 Websites that all web designers and developers should know
http://veryinspirational.com/blog/web-design-blog/2010/10/06/17-websites-that-all-web-designers-and-developers-should-know/

• 50+ Beautiful Flash Websites for Your Inspiration
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/beautiful-flash-websites-for-your-inspiration/

• 40 Must See Cool Short Animation Websites
http://dzineblog.com/2010/09/40-must-see-cool-short-animation-websites.html

Web Designer - Nick La

so I've found this American illustrator and web designer Nick La along with his fascinating studio website and blog.

http://www.ndesign-studio.com - portfolio & blog of Nick La

http://www.webdesignerwall.com/ - a public blog of design ideas, web trends and tutorials

http://bestwebgallery.com/ - a gallery site full of range of web designs

http://icondock.com/ - collection of stock icons that you can buy for your own website

http://jobs.webdesignerwall.com/ - where you can find design jobs

Design Practice 2 - flash Quiz

The second session of DP2 is Interactive Media, making a flash quiz.
like this one - http://www.pubsquiz.co.uk/quiz/virtualquiz.asp?quiz=1

This is the very useful website to follow our seminars and learn about flash
http://bit.ly/axOKlz

so we learnt how to make a moving image from a sprite sheet like this.


I have decided to make a quiz about the world's famous countries and cities as I love travelling and have found some places are quite familiar in some way.
and I enjoy doing this so much I am really sure about choosing Interactive media as my pathway.

Mexico Poster Competition

The 10th International Biennial of the poster in Mexico (2008)

Some very inspiring posters of the competition



http://www.bienalcartel.org.mx/indexBak.htm

Graphic Designer - Shigeo Fukuda

"In terms of my graphic design, I feel visual communication is the most important element."

by Shigeo Fukuda



http://www.icm.gov.mo/exhibition/fukuda/philoE.asp