project four: movie night!

At the end of the project, Denise requested that we somehow string together all six of our moments into one "thing." Then we all gathered in Burns Auditorium (conveniently located next to our studio space), and had a screening night. It looked like this, but without the illustrious Modern Dog in attendance, and the audience was approximately 90% smaller.


(Image of Burns Auditorium from AIGA Raleigh's Flickr stream; the photo was taken during a lecture by Modern Dog hosted by the chapter at NCSU.)

Denise brought popcorn and other snacks, and we had a wonderful time. Many of my classmates put together very humorous takes of their moments, and it was fascinating to see what before had been very isolated and disparate moments, put together in different ways.

Here is what I showed that night:

Six Moments: Interface Moments Compilation... from Liese Zahabi on Vimeo.

I structured my compilation to save the stronger two pieces for the end, and because we were viewing this as an audience, I wanted to use some music (lest we all sit there in silence as my moments rolled by). I chose these two pieces by Yann Tiersen from the film Amelie...they capture the mood of my moments.

And, here is the promised reflection on my last three moments. For the first three, I purposefully kept my visual language abstract, and instead of having an A-HA moment and then making that vision, I tried to keep my ideas loose and malleable. For the most part, as I crafted those three interfaces, I had no idea where the visuals were going to go...a lot of it was trial and error.

I was very enamored with the idea of using the motivation of playful, and spent a lot of time thinking about different attributes of experience I could pair with it. When it came time to start making, instead of following my own lead and keeping things abstract and loose, I stumbled upon the idea of using a paper doll, and just could not let that go. Wrapped up in making a little world (three times over within the three different modes of media), I put my head down and didn't come up for air until the critique session.

Worst of all, instead of crafting three concise little moments, I created three sprawling monstrosities...three very involved and convoluted worlds, which I could not even satisfactorily explain to myself.

However, as much as I feel I "flopped" (wah-waah) on the end of this project, the flop has been very illuminating for me, bringing to light several flaws in my process and form making. I am still digesting and ruminating...and probably will be for quite a while.

project four: moment #6...

Again, the synopsis from my last post:

For this set of moments, we were to again, take a motivation and an attribute of experience and create an interactive moment. The twist this time, was to play that moment out within three different modes of interface. I chose to use the motivation of playful and the attribute of quirky. The three modes I chose were a single player game, a social application that would function within a chat program or Facebook, and a printed book/journal/paper doll set.

For this piece, I created a blank journal/paper doll set. Each spread contains an environment, a randomly generated quote which heads a page of blank lines, and a set of clothing items and accessories. The user is meant to read the quote, look at the environment and other elements, and then create a story, which they would then write on the page. Or not. I also intended for the journal to be a quirky puzzle, where the user is not quite sure what they are supposed to do (much like the single player game).

Playful + Quirky (Interface Moments: Moment #6) from Liese Zahabi on Vimeo.

And, again, I will discuss my reflections on these last three moments in the next post.

project four: moment #5...

Synopsis from my last post:

For this set of moments, we were to again, take a motivation and an attribute of experience and create an interactive moment. The twist this time, was to play that moment out within three different modes of interface. I chose to use the motivation of playful and the attribute of quirky. The three modes I chose were a single player game, a social application that would function within a chat program or Facebook, and a printed book/journal/paper doll set.

This represents the social application I created, using the same elements as the single player game. The idea for this application is that friends could create scenes using the Elp doll and the other elements (clothing, environments, accessories), and then also add a quote to accompany the scene. The application could also generate a random quote. The goal of the application is to create interesting juxtapositions and share them with your friends.

Playful + Quirky (Interface Moments: Moment #5) from Liese Zahabi on Vimeo.

Again, I will discuss my reflections about these last three moments in a later post.

project four: moment #4...

For this set of moments, we were to again, take a motivation and an attribute of experience and create an interactive moment. The twist this time, was to play that moment out within three different modes of interface. I chose to use the motivation of playful and the attribute of quirky. The three modes I chose were a single player game, a social application that would function within a chat program or Facebook, and a printed book/journal/paper doll set.

The idea for this first piece, was to create an interface in which the user has control over some of the elements of the scene, and in which they interact with Elp, the doll. But the user doesn't have control over everything. Elp often does unexpected things, or reacts unexpectedly to the elements around her. I wanted to create an interface in which things don't work quite the way you expected them to, and in which interesting juxtapositions could be created by the user.

Playful + Quirky (Interface Moments: Moment #4) from Liese Zahabi on Vimeo.

Again, I wanted to experiment with audio for this piece. All the vocalizations were done by me, with an additional sound effect used at the end. I wanted to illustrate a couple of different things about the interface in this demonstration. First, that the interface would conjure new objects for Elp to interact with based on the other elements in the scene. When Elp is given a fire and a sweater in the dark woods environment, she conjures up a marshmallow to roast. Second, I wanted to show how Elp would do something unexpected when presented with different objects. When she is given the lollipop, she completely changes the scene to something different (if not exceedingly cliché in hindsight).

I will comment on the outcome and my reflections about these last three moments in a later post.

project four: moments #2 and #3...

Here is the second part of the interface moments project. I chose the motivation of curiosity, and the attribute of experience of fragility to create these two moments. The beginning portion shows a rollover and then click for the elements. The second part of the movie shows how adding elements can change the behavior of the user. By adding fuzzy dots and a scoreboard, the behavior changes from one of curiosity to one of collection. The music is by Yann Tiersen from the soundtrack to the film Amelie.

Curiosity + Fragile (Interface Moments: Moments #2 and #3) from Liese Zahabi on Vimeo.

Again, I wanted to keep my visual language somewhat abstract. I used letterforms as objects of curiosity because they are inherently abstract symbols, and I thought making them fragile would be interesting.

project four: moment #1...

For the first moment, I chose the motivation to examine and the attribute of experience delicious. I really wanted to experiment with stop motion animation for this project, so I created a tableau and moved the elements around to achieve the effect of movement. I also wanted to remain somewhat abstract in my visual language. The word delicious is ripe with connotations—I did not want to simply use food or try to replicate something delicious. Instead I tried to pinpoint what delicious feels like, looks like, sounds like, and then attempt to express that visually. I chose vibrant colors, used interesting textures, and attempted to create a scene that was visceral.

To Examine + Delicious (Interface Moments: Moment #1) from Liese Zahabi on Vimeo.

I have also been experimenting with sound in my work, and knew I wanted that to be an element of this interface. Again, I wanted to remain somewhat abstract. So instead of creating the sounds of cooking or eating, I thought about what delicious might sound like. For me, the audible element of delicious is the "mmmmmm." So I hummed a song my mother used to sing to me.

project four: moments...

Here is the brief we worked with for project four…

Project 4
Design Six Dynamic Interface Moments

1. Determine three motivations for a person to interact with an interface.
2. Determine three different possible attributes of experience a person might have interacting with an interface.
3. Using stop-frame animation, video, Flash, or mechanical means, combine a motivation with an experience in six different combinations.
4. Design six interactive moments:
   1 interactive moment: Combine 1 motivation with 1 attribute of experience.
   2 interactive moments: Combine 1 motivation with 1 attribute of experience. Combine the same motivation with 1 attribute of experience that shifts the motivation.
   3 interactive moments: Respond to 1 motivation in 3 different designed environments. Maintain comparable attributes of experience across all Compilation of 6 interactive moments: Editing is advised. Movie day!
   
5. The outcomes should afford user surprise, delight, and/or reflection.

Denise kept us on our toes for this project…she asked us to come up with a list of three motivations and three attributes of experience, but then only let us know how we would be implementing them one or two moments at a time. So as we were working on Moment #1, we had no idea how Moments #5 and #6 would play out. A very intriguing process.

The hardest part of this project was to remember that we were attempting to isolate and illustrate a moment, and not building an entire world full of interactions. This was very difficult for me, as you will see with my moments #4, #5 and #6. I tend to overcomplicate.

Overall, though, this project was extremely illuminating for me. The fact is, all design (especially that which involves motion and choice) is constructed of many moments, many details, many little elements. Striving to make these moments meaningful and consistent—while maintaining the overall "big picture"— is what design is all about.

project three: typography interface, take two...

So, after many more type experiments and much thought, here is my revised typography interface. I completely redid the interface in Flash, and wanted the piece to feel ambiguous and softly gritty (if that makes any sense).

Ambiguous Propensity: Take Two from Liese Zahabi on Vimeo.

The user comes to the site, and sees the grainy landscape of letters. A few of the letters beckon to the user by softly glowing with a color. As the user rolls over the letters, they shift slightly, almost as if you were running your hands through a pile of letters on a table. The colored letters are active, and to select one of the active letters, the user draws a circle around it.

Then the selected letter grows large (and beautifully pixelated and fuzzy), and one of the stanzas of the poem is released onto the landscape of that letter. I chose to use handwritten type to contrast with the universality (alleged) of the plastic helvetica letterforms. Once the stanza is released, the words pulse, letting the user know that they too are active. As the user rolls over these words, they fly away off the screen—the words that haven't been rolled over remain, and the user can then reposition these words to create new thoughts and sentences.

project three: typography interface, take one...

Here is my first stab at creating an interface using my plastic helvetica type. I decided to work in AfterEffects, which was a mistake, because the file size was enormous, and the project became very laborious. I had a difficult time making the application do exactly what I wanted (due to user error and ignorance, I'm sure), so this initial attempt is nowhere near where I wanted it to be.

I also struggled with timing, so the experience of the interface is much slower and plodding than I intended. Originally, there was an obnoxious sound track to accompany this piece (which consisted of my voice reading the text), but I decided to spare you, my blog audience, from having to listen to it.

Ambiguous Propensity: Take One from Liese Zahabi on Vimeo.

I love the way the space looks, the graininess of the light, the textures of the letterforms and the surface. But what happens within the space is not nearly as compelling as it could be. I spent a lot of time rethinking and reworking this project, which I will share with you in the next post.

an interlude with the beloved laser cutter...

I took some photographs of the laser cutter in action, and decided to string them together into a little movie. The music is Baby Elephant Walk by Henry Mancini, and there is a small cameo appearance by my classmate Tony Fugolo. Enjoy!

The Laser Cutter Dance from Liese Zahabi on Vimeo.

project three: typography as interface, take one...

After pondering my poem, I decided to experiment with the materiality of type (I also really wanted to play with the laser cutter here on campus). The notion of these experiments was to create type that had texture and weight and physical presence, and then place it in a digital environment and animate it—playing the two aspects against each other, physicality and digital-ness.

I experimented with thread and pins first:







Then I went through my collection of card stock and bought a huge piece of clear plexiglass and spent about four hours with the laser cutter:







These experiments with type were exhilarating and immensely enjoyable in their own right. I now own a pile of plastic helvetica letters, and there is something so awesome about that!

The next step in the project was to take these material attempts and somehow dump them into a digital environment, giving them motion and movement and to make it all compelling enough that a user would want to interact with it. A tall order indeed!