Design Process Map

Yesterday I got really good feedback about my design map which I had to do as a part of my water project. I have decided to develop the hyperlinked graph in a form of string tangle (which very much reflects my unordered way of working). It is entirely done using Illustrator, Photoshop and Dreamweaver, so it cost me a lot of time and effort and frustration sometimes when things didn't want to work the way I planned... But the final effect is pretty impressive - you can see it here

Dear Blog...

Today's morning mini-lecture Pete gave us, was about blogging. It reminded me of my poor, neglected blog, lost somewhere in the web... As Jon said, blogging is one of the forms of presence in the social networking community, so hip and desired in today's world. It made me feel guilty, that I didn't blog to much so far. As always - I was super-enthusiastic in the beginning, when I started and then I lost it.

When I come to think of it, well, blog doesn't really fit into my lifestyle and way of working and thinking. It's too structured and organised. It requires constant updating and the way the information is presented doesn't give much flexibility. It doesn't seem mine. I remember my past diaries, that I kept in junior-high age. They were so much more personal and creative. What made them special was all the junk I was pasting, scribbles, drawings, pages uneven from tears. This form allowed me to express my thoughts and emotions better.

I mean, I understand that this form needs to be a compromised for the sake of technology... Or does it? That's the problem that guys doing HP brief are trying to solve, isn't it?

Anyway, I was thinking maybe when I finally get my own website (I'm getting there, again I'm struggling with lack of enthusiasm...) I will try to develop some creative (unstructured) tool of expressing thoughts. One thing I know for sure - there won't be any dates, so that I'm not stressing out! I really liked the idea of hyperlinked design process maps as a way of communicating progress in a visual way. Maybe that could be a start...

Kick off

The last two days of EPS classes were very busy. We had a new lecturer - David Ashworth from Nottingham who did a couple of sessions about project management. For me this was entirely new material, showing design process from completely different angle. Before, whenever we were asked to draw our design process we were simply naming the stages (research, brainstorming, idea generation, idea selection...) and then organising them in relation to each other. Here, we were asked to plot them against time, estimate the effort and the resources needed to complete each one, and assign the roles within the group. I believe this was very useful exercise that helped us to foresee how much work do we need to do. It also gives a complete structure to our project.

Classes with David required working in the teams. As on Thursday we were still waiting for some lecturers to come and do their presentations, many students were still undecided. Fortunately, there was enough people interested in project concerning accessibility, so we formed two groups - one, that will develop something for blind people, and another designing for senior citizens. I'm in the second group. We have 5 members - Anne, Remco and Eva from Business and Management background, and me and Lisa who are studying Design.