Saturday, January 28, 2006

Wacom Intous 3


This is my faviourite object ever! Its the Wacom Intous 3, a newer model of the previous intous 2 tablet . Its used to work primarily on digital art and graphics, and is a more professional tool then the basic starting tablet made by wacom ( Graphire models) . It has a higher working resolution then most other tablets and this tablet in particular is a 6x8" tablet. It is big and comfortable to use,without having to draw too small. It fits quite comfortably over my laptop keyboard, where i usually place it. The buttons are also a major help, letting you do almost anything with the tablet by setting them.

The main affordance of the tablets main use is simple, pen to tablet. It is used to mimic the pen or pencil on a computer, allowing you to do anything from art to browsing the internet comfortability. The vivibility however is more in the button use. The pen has 3 programable buttons on it that can be changed in the menu, including the tips interaction with the computers programs. The button at the end is mainly an eraser, but

It doesn't have any text on the tablet at all, and instead of text there are two sets of programable buttons (you can change what they do in the tablets menu) on either side. One of them ( the longest one) is the scroll bar at all times.....it has a good visibility in my opinion because if you are familiar you will understand its use right away.

The programable buttons can be set to "undo", press "alt", and even open assign programs. It is very usful, and at the same time understandable why no text was added to the tablet. If text was added, and you changed the setting....well it just wouldn't be good interaction if you pressed a button that read save and the button closed the file! So it seems that you must know the affordances that you set to use the tablet.....that way it can be used flawlessly.

Visbility on the other hand is poor because you cant see what is programed, you need to have prevous knowledge of how you set it. Although, one good thing bout it id the small indent on the buttons on either side. It allows you to know where the buttons are so you do not have to look down at the tablet. This is used like the raised groves on a keyboard. It allows us to go about working without any consious effort.

The Feeback the tablet gives varies. It does have a light that changes colour when you press the tablet tip to the tablet. It also has a variety of other nibs, that give a vireity of different tactile resonses. For instance, the black nib allows for more risistance.....it is used to mimic a pencil on the computer screen in art programs. The "Paint brush" tip has a spring that allows you to have the bounce of a piant brush on the computer! These tips are very useful but, they have to be switched manually!

The buttons feedback is that you hear a click and feel the button go down slightly. It works better then pressing the pen to the tablet and just getting a light click from the tip and a light response. At least this way you know that you actually pressed the button.

The side bar that is used to go up and down on websites (scroll) has no feedback other then that of scrolling on a web page or zooming in art programs.

The most important feedback of this useful tool is that it allows you to see the marks on the tablet (that you cannot see), on the computer monitor.

The mapping system changes accourding to buttons, but the overall mapping of the pen and tablet work fine.

The constraints of this tablet are obvious enough....you cannot use the pen over the drawing area ( the rectangle in the center), you can only press the buttons with your fingers, and you can only press the pen so hard before you break it. So they are good in the way they use physical, psychological , and semantic constraints. If something cant be done in a program, you will get audio feedback.

The habitual and overall brreakdown of the Intous 3 tablet is that when yo ucontinue to use it, you done even notice what you are doing conciously. You become so used to how you customised it that you never have to look down at the buttons , which wouldn't really help you anyway.The only problem that may be a problem is pressing to hard and wareing away the top over time (this was a problem with the graphire tablets that wacom also produced) , but it doesnt seem to affect this one much....pen tip replacement is the major concern. Thankfully, it comes with a few regular tips so you do not have to go out of your way to buy them!

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Sarah Project2 A




This is a remote control which come in useful .
It has good visibility and feedback because,
the electronic objects (television ,videotape recorder ...)
turn on/off by just press a button . And ,
I can change channels , set up TV and turn up/down
the volume by using remote control .
It also has good affordance because , it has just
buttons with simple letter which helps to get point
easily . So , I knew how to do with it , just press a button .

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Week 1 (Fri 3:15-6:05) with Greg Van Alstyne

Hello and welcome to the first post for G Van Alstyne’s class. I hope these notes will be of help to you outside of class times.

lecture:

Marshall McLuhan
– invented the ‘tetrad’- a technique for analyzing media
- 4 questions can be asked about any medium
- we touched on the four areas – extend, replace, retrieve, flip into
- McLuhan invented the term ‘Global Village’ and theorized the effects of electric technology (we can follow chain of technology-medium-environment all the way through to global effects)

from powerpoint on G Van Alstyne’s work, we asked ‘now that we can do anything, what will we do?
- ‘ibot’ – wheelchair able to climb stairs and allows occupants to be at standing height
- our best computers now used for purposes other than war i.e. mapping ocean currents, air traffic control, measuring energy, market economies, social changes...


ibot


ocean currents

24hr time-lapse of US air traffic space

from the 2nd powerpoint, we looked at interaction design – what does it include and what does it mean?
- several suggestions: art medium, people, message, communication, technology, feasible, physical, intellectual, media, global, conference room, virtual, illusion, responsive...
- interaction design...when people interact and the device or technology ‘disappears’
- it has less to do with objects and more to do with experience...

interaction design is broad!
- several examples: telephones, intercoms, voice over internet protocol (VOIP), plain old telephone service (POTS), texting/short messaging service (SMS), email, blogs, wikis, ipods/podcasting, peer-to-peer file sharing, radio frequency identity tags, GPS, ATMs, Kiosks, etc
- it includes experience design (ie Mall environments, board games such as monopoly), human-computer interaction, 3-D, N-D (with any number of dimensions working together)

what is NOT interaction design?
- yesterday’s media...

links of interest:
massive change
jeremy blake
IDEO

for other links, refer to course outline

Role of the Scribe:

As I have done, the ‘scribe’ will take notes during the class and publish a post of his/her notes, along with relevant links, pictures etc on this blog. You will receive an email invitation from myself and then, upon accepting the invite, will receive privileges to post. As you scroll down to the end of each post, you will see a ‘comments’ link, where questions and further discussion is encouraged.

2 students will be informed that they will act as the ‘scribe’ before each class begins.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Sarah's mugshot


Original Photo ☆

Altered ★

My mug shot...

Here are my mugshots....rather simple and boreing.....and the second one looks like im on fire.
They are ok, just a few simple things done....nothing to complicated, but thats a good thing I guess. Oh, and I have no clue where the brushes are from...i got them somewhere online.



Thursday, January 12, 2006

Bardia Doost's Mugshot (Kind of)

Well, it's not exactly a mug shot, but it'll have to sufice, I'm tired and hungry and in no mood to take another picture of myself. One can look at his face for only so long, before he gets sick of it.

Well in anycase, here it is. Textures compliments of the stockeXchange, photo compliments of my girlfriend. Took about an hour and a half (maybe 2), the photo was really blurry to begin with, so I had to work with it. Alot of the details aren't very apparent because of how they've been resized. Originally 8.5" x 11"

Here they are (original and doctored) click to enlarge

Regards,

Bardia Doost.

Storytelling: West Along Dundas

On my way home for dinner, I pass a man walking the same direction as me. This man mumbles something I can't quite understand. I turn to him. He's old and haggard. His head hangs to the ground, emphasizing his double chin, and he wears his winter jacket open, emphasizing his bulging belly. A real down-and-outer.

This man looks up at me, motioning his hands in my direction. I slow my pace so that we now walk in step.
He says, "People here don't like me."
"What makes you say that?" I ask.
"Nobody talks to me."
"I'm talking to you."
"Yeah."
The old man stops as we approach a group of men lingering on the sidewalk. I continue on, saying to no one in particular, "Don't take that stuff so personally, man. It's not about you."

Elements to Consider:
1) Line - what is the story (what happens), how are the happenings connected, use specifics as much as possible without getting lost in detail.
2) Voice/Tone - who is the audience, who am I (what is my character), what is the medium.

Monday, January 09, 2006

What are these things? For Prof Martha Ladly's class






What can they do? What else could they do? Why do they look like this?

For our class this week - bring in an object with interactive potential!
It can be as simple - or as complex - as you like.

Friday, January 06, 2006

Michael + Jesse's Section: Deliverables for Next Week

Thanks for a great first class!

As we discussed, the things you need to get done by/for next week are as follows:

1) Join Blogger and the Principles of Interaction Design blog (www.ocad-interactiondesign.blogspot.com). Michael will be sending you the required invitation email early next week. Make sure that you fill out the Blogger profile section (Michael and I already have - check them out).

2) Post your two mugshots to the blog - the original one you took in class (or another photo of your choice, so long as it's of yourself), and a Photoshop-altered version.

3) Create a "map" of the process you went through to create the Photoshop-altered mugshot. Use a mapping convention of your choice - we will be discussing the mapping process more next class. Bring a hard copy of the map to class next week.

4) Read the handout on mental/conceptual models, and think about how this way of thinking applies to the type of work that interests you.

5) Bring in at least three pieces of original 2-dimensional work that you think represents your "story." We will be using this work for our first assignment.

Thanks,

Jesse

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Add your interesting links

Administrators :
Please feel free to add links, images etc - go to the template section.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Digifest 'New Voices' deadline January 31, 2006

Here's an opportunity for young new media designers.
--GVA
________________________________________________________________
Hello,

This is just a friendly reminder that the deadline for the Design Exchange's annual New Voices Call (a component of the annual digifest festival) is fast approaching. The submission deadline is January 31, 2006.

8-12 chosen projects will be installed in digifest 2006: mods at either Design Exchange, Ontario Science Centre or Harbourfront Centre - digifest partners.

Registration forms are available at the site: http://www.dx.org/digifest

Sincerely,
--

Daniela Bryson
Programs Coordinator

234 Bay St.
P.O. Box 18
Toronto Dominion Centre
Toronto, Ontario
M5K 1B2
Tel : 416-216-2126
Fax : 416-368-0684
email: daniela@dx.org
website: www.dx.org

digifest 2006: mods
www.dx.org/digifest

The DX is a registered charity with a mission to educate Canadians about the value of design, through engaging and enriching programs.