Welcome to Designing for New Media. Each week class will begin with a lecture or discussion of the assigned readings, on the blog I will post notes and things to consider. Come to class prepared with sketchbooks, drawing tools and new media related things to share.

Homework:

Create an account for this blog. Then to knock things off lets first try to define what new media is. Then introduce yourself by posting to the class blog, and describe how you currently view what new media is.

Read: Elements of User Interaction
From this reading you should be able and prepared to answer the following:

What are the goals of Apple’s website? How does Apple’s website address the needs of a user who has just purchased their first MacBook? (pp. 41-56)
What are the functional specifications of Facebook’s wall? If you are not on Facebook what are the specs for the signup page? (pp. 72-75)
What are four architectural approaches to information structure? Find one example of each. (pp. 94-106)
What percentage of The Huffington Post index page is navigation, and what percentage is content? What about Google, Wikipedia, and Etsy? (pp. 116-134)
How does http://www.landor.com guide the readers’ eyes and focus their attention on what is important? (pp. 144-155 )

Put your thoughts down in your sketchbook and be ready to discuss the book next week.

This week’s thing to consider:

http://www.ted.com/talksl/defend_our_freedom_to_share_or_why_sopa_is_a_bad_idea.html

This week’s cool thing: Paper + Touch interface

By Prof. Ames

April 16, 2013

Video

Or how about a no-touch, motion-based interface

Drawing with Code

By Prof. Ames

April 11, 2013

Video

This week’s cool thing: Motivation

By Prof. Ames

April 10, 2013

Video

Consider what motivates you, what gets your blood pumping. Knowing your own motivators will help keep you driven to learn, create and innovate.

Touchscreen gestures explored through analog sculptures

By Prof. Ames

March 31, 2013

Video

This week’s cool thing

By Prof. Ames

March 26, 2013

Video

Holographic displays

This weeks useful articles

By Prof. Ames

March 26, 2013

Article

Here are a few insightful articles on things to continue to consider when designing a website.

This Is How Facebook Came Up With News Feed Redesign

In any redesign process, it’s hard to predict what exactly people will end up liking. Sure, you can do informational interviews and use feedback to create a better experience, but sometimes you just have to get crafty to uncover a few surprising things users want that they don’t even know they want.
The 5 Worst UX Mistakes Websites Make

The user experience of websites has improved by leaps and bounds over the years, but there are still sites out there that may leave you asking, “What were they thinking?!”

From a design perspective, it’s easy to get caught up in internal squabbles (“No, no, THIS is the content that has to be front and center”) or distracted by tools or methods (“I say we use lean UX on this project”). When this happens, we often forget that at the end of it all waits a person who wasn’t in on all these decisions, and just wants to get the information they need, buy the product or be entertained for five minutes while waiting for the train.

In the hopes it will help us all avoid these pitfalls, here’s a list of the five worst UX mistakes that people still make in website design.