Customising software for your own purposes caught my eye in this book release. This relates to work done on the videodefunct system. From the emailed description:

With scripting, computer programming becomes integral to the digital design process. It provides unique opportunities for innovation, enabling the designer to customise the software around their own predilections and modes of working. It liberates designers by automating many routine aspects and repetitive activities of the design process, freeing them to spend more time on design thinking. Software that is modified through scripting offers a range of speculations that are not possible using the software only as the manufacturers intended it to be used.

Wiley: Scripting Cultures: Architectural Design and Programming

While many designers are now aware of scripting’s potential, it is still seen as a difficult arena to enter. Scripting Cultures treats scripting not only as a technical challenge that requires clear description, guidance, and training, but also, and more crucially, it answers why the designer would script in the first place and what the cultural and theoretical implications are. The book also refers readers to a website where they are able to download all the code, explanations, and tutorials to assist with the worked examples.

Book/ Scripting Cultures: Architectural design and programming by Mark Burry

Bill Verplank caught my interest on a number of levels. His simple framework for looking at Interaction Design, in the book Designing Interaction. Sketching while he presents information – to name a couple…This video in the book designing interactions has an extended lecture available – IxD >http://vimeo.com/20285615

Designing Interactions

Bill Verplank: Opening Keynote from Interaction Design Association on Vimeo.

I attended a workshop last week with Idunn Sem an interaction designer at InterMedia lab at The University of Oslo. Workshop description:

The workshop aims both to perform and to reflect upon the methodological shifts involved in design research. The workshop will try to put forward “artifacts of expression” and “expressive artifacts” (e.g. Díaz-Kommonen 2004) as useful abstractions of the interplay between theory and experimental prototyping in design research. To be explicit about concepts and theory as immaterial creative tools – of the inversion of analytical concepts into creative artifacts of expression, is particularly helpful in collaborative, transdisciplinary design processes where knowledge needs to be articulated, shared and adapted.

Notes and thoughts:

The workshop brought up some interesting aspects around the notion of a ‘tool’ in interaction design. I am interested in seeing if there is a tool as a type of process which applies to the way I have been researching with my phd projects. In a literal sense I thought about the way I adapt video cameras as a type of tool to capture content – because often they will not do want I want them to do, which indicates a gap in the design from a market perspective. I also thought about blogs being adapted also as a tool to make things. What I needed over the top as a type of overlay was tool as type of process that I apply to adapting these things to make stuff.

I would like to follow up form JY, Dewey’s concept of ‘expressive object’ From JY,…creating meaning out of prosiac objects.

The idea of bringing together the tacit knowledge of collaborators. Quote ?: Combine the the aim of researchers with the aims of a project.

Ideas came up around the writing of my exegesis.

a. An exegesis that responds to ideas as they emerge. The thought here is to put in potential idas that could be included in the exegesis as they come up. Enter them into the fabric that is Scrivener.A question is explored in relation to the research as it comes up.
b. Sketches, diagrams, drawings, maps, (connections, wireframe etc) that help illustrate what is being reflected on in the exegesis. It does not just have to be writing and screenshots of web projects.
c. Using video to document a prototype design is a great idea. So, video could be used to demonstrate how a prototype design came together and how it functions.

Chris Malmo demonstrated evernote being used in the field by park rangers to capture and annotate photos and audio at Wilsons Promontory.A nice way of getting metadata added to documentated content and then getting up in the cloud. Chirs overseas could check on the documentation as it happened at the Prom. Previously he had designed an iphone app for this purpose but this as described as being to prescriptive. There needed to be a looseness there for the user, in relation to their input and interests.

References from the workshop:

UBIMASH

formakademisk.org Birger Sevaldson

formakademisk.org (journal) Birger Sevaldson Discussion and Movements in Design

the lightpainting-with-Wi-Fy video
http://yourban.no/2011/02/22/immaterials-light-painting-wifi/
http://yourban.no/2011/03/07/making-immaterials-light-painting-wifi/

sevaldson article on discussions & movements in Design Research

the entire journal volume on Research by Design

Díaz-Kommonen L. (2004) “Expressive artifacts and artifacts of expression” in in the
conference series and on-line journal Research into Practice, vol 3.

Liestøl, G. (2003) “From synthesis to analysis (and vice versa): topics of conceptualisation and
construction in digital media” in Liestøl, G. Morrison A. & Rasmussen, T. (eds) Digital Media
Revisited: theoretical and conceptual innovation in digital domains. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Jonassen, D. & Rohrer-Murphy, L. (1999) Activity Theory as a Framework for Designing
Constructivist Learning Environments. ETR&D, vol 47, no 1.

Engeström, Y. Miettinen, R. PünamaÅNki, R. (eds.) (1999) Perspectives on Activity theory.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Engeström, Y. (2001) “Expansive learning at work: toward and activity theoretical
reconceptualisation”, Journal of Education and Work, vol. 14, no 1.

Jon Kolko-Keynote: My Heart is in The Work from Interaction Design Association on Vimeo.

microsoft video on touchscreen visions – search: Beyond Touch: A Futuristic Vision from Microsoft. All that production value makes this vision of things to come very corporate with NO NOISE anywhere in sight. Here it is direct on YouTube.

Google Maps API for flash demo gallery supplied by Dan for the LP project. I need to spend some time browsing here.

http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article4802.asp

Which came first, the Interaction or the Design?, Source: Interaction-Design.org, 18 June 2008
Submitted by Mads Soegaard, by Jonas Lowgren

Interaction Design” refers to the shaping of interactive products and services with a specific focus on their use. Broadly speaking, there are two main senses of the concept, coming out of different intellectual traditions but increasingly converging in practice and research.