Project 3: Icons

Project 3: Project Statement

Kubota Garden Project Statement
Design Team Tokuzato & Holmes

Kubota Garden is a twenty acre park located in the Rainier Beach neighborhood of Seattle. It was pioneered by Fujitaro Kubota, who built a successful gardening business in the 1920’s. The Kubota family generously granted the public access to visit the beautiful garden featuring waterfalls, steams, ponds, rock gardens, and an expansive collection of plants.

Visitors to the garden have increased over time, which is now owned by the City of Seattle and maintained by the parks department. Seattle Parks Department is looking to update the wayfinding signage in the park. The goal is to enhance the user experience of the Garden by highlighting all that the park has to offer.

The Kubota Garden will be featured in a campaign to showcase Seattle area Gardens and Parks to visiting tourists. The wayfinding project is planned in advance of the campaign to prepare the Garden for increased traffic in the summer of 2010.

The target audience is older audits of varied ethnical back grounds. The Japanese manner of the garden should be maintained in the signage. Thought should be taken to accommodate people with limited sight.

Fresh Fish Design, of Seattle, has been hired to redesign the wayfinding signage. The final presentation in due December 15, 2009, and should be printed at 300 dpi on 11x17 paper. The design team should document the design detail to be manufactured by the Seattle Parks Department.

Week8: Reading Homework (Chapter 6)

1. Summary of information, topics covered
Chapter 6 talks about the information graphics case studies of Alejandro Tumas, The New York Times, Funnel Incorporated, White Rhino, Nigel Holmes, and The Wall Street Journal. Humans are visual learner. Info-graphics is turning something complicated into a clear, appealing, explanatory diagrammatic, and to five audiences a better understanding of information. You have to have good information to make effective info-graphics and it could help to start with more information than you would need to create it. A Whiteboard sketch gives the client something to react to, and allows them the opportunity for everyone to agree in the end. Good info-graphics tell the story with as little words as possible and helps people to read. It is important to pay attention to the use of colors and typography. You need to know the subject and have a desire to be a good designer. Complicated finance fields often hire someone who has background in finance, math, economics, or journalism to teach them to create an information design.

2. Two links germaine to topics covered
http://blogof.francescomugnai.com/2009/04/50-great-examples-of-infographics/
Here you can find a lot of good examples of infographics including some example we have seen in the class. You can see the how they create good images with text, use of colors, and kind of information other designers use.

http://flowingdata.com/2009/03/13/27-visualizations-and-infographics-to-understand-the-financial-crisis/
The website give you 27 visualizations and infographics to understand the financial crisis.

http://www.nigelholmes.com/
This is a website of Nigel Holmes who is one of the designer in the chapter 6. Here you can see some of his motion graphics, diagrams, charts, maps, and other information of him.

Project 3

Team Kayano and Laurie,

Laurie and I are proposing an improved way finding system for the Kubota Garden in South Seattle. The project will consist of new icons, improved map with garden areas differentiated in color, and trail signage.

Week7: Reading Homework (Chapter 8)

1. Summary of information, topics covered.
In Chapter 8 it talks about the wayfinding system for effective environmental design with some case studies for reference. Templates can give a structure to help viewers deal with information. It is important to use consistent and literate signs, and you have to address any exceptions. Viewers won’t stay interested if there is long text, but images can help keep their attention. Interactive information is also great options to get the attention of people and give good information. When you are creating the system, you have to have the big picture and see situations in sequence. Symbols need to be self-explanatory. Color is one of best tools to attract the viewer’s attention and show hierarchy. Creating some storyboard scenarios to see how some people would navigate the area would help designers to create a wayfinding system better because it is all about user experiences. The audience is usually very diverse, and the design should appeal to all of them. Environmental design could involve with a complex team but at the end of the project members have to agree to the final goal. Photos can help the design to be more emotional and to better speak to audiences.

2. Two links germaine to topics covered.

http://www.fd2s.com/work/

You can find a lot of projects of wayfinding here, and there are some examples of what this company offer as wayfinding and environmental graphic design that give you good ideas for the project 3.

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/symbol-signs

This is one of the pages from AIGA site that talks about symbol signs. The symbols could guide people to find their way, and the page has some of the symbols used internationally and you could download them too.

3. Five potential clients for Project 3

1.Kubota Garden

Images of the garden

Idea site for sings:

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=和風%E3%80%80サイン&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Sign Board:

http://3219.cc/img_server/co_img1/plusmarks/user/2009/m_pka3.jpg

Map:

http://www.library.pref.nara.jp/gallery/ezu/map/img/map009.jpg

http://blogimg.goo.ne.jp/user_image/0d/e6/86f72c3cbfb2c13e2090042f22de7982.jpg

http://www.k4.dion.ne.jp/~skipio/04Kyoto/clip_ninna001map.jpg

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.lib.kagawa-u.ac.jp/www1/kambara/tenji2006/12-35.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.lib.kagawa-u.ac.jp/www1/kambara/tenji2006/2006-7.html&usg=__GkM_l7z8p_TjSt-Glq6oUlLIBRs=&h=440&w=463&sz=34&hl=en&start=182&um=1&tbnid=tqWDE9cCqodJMM:&tbnh=122&tbnw=128&prev=/images?q%3D%25E6%2597%25A5%25E6%259C%25AC%25E5%259C%25B0%25E5%259B%25B3%25E3%2580%2580%25E5%258F%25A4%25E3%2581%2584%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN%26start%3D180%26um%3D1

http://www.library.pref.gifu.jp/map/kochizu/data/02.html

2.Woodland Park Zoo
3.Art Institute of Seattle
4.West Seattle Junction:
http://www.westseattle.com/site/maps/businessdistrict.asp?area=The+Junction
http://wsjunction.org/
http://westseattleblog.com/blog/

5. Seattle Aquarium

Week6: Reading Homework (Chapter 5)

1. Summary of information, topics covered

Chapter 5 talks about how the most effective information designs in print should send a clear communication to audiences. Its topics are Carbone Smolan Agency, Smart Design, Addison, Pentagram Design, And Partners, and Simon & Goetz Design for case studies. It is very important to understand capital. The packaging of products and their labels need to be modern, but easy to understand and reflect the price of the product, saving spaces at retail stores when products are out side of the box, and give the consumer good information. Too much complicated text is hard to understand, it is clearer when you use plain English and typography. You could use different sizes, colors, and other styles to main information to create hierarchy. Grids also help to uniform and clarify the information. Simple geometric images catch the viewer’s attention easily. Visual information is a product that can show the emotions that appeal viewers.

2. Two links germaine to topics covered

http://www.designbygrid.com/

This website has a lot of examples, articles, tutorials, and resources of grid designs. One of the article from this website shows good examples of grid layout that show how effective grids are to unify and separate information.

http://www.designtaxi.com/article.php?article_id=418

This page talks about including emotions into the design. The emotions that are involuve a relationship are short, and personal add aesthetics, usability, and reflection to the design.

Project 2: Project Statement

Project Statement

Company.
U.S. Census Bureau is part of U.S. Department of Commerce. The Census data reflects the growth of the population as well as the changing values and interests of the American people.

Problem
The current U.S. Census website has spreadsheet fast facts but is not attractive and old fashion. It needs to provide some visual information for the audience so they can read this information more efficiently.

Opportunity
We can create a world map with fill colors that show the population change, and make the information design interactive in Flash.

Solution
The design should be simple so a broader range of the audience can understand the information. For example, the grayscale shows a decrease of population, and the reds show an increasing of the population. Usage of the map and interactivity to narrow the map into regions gives the audience a better understanding of the information. The website will be interactive using Flash, to give the audience more detailed information, but it can easily be transferred to a print format because of the simplicity.

Week5: Reading Homework (Chapter 4)

1. Summary of information, topic covered
Chapter 4 talks about some of the basic tools that are used by designers, and mentions effective tools such as color, type styling, weight and scale, structure, grouping, graphic elements, imagery, and sound and motion. The color helps viewers to scope out and separate from others more easily. The type styling is also a good way to differentiate importance of information. You could also change the typeface, use highlight, and so on. Weight and scale could be mixed with color and type styling to define tricky hierarchies. The grid would be a great structure to organize information. You could group information combinations with changing color, weight, and size. It helps the reader to locate the information easily and to create visual hierarchies. Graphic elements such as lines, rules, and bullets give a better understanding of directions to the viewer. Imagery is one of the most effective ways to get the viewer’s attention. It gives information visually, without reading. Sound and motion is interactive media. The mixture of aural and visual creates more powerful result.

2. Two links germaine to topics covered.
http://quakequizsf.org/
I got this site from “Communication Arts” magazine website. It is interactive annual and I could find Interactive Annual 15 winners. I think you can find a lot of good example of what we have been studying in this class and find good example of what chapter 4 is talking about. The site above is really fun to take a look at.
The website I found the address above: http://www.commarts.com/interactive/

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2009/06/02/color-basics-dos-and-donts
This site talks about basics of colors. There are some latest palette and patterns you can check out too. Understanding the color wheel is very important. You need to analyze the color undertones and know colors change up to their surrounding colors. Colors express psychology such as red is aggressive, hot, and so on. When you are designing is important to know readability of color combination.

Project 1 Final

Week4: Reading Homework (Chapter 3)

1. Summary of information, topic covered.

Chapter 3 talks about prototypes and the testing process, separating it into three sections such as Structural Overviews, Creating the Blueprints, and Research and Testing. Some of the structural overview documents could be sitemaps and page maps that are helpful for you to have big picture of your project and hierarchy of information. The wireframes give you body to the structure and characteristics. These steps help you answer the questions of what you need and don’t need for your project. The wireframes help you save money and time by figuring out the needs of your project. Usability testing is very important for you to know how well your design is and how you could improve it. It may cost your client to test the product, but it would save them money in the long run. It is better to start the test early and frequently. When you make any changes test it again and record the data. There are different types of user research and testing such as concept tests, participatory design, design testing, focus groups, usability testing, and beta testing and performance testing.

2. Two links germaine to topics covered.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/sitemaps.html

This page talks about site map usability with research studies of site maps.

http://www.powermapper.com/products/mapper/styles.htm

this page shows examples of site maps.

Project 2: Team's proposal

Team Kayano and Ewan!

Subject:
World population growth

Scope:
Our information design would show world population now and 2050

Format:
Map

Our Research and destination:
U.S. Census Bureau

Project 2: Research

United Nations: Economic and Social Council
Youth and drugs: a global overview

University of Michigan
Various stimulant drugs show continuing gradual declines among teens in 2008, most illicit drugs hold steady

UNODC
World Drug Report 2009

2008 Summary of Hazardous Weather Fatalities, Injuries, and Damage Costs by State
state08.pdf

American Heart Association
Overweight and Obesity-Statistics

Week3: Reading Homework (Chapter 2: Part2)

1. Summary of information, topics covered.

The second part of chapter 2 continues about “Wrangling Audience and Content.” Resolving and updating content is very important. Many design artifacts have a shorter shelf life these days, so you need to think and plan ahead a time for updating content in the future. When you are deciding on the final form factor, you need to know it could be different from your first thought, and determine how it would fit your budget and requirement. Creative Brief is around 2-10 pages of outlines about the project. It is necessary you and your team have a clear understood of its background and goals. It is “the source” for project requirements. You need the client’s final approval before you start the project. A basic creative brief content breaks down into client information, project information, project goals and requirements, and project logistics. The writer should be the person who keeps in contact with the client the most, such as the project manager. The chapter also talks about “personas and Scenarios.” It leads you to make a successful information design if you understand its main audience. Scenarios help you to understand how users interact with information design.


2. Two links germaine to topics covered.

http://elise.com/web/a/writing_a_creative_brief.php

• This site explains about writing a creative brief such as background, Objectives, the message, the medium, the deadline, budget, and the responsible parties.

http://tangible-ux.com/services/service.html?cat=user_research

• This site talks about sample tools of user research such as user personas, scenarios, mental models, and task analysis, and explains each tools.

Week2: Reading Homework (Chapter 2: Part1)

1. Summary of information, topics covered

The first part of the chapter 2 reading is about “Politics, Diplomacy, and Consensus” and “”Wrangling Audience and Content.” First, it is very important for designers to understand their clients in regards to their politics, goals, and agendas. Brain storming the project, getting to know the project team and timeline before you start the project is also important. You have to know about the audience of the project and understand the emotional and physical requirements of how you want your audience to respond and interact. The chapter gives you examples of good ways of organizing content such as an alphanumeric/numbering systems, and using pull quotes, captions, timeline graphics, frequent subheads, short text line lengths, and color is also very helpful too. “The written word is a key component of information design.” Using plain language that has clear, concise, and meaningful information for readers is key. Using type hierarchy is an amazing way to create clarity.

2. What real world experience have you had in your life with this kind of content organization, aside from infographics? What real world experience do you have with clients, client politics, as discussed in this chapter -in or out of design related business?

• When I was working for an international phone company, one of the customers couldn’t figure out how to make a phone call using our service. It took us a few days with several phone discussions with him to find out what the problem was. He dialed the right codes, password, and phone number, but never pushed the dial button to connect his phone call. You never know how foolish your client could be, and it could take a lot more time to figure their problems if you forget to tell them the basic directions of a making phone call, that you have to push “DIAL” to make any phone call!
• When I had an assignment to find a bad website, I realized how important it is for us designers to know hierarchy in order to create clarity of information. I really couldn’t find anyway around some of the websites, and it even took me time to find the title of the page!

3. Two URLs that relate to the reading with an explanation of their relevance.

https://academictech.doit.wisc.edu/ORFI/wds/Modules/organizing.htm

http://wiki.sla.org/display/SLA2009/Creating+Pages+and+Organizing+Content

They are all talking about importance of using hierarchy to organize your information.

Project 1 Statement

1. What?
This is information of foot reflexology where main points are on right and left foot. This information would be on the website.

2. Who?
The target audience would be health concern adult who could be possibly interested in yoga, natural product, nature, etc.

3. How?
I like to make this visually simple, but informative, so viewer could try the foot reflexology themselves at home.

4. Why?
The feet would be rounded natural simple shape that are almost from children's book. I will use different colors for each point. I like to use softer/more peaceful color choices.

Project 1-Scketch and context for this project

REFLEXOLOGY

my sketch

I am going to use Illustrator to design the feet, and color code 23-25 points on the feet with name of the parts reflect to them.
The information design will be on the website below.
http://www.myoptumhealth.com/portal/Information/item/Feet+First%3A+Healing+Through+Reflexology?archiveChannel=Home%2FArticle&clicked=true

Week1: Reading Homework (Chapter 1)

1. Summary of information, topics covered

Chapter one talks about what information design is. Using elements of writing, editing, graphics, and illustration can help us understand and communicate information better. The chapter also explains roles and job titles of information. We see information design every day and everywhere; books, on the street, and devices such as PCs, cell phones and etc., and it is needed more everyday. Myself included, there isn’t a day I do not go online for some reason. We always need better information design, but especially in the age of globalization we require effective signs, so people from different places are able to understand. We must learn to make even the most complex data into something simple. We designers must understand the main focus of information or the message of the piece. This chapter also talks about direct response design, litigation graphics, civic policy and information design. It is reassuring to know I have more opportunities in the field I am studying. I really found the following quote insightful, “ What we need is not more information but the ability to present the right information to the right people at the right time, in the most effective and efficient form”-by Robert E Horn, because I think it is pretty much summarizes what this chapter is talking about.

2. Add two anecdotes of “real world stories from the trenches” like what are listed in the preface that you have experienced.

1. When one of my friends came to visit me in Seattle she crossed the street when the “no crossing” sign was displayed with her hand raised high in the air in the middle of busy downtown traffic before I was able to stop her. In Japan, every child learns to check right, left, right again, and then raise your hand high to cross the street, so drivers can see you better. We cross the street when it is green and stop when it is red, but I guess it was a little confusing for her that our red sign is an image of a hand. The hand sign means stop here, but she thought it meant raise your hand, then cross.
2. It was very confusing for me when men and women restroom signs were in Spanish without any other visual help. I understand now, but I didn’t know much English at the time and didn’t know one Spanish word! Do you know which one of sign below is for man or woman?

3. Two URLs that relate to the reading with an explanation of their relevance.

http://www.writerswebsiteplanner.com/design/info_design.htmlThis page is explaining what is good info. Design in one page.

http://www.cactusflower.org/information-design-for-the-webThis page is about Info. Design for the Web. The visual examples help me to understand, and it explain principles of Info. Design such as data richness, the smallest effective difference, and parallelism.

Project 1 research

1.Reflexology

• Self-Educated Russian acupuncturist kills patient with needle therapy!
• Reflexology Chart
• Feet first: Healing through reflexology

• Reflexology a.k.a. Zone therapy

• Foot Reflexology Basics

2.Top 10 Places to See Before You Die

• http://www.brill.nl/images/world_map.gif
  

3. BMI

• http://www.koco.com/health/4346139/detail.html
• http://apps.who.int/bmi/index.jsp?introPage=intro_3.html
  

4. Vitamin cafes: Japan's latest health injection