An attempt at visualizing a game

First time didn't seem to post for over an hour, so gonna try again before bed...if this double posts sorry!

Here is my thing for today. I have been thinking about this format of vis in my head for a little while, and it was good to get it out today actually (semi) designed. The colors and all are god awful, and I'm pretty certain I need to tweak it a good amount to make something a bit less chaotic, but overall I think this is a good example of how I can show the progression of a game in multiple ways. BTW, doing data vis in this way (using illustrator and no code) takes a lifetime, really annoying but probably faster in the long run for prototyping.

The lines represent events, with red being an out, green being a hit, and blue signifying reaching base in a way besides a hit. The top shows the game in innings, split into away and home sections (orange and purple). These events are linked at the bottom to individual players (not labeled but should be...next steps) so that you can view how each player did in the game in the order of their at bats. I imagine that rolling over a line will also fade out the rest of the lines while bringing up a full description of the event, rolling over an inning section will fade out all lines not belonging to that inning (so you can view who batted in that inning, how they did, etc) and rolling over a player will fade out all lines not connected to them, so you can concentrate on both how they did and where in the game they batted.

Really loving this assignment, happy to be working and getting things going, its a good kick in the ass I needed!

-Steve

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Day 2 - Boca Local / Paper Prototype

I spent today expanding on my most recent UI and completed a paper prototype to test vendors on adding and removing different items. Starting with the login screen, the user would enter in their login information. They had the choice of adding or removing items. There are currently three "Product" types (Fruits, Vegetables, Meats). Once the "Product" is selected, they have the choice of selecting the "Type" of "Product". There are currently three different "Types" for the three "Products".

Fruits

  1. Apples
  2. Blackberries
  3. Pomegranate
Vegetables
  1. Lettuce
  2. Potatoes
  3. Turnips
Meats
  1. Beef
  2. Pork
  3. Chicken
Once both the "Product" and "Type" categories are selected, the user then enters the "Variety". There will be a text field.
Now the paper prototype is complete, I will test vendors at the Union Square Green Market. I've included a screen shot of overall interface and a PDF with each page laid out.
I think I will work on some branding tomorrow.

Click here to download:
bocaloca_phoneInterface_paperProto01.pdf (9.63 MB)
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Screen_shot_2010-02-03_at_11

Updates

So today I've made a big step and really looked at the structure of buddypress.  I sat down with a web developer and figured out how referencing works and where my changes can start to come in.  I really have to thank Brady Candell at Fly Communications for his incredible help.  I spent the rest of my time attempting my first php tweak which was to get the profile information to now show up on the blog page.  It took quite a while but I eventually got it to work :-) you can take a look :

Picture_4

Eventually the blog page will become the profile page because profile pages will consist of every post that user has made in chronological order.  I also mocked up a little diagram of how I see the buddypress files working together.  

Click here to download:
diagram.pdf (23 KB)
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Today I figured out that most of my tweaking will be done with the files in the theme folder because that is how the information is displayed.  I don't really need to go in and change the functions that were written I just need to change the way they are referenced and displayed.  So cool!  If you'd like to look around the current prototype the address is http://www.hilaryfenton.com/converso and you're welcome to join :-) 'Night everyone!

day 2, the website

I'm now thinking (for the past 48 hours) about my project as being split between presentation and practice, or something like that. Re: presentation, I'm not yet sure how to incorporate more presentation-like things into the book. I'm thinking about that one.

Re: practice, I learned over the weekend (and have gotten similar feedback before) that educators want examples of what I mean by sameness and disruption. I've been reluctant to do this because I'm pretty opposed to designing a prescriptive here-is-a-series-of-lesson-plans kind of project. I also realize that a single book (not reproduced) does not a large impact make. Or, it's less likely that it'll make much of an impact. (See the Red Book at the Rubin for disagreement here.) So I spent today thinking about the website aspect of the project - see images for an idea of where I'm going.

It's based a lot on The Third Teacher website, which is the online home of a book about how space/environment is the third teacher (after adults and peers). The book identifies 79 or so pithy strategies for how this works. (ie: #46 - let students lead.) The website identifies each of these and provides a space for people to comment on them, identifies case studies where this has worked, hosts a blog that comments on this intersection of education/design/environment, and identifies resources if you want to learn more.

I don't think the commenting feature works. The book hasn't really been released yet, but there aren't many comments. Also, I don't like the 79 strategies. It seems arbitrary. I do like the case studies, the blog and the resources. So, briefly, here's the content I would want on my own:

A blog: I don't keep one of these myself, so it's hard for me to go here. But if I want to contribute to the conversation about ed/tech/design, perhaps I should actually contribute to it rather than wait for other people to respond to my work. I would solicit writing here from people who are leading this conversation in various areas (like Michael Horn, who co-wrote Disrupting Class and who I had a conversation with today on the topic of creativity, efficiency and technology in education). The idea is that this blog would generate a conversation about ed/tech/design, not just react to it.

Case studies: Educators want examples, so this would be documentation of technologies put to disruptive practice. My prototype for Alice: A social network for atoms and Adams was grounded in an unsuccessful project I did with my own seventh graders four years ago when I asked them to use Ning to roleplay the relationships between people during the Revolutionary War. I invented Alice three years later, and as a way of testing it (without having to code it), I worked with a teacher to implement something similar using the new-and-improved Ning in her classroom. This experiment was documented last night on PBS Frontline's Digital Nation (really excited about this). So, that's a case study.

Lesson ideas: I'm the least satisfied with this section. Lesson plans could be submitted by "users", I guess, which would encourage participation/etc. That's good. I still don't like the here's a lesson plan - now, go! feeling that I tend to get from lesson plan websites; I think that rarely works, because teaching styles/circumstances/personalities are so different. Also, I don't know how to build this, but I could find someone to help.

Documentation: This would be a collection of resources that examine this intersection of design/ed/tech, for educators to use if they want to go further. I would also include a video or some other documentation of my ppt book.

- christina

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Sketching & Brainstorming

Sketches of ideas on how to install the view master in the city:

Idea #1: A form of attachment with a tray supporting and sticking to the slim base of the view master.
Idea #2: An attachment mimicking the functionality of the tourist binocular structure.
Idea #3: A dependent to the city form of structure that can be attached to a light pole, parking meter, or any other already existing structure.
Idea #4: A plank-like structure that is die-cut in a way it allows the view master to be slid into it.
Idea #5: A tin box-like structure enveloping the entire view master securely, but at the same time allowing its functionality.

-Grace

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Setting up YOURLS: Your Own URL Shortener

*Note: I grew impatient with the email I sent not loading so I'm posting this via the web interface. I'll delete the emailed post whenever it decides to make an appearance.*

I have some ideas for prototypes I would like to do around the emerging trend of URL shortening. It's a popular service for the Twitterati (myself included) for keeping our character count below the arbitrarily chosen 140. To that end, after much more frustration and headaches than it should have been, I installed an open-source URL shortening service called YOURLS on my personal web space. Since it is an open-source system, I'm going to try and dive into it and hack it apart the next few days to do the kinds of things I want. Here's my first shortened link using the service: http://kunaldpatel.com/yourl/1.

My main problem with URL shortening services is that, when we really think about it, their function is completely arbitrary. They move beyond shorthand or slangs we use for words or even addresses (ex. "13th Street and 5th Avenue" -> "13th & 5th") and obscure the address so that it is only machine-readable. When I look at a tinyurl, or a bit.ly link, or any of the others, I often have no idea where it could lead. While URL's are not a perfect address system (the inventor revealed recently that the second "/" in "http://" is totally useless, which amused me for some reason), domain names and other clues in URL's are our only context for knowing where we are going. Much like veteran New Yorkers can divine cross streets given a street address on an Avenue, a URL can reveal much about a link before one clicks on it. I have 2 ideas for projects in mind right now:

1) Create a URL shortening service that stores your URL, but returns back someone else's previously-shortened site. I read a blog post over break about the Kashiwa Mystery Cafe in Japan and it's been on my mind since then. What is unique about this cafe is that you get what the person before you ordered. The next person gets what you ordered. With the abstraction of URL links that occurs through shortening services, we put our faith in the system that it returns to us what we originally gave it. I think a shortening service that returned back what the last person shortened could be interesting along the same lines and a)inform users to not be so trusting of the service they use, and b) evoke curiosity and an emotional reaction over the swap.

2) Similar to the first idea, I would instead create a service that generated a "permanent" short URL for a group of people to share. Each a time a user in the group contributed a new link to this service, it would become the shortened URL, replacing whatever had previously been the link. For example, let's say I set up a shortened url called "this.is.awe.sm", then each day I could check it and it may be something different that one of my friends found particularly intriguing. I wouldn't know where I was going, or why, but I would trust their judgment of adding the link. The idea of 1 link and shifting destinations as a subversion of our typical expectations appeals to me.

I'll start work on 1 if not both tomorrow, probably with some technical diagrams and research mapping out how I may do this, followed by some prototyping.

Day 2: Shirt Collar

Continuing with shaping the body in action: It's important to keep your head upright in conversation so that you are perceived as alert and attentive. This is my approach to keeping someone's head from sinking into their torso (see images). Found some pushpins that I can potentially use for a physical prototype. Now to get my hands on a shirt collar...

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The Birthday Suit

One of the things that came up during my meeting with Cynthia was the fact that all of my garments so far have been women’s wear.  Because I’m interested primarily in the objectification of women, I thought that this made sense. But if I’m pursuing the idea of making men experience what women feel when they are subject to the male gaze, perhaps I should design a men’s garment that will reflect what the wearer is looking at (when they look at other people).  This would also further my approach of trying to make people feel something *physical* rather than to solely recreate an emotional, empathetic state of some sort . 

Sooo, here’s my idea.  I could create a mens suit made of swatches of fabric, about 3”x3”, that are lined with nitinol wire.  Nitinol, or ‘memory’ wire, as shown in this video by xslabs [] can be used to create kinetic electronic garments where pieces of fabric move as the underlying nitinol wire contracts and expands. In regards to my suit, however, instead of contracting at random (as the garments in the video do), the movements of the suit fabric would be acting in response to eye-tracking.  The person wearing the suit would be wearing eye-tracking gear that would monitor their viewing of a picture of a woman.  As his eyes rested on certain parts of her body, the corresponding pieces of fabric on his suit would lift up from the memory wire contracting, exposing his nakedness underneath.  This would hopefully suggest to the wearer the invasive nature of the gaze and allow them to experience how degrading it can be to constantly be objectified.

Delaunay Triangulation forms in Plastic Straws and Steel Wire

Here is a prototype I created using steel wire and restaurant straws. I was trying to get an idea of how such a form would move in three dimensions if it could hold a shape on its own, as yesterday's muslin+cardboard piece was able to form 3D shapes but not hold them. This prototype ended up being quite a bit less flexible than I had originally imagined it might be, so I might need to rethink how I create the vertices. I think I might try and make them a little more malleable in two ways: 
1. use thinner straws (less obstructive at the joints)
2. use jewelry jump-rings at the vertices to connect segments to make for less messy intersections

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Day 2: Wearable Tech RFID (Concept Sketch / Look-and-Feel prototype)

Conceptual Framework and Research:

I have a p-comp itch that I need to scratch. For a while I’ve been thinking about the idea of a fashionable tech/wearable tech accessory or garment that would react to the frequency given out any time the PDM communicates with the pod insulin pump. The communication occurs when there is an error, when the insulin is low, when the pod needs to be changed, and when the person inputs food intake for insulin delivery.

From much research, I have found that the devices operate at 13.56 MHz. What I want to do is pick up this frequency and turn on an LED or series of LEDs. I could see this living in a recycled insulin pump pod, on a garment, or on an accessory bag for pump supplies. The imagery would be in line with my continuing exploration of mythology and would hopefully help alleviate the anxiety associated with diabetic management.

I’ve been in communication with someone who has a lot of experience making RF circuits and he and I have exchanged emails regarding this idea. I found a circuit schematic that I think will work (click here to check it out). My concerns are in interfering with the device. I’m also concerned that this is not something my audience will want. This is something the DT tech kids would want…

Either way I wanted to get the concept sketches and logical steps out there so I could stew on it and decide if it’s something worth pursuing.

What I’ve done so far:

I spent a LOT of time getting together parts from Digi-Key (many capacitors!) and I also created a constellation-inspired recycled pod necklace with an LED inside. The constellation on there is that of Cetus, or the whale, as a reference to my previous use of the whale as associated with the pump.

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