And there was the last project of the year + guest reivewer from STRAVA

Well, after a long semester it all came down to this. Couple exercises, and now the third and final project, Health + Information. For me, the concepts all the five teams came up with were strong. Where it varied a bit was on execution. Some had great story telling, some had great process books. But the teams that brought those two together really shined.

What made this review fun was we had a guest reviewer join us from STRAVA, Ryan Noonan. He is employee #12 and the first designer to join STRAVA. His review/critiques were spot on from a product stand point and added feedback on branding aspects of UX, which I treaded softly during the semester. 

"Serene" had a very strong presentation. I had my reservations at the beginning, but the product concept showed its refinement over time.

"Dish du Jour" brought a concept that's in a crowded space with an engaging UI. The process book showed concepts the presentation missed.

"Seek 'n Snap" brought an engaging original idea, taking advantage of tracking/monitoring technology.

"GoFit" brought the friendly, competitive nature of athlete/friends and made an app worthy of any start-ups.

"Ninja Runners" brought the game into health and AR into the mix. Now if I could figure out how to run with an iPad in front of me.  :)

It helps when a practicing design professional like Ryan to come in and share what the UX industry has to offer. Like Anthony and Jackie from ZURB, Ryan's presence added credibility and possibilities to young design students in the class. Thanks for joining us today, Ryan!

Oh, the voting for the beast project. We had 2 strong contenders, but the GoFit team took it by 1 HiChew.

Victory pose #1. 

Victory Pose #2. This team brought concept, execution and presentation into one solid package. It is the only way to do it.

The class session closed with Q&A with Ryan. He brought some schwag, which was promptly consumed by the class. Oh, there was some pizza and drinks, too. They wanted beer, but I said no.

This was the first semester where I did not travel. I thought that would've made the difference in the work, but not really. For me, if 10 percent of the students considered practicing interaction design, that would be a solid turn out. There were many sparks of brilliance and moments of head scratching. However, I always felt there was a handful of students who really wanted to learn, and that is always encouraging. Regardless of what is being designed on, space is space, typography is typography, color is color. Additive or subtractive color is just a method of mixing colors, but the eye that designs is the mind that solves the problem.

I hope what ever you took from my class this semester, you take with you the best tool you can use for design is you + whom you design for.

Thanks everyone. It was fun. Well, it was okay, really.  :)

Have a fun + safe summer.

Class critiques for project three

Ah, those were the times. When walls were filled with ideas, emotions, b/w boxes. This is nothing more than a photo collection taken during class.

If you don't see yourself here, I was being to mesmerized by your presentation to take pictures.  :)

Dancing to the oldies

So whenever, wherever we do activities, we burn calories. From Subway's Jared to Jenny Craig's Jennifer Hudson, you get all sorts of messages from the media. You are too fat, you eat too much, you don't have a six pack.

But then we get a contradictory message again by being told you need to eat more fried chicken and drink more soda. Of course, there is no small amount of irony when watching a sporting event, one must gorge themselves with party food and alcohol. Oh, the confusion, the humanity.

Short blog post on how one man's journey of gaining and losing weight through games.

Project 2 presentation

All the teams did well compared to where you started with Project 1. While your concepts were on par with the class, fun and exciting ideas, the gaps came from different levels of execution. Details, details, details.

It was awesome having two guest reviewers, Anthony and Jackie from ZURB join us. Thanks you for coming to our class!

As all of you saw the presentations as well as the process books, it becomes important at some poing you need to see the forest as well as the trees. You will get better at finding the balance.

Last class critique before Project 2 comes to an end

Some photos of you guys + gals as printouts are going up. Overall, your process was much better than the first project. Of course, that was expected. It isn't always the case, but time well spent usually yields a better/improved outcome.  :)

Project 2 final crit tomorrow

All of you are hopefully working on making what was good last class session into something awesome.  :)

I've uploaded Gesturecon.ai file to the Course Materials folder. Please download and use if you'd like.

Hang in there, kitty!

Remember you have a total of 10 minutes, 5-6 minutes which you can use to present, and Q&A for the rest. Also make sure the team shares presentation duties. You can not show all the PDF pages during your presentation. Pick and choose the compelling part of your process, touch uplon it lightly and make sure you share your scenario.

What is due: process book, bound to be handed in, PDF to be uploaded in the usual place.

See you all tomorrow. Please be on time.  :)

Still missing a few from Spring Break

9 out of 15 isn't so bad. Some of you were sick, some of you chose not to come. For those who came spent their money wisely, through the form of your tuition. Some of you who did not come burned yours. Those who were sick, hope you get well.

Those who were able to show up prepared as well as unprepared, showing up is half the battle.

Yo, Joe!

Project 1 grade is done and you will get your books back. Sorry it took so long.

Now for the heavy. But I will save that for in-class time. It is already April. Time will go by super fast. I realize this course isn't for everyone. But you can still focus on the parts that brings you joy. Is it typography? Is it colors? Is it layout and form? Why did you choose to be graphic designers?

If you do not know the answer to this question, you are in trouble. Hope all of you have your answers.