Introduction
*Screenshot from ParaNorman movie website.
Succinct introduction yet you can sense the confidence and pride from this short paragraph. Their solid work of art back that up.
The Future of the Book–Nelson Concept Critique
/* Disclaimer: This is just an exercise for critique’s sake, something that I think I should be doing more often. Recently I’ve got more free time, and I will try to get my brain cogs going and keep it up. */
This video, produced one year ago, contains three concept designs by IDEO on the idea of “the future of the book”. For this exercise, I only picked the first concept–NELSON. Considering this as a high level concept, it is very easy to be mean by just critiquing anything. So I think a constructive critique would be either based on the concept: what might be some of the considerations if it were developed further, or what might some other features for the concept within the same theme. I chose the former one.
Since the goal of the concept is
to give users what they need to form their own opinions on important subjects.
then my first question is about the comment/debate section on the left column: I noticed that the type of media in the section is merely text, for the purpose of debate online with multimedia at hand, will images or videos sometimes be more desired?
Second, as the comments are going to be more and more, while the screen size is limited, what could be done to better assist the user filter through the comments based on their needs?
Third, if this is a debate about a subject, there must be a conversation format, then how does the design help with separating a conversation thread with a single opinion to allow a better reading experience around the goal?
And last but not least, regarding to the media feature, the concept/story doesn’t feel complete: what can the users do with the media page? Can they delete not that related ones, or can they bookmark the ones they want to keep for further reference? What the tools allow the users to do will affect how well they can understand the subject, and further, how well they can form their own opinions.
Overall, this is a very interesting and feasible concept. As a high-level concept, it’s very well thought out and from a prototyping perspective, it is well executed. I hope to see it developed some day soon.
守望的距离和社交网络
今天翻开<守望的距离>看到这段文字,
不止一位先贤指出, 一个人无论看到怎样的美景奇观, 如果他没有机会向人讲述, 他就决不会感到快乐. 人终究是离不开同类的. 一个无人分享的快乐绝非真正的快乐, 而一个无人分担的痛苦则是最可怕的痛苦. 所谓分享和分担, 未必要有人在场. 但至少要有人知道. 永远没有人知道, 绝对的孤独, 痛苦便会成为绝望, 而快乐–同样也会变成绝望!
交往为人性所必需, 它的分寸却不好掌握. 帕斯卡尔说: “我们由于交往而形成了精神和感情, 但我们也由于交往而败坏着精神和感情.” 我相信, 前一种交往是两个人之间的心灵沟通, 它是马丁.布伯所说的那种”我与你”的相遇, 既充满爱, 有尊重孤独; 相反, 后一种交往则是熙熙攘攘的利害交易, 它如同尼采所形容的”市场”, 既亵渎了爱, 又羞辱了孤独. 相遇是人生莫大的幸运, 在此时刻. 两颗灵魂仿佛同时认出了对方, 惊喜地喊出:”是你!” 人一生中只要有过这个时刻, 爱和孤独便都有了着落.
读着周国平这段写自1992年的文字, 让我下意识的将这段文字的含义映射到当今的社交网络. 社交网络的分享实质似乎印证了文中阐明的道理. 而文中提到的交往的分寸也正直指社交网络中出现的问题–比如时刻连接和保留独处空间的讨论. 科技的进步在满足人类欲望的同时也提出了考验. 从设计师的角度考虑, 做出帮助人们掌握好分寸的设计是一个不小的挑战, 也是一份光荣的责任.
“The Eyes Have Trees”
To all the friends in the Personal Geography workshop at Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass, Colorado.
Last night, I wrote down what happened in the past six days,
everything happened sequentially, clearly,
in case I forgot.
I told Elizabeth on Friday, “this is surreal to me.”
It’s like a dream,
like the movie I watched twice called Midnight in Paris,
you see all the artists you admire,
you soak all the wisdom greedily,
you get wildly inspired.
It’s a magical place where,
the grass are foot long and bright green,
the backdrop are the mountains topped with snow,
the background music is the water,
“the eyes have trees.”
pebbles slowed you down,
but your feet are more into the ground.
you don’t feel the air,
because you’re part of it.
you work day and night,
you feel exhausted,
yet you still smile from inside out.
you see your dreams born into shape,
you find the courage and inner voice.
you ask, what is such a place?
the waitress in that mexican restaurant knows the answer.
Yes, I have gone to the place once,
and I brought it back,
because it stays,
in my heart.
2011.summer
Meditative Sketching
I am in the middle of reading a book called, A Life In Hand: Creating the Illuminated Journal, by Hannah Hinchman. In the chapter Five Ice-Breaking Exercises, which are used to help start writing and drawing journals, one is call meditative sketching. I found a paragraph of description of this exercise reflect how I do sketching in the design process, I personally find this description resonate with me, and I think this will help me see more clearly what happens while I am sketching, here is the paragraph,
As you write you will become aware that thought moves in an ebb-and-flow rhythm. You will have a flash of though, and turn to write it out. After that there will be a period of re-forming. Let the notes you took while drawing prompt your next passage, or read back though what you’ve just written, to see if a sentence two paragraphs back contained another idea that you passed by at the time. At first an idea my appear briefly and vaguely, it vanishes too fast for you to trace it. But the practice of journal keeping will improve your ability to generate ideas and get them down quickly, so don’t despair if it seems hard at first. If you feel truly stuck, take up the drawing again; give your mind more time to organize and respond.