“Good design starts with an understanding of psychology and technology. Good design requires good communication, especially from machine to person, indicating what actions are possible, what is happening, and what is about to happen”

– Don Norman. The Design of Everyday Things

Project Overview:

For this course, you will conceive of, design, and develop an interactive experience based on the theme of “collection.” The kind of interactive experience that you create, the target audience/user, raw materials, etc. are entirely up to you and will be shaped by you through your research and design process. It could take the form of a website, interactive kiosk, App, etc. This process will ask you to consider how every choice you make will shape the experience for your audience.

Objectives:

1. Account for the affordances of the online environment

2. Organize information for a time-based experience, via information architecture (site maps) and wireframes

3. Identify and research an audience/user and let this research guide your design and refinement process

4. Present content in a useful, meaningful, and engaging manner

5. Develop strategies for content comparison and information/data visualization

6. Explore designing for an interactive and participatory environment

7. Link your concept with the visual interface so that it is aesthetically evocative, thematically relevant, and functional

8. Find ways that the collection itself can inform your design process

9. Focus on ideas and visual design and don’t worry about what you don’t know how to program

10. Create a working prototype (either through prototyping software or code, etc.) that shows the interface in motion and in context.

Considerations:

+ What is the data? and how can the data be organized?

+ What type of entry point do you want to have?

+ Are you allowing the user to experience exploration and discovery?

+ How could you make your project immersive?

+ What does participation afford the users?

+ How do you navigate through the project to experience it fully? (click, scroll, swipe, etc.)

+ How do you categorize data points and interaction points? filters/fields (place, color, quality, dates, etc)

Kinds of Websites:

community-building websites
informational websites
personal websites
photo sharing websites
directory websites
e-commerce websites
corporate websites

Final Deliverables
+ Working Prototype (link to Figma, and downloaded HTML/CSS “offline” version if available, screen recording)
+ Process “Overview” Folder (sketches, documentary photos, research, etc) submitted on the class Google Drive
+ 1 page microsite created on WordPress
+ A high-res final PDF presentation submitted on the class Google Drive.

Image: The Second World War in 100 Objects