Summer Explorations

Andrea BradshawParsons MFADT ‘11

How does space effect emotions and perceptions?

What can we do to involve all of the senses in the digital world?How do we bring texture into this new high tech world?

How can we use technology to augment our interactions in the physical world?

What is the place of technology in the developing world?What is the place of a designer in the developing world? With this rush to design for the developing world, are we ignoring the problems around us?What is the place of technology in the developing world?Disaster prevention, disaster protection, disaster relief - what is most important?The most recent problems have been related to water - floods, tsunamis, etc- How can technology fit into these situations in a meaningful way?

Elevator Pitch

• Disaster Design‘Natural Disasters’ are occurring more frequently and causing

greater destruction than ever before. The lack of global response to the floods in Pakistan, the lack of preparation in Haiti, and the fact that New Orleans is still a troubled city 5 years after Hurricane Katrina shows us that our disaster preparedness, detection, and relief systems are all in need of a great deal of improvement. It is possible to create appropriate, effective design that will work to create better systems, better communication, and save lives.

10 in 10: #1

Design Website: Learning Drupal• Great Community• So many ways to organize and create content• A little difficult to design and style

10 in 10: #2

Datamyne• Wanted to create a network

visualization• Instead of starting from scratch,

tried to figure out a way to work within an existing system

• Wrote a custom xml/json converter

• Modified the framework to make the data live, make dynamic calls to the server

10 in 10: #3Making Concrete• Good way to step away from a

screen• Interesting to work through the

process– Try to get rid of all bubbles– Add mix to water, not

reverse, to keep it from clumping to the bottom

– Keep concrete moist while it cures

10 in 10: #4

OSI• Working on web development

as a team is difficult• Getting Wordpress to function

as a site involves using a lot of widgets

• Images and graphics are slow to load and are not often thought about in our land of fast internet

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

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10 in 10: #5

• Development Design Research– Email discussion with anthropologist student– Strong examples found on Nokia, HP, GE, Ideo sites– Interesting conversations with colleagues and friends led to thought

provoking questions• Is this design a form of new imperialism, or is it helpful?• ‘i just met with a woman who said: "If you want to start a war,

distribute. If you want peace, construct. (les routes, les hopitaux)." she's so right. distributing aid doesn't work. but introducing technology might.’

• ‘it might help you get connected to a blogger or an organization who knows a lot about what you're designing’

10 in 10: #6

Thunderbird Modification• In studying the faith we put in technology, I wanted to create a

version of Thunderbird that chirped the new-mail-sound every minute or so.

• This project was not very successful, as I got bogged down in a lot of the details:– Shells– .profile files– Mercurial– Code-builds– Editing json/ajax/php functions

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

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10 in 10: #7

Week in LA: Physical Prototypes• Worked to setup an air-hockey sized

table interactive touch table. • Learned to pack tools you don’t think

you’ll need, mark pieces from prototypes as you disassemble them, and make designs easy to tweak.

• Learned that every design decision has a cascading effect, so prototype everything!

10 in 10: #8Week in LA: Networking Machines• Worked to create a network of 18 machines

and touch-screens. – Certificates and rsync allow you to push

updated code from a master to a slave, to remote access machines, etc.

– Scripts/config files/apple scripts are a backup way to control machines remotely

– It takes a lot of power run 20 machines & monitors at once, plus more cables and extension cords than you ever dreamed of

– There is always a lemon machine, even in a batch as small as 20

QuickTime™ and aMotion JPEG OpenDML decompressor

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10 in 10: #9

• Wordpress Forms & Online Authentication– How do you know someone is who

they say they are online?• Verisign• Adobe Certificates

• How do you allow multiple users to edit and submit one form?

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

10 in 10: #10

• Decision: Focus on Disaster Relief– New Orleans– Pakistan– Niger– Indian Ocean Tsunami– Chile Miners

• People to talk to– Red Cross– United Nations

Assumptions/Lessons

• Web Design is fun

• Network visualizations are complex

• Mozilla makes modifying its products simple

• There is a meaningful application for adding texture digital interactions

• It’s more difficult/complex than expected

• Even more complicated than thought

• Figuring out source code and file permissions is tricky

• It has been difficult to get past my anti-technology summer kick

Motivations

• Design that makes a difference• Related to issues of global warming• Addresses problems at home and abroad• Allows design of all aspects of a problem,

including: physical computing, interactive interfaces, mobile technology, system design, information architecture, physical architecture, and product design

Visual Map: Developmental Design

Next Steps: Dev.Des

• More Systems Research– Natural Disaster Preparation– Natural Disaster Response– Begin contacting organizations

• More Personal Research– Explore water resistant designs– Discover what the most important issues are– Find out who is working in this field