EPP - Gavin Johnson

One of BBC Wales New Media team leaders came into speak with the class today. Gavin Johnson has seen technological advancements change how the BBC works and delivers its vast amounts of content to the general public.

Gavin spoke about the BBCs role in streaming video as opposed to letting users download it directly and the legal implications this has. He also informed us of a few 'up-and-comings' that the BeeB is involved in - podcasting trials, Integrated Media Player trials and the new search engine which allows multimedia content to be searched for more efficiently.

I asked Gavin about the field Lou and myself are working in, and he told me about a project called 'Streets of Cardiff', which is a public authoring platform for the people of Cardiff. The producers in charge of overseeing the project was a man called Robin Moore, so I will contact him asap.

Design for Change: Presentation Day

What a long old day today has been!

All the presentations were completed in one day instead of the intended two. It wasn't as bad as some of the previous presentation days however, I think this was because everyone was presenting something different.
Also, everyone had a sound knowledge of their design or product, which meant I learnt a lot.

I was up second and found the 20 mins went really quickly. I think this might have had something to do with the audience participation I involved in my presentation.

1. Spinning Jack around on a chair and then asking him to find himself on a park map.

2. Liz and Lou acting in a role-play to show the advantages and disadvantages of renting my Interactive Services Explorer.

I'd like to thank Jack, Liz and Lou for their help to explain how the device works.

Here is a pdf of my presentation which documents all the research and development of the tourist aid - Presentation pdf

Right, well I'm off for a dinner meeting with Walt. Wish me luck!

Design for Change: One Week - So Weak

Just found out we have another week to develop out presentations for Design for Change!

God, I Love Unions.

Up the Workers!

Design for Change: Design Report

I wanted to be as thorough with my report as possible, so I ended up working on it until 6:50am!

I know, I know, it's not worth very much percentage wise, but because my design is so vast I couldn't miss anything out.

For example, if I didn't include the battery spec then the device would be ill-equipped to deal with park life! So i just tried my best to include everything.

Well here it is anyways - Design Report

ps. On the left here is just a little preview of my final design.

pps. A big thank you to Lizzie for telling me how to fix Bloggers upload image problem!

Pini for the Si

Simon explained today how his professional career has unfolded, and what a story that is!

On the back of award winning Webstalker Simon received vast amounts of work and a reputation that has lasted him to this day.

Not being a 'one-trick-pony' however Simons work has branched out into every type of Interactive and Digital Art that you can imagine. Often working in collaboration with other artists such as; Colin Green, Matthew Fuller and Steve Kurz, Simon has been able to create work which has made him internationally acclaimed and an expert in the field of Locative Media.

I think both myself and Lou are very grateful to Simon for opening our eyes to this amazing new world. Hopefully one day our work will be used as sources to future projects too.

Design for Change: Re-design

After showing Stuart the LATTE design he pointed out a few design flaws.

1. Not childproof and would be too fiddly.
2. Powerdrain if the display size was increased.
3. Easily lost due to its small size.
4. No allocated space for battery.

Um.....back to the drawingboard.

Design for Change: LATTE Design 1

I have just finished a concept design for the LATTE device. I works much like a piece of paper wrapped arounda pen, but the paper will be substitued for a FOLED and the pen is wi-fi reciever!

Fully Retracted | On the Go | Expanded

The input device for this unit will be made up of Fabric keyboard designed by MIT labs.

Design for Change: LATTE Research

While researching to fulfill my design criteria I have come across some really cool stuff. The best of which is definately the FOLED. (FLEXIBLE ORGANIC LIGHT EMITTING DIADODE)

Others include Wearable Technologies such as this Wearable QWERTY Keyboard, and also this device to help you find good place to drink during a pubcrawl!

I have also found a few papers written about Wearable Technologies, as well as the Future of the Theme Park Industry.

Electonic guidebook for the Mueseum of California.

This site was also very valuable for my secondary research: Theme Parks Online

The Legal Eagle

Lynne Norris is a Legistlation and Law lecturer at the UWIC business school. Her visit brought up some really interesting topics especially as most of us will be moving into the dangerous world of work soon.

Since 2003 we as designers have more power and protection. The law now understands that ideas cannot be copyrighted, but the expression of an idea no matter the chosen media can be safeguarded.

One important issue to take away from today's talk was that if you are working as part of a large organisation, any work you produce belongs to them. You will retain the authorship rights but 'the man' owns it! Bastards!

Also in 2003 the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations were set up. This helps protect us from all the crap the internet washes up; spam, junk mail and viri.

Overall, Lynne's presentation was very informative and made me feel slightly more reassured for the future.