dhri:

(Source: h-57.com)

I began a contract position building a website with future work as an option to expand a brand and a grow some business for a small company.. I am excited to be doing it.

it is going to be a lot of work but I am hopeful it will be well worth it… this on top of completing my long overdue portfolio, and thesis for my masters… has made for a busy designer…

I have used Joomla for a CMS system and I like it is seems to flow and work easily and I think it will benefit me going forward.

I am in the market for a new computer… No offense to this one, but Its a professional step that I need to take… Im going to buy a souped up Mac Mini… and use my peripherals that I already have… Hopefully this will give me the power I need. 

I will be reposting more here soon. peace.

C Driz.

There is so many aspects of New Media Designing, and even more skills that would benefit those who are NMD’s that it can be dizzying to try to adopt all of these skills, and impossible to do so at a mastery level. 

Skills that would aid any New Media designer: illustration, Character design, Background design, animation, 3d rendering, industrial design, graphic design, sound production, Effects developing, program Developing, coding in a dozen languages, film production… This is just a quick list too… there are literally dozens more areas in which New Media designers can learn and improve their skills to aid them in their understanding and problem solving skills.

it’s interesting.

In my final Semester at AAU… I am taking a class. Character Design and drawing for animators… I have no plans of being a character animator(again my focus is Design, I am taking the class to augment my Designs in an INteractive Childrens story app I am designing.) but I can’t help but see the attractiveness of the art of Character Design. Drawing Characters is absolutely fun, and I will keep a sketchbook from here on out to continue improving my skills… I see it as having a bright future in my Design Career.

Achievements

Appointments

Behavioral Momentum

Blissful Productivity

Bonuses

Cascading Information Theory

Combos

Community Collaboration

Countdown

Discovery Epic Meaning

Free Lunch

Infinite Gameplay

Levels

Loss Aversion

Lottery

Ownership

Points

Progression

Quests

Reward Schedules

Status

Urgent Optimism

Virality

from - Gamification.org

I have been thinking more and more about Gamification of everyday products and how it can help designers reach their audiences on a different level by not only providing a service but by providing a challenge and fun experience with it. 

(I will once again be pulling from information gleaned from Don Norman to look at examples of Gamification in product design)

The first level - before - Pleasant and beautiful viewing of the product. 

What gamification can offer the first level is vast, but a good relationship between a product and the gamification of that product will be a two way street relationship. So as a user approaches a product it would be best if not only is the product beautiful and enjoyable to look upon(or sound, or smell)… But the visual design also has to express to the user the aspects that will be playable and engaging. 

The Second Level - During - A lovely experience; great usability

The During stage when paired with gamification should have the user really engaged while using it. It should be challenging(so to provide accomplishment) and should be most of all… Fun. This will provide the user with the Dopamine dump that will have them engaged in reperforming the task again and again. 

The Third Level - After - Talking about it; remembering it fondly

This will be the place that successful gamification can really benefit designers. How amazing it was to participate in will hook the user to keep coming back and reusing it. If the gamification is done at increasingly harder levels than there is the challenge and accomplishment of self improvement. 

As an interaction designer I will now be asking myself whether or not a piece of gamification can help an part of my designs.

good website to learn more - http://gamification.co/

Just a little spouting off for a moment, if you’ll indulge me…

I Just bought my first iPad. I know I am very late to this game for a NMD due to the fact that they were released a year and 8 months ago, but better late than never. I am completely convinced it is the new way of things. 

Much like Penny from inspector gadget, used her tablet, we now have information constantly at our fingertips. 

Cities should be working on getting permanent wifi like Mt. view has(thanks to Google) just to increase the productivity of each and every citizen. 

Information is incredibly interesting to me, and the Ipad (or something similar) is the way to access and manipulate it.

Some of my favorite apps so far. 

The fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore - Beautiful, application by an amazing company that can truly show what this platform can offer it’s designers and developers. nothing about it is special…. that being said… it’s an amazingly special application.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-fantastic-flying-books/id438052647?mt=8

Alice for the iPad - another great book application that shows the beauty of 100 year old Tennial drawings in a book that more resembles a machine than a book. there is no animation, but the book reacts to the user(through, multitouch and the accelerometer. it is awesomely amazing.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/alice-for-the-ipad/id354537426?mt=8

Pandora application  - I realize how cheesy and unimpressive it is to mention Pandora radio apps. but they are something to behold. They are so simple and deliver exactly what I want nothing less. The advertising is never an annoyance(I hope i didn’t speak too soon on that one), and the music genome project really works well… in that I constantly get new and exciting music that I like. The Usability is off the charts. straight a’s for pandora, and especially the Pandora app.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pandora-radio/id284035177?mt=8

more to come… 

http://www.ted.com/talks/gabe_zichermann_how_games_make_kids_smarter.html

Gabe Zichermann, author of Gamification by Design gives a talk about how Games can aid the learning process and how kids learn from games.

This talk is incredibly fascinating to me, because the subject that he talks about will transform the way that information design happens. 

Gamification can loosely be seen as the Psychology behind efficient and positive information design(in turn, successful info design). 

especially for the audiences that are 30 and under. 

Some takeaways: Gabe talks about Fluid intelligence seems to be a synonym for divergent thinking paired with convergent thinking. 

For development of fluid intelligence - Seek Novelty, Challenge Yourself, Think Creatively, Do things the Hard way, Network. 

These could be the basis of any successful game.

Games have a built in ability to provide it’s users with a Dopamine dump. and increasingly gets harder. which encourages behavior.

Gamification is happening everywhere(for instance the hybrid car, plant example.)

Why Kids scores increase because of Gamification - 

1. Learning is Fun

2. Learning is Multiplayer

(in so many words).