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Project Proposal - ITEC830: Week 13

I've been working on my project proposal. You can check it out here and add comments to the wiki.

Web2.0 Expo - ITEC830: Week 12

Web 2.0 was interesting. I walked away thinking it's all about 'mash-ups', personalization through widgets, aggregation of content from different sources, identity management (all your social networks, IMs, etc in one spot for easy updating), and paring down information to show only what you want - customization.

There was a nice tool for online document collaboration where the alterations were highlighted in user specific highlight colors - created by HyLighter. I think Google Documents should add this kind of feature - they already track the changes, but showing the changes on the doc, until it's finalized would be a super bonus because then I can track/know what people have changed w/o looking at the tracking log.

Super cool for designers - creative feedback for remote collaboration - Octopz. Work in real-time with clients to get better feedback.

Those were the stand outs for me.

Happy Web 2.0!

Printing in the Bay Area (Oak-town)

I've been working with a new printer (new to me) to produce 1,000 full color brochures for iDo (Industrial Design Outreach). PSPrint seems to be a good organization. I've done two proofs, rejected both because of designer error (NOT printer error) and they've been OK with this - they said they give you 3 proofs before cutting you off. Everything is done through the website - upload of files, digital proofs, pricing, etc. - nice and easy.

Hopefully on Monday, all will be correct and we'll go to print.

Interface Design Critique of Edu 2.0 Website - ITEC830: Week 12

To read my critique of Edu 2.0, check out my wiki. Please add or alter content as needed. I'd love to get other peoples feedback about my analysis of the site.

Reflections ITEC830: A Whole New Mind Presentations 4.8.08

Christina and Barry presented "Story"

• People retain knowledge through story telling
• Episodic memory - memory of events, provides context
  
• Left brain thinking (analytical) is not a natural way of thinking for humans
• Harder to remember
  
• Doctors need to have both R and L brain skills
• Listening to patient stories can help solve medical issues/problems
• Drs. keep emotional log to help keep empathy with patients
• Procedural memory may be tapped during the writing down of these logs by the Drs.
  
• Americans record stories in sound/audio
• Record your own story at StoryCorps
• Storytelling is a skill that can be learned

Joshua, Marcus and Kurt presented "Empathy"

• Odiogo - web page reader that converts page content to audio
• Empathy is putting yourself in someone else's shoes to understand what they're feeling, understanding the situation, it's a holistic approach.
• It is not sympathy, where you feel bad for the person.
  
• Designers need to be empathetic so they can understand what a user needs and how they'll use the product
• Build empathy by:
• Volunteering in an area where people are different from you
• Eavesdropping on people's conversations

Greg presented "Play"

• Play will become the way we work in the 21st century
• Bringing game, humor and joyfulness to business and products will make them successful
• "mature manhood: that means
• Play a game that demonstrates real world physics - launchball
• Motivates kids to learn by play

Doris, Heidi, Yu-Fen presented "Meaning"

• Find out what you do out of enjoyment because it's meaningful to you
• Some helpful ways of finding meaning are:
• Spirituality
• Appreciation
• Relationships
  

Carlos presented "Symphony"

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Interface Design Critique - ITEC830: Week 12

Protecting Human Research Participants
http://phrp.nihtraining.com