It seems so long ago that I was just a first-timer getting my feet wet in the LDT program! It definitely felt weird sitting on "the other side" of the room these past couple of weeks. What a great feeling it is!
This week I revisited Moggridge's article on designing interactions. I was able to connect more to this article after gaining more experience with prototyping and design over the past year. This summer I was given the opportunity to work with Dr. Orey and my project management team on a design project for Dr. Branch's course. I gained firsthand experience with what Moggridge mentions in his article as "designing discipline". For our project we had to incorporate many other disciplines into our design so that it would be functional for everyone involved. In order to create a successful design, we had to consider the client's budget, ideas for the space, as well as the needs of the graduate student's and other faculty members whose offices are housed in River's Crossing. Moggridge is also right with the statement "designers get the love because we control the part the people want." As designers, we wanted to make sure that our design included all the components we had previously discussed. In the end, Dr. Orey really liked our final product and looks forward to using it to kick start remodeling projects within River's Crossing.
This semester I have decided to associate my Studio project with my internship I am currently finishing with my LSTC. Recently, she mentioned the idea of conducting brief, once a month technology meetings to introduce different tools to the faculty at our school. So far, I have drafted a flier with tools to be taught and descriptions. My thought for my Studio project is to develop a website to house all the tutorials for teachers who either could not attend a particular session or needs more help with a certain tool. I have decided to focus on Dreamweaver this semester but also use Captivate for the tutorials. Since I am such the novice with Adobe applications, I thought this would be a good tool to learn.
My next steps are to watch Dreamweaver tutorials on Lynda.com and Adobe TV to learn about getting started.
Moggridge, B. (2007). Designing interactions. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
