Cleaning Up

• Spellchecking and ensuring that there is font continuity
• Writing in the 3rd person: Not always possible as i talked about my interests for the 'see it my way concept', athough i went through all my writing and edited out all 1st person text elsewhere
• All i have left to do is the powerpoint presentation
• I am considering doing an animated loading page where the layout grows and is eventually filled in, but users might find this irritating so i wi have to brainstorm and sketch this out.

Work in progress (2)

Inputting the zoom interaction for the embedded site was a litte tricky as i had to use frames for navigation rather than scenes between different instances to keep it clean, but it was finally completed yesterday afternoon. I didnt actually have a finished interactive section on my website when the brief was first submitted, and it is nice to provide an example of how users would interact with the 3D world.

I am actually going to add another section to this part of my portfolio, named 'the 3D world' in which i explain the program i used, reiterate why 3D was appropriate and explain how the symbols on a map which someone uses are translated into tower-buiding sized colour blocks in the 3d word so that they are instanty recognisable. This section woud be different to the 'concept' as it explain technical things in more detail, and would be accessible only if a user is interested in it, rather than lumping it all together on one page and having too much wording on each page.

I have also completed my research pages. Essentially it is a pinboard of the majority of my sketchbook work for each project, with 'hit' sections applying to various areas, so when you hover over various different pages, a litte note comes up saying things like 'participant observation' or 'museum visit'. I chose to display it this way to show off my detailed book work and to give a quick insight to my process work. I realise that a. you cannot see the work in detail and b. each page doesnt have its own tag', but i made these decisions as i realised that one of my two main target users (potential employers) probably isnt interested in combing through my sketchbooks within a portfolio, and would instead be interested in getting and overview and seeing that i do use multiple medium and methods to get where i'm going. My other target user (examiners) would have my sketchbooks with them and reading through them virtually is much more of a strain than having a real hard copy. My research virtual pinboard is just to show that i do have a process, and my blog is available (which sums up most of my process work) to view in the blog section.

I have shown the flash stage behind this screenshot to show how i constructed this page. Essentially i had to take lots of photos of my sketchbook manually, cut them to size, arrange them in photoshop, add hit areas with rectangles and the 'shear tool', and then add a title at the end.

I did have the idea of having thumbnails which enlarged when hovered over and had titles of their own, and perhaps if i am targeting different users i woud do so, but since it is very time consuming and inappropriate for my target users i am not doing so.

A New Solution

I've come across a barrier in my work, one that i had anticipated and tried to get around. I don't like the previous .swf projects popping out, and neither do they fit correctly into the dimensions of my project so i can't cal them to a movie ater. I've decided to rebuid my projects into the portfolio so that they are all entirely sef-contained. This also allows me to revealuate the projects as i will be buiding them from scratch. Luckily none of my projects are more than 10-12 frames long, and i will take this as an opportunity to rework my ideas.

More process work

I've almost finished putting together the mapping section.

'Safe Way Home' Mapping brief title & description

It has gotten to the point now where i am adding brief titles and descriptions to my portfolio. I would like to make some changes to the originals (written about in the blog here). I am also making the conscious decision to show original brief solutions as well as my final work within my portfolio project to show how i have responded to criticism and developed my solutions.

Although not the first project, I am going to insert my solution to the mapping brief first as it is the one that i enjoyed the most and also the one that i feel could really work in the real world. I had considered possibly prioritising the favourite projects within my brief (by making them more noticeable, placing them higher in the page hierarchy) but i decided against it to give the user back the control and allow them to make decisions about where they want to go.

(i have had to mention the appropriate brief title i.e. 'mapping' in this description to make it easier for anyone marking the work to identify it quickly) without having to look up my notes that would be provided on the disc in notepad or. I have decided not to publish my website as I'd like it to be seen only by those looking for it or for people i seek out to share it with.

My working portfolio description is:

Ever wanted to find a safe route home? Whether it be for safety, speed or for the scenery, 'Safe Way Home' provides users with all the information they need to make informed decisions about their route choices.

Aimed at encouraging a healthy lifestyle as well as improving safety and confidence in the vulnerable and less-able, this idea takes user information about their local area and inputs it into a 3D environment to allow users to easily identify trouble spots and avoid them. With three criteria: Lighting, Anti-Social Behaviour, and poor lighting, users will be able to spot these within the 3D environment. Why 3D? Because it allows the users to visualise the space more effectively and even avoid busy roads and seek out scenic routes.

Currently, Safe Way Home is in it's developmental stages and available only for people living in walthamstow, but with funding from the MET or Local Council, users might one day be able to draw directly into a 3D environment, safe routes virtually and contact other members for advice. At the moment, safe way home asks users to download a map, mark it up with symbols and submit it via email for submission to the 3D environment, but hopefully this idea will grow.

'Safe Way Home' is a working solution to my first year CID 'Mapping' brief.

finally putting it all together

after coming to my final design, i am putting it together in flash. Unfortunately it did take me a long time with research and sketching out my ideas, so i'm a bit short on time but luckily i know exactly what i'm doing so putting it together will be quicker.

I found it useful in the past to document the literal design process of the final work as it helped me realise how long it takes to do certain things and to streamline the process and also see where i've made changes to the design whilst its being made.

Already, i am going to highlight the titles as they arent standing out enough, and i've changed the thumbnail masks to lighter instead of darker.

Thinking about displaying projects within the portfolio

Looking into flash, i've noticed some difficulties in displaying previous .swf projects within a swf porfolio. Flash is still my preferred program to create the portfolio as i find it a more malleable method of displaying my work without having to constrain it to tricky to control html table layouts and less animation and interaction possibilities. It is the preferred method for design web portfolios that i've seen and also my favourite web portfolios have all been flashed based. However, although it is technically possible to 'call' a previous project within a window of the portfolio, it is complicated, and there is also the problem of it looking strange. What i thought of doing is having it pop out, and instead having a screenshot. This would mean that the page loads faster (if published) and it would only call the popup data if clicked, but it would also mean that a user could keep the popup windows open to compare the final projects easily.

When using flash i did make considerations about web publishing and decided on my page dimensions this way. I decided on 800X400. The finished flash portfolio is meant to be one-page and not scrollable so essentially what you seee is what you get.