Welcome
Updates & Info
April 1st is our last class (no fooling!)
If you haven't told me which item on your Project Site you'd like people to find in our scavanger hunt game on April 1, please email me and let me know by Tuesday or I will pick something.
You can now submit course evaluations for Sheridan Winter and Full Year courses.
Submissions are open until midnight April 6th.
Please review the most recent class schedule to make sure you stay up to date.
Featured Presentation
Laser Graffiti with GRL Vienna from Bre Pettis on Vimeo.
I thought this was fun when I first saw it but, now that I've seen what you guys are capable, of I'll bet that most of you could come up with something even better.
Looking for the previous featured presentation?
Microsoft Visions of the Future
Designer John Maeda talks about his path from a Seattle tofu factory to the Rhode Island School of Design, where he became president in 2008. Maeda, a tireless experimenter and a witty observer, explores the crucial moment when design met computers.
Ben Fry and Casey Reas were students of John Maeda in MIT's Aesthetics and Computation Group, where they developed Processing. John wrote the Foreword to their book, Processing: A Programming Language for Designers.
More about John Maeda
It's here, along with many other goodies.
May of your project sites are now live and I have added comments next to your names on the project sites page. I know the folder organization and folder and file name issues can be frustrating, but I am seeing a lot of strong problem solving and troubleshooting going on in class and these skills will serve you well no matter what type of design work you do. Please review these guidelines if necessary.
Get those project sites up and working and make sure that there are not only links from your top level pages down to your assignments, but links back up to the higher level pages, so that people can navigate easily throughout your site. You can always use the type of 
breadcrumb navigation that I put right above the title of every page on this site. Here's an example from one of the Grid assignment pages that is 2 levels down from the Home page:
It's called breadcrumb navigation because it builds a trail of links that shows where you have been so you can find your way back, just like Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumb trail that helped them find their way back through the forest.
Motion
I have posted information about the Motion assignment
Here is the updated class schedule.
Here is the final list of assignments and grading criteria.
I have graded your first 3 assignments and distributed your grades in class on Feb 4. Please have your Project Site and all Computation assignments in my Drop Box before class on Feb 25.
Interface Design: A couple of weeks ago we began a unit on information architecture (IA) and site navigation. The project sites that you are building, along with the IA documentation that illustrates the site levels and user paths, will be part of an ongoing process that will last the entire semester. Since, from now on, you will be keeping your assignments in your project site, you will be continually adjusting the global navigation and IA to keep them in synch and help you plan.
Here's the link to the information architecture presentation.
We will be covering some interface design basics in the week before the break. Here's some information about the projects that we will be doing in class.
Computation 1: If you decide to put all 5 applets on the same page, think very carefully about what you are communicating. Whatever your intentions - and they may just be to get it done quickly - you are creating a layout. There is always meaning attached to visual relationships and you, as designers, must be aware of that in everything you do. If you have a series of applets with different shapes, color palettes and behaviors all on the same page and they don't work together to form a reasonable composition, then you are not submitting a good design and it will count against your grade.
Computation 2: Draw on your interests and talents to create a meaningful layout that clearly communicates your theme. You will be graded on your ability to communicate visually, not on how many bouncing balls and vibrating patterns you can cook up with Processing.
Grids: All of the Grid 1 and Grid 2 assignments that were turned in on time have been posted. We reviewed them together in a group critique on Wednesday February 4.
Modularity assignments are all posted online and they look great. Take a look your fellow students' work and read my comments when you get a chance.
Please use my Drop Box on the design server to submit projects from now on. If you need help, please refer to the guidelines for how to structure and submit your assignments.
Understanding Interactivity: Content + Behaviour + Context
Interactivity in the web environment is expressed through visual (and occasionally audible) responses to things you do on a page. Those "things" are the actions that you take when you are engaging with content. The way a site behaves determines the nature and quality of the feedback you get from your actions. The web can deliver a variety of user experiences, although it is constrained by certain functional limitations. Designers who understand those constraints can exploit them in creative ways.
Content
1. What it's made of, i.e "ingredients" or assets.
2. What it's about - subject matter.
3. What it is - type of thing, category.
Assets can be in the form of text, images, video, sound, animation, applets, etc.
Behaviour
1. What it does - functionality.
2. Responsiveness to user actions - feedback.
3. Modes of engagement - affordances.
Most actions consist of making selections by clicking on something, although you may also be dragging items with your cursor or using key commands. The standard affordances on the web are links, buttons, sliders, scrollbars, etc.
Context
1. What it's for - purpose, use.
2. Where it is - environment, setting.
3. What it delivers - expectations, appropriateness.
Advertising, games, ecommerce, blogs, microsites, web applications, social networking, intranets, news, galleries, etc.
You will be creating content and designing behaviours that deliver meaningful feedback to people who are engaging with your content on the web. Successful interaction design integrates relevant content with UI elements that can be navigated or manipulated in enjoyable, intuitive ways.