New Media Exploration

There has always been advertisement on the radio, during your TV shows, bilboards when you drive down the street even on the internet. But advertisements today are much different than they use to be. Advertisements use to be simple and got the point across easily, then they went to funny but you didn’t know what the commercial was for till the very end. Today we are all into design, and making something that is unique but also odd and strange but in away that people like.. If you watch TV today and wait for a commercial (which isnt very hard as it seems more time is spent watching commercials then your television show) anyways if you wait for a commercial most likely you are going to see one of these commercials that are all into design, and making something unique but also odd and strange but in a way that people like.
One commercial that is different but memorable is the Guinness commercial. This commercial is very unique I have never seen something like it. I like how they have created the look of people being thrown at drums and playing a theme. They had to time this very accurately because if one person hits before the sound it would not seem real.

In the HP commercial with Vera Wang the incorporate computer animation with real life. This video shows that. By making real life interact with the computer animations you are giving the effect that Vera Wang is actually doing those things. That it is magic and she can pull things out of thin air aswell as make them disappear. She is saying that she did these things with an HP and that causes a viewer to believe that they can do these incredible things as well. This is the finished video.

New Media Exploration: Online Applications

From the examples that Karl showed us in class and from what I have seen online, I think that web applications are going to gain a stronger presence on the web. The two sites that I thought were interesting are very different from each other. One is very basic looking site that has some cool creative features and the other is more of an online application for editing images and more.


The first site is called TYPEFLASH, it is a cool site where you can create customized text or even a whole letter and send it via email to yourself or anyone. The level of customization is amazing, and surprisingly easy to use. The application of sorts, allows for customization of style, color, background,... I think it really shows the power that Flash has to offer web users in any field of use.


Picnik is the name of the second site. I don't know as much about this site as I would like to, but I know that it is an online application, built in Flash, that allows you to edit digital photos. I have used it briefly and I know that it is powerful and is basically a web-based Photoshop. It is extremely powerful, from what I can tell, I think that I would use it for creating cool emails or notes.

All I know is that the web is going to change, I think for the better. Online tools will become more powerful and websites will be more interactive and engaging. I also think that we are just starting to explore the potential for web-applications. I have learned a lot from this class and I definitely want to learn more. Thanks for all the help!!

Silly Sammy by Jana Pierce

If you want to get away from it all, you should check out http://www.hungrysuitcase.com/ . Here you will find a site full of fun and great design. The main part of the site is their "Vacation Fun-A-Lyzer"where you pack different items into "the hungry suitcase." Based on the items you choose to pack, the program will come up with a destination the Carnival Cruise Line offers as a vacation. The artistry is excellent. Everything is top notch as far as design and functionality. As you are deciding what to pack, you go from room to room. There is a neat effect of the room spinning to the next. If you are idle in one room, the suitcase will prompt you to keep packing. Once you have chosen 10 items, you will click on "show my vacation" and then it will analyze your choices. You will have a somewhat personalized song at the end inviting you on your dream cruise. As an added touch, you receive a little fortune at the end that says what type of suitcase you are and why. Each of the items you pack have a value related to them such as relaxin', action, and culture. This site is very interactive and really leads the player through the process. Sometimes it does take awhile to load each stage of the game but the humor and interactivity makes it well worth the wait. I kept wanting to see what Sammy the suitcase would say next! While you are browsing the room, as you hover over an object, it will get bigger and a little dialogue will appear with a witty little comment. Sammy will usually pipe in, too. Of course, you can mute it but then you would miss half the fun.

Another fun part of the site is "Make A Date" where you can make up a suitcase for Sammy. You choose the color style, accessories, etc and then, you are off to whatever romantic scene awaits! (we got to go skinny dipping in Bermuda!-) Try it ! it's funny! Of course there is a tab on the site to fill out an email form but they make that fun, too and say "lets be pen pals. I'll send you my news." The whole site is geared toward a younger crowd of cruisers. It is put together to keep you on the site and ultimately get your info so that they can target advertise to you. They know your interests and see a slice of what people are most interested in for vacation. it is a really fun way to get free marketing census information.

By Jana Pierce final post

Kinetic By Jana Pierce

Kinetic Singapore is a design company in , wait for it... Singapore! In a word, flair! They've got it.






http://www.kinetic.com.sg/main.html







They don't take themselves too seriously and yet manage to hook clients including Lotus: http://www.lotuscars.com/ This site, I love, as supercar sites go. The only problem is that when you click on a menu item at the top of the page, the whole page refreshes. Maybe we should shoot them some code for a dynamically loading movie clip...





Nike: http://www.nike.com.sg/niketribes/page2.htmlOn the opposite extreme, They have today's trendy grunge/paint splot design nailed. This site really hits the target so to speak.
motorola : http://motorola.theadventus.com/merrymoto/Since it is Holiday themed, I though it appropriate to highlite. cute holiday animations, very simply done and short but you can still appreciate the clean vector look that stays fresh even three years later.
With all this high profile publicity, they still find time to do what seems non-profit org work. I find that fantastic! And there are actually quite a few projects.
what noise?: http://www.whatnoise.org/An interactive site that attempts to raise funds for hearing impaired children from disadvantaged families through a series of games and opportunities to donate.


I found this design company through the webby awards. They were nominated in 2006 for the best use of animation or motion graphics.Their site is out of this world. As self proclaimed design team not of this planet, the site is themed around robots from outer space who animate each transition. One critique I have is their style of animation is that which never stops moving (like you spun around the tire swing for too long in one direction and then tried to focus on the robot's squiggly arm.) It distracts a little from the content of the site but navigating around the site (from scene to robot scene) as you learn about the company is really the fun of it. And you can tell that they had fun making it! Anyone who uses their creativity to make a living can probably relate that when you get the chance to make something your own without the constraints of a client, things can get really out of control and quick. Take it from Kinetic and Keep the creative juices flowin'!

by Jana, two!

web graffiti by Jana Pierce

And no, I'm not just talking about blowing up someones website by dropping bombs on it. This could be the next level of the free flow of information. It adds a sort of z order to the whole free-flow of info.

I found a great overview of some of the top contenders at

http://www.techcrunch.com/tag/stickis/

Diigo

http://www.diigo.com/ is a research tool that allows you to share bookmarks and annotations.

Fleck http://fleck.com/ is basic and lets you post public or private notes on a page.

ShiftSpace.org a bunch of nerds! I watched some of their videos on the way their plugin works (boy could they use some of the creative minds in this class!) Anyway, the way it works is the plugin allows you to live edit any web page by pressing Shift + Space (clever ;-) and then the modified pages are called "shifts" and made available on the SSwebsite. The team plans on implementing "trails" which are hyperlinked collections of related shifts. With linking becoming the #1 traffic ranking draw, this can prove invaluable.

I think that this is the idea behind trailfire http://trailfire.com/ where you post notes on a webpage and string them together with hyperlinks making "trails."

This article goes into much more depth (and of course is linked to even more info!) and is definately worth checking out!

p.s. ShapeShift update...I think they heard my plea from the start of the semester. Their site is much more stylized since my first introduction. They even have a cool logo!

By Jana (not pete!)

Web 2.0 and bandwagon design.

I get it, I really do... Its just that I hate it.

Anytime creativity has a price put on its head and designers are pressured into a "fashionable" because someone defined it as "NEW!" and whats "in" or "c00l" or whatever (I ran out of quotes) I want to bleed from my eyes, throw my computer out the window and focus my creative career on painting with mud on cave walls. At least in my cave there wont be some monstrous corpulent corporate entity thats so large it cant see where its going wont have the power to influence and subjugate those ache to do something different.

I get that web 2.0 is supposed to be all about some new magic software that makes the web more seamless, interactive, and aversive... but its not. Its just a bunch of old dogs that have been there wanting to play all along except someone has tied them together and painted them with fluorescent stripes and said HERE, I have brought you a eight legged zebradog from mars and it cures cancer!

The masses look and say hey wow... that seems familiar... like something I used to like... but I've never had a zebradog from mars! I'll take it! Soon everyone is trying to keep up and the poor dogs cant run so well with half their legs in the air and all tied together but people need something new. Even if its not.

O.k. I get it. Vista with its triple glazed "glasstic" (I just made it up TM!) look has all the hallmarks of something new, I mean look, its glossy! Right? Reflective! Yea! That means its clean like a new car or a clean window, just be careful you dont walk right into it. The interface can get in the way when its compromised.

Art and creativity are ripe for compromise and even corruption. They are by definition what people perceive them to be and will be judged as such. So when you are creating, writing, cooking, doing anything that involves part of you in the process... every once in a while... dont draw from what is fed to you, look away from the neon and the commercials, look within and pull out something that is uniquely you. Its a great way to grow.

-Peter Ochabski
http://www.ArtScientific.com

The art of life with the internet.

My tech exploration is of something that may seem so obvious as to be done to death. However I really dont think people are aware of the unique moment in time that we have the privilege of experiencing. Never in all of human history has so much information been so available to so many people, not even close. Information and knowledge have found a radical catapult in the seemingly infinite web of computers and people. This shift in the control and flow of facts and fiction has stripped many of those who once used information for their malevolent gain.

With this unique freedom comes the responsibility to defend its uncontrolled and uncensored use with zealous and religious fury because I know that this interconnecting of human beings will be the most significant milestone in our evolution since we noticed our oposable thumbs.

We have not even begun to feel the effects of what happens when we are all able to learn any skill, research any location, any action, learn any history, find any cure, and solve any problem with a simple question to a virtual library of knowledge that eclipses anything we can currently comprehend. Scientists will solve all problems faster, artists will find inspiration and technique at will, and humanity will swell with empathy, unity, and enlightenment.

Its all about the whole being greater then the sum of its parts but NOW those parts can finally become one on a global scale. With each individual carrying unique insight to the world as a lone and isolated puzzle piece we now have a path into the future that offers us a way out and a way in at the same time.

Of personal interest to me as an artist will be the ability to present my creative concepts without the filters and shackles of reality.

Watch for it, the next giant leap will be the direct connection the the brain, bypassing the warm but heavy flesh. Once the electric pulses that currently pump information across the world on cold hard steel and plastic can be interacted with directly by the electrical impulses that carry our thoughts and feelings the full potential and our future will be realized.

See you then,
-Peter Ochabski
http://www.ArtScientific.com

Design Exploration: Rapp Collins Worldwide & Schematic

I chose to do my Design Exploration on Rapp Collins Worldwide and Schematic. They are both marketing companies that have major companies for clients. They focus on creating branded experiences; and both their websites are just that!

I have some nice screenshots of the websites to show, but for some reason Blogger won't upload the images...??

I really like the design of the Rapp Collins site, for its originality, consistency, and attention to detail. The design strays from the template style for most websites, by using an interface that is not only unique, but also clean, artistic, and visually interesting. It does this while still keeping the possibly less intuitive user in the loop, with the option to use a more conventional nav menu.

The layout is very clean. In the intro, we are introduced to our site guide, a little humming bird, who is actually the result of the animated preloader. Then we head into the main site, which does not seem like a standard website at all, but more of an exploration of artistic expression. The site is still easy to navigate because it presents you with the nav menu from the beginning, which gives you clues on how to navigate the different locations. When you go to a particular location either by moving the mouse down the page or via the menu, you are greeted with a nice animated preloader that loads the visuals for that location. The visuals for each location are playful animations that are just awesome. Then if you choose to enter that location a really cool thing happens. The main page blurs out into the background and flowing vines of cables, coming from the main page, connect you to a new window with more info on that topic.

The feeling that one gets is that you are never really leaving the main page, all while still getting the info you want. The whole site and the windows themselves are an awesome combination of crisp raster graphics and stunning 2D vector illustration. THE CONTINUITY IS AMAZING!!!! This site is a brand experience in itself. It is inspiring design work! The amazing thing is, is that all this does not overpower or detract from the goal of the site, but only lends to the experience.


The website for Schematic is just as well designed, but with a completely different style. The whole website is on one huge page that the user navigates, one tile at a time. So, when the page loads, you start at the Home tile, but you can see that their are more tiles surrounding it because they are partially visible and are allowed to run off the screen. They still give you a nav menu that travels with you to each tile, but its content changes to suit the current location. Going to main categories of the page is a cinch, and going the home tile is just as easy. You also have the option to zoom out at any time to see all tiles/pages that you can navigate to. THIS IS AWESOME!! I am amazed at how easy and quick it is to move from page to page. On each tile you can read the written content, admire the graphics and design, or you can view videos/images that are present on that page. The attention to detail and level of consistency, which is very important, is top level.

Both these sites are amazing! They are an inspiration for new and cutting edge design. YOU HAVE GOT TO CHECK THEM OUT! I can see now, why Karl wanted us to do these explorations. Thank You Very Much.

New Media Exploration:Andy Howell and Converse

Today I think multimedia has a big influence on the interaction of visuals and people. Just by the different colors,images,audio,and other elements of a multimedia product affects a persons reaction. Subconciously or not a person reacts to a product based on its advertising. A good example would be converse.com. This website gives you a lot more than just shoes. The different types of flash based interactions and the graphics are amazing. When you enter the page there are several people standing holding letters that spell out HAPPY HOLIDAYS. When you click on each one a different type of shoe is presented. There are several different types of interactive media in this page, and all of it "pursues" the consumer to stay longer and actually check out the shoes, rather than just clicking next to see one shoe at a time.

Multimedia not only helps agencies promote their products but it also helps artists show their work in interesting ways. For example, in Andy Howell's website andyhowell.com the flash based website helps his sketches and paintings come alive. In the intro he has one of his main characters which is a colorful monster randomly running around the screen while his other flying character is slicing the monster to pieces. Then a city pops in and out of the screen and his table of contents suddenly appears. All that just gave an animated, interesting look of what his art is like. He continues the excitment in his website by making the buttons animate the city when you click on them and also by making slide shows for his different types of art and more.

Overall, multimedia is really the future in advertising and art because it is the ultimate way to present "art" and you can use it to express or portray any other media.

Design Exploration

Neostream creates compelling interactive media designs for many companies using flash. Their clients include Samsung, LG, Fujitsu, Unchs, Volvo, OXO art, New Pencil, James & Taylor, Cilek, KOCCA, Dead Game, Botany Bay Council and KITA. I chose Neostream because when you enter the site they immediately engage your curiosity with a flash developed cartoon character. The character then tosses flames around his head each flame then directs you to a different page. The first flame takes you to the client’s page. The second flame redirects you to the showroom page this page images you by allowing you to pick where you want to go you then need to click on the word of where you would like to go then drag it over to the character where he then smashes the word to pieces and you are redirected to where you would like to go. The other flames take you to the company skills, news, future products and more. I like how they have made a very simple looking but extremely complicated character that interacts with your mouse. The site is very simple and does not take away from the main focus of the site, which is the animated character. The animated character is very appealing and just asks you to see what it can do. The character engages you in the site and its activities.


This site is not only clean looking but it is also very easy to navigate. This site is consistent but also very different on every page. Every page is simple and has as little distractions as possible. On every page there is the cartoon flash character along wit some other flash design that is not used on any other page. For example on the clients list the page opens up with a tree, the clients are spread all around the tree. When you click on a client leaves fall off of the tree.


I believe that the artist idea was to create a simple way for people to explorer what Neostream can do for its customers. The artist wanted to make the site interactive and fun, to cause you to want to explorer every page. For every page to be as different as the next. The artist accomplished this idea very well. The site is very simple with a plain white background; the only color, visual, or animation is the main display along with the animated character.

Studio/Artist Exploration

Screenvader has created a very compelling website using flash. The site is very simple but creative at the same time. There is a white background with black lettering. When u move your mouse the main menu moves allowing you to look through the many different sections that you can visit. when you role your mouse over one of the navigation buttons a picture pops up showing a small thumbnail to the page that you would be redirected to once that button was clicked. In the music navigation is a similar thing; pictures do not pop up rather the name of the song that begins to play when you roll your mouse over the button. The contents of the buttons that link you to other pages are a variety of things. The section is called media and algorithms, some of the links take you to images of blueprints all jumbled together. When you click on the picture the view changes, there is never the same view twice. The rest of the links take you to flash videos, which seem almost as if they are those types of videos that Hollywood always depicts as a brain washing video. The videos are strange and don’t make sense but you just don’t want to look away, you want to know what comes next. I like this artist style there is something different about his way of expressing himself. Each video or picture that you go to is never the same. The pictures when loaded every time you click are tossed around to random areas giving different designs every time. When the videos load the sequence of images that appear are randomly selected, it never starts the same. And on the left side of the screen you are shown which pictures are being loaded and mp3s all in random order every time. I think that the artist made everything so random because life is random. Things go by so fast that you need to pay attention to what is right in front of you because you may never see that image again.

Design Studio Exploration - Preloaded

Finding a really impressive design studio can be a bit daunting, as you swim through the sea of “award winning” designers producing something akin to what we learned our first month in class - good for a laugh, if nothing else.
Somehow (Flash Forward?), I found Preloaded Studios (http://www.preloaded.com). According to their website, Preloaded aims to push the boundaries of creativity in order to fulfill client goals and users needs ("We do nice things, we could do them for you, too"). I found the studio after researching the origins of a game called CDX (http://www.cdx-thegame.com/). The game is compelling and well put together - although I didn't have nearly enough time to explore it. Preloaded’s website, however, was stunningly understated. For a company that pushes the envelope of creativity, this website seemed somewhat underwhelming – at least until I used it. It is a clean and effective site, even if it seems to understate their work.
Under the company’s clients (“what we do”) page, the clients were laid out as “case studies”. Visiting a study not only introduced to the work, but the reasoning behind the design. “Cases” can be searched by client, market, platform or service, allowing for several options to see why and how they do what they do. Within each case study, they outline the Goals of the project, followed by the studio’s “solution” and finally the result of the campaign/site/project. Of course, you can link to the project from the case study, as well.
From these case studies (there were many), it seemed evident that Preloaded,works very closely with its clients to meet their goals and visions. They focus heavily on branding and on creating the vision set forth by their clients, then going beyond that to impress the users of the site. Preloaded focuses very much on user impressions and interactivity, with a goal of keeping users coming back. The idea of creating a site that immerses the user and makes them a part of the site seems paramount to this group.
Preloaded seems to excel in user interactivity. Several of the sites that I visited invited the user to participate, rather than just watch. A fine example is a site that they created for a BBC espionage drama called “Spooks”. In the site developed for the second season, they created a Grid Ops (http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/spooks/. The site invited users to participate in “missions” (games) and tracked their progress. New missions were rolled out over a 10-week period, inviting users to come back. The site looks like a police station, using video clips and Flash to give it a realistic feel. To make the site even more compelling, the site tracked users’ progress and gave them scores based on several dimensions. At future logins, those scores were used to determine which tasks the user might do better in, etc. This not only made the website interactive, but personalized as well. According to the “case study” this site ended up achieving double the target user registrations desired by BBC.
Another really fun site created by Preloaded was for another BBC series http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/games/death_sakkara/. This was a historical drama taking place in the 1920s and dealt with the fad of Egyptology and the discovery of the tombs of Egypt. The site was created to go along with the site, but to be a stand-alone narrative in its own right. This ended up being a game, called "Death in Sakkara", that follows the same subject matter as the television show. The site asks the user to log in a they are given a “secret code”. This allows their progress to be saved, again encouraging users to return to the site. Because the site is historically accurate, the game provides both “value added” content to the TV series, and is an educational experience.
Looking at these (and other) sites, it is apparent that Preloaded Studios excels in user interactivity with their projects. Their goal is not only to meet clients’ expectations and advertise a product, but to give users reasons to return to the site. This makes their clients’ websites not only informative, but actually exciting and immersive. In many cases, users may only return to a website once, to gain or clarify information; in the case of many of the sites by PreLoaded, the user has good reason to return and interact with the site (and ultimately, the product) over and over again

TASTEFUL SITE DESIGN Chipotle.com

Chipotle.com
This little burrito manufacture has created a very tasteful flash site. I never gave this fast food joint much thought, but after visiting their web site. I wanted to make weekly visits. So it scores high on an effective marketing plan.
The sites design is crisp, clean and well balanced and hip, just like their food. I was as inspired to check out every link to see what creative flash surprise was hidden behind it. Very entertaining. The site has a great sense of humor, interesting photos, strange and humorous sound bites on each page, a link that featured artist, Bruce Gueswel who design the art in the restaurants, a radio station, which plays the eclectic world music that is piped into their restaurants, a live cam on the food preparation, video contests that utilizes youTube, allowing you to watch the finalist from the commercial contest, free downloads, an apparel store, a pen tapping page, an employee pet dog page, and more.
You learn so much about the company, their architecture, the art, the tribal music, and the food. They are a green restaurant using organically grown vegetables and meat. Fast food with integrity.









The location, design, www.chipotle.com/#flash/restaurants_design

the Art: www.mayatekinc.com/,
Bruce Gueswel artist for Chipotle restaurants





and the music, www.chipotle.com/#flash/restaurants_music, of the restaurant.

The use of human video in flash site gives you a connection to the restaurant, you feel like you know so much about them. So you are happy to spend your money there. A very entertaining clean site that I find my self going back to and wanting to share with friends. Their Fash website gave me a newfound respect for a restaurant I may have never visited.
(although architecture of the Chipotle in Vista looked nothing like the restaurants shown on the web site, the burrito was still fresh and delicious.)
bryn best
site design blog

The New Generation of Marketing

For most of all of our lives, traditional advertising has been set up to essentially to catch our attention while we are going about doing *other* things in our daily lives-- watching TV (commercials), driving down the street (signs and billboards), reading the newspaper (classifieds), listening to the radio (commercials), and more recently while surfing the web (popups, banner ads and spam).

Traditional "interruption" advertising is far from going away. It seems that the space between commercial breaks is shrinking, commercials themselves are getting longer, and in places like myspace and ebaumsworld you can usually find three times more sponsored ads and links than actual website content. However, we are seeing more companies making a subtle shift AWAY from "interruption" marketing to actively ENGAGE consumers in surprisingly positive ways. The new generation of marketing is no longer about distracting consumers from their destination long enough to ingrain your brand in their brains; the new generation of marketing is to BECOME the destination.

The New York Times released an article in October that underscores this exact shift in Nike: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503EFD81E3CF937A25753C1A9619C8B63.

Stefan Olander, the global director for brand connections at Nike, sums up their new marketing goals pretty well: ''We want to find a way to enhance the experience and services, rather than looking for a way to interrupt people from getting to where they want to go" (qtd. in article above). They're allocating much less of their advertising budget to traditional marketing (like television and billboards), and more of it in very nontraditional marketing, like creating a fitness-centric social network (Nike Plus) that may someday give Weight Watchers a run for their money. (I don't think anyone here will be surprised to see that nike.com is developed almost exclusively in flash.) http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/

Other companies are taking a page out of YouTube's book and creating websites that seem to be dedicated to just to entertaining consumers. We've already looked at Altoids.com, and this is really another great example. You're not going to altoids.com to actually buy altoids, or even to look at the nutrition content. You're going to altoids.com so you can send your buddy a singing telegram, watch funny videos, and play games. The altoid brand is firmly established in their mind; but because he is being entertained, the consumer really doesn't mind this one bit.

Design Exploration - Nonaology

Nonaology defined simply as 'basic studies in living better' and more expansively as 'an in depth exploration into the examination and exploration of Lake Nona, a brilliantly designed 7,000 acre, master planned community located within the city limits of Orlando, Florida'.

I found this site simply poking around through the links in the IMT 145 Resources section and found the design and the interactivity absolutely intriguing and unique.

Sure, it's a web site to sell homes in a master planned community, how boring is that? Not at all as it turns out.

The site design is based on their idea of taking the name of the lake the community is built around and making it sound like a scientific term, and defining it. Lake Nona - Nonaology. Cute. They then took that concept of 'defining a term' and extended it to the entire site - making it appear to as an interactive encyclopedia entry, with a slight retro flair... and just a splash of humor. This gave the site a wonderful theme to play around.

Frankly, I've never sat and looked at a website for a master planned community for more than a minute. I want to build my own custom home, which huge aspirations to incorporate sustainable design principles... but this site captured my attention and I was still playing with it a half hour later and I was pretty impressed with the concept and design of the community itself. That says a LOT for the design, it actually got me to read the information... actually really read it.

The layout is done on a grid. The primary navigation banner is horizontal on the left hand 'page' if you will (the design is reminiscent of an open book, with two pages visible). The site content is presented in a array of four vertical sliding panels. All the panels, including the navigation banner, include some interactivity... but it is all user driven. Nothing happens until you click or move your cursor over something.

The point of the site is not blared at you... but rather 'intrigued' into you... you are curious and it is clearly stated what the site is all about in the primary encyclopediac (I made up a word) entry for the word 'Nonaology'.

The site has a formal balance which is appropriate for the theme. It is structured in a grid, a horizontal series of panels move interactively to bring information into view in a variety of ways. Nothing is exactly expected, even the 'photo albums' that you run across don't go through exactly sequentially... they go forward and then float back to the beginning rather than cycle immediately to the front of the image series. Just when you adjust to the floating horizontally sliding panels, something in the panels rolls up and down or sideways. Just enough unexpected movement to be interesting.

The site is a very clean design. Despite the fact it is packed with information, it is restful to view. The color palette is neutral, background colors are a beige and a skin tone color, the text is primarily black and in an appropriately encyclopediac serif font, a darker burnt orange tone is used as a accent color. A lot of the integrated graphics are done as vintage black and white sketches like you might see in an old encyclopedia or newspaper. BUT the designers brought a lot of contrast and differentiation into the site by playing this very neutral palette off against the color in the images and graphics - it worked in exactly the right way to bring life to the pages. There are a mixture of photographs, colorized black and white sketches and color animation / graphics that are found throughout.

Consistency is maintained throughout by retaining the primary navigation banner in a stationary location, retaining the theme in the text and layout, and through the use of interspersed circular elements - in the 'first edition' emblem (which is also the pre-loader), in the symbols on the interactive map and a few other places. It was interesting that on the news page, they went to a san serif font on the news releases. This is the only place they did that and it's not really clear to me why. I'm still thinking about that. Yes, it has the characteristic of making the news release stand out from the rest of the web page but exactly why you want to do that as opposed to using a different technique that is more consistent with the theme of the site... huh, not sure.

The navigation is absolutely stellar clear, you can go directly to the information you want. I started at the main page and everything I could think of wanting to know I got to directly with a minimum of fuss... information is presented in proximity to the images and animated graphics that support it, panels slide in / out left and right to hide and reveal information that you might be interested in.

I will comment on one other minor negative element I noted in the design. The graphic interactive map of the community is interesting and a compelling visual element in the design. Like all the movement in this site, it moves and slides very smoothly. The ONLY thing I don't like is the fact that the designers chose to give you information on the sites when you click on them... good... but then you have to click OFF the information specifically to go back to the map. That is the one thing I found non-intuitive and annoying in the site presentation. I want to simply slide my cursor off and go back to the map. Try it and see what you think. No, it's not horrible but as art director I would have made them do it differently.

The image / feeling presented by the design is fascinating to me. One of the concepts behind the community was the integration of a science/technology/research center and higher education (college) into the community. This is coupled with the retention of extensive acreage for parks and hiking/biking trails... this is more than a master planned community, it's a small city in itself with employment, retail, education and recreation all incorporated. The builders were looking to attract a sophisticated buyer, particularly one that the medical / biotech companies whose corporations were part of the master plan could hire. The entire design says 'we want the best and we want to keep you'. Talk about golden chains! Here, you work for a company and your entire life is involved in the community surrounding it.

This is a much (much) more glamorous and pricey version of what has worked, for example in China, for a number of years. In China, larger companies, particularly those involved in manufacturing are surrounded by corporate housing. Employees live, eat, and work within a relatively small radius. Co-op concept.

The site says 'educational' in its tone with the encyclopediac theme, the very sophisticated, interactive sliding panel design says 'technology', and the included 'quizzes', cute 'facts' and minimally experiential interface manage to temper that with a feeling that "I'm not too stuffy". The environmental emphasis throughout adds real appeal for a higher end buyer who wants convenience but also desires to feel like they are not isolated from nature and perhaps that by spending their money on a home here they are somehow contributing to a larger cause.

The design solution, I believe, is highly effective.

Studio/Designer Exploration: 2advanced.com

They are simply cutting edge, blazing a glowing path into the future of flash and interactive websites.

They consistently use innovative and "tech" design themes while always incorporating some element of humanity so as not to produce a cold and/or sterile design that is often associated with such themes. For example their current homepage has a different color scheme and panoramic image of a distant city, yet in the foreground there is always a person incorporated into the design looking off towards the distant city.

http://www.rappcollins.com/
They also temper their designs with humor and emotion. There are often comical details and "easter eggs" hidden within their designs. Hummingbirds that react to your cursor, or "what we look like with our shirts untucked" candid photo galleries.

http://v3.2a-archive.com/flashindex.htm
A previous site they designed for themselves was named the most influential site of the decade by Adobe and set in motion a tidal wave of techo-wanna-be flash websites that still make up a disproportionate share of flash sites.

Their work takes full advantage of perceived depth and dimension with many interactive and menu items using perspective, transparency and shadow to create depth and immersion.

http://store.diesel.com/home.asp?stl=1&tskay=3FD17CD7
They create complete dimensions for their sites to exist in, for example their work on the Diesel site where they have a underwater environment with models floating in water, even the cursor moves as though through fluid and becomes murky when near clickable items.

A reliable source tells me that their founder Eric Jordan started the company and was creating some really cutting edge flash which attracted some very large clients and with them very large paychecks and explosive growth. I've since read an article on Eric and his apparent jump-start came from entering his personal portfolio site to the FlashForward contest where his work reached a wide audience.

-Peter Ochabski
http://www.ArtScientific.com

New Media Exploration : The Google Phone

Behold, the mighty GOOGLE PHONE!
There is alot of buzz going around right now about whether the google phone will be an iPhone killer. At this point its hard to tell since many of the google phones specs have yet to be released. In fact, this image of the google phone may not even be real, there is some speculation that it is a fake photo shopped image since it was not officially released by Google. I think its real though, so we'll go with it.

One thing I really like about this phone is that it's not trying to force silly technology's on the consumer like a touch screen. Personally, I think I touch screen is completely stupid. The only plus is that you have more viewing real estate since the buttons can "disappear". Personally, I like to actually be able to feel the buttons I'm pressing. It's called tactile response. Think about it, would you want a full sized touch screen keyboard, no. Anyways, that was my rant about that.

Some facts about the phone:

-The google phone will have advertisements enabled, one thing that many other phones do not. They are doing this to lower the overall monthly phone bill of its users (It's a bit more complicated than that, but basically).

-the OS will be based on Linux, and all apps will be run using java. The OS will also have the ability to run many different multimedia apps, such as movie clips.

-The UI will have a "pan an browse" feature.

-It will have a fully qwerty keypad.

The phone will be designed by SAMSUNG and should be released some time in 2008.

Amon Tobin

Amon Tobin is a musician who specializes in variety of different electronic genres. The websites he has used to represent his work have almost always used flash and are very interactive. The latest version uses a interactive game called "Field Excursion" where you explore the depths to sample sounds of strange creatures. When you located a creature you can sample it's movements and sounds and store them to your recording log to be assembled later.

Artist Exploration : James Farr

This guy is awesome. He is an extremely talented artist specializing in animation, specifically with flash. He is most well known for his immensely popular animated series called "Xombie" which, is about zombies. SWEET!

Here's chapter 2 of Xombie (for some reason chapter 1 is hard to find):



James started Xombie in 2003, and has consistently held a top 50 spot on newgrounds.com (a very popular flash animation site) for most viewed videos. He is also ranked #3 in the artists category. When going through and watching these Xombie shorts, the main thing I noticed about the animation was how much it changed. The style remains the same, but the overall quality of the animation improves significantly throughout the chapters. (so far there are 10). When I saw this I immediately thought of South Park, and how there animation came from cardboard cut-out characters to being completely generated on a computer, while still keeping the original 2d sort of style. It really shows how an artists skill, and possibly resources, can improve over a few years.

I personally like his work because I think it has a unique style that I may be able to relate to my own style. I haven't really done enough work in graphic or web design to really be able to "define" my own style but I would tend to use the words dark and futuristic alot. Anyways, James Farr has a "dark" sort of style and it really shows in his Xombie animations. Of course zombies sort of lend themselves to dark/evil/horror type feelings, but even still, the colors and animations are very dark feeling, without knowing what the content is.

James Farr is also currently working on a comic book, other animated shorts, and various interactive websites.

Design Exploration 2 : quitdoingit.com

For my second design exploration I took a look at quitdoingit.com. Quitdoingit is a site which is supposed to be an interactive way for smokers to learn about the many different reasons to quit smoking. (Just for the record, I could really care less if a person smokes. I don't like smoking, but I won't negatively judge a person if they do.) This site is entirely driven by flash, and gives a real sense of "depth".

The interactivity of the site revolves around you, probably a smoker, visiting a research lab dedicated to learning about the ill-effects of smoking. The lab itself is designed to look very futuristic, with a very plain, white environment. It almost feels like the inside of a Rebal Alliance ship from Starwars. The navigation is within a floating robot ball thing that displays the navigation options on a screen once you click on it.

The designer definitely took advantage of flash's transparency ability. The site uses video of real people to present the information to you as they walk across the futuristic environment. Out of the many sites I've seen do this, this is by far done the best, with the most seamless transitions.

I liked this site alot because it truly gives the user/viewer a great interactive experience. This site is not easy to find something specific, it's not about that, its strictly experience design, and it does it well. Whether or not it actually helps a person to quit smoking is another story.

Mark Fiore | Flash Animated Political Cartoons

Mark Fiore's web site is insightful humorous and an excellent example of flash animated political cartooning. His work is definitely a reflection of dry single frame static political cartoons, as he got his start at the San Jose Mercury News working as a traditional political cartoonist. In 2001 he left to devote himself full time to creating animated work using flash. His site www.markfiore.com receives millions of hits per day and he was awarded a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and an Online Journalism Award from the Online News Association and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

His political views are astute and thoughtful though mildly predictable.

Donnie Darko

Rather than find a website that impresses the average joe, I decided to share what I thought was once of the most confusing websites that I've ever seen, the website for the movie Donnie Darko: http://www.donniedarkofilm.com/
Most sites for movies give you a straight ahead page with a synopsis, trailer, cast bios, etc. In the case of this movie however, they decided to take a different approach, by creating more of a suppliment to the film. The whole idea of the website is set up as sort of a game making you click everywhere and try to find where to go next. Occasionally it will ask for passwords based upon the random information from the movie in order to access different portions of the sight as well.
Though informative to the person who has seen the movie, the website makes anyone who hasn't confused beyond belief.

Design Exploration

Red Interactive Agency: http://www.ff0000.com/. Okay, this site is really worth checking out! Red Interactive is a marketing agency specializing in interactive media. To prove their worth, their site itself is interactive to an extent that I have never seen before.

Normally, "interactive" means "click here and the site will do something/go somewhere, etc." This site takes it to the next level (as much as I now hate that phrase), by placing you (or at least an alter ego) in the website.

Once the site is loaded, you are asked if you want to enable chat with other visitors. Pressing "yes" creates a moving, exploring, talking avitar, which is dropped into the the site's quirky, stylized environment. You have the option, via a customize panel, to change the look of this character (you may pick from 10 different characters). Then, you just talk. The words appear in little snippets above your head, as if cut from a newspaper.

The whole site has a specific artistic theme, reminiscent of early 1900's newspapers, vaudeville posters or tarot cards. While the scenery is a bit eerie and definitely quirky, the user is really drawn into it and begged to interact. While the live chatting is what really amazed me, the user is actually able to "walk" his or her character back and forth across the page. When you reach the edge, the page scrolls, leaving the menu and home page information behind.

Once the charm and wonder if the layout becomes old hat, the user can explore the menu itself and learn about Red Interactive. Clicking on the menu simply changes the text on the page, so you never leave the interactive environment. The company specializes, of course, in online marketing and web development, "providing the ultimate experience for their target audience." They count among their clients MTV2, Comedy Central, HBO, Sony Pictures, and Paramount.

This site serves to illustrate Red Interactives ability and commitment to providing an true "experience" for their visitors to their sites. The site is very unusual, and uniquely interactive. It promises an immersive experience for prospective clients, while suggesting Red Interactive's ability to provide unique marketing tools for clients.

I really enjoyed this site. Aside from being interactive, artistic and unusual, it was clean, logical to use and concise. The main menu was short and never strayed from it's position in the top right corner. Clicking to different sections, offered the appropriate sub-menus, listed at just below the section title. The content was well stated and concise, not to mention that it did little to interfere with the interactive environment. In fact, it seemed part of the environment, allowing the user to walk and jump the avitar in front of the content, as if the content were part of the background.

Overall, the site managed to state a lot about the company and it's goals, while creating an enviroment that a user would actually want to explore (even users not necessarily looking for a marketing agency). Despite all of the impressive clients and accolades, the best that could be said about the quality of Red Interactive's work was the uniqueness of the site itself. It promised a company that could create a truly unique experience to market their clients wares.

Springs Preserve, Las Vegas. For the Second of 2 my two explorations, I’d like to look at the website for the Springs Preserve, a new gardens, museum and cultural exhibit in Las Vegas, NV (http://www.springspreserve.org/). I can’t remember exactly how I found this site, it certainly was not while I was looking for interesting multimedia sites; but I was fairly impressed when I found it.

The Springs Preserve appears to be a rather unique natural exhibit. Aside from being a desert preserve, it is has gardens, historical parks and well as a cultural and art museum spread across its acreage. Beyond being the small tourist attraction that so many preserves are, this park aims to be an experience of the life in Vegas that goes on beyond the flashy casinos. However, competing with the adult Disneyland that is LV is a difficult task at best. To drag tourists away from the big lights takes a big offering, which is exactly what I think this website promises.

Like the preserve, the website that represents it is a true experience. Not for the faint of bandwidth, this site uses Flash to display an impressive interactive interface utilizing both animation and movie clips to make the experience come to life. From the initial load of the side, even the pre-loader is different. A silhouette of native plants grows from a central point as the pre-loader counts up. The first screen animates in pieces away from white to reveal a photograph of the preserve overlaid with a main navigation menu. The Nav menu, like the pre-loader is made of silhouettes of native plants. Individual clumps of silhouettes are strung together with a thin line to make up the menu. Hovering over each clump makes them bounce just enough to invite you in. Clicking on one of the menu choices will take you, literally, to that part of the website and that part of the park via a video clip of travel over the land to that part of the park. Once there, you are invited to explore the area, which takes you to yet another menu and a slightly differently designed page: the information section at the bottom becomes larger, which the menu, which now has sub-menu choices, becomes smaller vertically.

The design and Flash use of this site are impressive and interactive. They manage to offer a taste of a visit to the park, without giving too much away. While navigating, the main menu is reflected in a static bar at the top of the site frame. This allows the animated menu (the silhouettes) to change as needed, becoming sub-menus for different areas. Information about the different sections is listed at the bottom in an easily accessed format. The design themes of desert flora and fauna remain consistent across the page, as does the art style, which employs many low detail images (silhouettes and outlines) overlaid on full detail photographs. The site, while impressive, is fairly easy to use, once you get used to how it’s laid out. I was, initially, more impressed with the action of the website than the product that it was advertising. It took me a few minutes before the site became second nature, and I was able to concentrate on the details of the part.

One of the things that I most felt this site was missing was a true introduction page. From exploring that site, I know that the part includes a preserve, gardens, a cultural center and a museum, but there is little in the way of a “home page” that really tells you this. I feel this would be a good addition, since the park itself is so unique. I guess it could be argued that this forces the user to explore the site, thereby virtually exploring the park. I also felt that the site almost had “too much” to it. While it was visually and functionally impressive, certain pages almost seemed cluttered and overwhelming, especially when the sub-menus started to drop down from the static top menu onto the flash main menu.

Overall, this is a beautiful site, although it could seem visually overwhelming at times. Once I opened the site on another computer (which had not yet been cookied), I noticed that there was an option for a "low bandwidth site". This, I felt, was an important option for this particular site. While Vegas has become a popular destination with the Generation X,Y,Whatever crowd, it still attracts seniors and less “techy” folks. These people may be interested in the park as a detour from the gawdy glitter of the casinos, so it is important that they have a more leisurly bandwidth option to visit the site than those of us who use the cable company to hitch a ride onto the “information superhighway”.

Artist Exploration: Randall Christopher

Randall Christopher is the writer and illustrator for his online comic strip Kleeman and Mike. The long awaited animation was recently released and is now online for your viewing pleasure. The animation is light and humorous and leaves the viewer wanting to see more of the two main characters Kleeman and Mike and the supporting cast which includes their talking cat named October and Jaques a wolf who speaks in prose. They all surf, skate and sometimes rock. Very different from most comics out on the market today i find the comics and animation very refreshing.

The animation entitled "Jaime's Taco Shop" includes a behind the scenes look at the making of the cartoon. Rotoscoping is taught in the intro to Flash class and was used in the making of this animation as well. Rotoscoping is used for all of the skateboarding scenes and thus gives it a more realistic feel. Randall makes the cartoons with frame by frame drawings. Very few tweens are used. The blend of analog and digital can definatly be seen in each scene. Many of the scenes look like paintings. Check the hot sauce scene and try not to laugh out loud...it is hillarious.

More of Randall's work can be seen on Andy Davis' website. He took a simple drawing and made it into a surfing loop that goes on forever.

Studio/Design Exploration #1

I have chosen to research the multimedia design studio entitled, Sandstrom Design. Their website is www.sandstromdesign.com I found this studio by way of the Tazo Tea website www.tazo.com. Sandstrom is responsible for the branding, identity, package design, advertising, and the website. I have known about this site for a long time, but it still pops into my mind as an amazing interactive site.
Sandstrom Design is based in Portland, Oregon. They have an extense client list that reveal many big name companies. This design studio has won many design awards and is well respected in the design community. Although, trying to find examples of what they have done, or making sense out of your first time on their website is very frustrating! Their website, or his website (depending on how many people other than Jack Peterson work there) is very simple and easy to navigate, but the content is setup to toy with the viewer. It will make you play little games and leave with not much more information than you came their with. And this is a very interesting point; some of the biggest and most prestigious design studios do not reveal their work, or publically promote it; they leave it up to you to have already seen their work, or for clients to already know what they are capable of. Kind of a word of mouth approach or a trail of bread crumbs; letting the clients find Sandstrom by researching something they like.
The Tazo site is really cool. There are so many different types of movements going on; the site holds my curiosity for fairly long time considering it is just promoting tea. You can go from researching the tea flavors to getting your fortune read. Check it out.

- Jesse Kerr -

The Simpsons

The first website I choose to explore was an easy choice. My sister and I were musing about what movie we were going to go see. She suggested that we go see the Simpsons movie and proceeded to pull up the simpsons movie website on her laptop. I was really impressed by the level of thought put into the design of the website. When you first enter the site the loader is cleverly designed as introduction to Springfield. When the site is fully loaded you have a bird’s eye view of Springfield from the top of a hill. There are many interactive elements available at this point. At the top there is a navigation panel that allows you to select from three main themes. The first theme is a Simpson’s avatar creator, second is a games section, third is a index of places in Springfield you can visit. In the foreground we are presented with an overview map of Springfield. Many of the shops or buildings on the map are interactive buttons that allow you go inside and explore them. In the middle right there is a welcome sign that doubles as a second navigation panel. This panel is simpler and would be much more visually appealing and easier to use for a child. There is also an animation of Bart that you can control to knock the birds off of the welcome sign to Springfield. On the bottom there is a bar of menu item that will allow you access the more advanced features of the site such as picture and video gallery.

Accessing the individual aspects of the site we can see the depth of the content you can create with flash. The first aspect I was drawn to where the tours of Springfield which allows you to navigate around Springfield and explore shops and the Simpsons home. Once you select a location you would like to explore you simply click and loads giving you close up view of the location and many interactive buttons that link to relevant content or games. Some of these games include the Simpsons Ball O’ Death and Simpson Naked Skate. The later of which was my favorite. The part of the site I most liked and that surprised me most was the avatar creator. If you do not know an avatar it is a internet user's representation of himself or herself as a picture or icon for use as visual reference during online communications. I didn’t think that it was going to be as much fun as it was to create my own. You can log in to the site create your own Simpsons character this is done by giving a choice of body styles, facial features, and clothes. Flash was used in almost every aspect of animation and games to the avatar creator and video player. The animated world that is the Simpsons are best recreated with flash especially since many of the characters and backgrounds are shaped based and easily manipulated in flash. In my opinion I don’t believe designers could have used any other medium other than flash to create and display such a complex environment inside a browser.

Studio/Design Exploration #1

I have chosen to research the multimedia design studio entitled, Sandstrom Design. Their website is www.sandstromdesign.com I found this studio by way of the Tazo Tea website www.tazo.com. Sandstrom is responsible for the branding, identity, package design, advertising, and the website. I have known about this site for a long time, but it still pops into my mind as an amazing interactive site.
Sandstrom Design is based in Portland, Oregon. They have an extense client list that reveal many big name companies. This design studio has won many design awards and is well respected in the design community. Although, trying to find examples of what they have done, or making sense out of your first time on their website is very frustrating! Their website, or his website (depending on how many people other than Jack Peterson work there) is very simple and easy to navigate, but the content is setup to toy with the viewer. It will make you play little games and leave with not much more information than you came their with. And this is a very interesting point; some of the biggest and most prestigious design studios do not reveal their work, or publically promote it; they leave it up to you to have already seen their work, or for clients to already know what they are capable of. Kind of a word of mouth approach or a trail of bread crumbs; letting the clients find Sandstrom by researching something they like.
The Tazo site is really cool. There are so many different types of movements going on; the site holds my curiosity for fairly long time considering it is just promoting tea. You can go from researching the tea flavors to getting your fortune read. Check it out.

- Jesse Kerr -

Design Exploration : Netdisaster.com

Well, somehow I thought I had posted this exploration about 2 weeks ago, but apparently it was still in "edit mode". Well here it is:

I decided to do my design exploration on something I thought was pretty fun and clever, though I don't think its technically complicated, I could be wrong. Its a site called netdisaster.com. Basically, you can go to this site, type in the URL of any site on the internet and superficially destroy it. For example, I can type www.myspace.com into the field for the URL, and click "GO" and myspace will open, but now you have the ability to destroy it and deface it in many different ways.

Some methods of destruction include: METEORS, NUKE, GUN, CHAINSAW, DINOSAURS, SCRIBBLING BABY, GOD ALMIGHTY, ACID PEE, and quite a few more. There are a few options for all the methods of destruction as well. You can choose whether the "damage" self repairs, or if it layers on top of previous damage. You can also choose whether or not you want to point where the damage will occur using your mouse, or if you want to just sit back and watch the carnage. Their is also an option for sound or no sound.

Here's an example of what myspace might look like after a DINOSAUR attack or CHAINSAW MASSACRE:

These pictures are pretty small, but if you notice the flash elements on the page (the black box that overlaps the dino and the chainsaw) you can see that netdisaster.com does not work perfectly on pages with other flash elements, because netdisaster.com itself is created using flash. If you try to destroy an entirely flash based page it doesn't work so well, if at all. It usually just keeps reseting itself.

I'm not exactly sure how the site works. I would imagine that netdisaster uses the ablility of flash to seemingly make a person walk across your computer screen, and apply it to there interactive animations. As for the animations themselves, they're mainly very well drawn and animated. Some are more complex than others, like "demonstration" where a crowd of demonstrators holding picket signs walk across the site being destroyed.

I think this site works well because it is so simple, yet effective. The idea is to be able to "destroy" a website that has been annoying you or just to do it for fun. This site was created in 2005, which means the flash technology back then wasn't quite where it is today, I'd like to see a new version of this site up and running with some really cool new ways to destroy some stupid websites.

Design Exploration Part 2

I decided to resubmit my entry for my Design Exploration topic and instead focus on an European website from focusing on Sony's Bravia television brand.

Obliviously, the site is geared toward hyping and extolling the features and qualities of the Bravia brand. The site is structured to provide several different "avenues" that visitors to the site can explore and be exposed to Sony’s choice of promotion methods. One of the more obvious means of getting across their message is via providing traditional television media on the site and allowing the user to access any of them at his/her leisure. Definitely take a look at some of their TV ads. I personally found them to be very cool and invocative in how they utilize colors. In addition to the commercials, supplemental material is also offered such as a quick bio on the artist behind the music used in the TV ad campaign. Such supplemental material helps lend a “behind the scenes” feel behind their ad campaigns and is definitely interesting for those that are into such things.

Another method used to highlight Bravia’s features and qualities is through the section of the site that is designed to “evoke” visual and aural stimulation on the part of the user with the insinuation that Bravia sets are indicative of and able to replicate these visual and aural experiences. This is achieved through Flash interactions using the mouse in one of four areas for the section of the site dubbed “The BRAVIA Experience.” Each section in “The BRAVIA Experience” focuses on different elements which are Resolution, Sound, Clarity, and Colour. Entering any one of these elements opens a user interaction area that prompts the user to use the mouse button. My personal favorites are Sound and Colour. These elements of “The BRAVIA Experience” are very cool and do help instill and promote a very calming and pleasant vibe.

What first struck me about their site was how its presentation was really slick and cool looking. Their usage of Flash is put to great effect. My only real issue with the site was with how one is able to navigate through the site. They utilized a method of using the cursor screen position as the means to “cycle” through their menu systems. On paper this functionality sounds really neat, but given how it was implemented it actually proved not to be as intuitive as one would like it and really more of a hassle.

Another thing that struck me that I found ironic and funny was the fact that though the site is obviously geared towards highlighting Bravia TVs, nearly all of the users will more than likely be experiencing the website and all of its content through PC monitors. I suppose the intent of the site is to somehow conjure up a vibe connected with more abstract feelings and/or sensations with the hopes of somehow having those feelings/sensations residually be associated with the Bravia brand.

I can’t say how successful that goal will ultimately be or if its possible, but I can say that they definitely succeeded in getting across a very intriguing and compelling content and vibe through their site.

I am still on my quest to finding an amazing online photography portfolio. I found 2 more that I like but still am hoping to find something less commercial and more social documentary.
This site design is really simple but I still like it. Her name is Irina Rozovsky
http://www.irinar.com/main.html

His work is much more commercial, and his site is very proffesional. I particularly like his philanthropy section so check that out.
http://www.davidsacks.com/

Studio Design Blog

www.joshuadavis.com is the website of a web designer by the name of Joshua Davis that uses flash to create his website. In his website he provides links to works he has done in New York in addition to works he has done in Amsterdam and Colorado.

I chose Joshua Davis's site because of how he's made his website very interactive by providing links to other sites that are related to his work. In particular, I also like the overall simplicity of his links to other sites (even if there are extra links on his website).

One particular work that I like in his website is the one where he's showing his art work in New York using flash content. When you click on the link he provides to his art work that was displayed in New York (if you can't find it it's the click here link within his statement: "I also have some work on display here in New York at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. The show is the Museums National Design Triennial, "Design Life Now", which will be on display until the end of July. click here for more info.") Basic components of it is similar to what we have worked on in class. But some of the advanced things I notice with it is how he's making it change to the next picture after a certain amount of time has expired and allow the viewer to look at the pictures at their own pace without the use of a button.

Last but not least, the fact that Apple has written a profile about his work gives him some sort of credibility in case a viewer of his site questions about his work. His biography can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Davis_%28web_designer%29

Flash Artist: Billy Blob

This site billyblob.com is a website that provides the work of a flash artist by the name of Billy.
He has very unique creativity and uses a lot of colorful, wacky characters in his work. On his site he displays his paintings along with short cartoons he produced and some random buzzes about his life.

The reason I chose Billy's site is because I like his style and concepts. My two favorite cartoons are Karma Ghost and Bumble Beeing the butterfly effect part 1. Karma Ghost is brilliant because the entire video is a revolving circle of karma. It kind of reminds me of the animated Radiohead music video. The entire time these bugs? or bacteria follow this man who is constantly confronted by karma. Billy does a good job at making the video simple, but interesting. There's no real detail and everything is very simplistic, but it seems to make the video more effective. I love the audio he chooses for this video, I think it fits perfectly.

In the Bumble Beeing the butterfly effect part 1, he uses more upbeat music with vocals. The characters speak, so it adds more to the scene. I love the colors he combines in this video, it gives the video more of wacky feel. This video is short, but simple and funny. In the end it is a little similar concept to Karma Ghost.

Billy's overall use of flash in his site is interesting and creative. When you first enter the site a black blob appears and inside are grey eggs that turn white which are the buttons you use to navigate through the site. His characters throughout his site really give it his personal touch. Overall I think this is a wonderful site and if you want to check it out go to www.billyblob.com

LAB25 Website Exploration

I found this website thought a skateboarding magazine that i subscribed to. www.lab25.com is a online portfolio for a graphic artist named David Torres that was created in flash. It atracted me because of the "grunge" style of the website. I also like it because its very simple and you have play around with it to find out how to navigate through the interface. Also one of the effects he used in his print section of the website is a fully interactive magazine. You can click on the page and drag it to the side and it actually tuns the page like you would in real life. There are thumbnails you can click on and they with give you a larger image with details about. Then when you drag the mouse of of the larger image it drops back on to the page and bounces which is a really nice effect i think.

LBA25

Everyscape 3D Street Level Mapping

Everyscape takes the street view concept of Google Earth to the next level. They are able to create very detailed 3D recreations of streets and buildings- inside and out- using regular photographs (unlike standard virtual tour software, which requires specialized equipment to take the pictures). Everything is put onto the web using flash, and the navigation through the maps is entirely interactive.

Review on SearchEngineLand.com

flash photosite

I wanted to learn flash so that I could build an online gallery of my photographs. So i have been trying to get ideas by looking at other peoples sites and there have not been any websites that amaze me yet. Most photo sites that are built well just have average photos. Then, the websites where I really like the images the websites are poorly made. So if anyone has any advice on where to look I would really appreciate it. Here is one I found, that I thought was unique and decent.
http://haroldleemiller.com/

Non-class stuff

As some of San Diego has a moment to take a breath, and some of us get a chance to rebuild, I wanted to take a moment to abuse this blog site to say that I hope everyone finds themself well, and in a place safe from the fires.
Monday found us (myself, my husband, our dog, 2 cats and 3 parrots) battling the hot winds and dodging ash as we loaded up 2 cars and joined the migration on the freeway leaving Rancho Bernardo and Poway. My workplace in Encinitas was able to take us in for a few hours until they, too, were evacuated. Luckily, I have family in suburban orange county where we were welcomed, as usual. We are here for one last night, then we'll be able to return to our community - such as it is.
I hope everyone reading this is safe, at least, and will soon find themselves back under a comfortable, and preferably familiar, roof. For anyone who has lost something in the fire, my heart goes out to you. For the rest of us (since I recently found out that we are amongst the lucky in Rancho Bernardo), we must take a moment to be thankful (to whatever force you feel appropriate) and do what we can to help and rebuild.
As a community goes, I am so impressed with San Diego. Everyone from giant businesses to blue-collar individuals did so much for so many; it was an amazing show of humanity from the people of Southern California and beyond.
I look forward to seeing everyone in class next week; hopefully safe and getting back to the "normal" business of school.
Juliette

New Media Exploration - Technology

The Intro

I've been interested in the communication and cultural effects of online gaming and virtual reality both academically and as a parent. I also happen to be a SciFi fan, seen or read many stories centered around this technology dating back to at least 1960. The idea of a holo-deck as presented in Star Trek is intriguing to say the least. There are definitely days... However, in this blog I want to focus specifically on the worlds of MMO (massively multi-player online) gaming, the communities involved in it, and the communication/cultural effects of the technology. I'll preface this by saying my particular focus is not the effect of game violence. I am interested in the less visible phenomena of young people almost 'checking out' of their lives in favor of involvement in an online community and virtual worlds. The effect of online gaming on offline relationships, life, and personal growth. These kids don't hurt other people, don't attract major media attention... they just go quietly into their rooms and computers and stay, hours a day, coming out to eat or do other essentials they can't avoid... only to return as soon as 'humanly' possible.

I have opinions about the cultural effects. I have developed these opinions from my experience raising children (I have two, now 17 and 19) and speaking with other parents (extensively) and professionals in a variety of fields. I will relate the 'condensed version' of my experience to give you some perspective. I am still involved in this, to a lessor degree now as my son is an adult and is living on his own. It will be some time, I believe, before the saga plays out for us. It certainly does not hurt to take a moment with this blog and do some research on the communication and cultural effects of online gaming and to delve into some of the worlds available myself. The last computer game I played avidly (and it wasn't that avidly) was 25+ years ago. It was an entirely text based game called 'Adventure', we played it on a PDP-11 computer (you may have seen something close to this type of computer if you ever saw the move 'War Games'). My new flash drive does more than that computer could *grin* and it nearly took up the room. We played the game by drawing maps of the world so we could recall where the various avenues went. After that, I watched from the outside as the games became more and more complex and the audio/video became more and more real. I didn't have a real urge to give them a try because I had too much else to do, the games were so complex as to require a significant amount of time just to get started. I wasn't that interested. Now... with technology progressing at the pace it is... online games with full VR experience are not simply a Star Trek phenomena. They're coming to our homes. My children will struggle someday with this issue when they decide to have their own families. I believe it will be MUCH more difficult as these virtual worlds become even more real.

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The Background Story

As a parent of late model teenagers, I have watched the effect of online gaming on my son (who is the eldest). He is quite literally addicted to Warcraft. I use that word with some reluctance because I fully acknowledge that his gaming is a choice, there is no physical addiction. I do, however, believe there is a strong psychological addiction. There is something he gets from playing this game he does not get in real life. I have quietly watched him playing this game, using a headset and VoiP voice services to interact with other players, fingers moving like lightening over the keyboard. Hmmmm...

He graduated from High School but struggled as he played every trick in the book to try and be online all night. Tired in school, falling asleep at his desk, failing to do homework... he didn't care. His father and I did, of course. I won't bore you with our efforts to limit this and encourage him in positive directions, sports... travel... community service. As a parent you often struggle with forcing a hard line vs. teaching the child that what they are doing is harmful... one would like to think you can teach a child so that when they are up against a different problem, they can think their way through it... His father and I are both engineers, still had the upper hand when it came to technology. We were able to 'out tech' him and limit or eliminate access at home while still allowing him to do needed work for school. The fact of the matter is that until you have been through this and look back, I don't believe you truly understand what you're up against.

ANYWAY, my son did graduate from high school and went off to technical college the next fall (to study game and simulation programming as a matter of fact) but bounced out as he still couldn't resist the virtual world he was involved so intimately in. He quite literally had no real friends, his 'friends' were all involved in the game. He is presently living on his own, working at a fast food restaurant... got himself a place to live but it is unclear that he will be able to pay the rent... and all he's interested in is spending his spare time gaming. He will have to learn the effect this is having on his life on his own. The effects don't hurt... yet. He's had multiple people tell him he might as well be on some illegal drug for the damage this is doing. He doesn't care. I have visited him and he was gaming when I arrived. I watched as he came to talk to me... his hands were literally shaking with desire to go back on the keyboard. He was seemingly unable to sit for more than a couple minutes, getting up to go back on the game and returning. If it hadn't worried me so I would have been fascinated watching him.

A teacher mentioned Warcraft in class one day, in somewhat of a positive light. He mentioned what great leadership experience it provided. Now, I do understand that computer gaming has had some positive effects. I recall there have been stories from the military about how much quicker and more accurate the new generation is with the weapons technology because of their involvement in computer games. However, what I see from my own experience and from talking with other parents is a significant portion of a generation (anecdotally for me this is largely the guys, this doesn't seem to capture the girls attention to the same degree however! in doing the research below it seems the actual numbers may be something like 55% male vs. 45% female) withdrawing from real society in favor of a virtual one. I do not agree with the teacher's comment because I believe the people who assume leadership roles in these online games cannot (painting with a broad brush here) translate that skill into the real world. Those are two very different places and they only feel comfortable in one.

With my son, I fully believe that this is a maturity issue. He is not yet capable of understanding the effects because he doesn't have the life experience to do that. His priorities and thinking processes just aren't all jelled yet. I spend a great deal of time simply keeping the lines of communication open in a positive manner with him. When possible, on those rare occasions I now have to get his full attention, I will try to talk to him, try to gain some insight, try to get him to think about what's going on with him... it's tough. He reacts just like an addicted person 'I don't care' 'it's not a problem'. He truly doesn't care right now. I'm not the only one struggling with this. Right now, society as a whole is not paying attention. Parents struggle with it alone or in small groups for the most part.

I will continue to do whatever positive things I can and to wait him out. It's hard waiting. He's never off my mind. I decided to write this blog to put my own thoughts in some semblance of order and to see what I could learn in a broader sense about this area... admittedly too, if there is any possibility that some young person sees themselves in this blog they may get some insight that they might not otherwise have gotten. I can always hope.

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The Delving

I am rather limiting my delving into the online worlds for the sake of limiting the length of this blog and giving myself time for other homework. However, I did explore several games I found in the Flash Forward Conference finalists in the game category. The first game was CDX. I didn't go very far, merely explored the room 'wheelchair guy' was in. The level of realism was fascinating. Personally, I have trouble with exploring the room long enough to discern what to do next. I poked around and made 'wheelchair guy' roll from one side of the room to another, picking up this and that and reading EMail and started to see some pattern to the information presented emerge. I have to admit, I rather liked the site by papervision.org under the 3D category better... but them I'm a scuba diver and I found the level of realism to this animation somewhat dizzying. Very cool... just like where I went diving off Moorea, minus the shark. However, admittedly since that was not a game it is of limited interest I just liked the content better. I also tried ESPN Bar Games, kinda boring. Bible Fight and Obon Star Racers were also kinda boring. Plus, with Obon the music made me want to throw my computer across the room. I find I have more affection for the more realistically rendered games, so for me... CDX was the most interesting of these (and the winner of the category). I actually could have hung around awhile and probed for the next step in the game. The quality of my monitor had a big effect. I've got a much nicer (larger, higher resolution) monitor now and yeah... made it much more interesting to get involved. My personality though, for me... just takes too long, I get impatient. Not that interested so I can see that I definitely am going to have trouble personally relating (not that I haven't had this difficulty all along).

SO, I decided to move over and examine my nemesis. Went to warcraft.com. Well, since I also love LOTRs... the storyline and art style in this game was appealing. MAN I am ignorant of these games... the modes to the game (normal, PvP, RP... learned some new acronyms... if you're also uninformed... you can play in normal mode where other players cannot attack you, player-vs-player mode where they can, and role playing where you have to be your character), the realism of the motion of the characters, the detail in them... I wasn't really prepared for that, it was fascinating. I tried to take advantage of the free 10-day trial but the sign up software wasn't quite working right. Perhaps I'll go back to it later. If I do, I may add to this section of my blog a bit.

I've also heard a lot about Second Life. I've also heard many spouses or significant others of a 'second lifer' repeat the now widely selling t-shirt phrase 'Get a First Life'. I looked at the website. Didn't do anything for me. Hummm... and I admit, if my spouse was online hours a day on any site... much less this one... I'd be considering looking for a new spouse. Not acceptable in personal relationships.

Bottom line - in spending just a bit of time looking at these games, I did find what I was guessing... if you were inclined to explore, the motion/audio and the storyline of something as complex as Warcraft lends a level of reality that is beyond what I personally have experienced in a computer game before. I can extrapolate what adding the 'remote human' interaction and role playing could add to the experience. Then you are no longer simply playing someone else's story line. You may still be in their world, but you are using it to create your own society. OK, yeah... my son is in there someplace leading campaigns. I can intellectually relate. Still not liking it, but yeah... I can start to see emotionally how he could become so involved. He feels important and valued here at a level that he doesn't feel outside in the 'real world'. Kinda scares me a bit.
*shaking it off* I think what goes along with this is that gamers feel an increased level of control in their virtual world as opposed to the real world. I also note the increased rate of action vs. result. In real life, often it can take many years of schooling to achieve a goal. In a virtual world, not so much. Lastly, what strikes me is that 'personal interaction' in these games is not personal which exceedingly lowers the 'threat level' if you will. Whatever happens there, it's not the real you... you are someone different there. That capability to recreate yourself, to be someone you are not in real life, is... attractive.

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The Research and Resources

Again, due to time and length constraints (yes, I know I've already exceeded a page...) and noting people get degrees researching this stuff, I skimmed rather than read in depth a number of articles and resources I found online. MOST of them were focused on the effects of violent games and the correlation of this type of game playing with school violence etc. Not my issue at the moment.

To give context, we now appear to be at a developmental focal point for the technology of interactive entertainment. Some describe it as the infancy of the industry and liken it to the dawn of television. The industry itself is a mere three decades old but it is now so pervasive in everyday life that it is "changing the way an entire generation sees itself in relation to the world, expanding popular storytelling beyond passive consumption to include involvement in the development and outcome of an experience". But what is so interesting is how the games themselves have a stake in how it evolves. The industry is experiencing explosive growth even while costs to develop a new game (I'm sure now well) exceed $10M [5]. The realism, capability, and flexibilty of the games has pushed beyond (simple?) MMO boundaries as 'mod' games appear [5]. "Short for modification, mod games are variations made by fans on existing games. These underline the spontaneous creativity in the vast online communities." Game companies rationalize that (quote from the Entertainment Software Association's Lowenstein, [5]) "Online games have the potential to transform entertainment into a global-community exercise, breaking down borders, cultural and language barriers, and even political prejudices."

Some newer articles [1] focused on the function of these multi-player games as informal social gathering places and support networks, calling them 'third places' (home and school/work being the first two). The articles all require some time to assimilate but there does seem to be a core debate about whether these 'third places' are positive areas of social interaction bridging racial and class divides, exposing the user to broader world views or whether they are a great 'displacer' enabling (otherwise useless) 'pseudo-communities'. They make mention of gamers playing 8-12 hours a day at times, but do not really delve into the effect of that level of 'checking out' on their lives. Article [1] examined rather the quality and composition of the relationships formed online.

One article got a bit into the area that I am interested in [7], citing a quote that "The opposition of real and virtual … misses the complexity and diversity of relationships that people may pursue through the communicative media that they embed into their ongoing social lives.” It went on to say that in surveying the players, they did not find a significant weakening of offline relationships due to online gaming. They were really focused on inter-personal relationships rather than the larger problem I'm seeing. I had trouble with this article, there is some truth to what they're saying but I believe their method of research was faulty. What I saw in my son was that online relationships did replace offline relationships, that was part of what bothered me... and given the amount of time that some of these gamers spend online, certainly... perhaps unquestionably in my mind, the depth of all relationships is sacrificed. This seemed to be coming out in a quote I found in a forum credited to a Carnegie Mellon study [8]. "The Carnegie Mellon researchers found that interpersonal communication – communication for social purposes – is the dominant use of the Internet at home. However, contrary to expectations, they also found that increased Internet use among the study’s participants 'led to their having, on balance, less social engagement and poorer psychological well-being' ." It's very interesting to read through the online discussion of this study.

In regards to my choice to reluctantly use the word 'addiction' a blog [9] referring to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer states "As the sophistication of this technology increases, more people are sucked into this virtual world and begin to develop real psychological problems such as social isolation, depression, difficulty in work and relationships, and being disconnected from reality. Fortunately this article gets it right, this type of behavior is an impulse control disorder like pathological gambling not an “addiction” per se." Yeah, agreed. It goes on to say "I think for some people that MMORPGs can provide a valuable style of social interaction, but it can become problematic when more time is spent with this depersonalized interaction than real interaction with other people." TOTALLY dude. That's the problem I'm seeing, at least part of it.

There are a few articles discussing the differences in national and social values to new technologies such as online gaming. In particular [6], examines how Singapore reacts to gamers (my son should be glad he doesn't live in Singapore since we caught him doing the same thing). A snippet from this article relates: "In December 2006, the local Singapore newspaper, the Straits Times, reported that a teenager had been arrested and sentenced to early military service for illegally accessing a neighbour’s unsecured wireless network. The boy’s parents, concerned by their son’s moodiness and declining academic performance, had decided that he was spending far too much time on gaming. Enough was enough: they unplugged the household modem. The boy’s response was to take his laptop outside one evening, wandering round the neighbourhood until he found an unsecured wireless network to tap into. There he was discovered by a neighbour, who confronted him and then called the police after the boy allegedly became aggressive. Then on January 17 2007, the newspaper ran a follow-up story: ‘Is there a gaming addict in your home’? The way in which one family’s issue was used to feed existing concerns about online gaming in Singapore, and to create an impression of gaming as a runaway social issue, was telling."

Some additional resources available online:
[1] Games, Gamers and Gaming Culture This website contained links to university and IEEE and other reliable research organizations studies. Unfortunately, the material on the site is largely about five years or more old. The site does not appear to have been maintained after about 2001. Nevertheless, there was some interesting information there.
[2] "Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as 'Third Places' " Steinkuehler, C., and Williams, D. (2006). from the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication This article examines the form and function of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) in terms of social engagement.
[3] "Cultural Framing of Computer/Video Games" from the International Journal of Computer Game Research volume 2, issue 1 July 2002
[4] "Video game music: not just kid stuff" Matthew Belinkie (matthew.belinkie@yale.edu) 15 December 1999
[5] "Video-game industry mulls over the future beyond shoot-'em-ups" Computers & Technology, June 03, 2005 edition
[6] "Online-Gaming: Moral Panic in Singapore" Catherine Howell (University of Cambridge) on January 25, 2007
[7] Game Studies "Living a Virtual Life: Social Dynamics of Online Gaming" Castulus Kolo and Timo Baur, International Journal of Computer Game Research volume 4, issue 1 November 2004 This article studies players of Ultima Online.
[8] Forum booktalk.org > Science, Nature & Technology > The Problem of Technology -- Part II: The Internet postings from 2002
[9] "Online Gaming Addiction?" PsychCentral website archives Will Meek October 12, 2006
[10] "Negative Aspects of Online Gaming" seems to date around 2001 A lot of annocdotal accounts that are kinda interesting.

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Lastly, The Conclusion

Technology, particularly media technology, has always brought with it societal fears. The point of this blog is not to spread or even suggest that we should fear, rather to point out that there are definite, recognizable, effects around us today of this technology.

Are online games bad? Should we outlaw them? OH, get real. That's ridiculous. I fully stand behind freedom of personal choice. You cannot legislate maturity or intelligence.

Online games, like a number of other things, are only harmful to the person when the person involved in them steps over the threshold. The threshold is where they give up some level of fully functioning in society in favor of living in a virtual world. When this happens, society suffers. That person contributes to society at a lesser degree... certainly some extreme cases cease to contribute. There are effects on families, on personal relationships, on the person themselves as they limit their own personal growth. AA talks about how alcholics stop their personal growth during the time they are drinking, that is true here as well. When you don't deal with real life problems, you don't grow. I think describing what I referred to as an addiction as an impulse control disorder is tellingly more accurate and that, probably more than any other phrase I read changed the way I was viewing this problem. Looking at it more like a gambling problem than a drug or alcohol addiction puts it in another frame of reference entirely.

Do I have a solution? Well it is clear to me that education and personal growth are the only solutions (to a lot of problems). Society has to become more aware of what is going on, as a society. Pull this further out of the realm of research - talk about this, study it, debate it... find ways to guide young people without boxing them in. But outlaw or stop the growth of technology? I'm not in favor of that. I don't believe in limiting the human potential. But we have to evaluate the impact of each step and to make purposeful decisions... to be as aware as we can of the effects of our research, explorations and development. Always question, never assume or blindly accept. Society is starting to explore and debate the effects of violence games on the violence in society. What I am focused on, however, is a less visible somewhat silent repercussion. To the best of my ability to discern, what I'm focused on is still more in the area of an academic discussion than a broader viewed societal problem.

On a parenting level... if, as a parent, I was allowed a 'do over' with the knowledge and experience I have now I would not have allowed my children to play computer games from home, period. I would have spent more time involving them in sports and community service, finding ways to challenge and interest them in the world around them. My son has always been behind the maturity curve for his age. I do, however, believe that there would have been a reduced chance that he would have involved himself to this level had he not encountered it as early as he did.

At 18, all bets are off. However, making adults responsible for their own choices helps. We all rarely stop doing (whatever) until it hurts. Parents have to be brave enough to not get in the way of their adult children encountering this hurt. We cannot rush in and fix their problems. We have to stand back, offer love, information and encouragement but let them fix their problems themselves. Hard to do. Sure. Who cares? It's the right thing to do. If we look back to the time when WE were 18 and knew we were smarter than our parents... what else would have (or did) convince us? Nada, zip, nothing. That's it, experience.

I also fully back the idea of EVERYONE doing two years of service to their country out of high school - in the area of their choice - be that in the military, in Americorp or some other area of community service, in conservation... I'm completely open on that point, but doing SOMETHING would help us all at that age appreciate what we have, who we are, and what we can do when pressed. Having some real knowledge of that helps all of us focus and make better decisions.

I fully expect to see 'Gamers Anonymous' cropping up soon though. Probably wouldn't hurt.