transition

from jessica helfand at design observer.

"Your education will not end the day you graduate: on the contrary, what you're doing is learning how to learn, and how to think, and how to visualize the ideas that percolate in your brain. So here's what you do: never stop thinking. Never stop asking questions. Never, never stop reading, looking, imagining what else can be done. And don’t be afraid to start small. You’ll get there, eventually..."

Props to Microsoft, say wha?

Well, I never thought this day would come. I have had a typically infuriating day attempting to write in Microsoft Word. (This is not the unexpected experience) "No, don't make this a list!" "YES, just return, NO number! NO bullet!" Ok, so this probably sounds familiar to all you designers out there. This is not the software for visual thinkers. Amidst this torture, I was sent an email about an exciting addition to Microsoft. My brain crush, Danah Boyd, has just joined Microsoft's New England Research & Development Center. Danah has done great research in the area of teens and online culture (to name a few). Her research has served as a major foundation for my thesis work. It will be interesting to see the mark she makes at Microsoft.

After hearing the news about Danah, I was feeling better about my lost hours from my Word debacle this morning. And to top it off, I just came across a video called Microsoft Sustainability. It's a speculative video from Microsoft that is pretty amazing. So many ideas packed into this 5 minute video. You can see so much potential for education applications. I particularly love the brief extension in the garden!

Intercom Research Exchange

Today I will be presenting at the 2nd annual College of Design Research Exchange, Intercom.



It will be my second time to present in the Pecha Kucha format.
I made my presentation into a movie, so you can see what I am showing. I didn't include a voice over, b/c that would just be too weird. ha.

Pecha Kucha: Thesis from marty on Vimeo.

Graduate Research Symposium

This Wednesday, I will be presenting my thesis at the University wide Graduate Research Symposium. Here is the poster that I created for the symposium.

Paper Based Visualizations

Love the paper based explorations from Information Aesthetics


image pulled from information aesthetics

inspiration from a friend

i stole this from cady's blog. i had to....

Graduate Research Symposium

I will be presenting my thesis at the 2009 Graduate Student Research Symposium on March 18th. The abstract for the symposium was due today and I will share my poster presentation as it is completed.

abstract:
Online tools that assist high school students in determining credibility when researching online.

According to research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University, teens tend to rely on the look and feel of the presentation of information online to determine the content’s credibility. As design technology has become more available, average users can create content and websites that look just as “professional” or "trustworthy" as traditional expert sources. This issue of side-by-sideness becomes problematic as teens look to the web as a source for research and information, not just a social activity.

Many teens utilize the Internet for academic research because they desire the multiple perspectives it can provide. My current investigation seeks to develop online tools that assist high school students in critically sorting through the complexity of the visual presentation of online information. How can online collective research teach students to analyze, interpret and judge visual language and attribute it to the source and the credibility of information?

Researchers Shawn Tseng and B.J. Fogg state four types of credibility assessment used in the online environment: experienced (relationship over time), reputed (third party recommendations), presumed (cultural or media based assumptions) and surface (look and feel of information). One of the goals of my investigation is to incorporate these assessments into the design of online environments.

This investigation seeks to explore ways in which high school students can be prepared to critique the multiple perspectives that the Internet provides. While this project focuses on high school students, the development process ensures transferability to other age groups and scenarios.

Online Mind Mapping

This online tool would be great to use for a collaborative research project. It could also be really helpful for a fun collaborative brainstorming session between people who are not in close physical proximity. The interface could be better, but it works.

MindMeister

more explorations

last year i was encouraged to explore analog 3d modeling and i found that it works very well for me in the beginning stages of a project. i've picked this method up again this semester for thesis explorations. with nothing particular in mind, i started making things. i am interested in what credibility looks like, what it feels like and how you might interact with credible sources differently than with non-credible sources. i'm interested in making a users path visible, allowing them to visually see the connections as they move from one website to another. the connections are important; the journey and entry to information.

i'm interested in the relationship between 2d and 3d representations online. we are in a definite state of transition into a more 3-dimensional online world. exciting times!

the models are all very abstract and therefore i was able to project several scenarios onto each one. they served as a great point of departure for discussions in my thesis meetings.