Category: 417_F16

Dec 14 – Final Presentations

Topics

  • Practice Interview Presentations
  • Make sure all work has been submitted on Google Drive.

Have a safe, relaxing and productive break. I hope most of you will continue to build your portfolio websites. I look forward to working with you in the spring.

Dec 9 – Work Day

Topics

  • Work Day
  • Complete Surveys

Due Sunday, December 11 at 11:59pm

  • Portfolio/Documentation assignment on Google Drive

For Wednesday, December 14 at 10:30 (THE FINAL)

  • Present one web piece in portfolio in faux interview. Remember to practice and be prepared for questions during your presentation. Your presentation should be 5 minutes.

Nov 30 – Portfolios

Topics

  • Follow up on feedback from Monday’s presentations.
  • Portfolios: What to include? How to design? Commit to specific assignment.

Due for December 2

  • Gather documentation and content for portfolio. Bring printed drafts of text to exchange with peers in class.
  • Sketches and preliminary planning for portfolio.
  • Prepare for Critique on December 5.

Nov 28 – Interview Practice

Topics

  • Present Project 2 in simulated interview (5 min each)
  • Hand back evaluations of Vote Oswego

Due November 30

  • Review syllabus for requirements for Design Documentation & Portfolio Design assignment. Come prepared with a proposal for what option you plan to pursue.
  • Identify how you want to promote yourself in your portfolio. Make this decision based on the type of position you want to pursue upon graduation. Are you a graphic design generalist? A web designer? A UX designer? A print expert? An illustrator? What content do you need to tell this narrative about yourself and your work?
  • Based on the practice interviews completed in class (your observations of others and the feedback the group received in discussion), edit/revise the content and documentation of project 2 for your portfolio. Write out a draft of the text you will need, gather images or other documentation, etc. You will not be able to develop a useful user flow for your portfolio until you have a clear idea of what content you need to design for.

Nov 18 – Work Day

Topics

  • Design for Real Life

Due November 21

  • Critique (timed)
  • Implement technique or idea from Design for Real Life into your process

Due after break

  • Present project as if in an interview (5min)

Nov 9 – Work Day

Topics

  • Discuss Design for Real Life
  • Finish Crits
  • Continue working on Project 2

Due Nov 11

  • Read and take notes on Chapters 4 and 5 in Design for Real Life

Nov 2 – Advisement

Topics

  • Advisement
  • Work day

Due Nov 4

  • Read and take notes on Chapter 3 in Design for Real Life

Due Nov 7

  • Be prepared to show significant progress on Project 2. Come prepared with specific questions for critique. Use The Challenge of Constructive Criticism and How to Get It as a guide for how to frame questions in critique. Be prepared to demonstrate what you have learned and implemented as a result of User Testing, etc.

October 24 – Experiments

Topics

  • Evaluating Vote Oswego project
  • Lessons learned from field trip
  • Planning for Project 2
  • UI Design Challenge: Display presidential election data from Oswego County since 1988 as tabular data so that it is visually easy to compare from election to election (include year, candidate name, candidate party affiliation, how many votes they received and who won.). Design as an optional module for the Vote Oswego website. Data for this challenge can be found on the Oswego County Government website.

Due October 26

  • UI Design Challenge.
  • Revised proposal with timeline.
  • Vote Oswego peer evaluation.

October 21 – Field Trip

Field Trip

  • Meet at MCC 137 at 11:45am for pizza lunch.
  • Leave campus by 12:10pm
    • Riding in school van: Alyssa, Yaneczka, Halle, Trevor, Alex M., James, Rebecca, Dave, Marissa
    • Driving Separately: Lily (meeting us there), Alex S., Miranda, Julia
  • Arrive at ACS by 1pm (7453 Morgan Road, Liverpool, NY 13090). Meet with Jonathan LaPlante
  • Arrive at corporate headquarters for Raymour and Flanigan by 2:30pm (7248 Morgan Rd.
    Liverpool NY 13090). Meet with Sara Ravesi.
  • Return to campus 4:30-5:00pm

Due October 24

  • Proposals for Project 2 (what is the design problem, who is the audience, what do you want to learn/focus on)
  • What criteria should the Vote Oswego project (product, process, etc.) be evaluted against? Why? Provide list with reasoning as a PDF on Google Drive. Bring a printed copy to class to discuss.
  • Thank you notes: (1) to donor who supplied lunch (thank you cards were supplied by Jenny); (2)Thank you cards to Jonathan LaPlante (ACS) and Sara Ravesi (Raymour and Flanagan)

October 19 – Crunch Time

Topics

  • Prepare for field trip on Friday: Meet at 11:45 in MCC 137. Dress business casual. Prepare questions for our visits. Bring notebooks, etc.
  • User testing for Lily
  • To do lists for last minute changes for Vote Oswego

For October 21

  • Complete Vote Oswego project — files should be 100% ready for client handoff by 8am.

October 17 – Critique

Topics

  • Planning for this week and next.
  • Critique Alex Sorbello’s Project
  • Check-in about process of Vote Oswego Project.
  • Review feedback from User-tests.
  • Critique of Vote Oswego Project.
  • Assign Vote Oswego Project tasks

Due October 19

  • Finalize Vote Oswego project. Some time in class will be available for last minute tweaks.

October 14 – Finalize Design

Topics

Self-organize to accomplish the following tasks in Rebecca’s absence:

  • Review Miranda’s Mockups and troubleshoot layout issues.
  • Review Dave’s HTML files and Halle’s CSS file.
  • Finalize how images will be handled on the site.
  • Choose strategy to deal with collapsible content to pursue.

Due October 17

Assign these tasks and post who is assigned to what in Slack.

  • Working prototype for collapsible content (coded and separate from main project).
  • CSS across screen sizes (layout, type, etc.). This should be the most basic version of the site fully implemented for critique.
  • Share graphics for social media (graphic + text to post in social media and direct link to particular content in the site). Think about the share graphics that would be appropriate for all of the personas created.
  • Progressive enhancements like animations or other complex details. (develop these separate from the main project)

October 10: Ready, Set, Develop

Topics

  • Finalize HTML for the site
  • Finalize Style Guide — send to Vote Oswego
  • Revise Grid
  • Finalize design for header/footer
  • CSS for Typography
  • Adopt CSS taxonomy
  • Progressive Enhancements

Due 11:59pm on Oct 11

  • Dave: Content
  • Trevor: Photography options for feeback
  • Rebecca & Alyssa: Revised Style Guide

Due 11:59pm on Oct 12

  • James: HTML markup for all pages
  • Yaneczka & Alex: markup for header/footer

Due 11:59pm on Oct 13

  • Miranda: Mockups for large screen
  • Halle: CSS for Type
  • Dave: Final HTML template and directions for file management
  • Everyone: Muliple sketches (ideally digital) for collapsable content on mobile

October 5 – Design, Design, Design

Topics

  • Field trip update
  • Staying organized
  • Tracking time
  • Share and critique work
    • Info Architecture
    • Visual Style (color, type and images)
    • User Interface elements
  • Plan next steps

    • Due October 7

    • Photography: Miranda and Trevor
    • Wireframes: Halle
    • Content: Dave
    • Type: Alyssa
    • Color: Rebecca
    • Social Share: James
    • Count Down: Alex
    • Navigation: Yaneczka

September 30 – Design Starts Now

Topics

  • Info Architecture
  • Visual Style
  • Big Idea Vignettes + Prioritization

Due October 5

Please keep track of the time you are spending on this project. Keep an excel file or use a tool like Toggl. Document the time spent on each separate task. If you haven’t already please think back to the start of the project and include those hours (even if estimates). Don’t forget to include class time. We’ll talk more about this next class.

  • Rebecca: Color
  • Alyssa: Typography
  • James: Social Share module
  • Alex: Persistent Dates/Deadlines
  • Yaneczka: Navigation
  • Halle: Images (Illustrations + Photos)
  • Trevor: Images (Illustrations + Photos)
  • Miranda: Revise Info Architecture, Organize Content and Create Content for Homepage
  • Dave: Revise Info Architecture, Organize Content and Create Content for Homepage

September 28 – Personas and Brainstorm

Topics

  • Personas – Story/Journey
  • Big Idea Vignettes

Due Today (September 28) ASAP!

  • Revised personas using the revised template. As a collection they should be diverse and should reflect all of the activities and situations we discussed in our initial brainstorm today. Please post in Slack when your persona has been updated. There should be 5 personas in all.

Due September 30

  • Proposals for Visual Direction: Moodboards or Style tiles. Must expand color palette and include typography. (James, Rebecca, Halle, Trevor, Alyssa)
  • Proposals for Information Architecture: Site Map and page organization. Must show how users get from social media/emails to specific parts of the site. Organization must make sense from the perspective of our Personas and the goals of Vote Oswego. Consider using a Venn Diagram or similar to think through how the personas and Vote Oswego goals align and diverge so that you can make informed decisions. (Dave, Alex, Miranda, Yaneczka)

Note:Please design these in a way that would allow someone else the ability to edit or build on your work in the future. Each person should work independently so that multiple ideas can be presented next class. Post questions in Slack.

September 26: Vote Oswego Workshop

Topics

  • Address questions from last chapters of Designing for Touch
  • Develop Shared Understanding of Project
  • Project Hopes and Fears
  • Stakeholder Map: Expectations and Relationships
  • Share Research

Due September 27

  • Send Rebecca a DM in Slack indicating what skills you want to work on and improve during this project. Rank your list (#1 is most important to you). Examples include (but are not limited to): leadership, communication, typography, visual design, animation, coding (html, css, js), research, planning, user scenarios, user interface design, modular design, mobile design, etc.

Due September 28

  • Brainstorm list of potential site users and their characteristics (the start of personas…). For each user on your list create a needs statement by filling in the italics of this sentence: The User’s name needs a way to do something that addresses their need so that they benefit directly. An example is, “Sarah needs a way to look up her polling place so that she knows where she is able to vote on election day.”

September 23: Vote Oswego

Topics

  • Introduce Vote Oswego Project
  • Introduce Vote Oswego Research Study
  • Vote Oswego Project Survey
  • Q&A with Vote Oswego Representative
  • Show and Tell

Due September 26

Due September 28

  • Written Evaluation of Paper Inspired (turn in as a PDF or Google Doc titled 417_yourname_paperInspired).
    • Question 1: Evaluate how well your solution conveys the essence of the original paper piece. Identify the criteria you think is important in the evaluation. What are the strengths of your solution? What are the weaknesses of the solution? Explain. Use specific examples and provide specific evidence to support claims you make. Use screenshots where appropriate.
    • Question 2: What did you learn from doing this assignment? How did you grow as a designer? How will this experience impact how you approach future web design, ux or ui problems?

September 14: Inspired by Paper

Topics

  • Chris Harrold Visit: View (and document) objects from the Strathmore Archive.

Resources

Due September 16 @ 2pm

  • Read Chapter 5 Designing for Touch. Download a new app (that you have never used before) and learn how to use it. Evaluate how easy it is to learn. How discoverable are the features? How did the app employ concepts from the chapter like coaching, leveling up and power-ups? Be specific and provide examples.Turn in as a PDF on Google Drive (discovery_yourname.pdf).

Due September 19

  • Be prepared for in-progress critique of Inspired by Paper assignment

September 12: Experiments

Topics

Due September 16

  • Read Chapter 5 Designing for Touch. Download a new app (that you have never used before) and learn how to use it. Evaluate how easy it is to learn. How discoverable are the features? How did the app employ concepts from the chapter like coaching, leveling up and power-ups? Be specific and provide examples.Turn in as a PDF on Google Drive (discovery_yourname.pdf).

September 9: Experiments

Topics

Due September 9

  • Complete any research needed for Interview Design Project (to be worked on in class on Friday

Due September 12

  • Read Chapter 3 & 4 Designing for Touch. Look at an interface you have designed on a mobile device. Consider the concepts introduced in chapters 3 and 4. Identify ways that you could make your interface less cumbersome, more efficient, elegant and intuitive that are within your personal current coding capabilities. Note: page 129-137 is highly technical and generally beyond the scope of this course. Skip if you have trouble following along. Turn in as a PDF on Google Drive (gestures_yourname.pdf).
  • Be prepared to present your solution to the Interview Design project.

September 7: Experiments

Topics

Due September 9

  • Complete any research needed for Interview Design Project (to be worked on in class on Friday

Due September 12

  • Read Chapter 3 & 4 Designing for Touch. Look at an interface you have designed on a mobile device. Consider the concepts introduced in chapters 3 and 4. Identify ways that you could make your interface less cumbersome, more efficient, elegant and intuitive that are within your personal current coding capabilities. Note: page 129-137 is highly technical and generally beyond the scope of this course. Skip if you have trouble following along. Turn in as a PDF on Google Drive (gestures_yourname.pdf).

September 2: Portfolio Development

Topics

Due September 7

  • Read Chapter 2 Designing for Touch.Open your most resolved responsive or mobile design on your phone. Physically measure all of the touch targets with a ruler. Do they fall within the guidelines introduced in this chapter? Explain. Do the same activity on a tablet. Turn in as a PDF on Google Drive (accuracy_yourname.pdf).

Due September 12

  • Read Chapter 3 & 4 Designing for Touch. Look at an interface you have designed on a mobile device. Consider the concepts introduced in chapters 3 and 4. Identify ways that you could make your interface less cumbersome, more efficient, elegant and intuitive that are within your personal current coding capabilities. Note: page 129-137 is highly technical and generally beyond the scope of this course. Skip if you have trouble following along. Turn in as a PDF on Google Drive (gestures_yourname.pdf).

August 31: Experiments

Topics

  • Create Google Drive Folders and submit homework
  • Review Homework
  • UI Design Challenges (use HTML and CSS, no JS)
  • CSS Animation: Transforms, Transitions, SVGs, Sprites

Due September 2

  • Complete UI Design Challenges (above). Feel free to revise the first two that you completed in class. Submit as CodePen URLS or folders with HTML and CSS files for each challenge in Google Drive (in the folder you created in class).

August 29: Warm Ups

Topics

  • Introductions
  • Slack: Icons and Emoji
  • UI and UX
  • Using Touch Devices
  • Review Syllabus
  • Complete Survey

Due August 31

  • Purchase Texbook and Supplies
  • Read Syllabus
  • Get Comfortable in Slack
  • Read Intro + Chapter 1 of Designing for Touch. Consider your most resolved responsive design project to date. Based on the concepts introduced in this chapter, what should be reconsidered about the design? Why? Explain. Turn in as a PDF on Google Drive (comfort_yourname.pdf).