I’m excited that I was included in the MHE “Learning Science” Video that was shown at SXSW 2015 !
Thanks to Brandworks for capturing my passion about creating great products!
Author: Laura Simpson
Laura Simpson is an user experience designer and game designer based in New York.
Being able to automate my content creation is really freeing, when you have a lot to say, but not able to post immediately.
A Walk to Reminisce: PS1
Oct 2013, I went on a wondering with friends. We found ourselves at PS1, taking in Mike Kelly retrospective at MOMA PS1.
Mike Kelley. Deodorized Central Mass with Satellites. 1991/1999.
I found this image while digging through my archived images. I recall being at the edge of “art exhaustion” and being overjoyed at seeing this installation.
Being a “Mid Level Designer” is like going through puberty.
Julie Zhou posted comparative graphs of the difference between a senior designer and a junior designer.
Naturally, I started to think about the trials and travails of being a mid level designer. In contrast to the moments of experience and refined process, there are those awkward times when it all goes pear shaped.
“Much like puberty, you cringe at the photos of your process.”
Portland Signage
While in Portland, I noticed some nice typography and fascinating neon signage. It feels a little off to say that parts of Portland feel like the late eighties, but it’s a combination of the neon signs, cars, and frontage in the outlying areas. I swore to myself that I would go back and shoot more pictures of the neon signs.
These will have to suffice until then.
“Bold type that is easily readable and fits the brand of Blue Star Donuts.”
“Powell’s is a tiny city of knowledge that lives in the downtown of Portland. I could have spent another 2-3 hours inside, pouring over the shelves. Powell’s logo and branding is clean and concise, with a bit of playfulness.”
Constraints are Hard
Designers who work on an existing product only succeed if they make something that’s truly and clearly better than what came before it. Most people don’t realize how hard that is at first blush. If a product has been around for five years, then that’s five years worth of the blood, sweat, and tears of past designers whose ideas you’re trying to best. Certainly this is possible as nothing is perfect, and our constant culture of learning and improvement means we should expect ourselves to do better year over year, but to think that anyone’s single-night-redesign will work without a hitch is a bit of a stretch.
Portland Wall Murals
Keeping Wireframes Fresh pt 2: Revisiting Your Motivations
As an Information Architect, I deliver annotated wireframes for a multi-system learning platform. I spend hours grooming stories , getting the full set of requirements right, sketching, wireframing and making flow diagrams. This level of preparation is so that I can review these documents with 10 smart people who will have questions, very detailed questions. Quality Assurance will develop scripts based off of my wireframes. Engineering teams will print them out and ask follow up questions if there is any sort of confusion.
I’m invested in making these wireframes look great and tell a complete story. They’re shades of grey, white and blue and I want them to look fantastic.
It gets the idea across to the product owners, who may have varying levels of knowledge with the platform.
It’s my chance to have a say in the future of this software and I want it to be bold, beautiful and clear to use.
My customers are more than the millions of students and instructors that use the end product. It’s also the people I see everyday and work shoulder to shoulder with.
Walking out of a fifteen minute meeting with a “We’re done, have a great weekend” is a killer feeling.
A better understanding of designers and affirmations
The longer that I work on my typography projects, the more I understand designers who seem to have an endless stream of quotes and affirmations.
You can’t spend six hours arranging an affirmation without absorbing some of it.
Uncomplicated, but creative
As an Information Architect working on legacy data, I usually have to work incrementally.
Legacy Data: Def Someone else (hopefully smarter than you) designed some of the core functionality (many years ago) and I’m making improvements and fixes to address new user needs, update UI patterns and keep up with technology.
I need to balance the need for simple solutions and keeping myself creatively limber.
The best practice that I can recommend to any UXer is keeping a sketchbook. Sometimes you’ll come up with five interesting solutions and you know that the needed solution is fairly simple, and straightforward. Sketch out those other ideas. Iterate on them. I find that it lets me explore other avenue and I can put that back into the final design. Maybe there is a subsystem or alert that you’re not thinking about that you’ll figure out.
If you are not on a tight deadline, maybe you can present them at your first review as an alternative.
BYOB show in New Haven
The “Bring Your Own Beamer” Show that my Friend Bryant Davis curated. It was a fine time and I got to meet and chat with so many other artists.
I displayed Lethe that night.
from Instagram: http://instagr.am/p/LWW3v3o0nH/
Cybernetic Editors
Cybernetic Editors is a system in which there are two editor personalities that are vying for control over the final outcome of an edited social education video. The source video is exchanged between two Max/MSP programs that re-edit snippets of video, making numerous iterative passes. Each pass changes the videos into a blend of the two editing styles of the two cybernetic editors.
