In this episode of the Polytechnicast I share some thoughts on using empathy as a way to guide design choices in interactive projects.
Follow Rob on Twitter or his blog at Interactive-Storyteller.com and workshops at Lean Into Art
We've often advocated just diving in and making small projects, like mini-comics, to engage with the creative arts and level up a bit. But once you've done that leveling up, how do you manage ambitious or long-term projects?
This time we talk about navigating the Jenga tower of big projects. When do you know the project is ready? How "finished" should the website be before you announce the project? Once underway, how do you know that each piece of the project is complete?
In this episode of the Polytechnicast I share an overiew of the technical details of my move from Google App Engine to Squarespace. It’s a bit about RSS, XML, why text formats rock and how web browsers are a fantastic place to build a little one-use data transformation.
Follow Rob on Twitter or his blog at Interactive-Storyteller.com and workshops at Lean Into Art
In the second episode of Lean Into Art's Thinking About Design series, Rob and Jerzy take a stroll around the Quadrants of Forces that inform the design of a project (Personal Opinion, Design Principles, Heuristics, and Fashion).
What follows is a discussion about the different inflections of these forces in regards to whether the design is being executed as a service or as a vehicle for self-expression. Also, how do these forces balance or counter-balance when working with a group? Rob and Jerzy use some of their personal experiences to investigate how to negotiate between these forces to design a project that satisfies the needs of the intended audience.
Sometimes we can talk ourselves out of having a good time in the visual arts by convincing ourselves that "if it's not work, it's not worth it". And while this can be true, is it an absolute truth? Can one achieve meaningful work in a spirit of play?
In this audio-only episode we use some of our classroom experiences as well as our experiences with video game play to explore the notion of inserting a playfulness into our workflow and approach, while fighting the old assumption that it can't be valuable if we had fun doing it.