Author Archives: Melody Quintana

About Melody Quintana

TA for Public Interfaces, Fall 2014
by | September 23, 2014 · 1:06 pm

Week 3: Third places and the design diamond

Class recap

In class we discussed each group’s collection of third place maps, then dove into a discussion about the “Double Diamond” design process diagrams. If your group hasn’t yet posted your diagrams, do add it to the Design Process Diagrams category.

Assignments

  1. (15) Assignment – Same Groups start to brainstorm 3rd place building tool for 49ers stadium (three weeks till presentation) This week you will be expected to do the first part of the design diamond, focussing on divergent discovery
    1. Read linked articles or other articles to find out about the underlying technical infrastructure of Levis Stadium
      1. http://www.levisstadium.com/stadium-info/stadium-app/
      2. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/03/the-49ers-plan-to-build-the-greatest-stadium-wi-fi-network-of-all-time/
    2. Research existing products in the market that are similar;categorize them.
    3. Research your user, and group by level of engagement across a timeline.
    4. Find an expert to interview to find out more about this market,bulletpoint your findings.
    5. Make a list of actions that already are happening at this place (ordering drinks, cheering the team, watching other games…)
    6. Write a draft (or two) of your creation myth. This is the identity or brand of what you are going to be designing. This can be total fiction, a story that can communicate the mood and should give the reason for your design to exist as well as give people the reason to connect.
    7. Put all of the above documentation under the category “— 49ers Diverge (research)” for review next class.

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by | September 22, 2014 · 2:54 pm

Design Process – Amy, Effy, Melody, Sunnie

Our group was in agreement that the double diamond diagram did a nice job describing the typical design process in general. If we were to modify it, we might add a feedback loop to capture how the process is often not linear. Part of the development process involves using learnings to help redefine project goals and scope. The process becomes a bit more cyclic in the middle:

DoubleDiamondLoop2

We then found a really nice visual representation that captured our thinking in Bill Buxton’s Sketching User Interfaces. As you can see, Buxton characterizes the design process in a diamond-like manner with breadth and depth phases. But he also accounts for more iterative cycles throughout:

a0e27846e7fa62af24bbffb525da10e4

Looking forward to giving this process a try.

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by | September 16, 2014 · 3:03 am

Week Two: Third places, public spaces, and building shared experiences

Class recap

We spent the first part of class discussing Oldenburg’s article, Our Vanishing 3rd places, then everyone presented their Quick Indie Projects.

Assignments

  1. Reading – Everything Sings Intro, Denis Wood
  2. Assignment – Observe and Document a Third place, present it back to the class through multiple senses. Work in groups, each student responsible for documenting a different sense. Feel free to impair a sense if it helps you focus(blindfold, earplug, big mittens). Compare your observations and create a presentation that represents the information through multiple senses. Use time, or choose another axis to plot your observations against.
  3. Reading –  Double diamond design process. Read these articles and diagram out your version of the design process that you will follow with your team.
    1. Design Council
    2. Double Diamond
    3. Diagram

How to Post 

By 5pm on Monday 9/22, each group should collaboratively create two posts:

1. A collection of maps from the third place observation assignment for the Third Place Maps category

Screen Shot 2014-09-15 at 10.50.19 PM

2. A group process diagram for the Design Process Diagrams category

Screen Shot 2014-09-15 at 10.50.25 PM

 

Groups

Amy
Sunnie
Melody
Effy

—

Trent
Sara
Sam W.
Mini

—

Dami
Sneha
Nga
Hanna

—

Leroy
Aastha
Michie
Sam C.

—

Matt
Mike
Jeff
Luke

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by | September 15, 2014 · 6:05 pm

The subway as a platform for public health

For physical computing last year, I worked on a project that aimed to make light therapy easier and more accessible for people with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

When I first thought about how to bring this concept to the public transportation space, I wondered if lighting design could help the community-at-large get better sleep. Inspired by the simplicity of the flux desktop app that transforms your screen lighting into orange hues at night, I thought this model could apply to subway lighting as well.

Curious about how an environmental change like this might impact the well-being of a lot of people at once, I went a step further and asked what other ways the design of public transit could help shape public health. I used stress as a lens for 3 design intervention concepts.

[  Project Website  ]

I experimented with presenting my ideas in a very quick and simple narrative website. To see the website, first download the folder, then double-click on the “stress-and-the-subway.html” file to open it in your browser.

– Melody

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by | September 13, 2014 · 4:04 pm

Melody on “Third Places”

My thoughts on the article are captured in my blog and also pasted below for convenience.

Oldenburg’s 1997 article “Our Vanishing Third Places” is an interesting take on the function of public space, especially as seen through the lens of the pre-social media era. In it, Oldenburg coined the term “third places” by considering the home as the universal “first place” and the workplace as a “second place.” “Third places,” he wrote, “lend a public balance to the increased privatization of home life. [They] are nothing more than informal public gathering places.”

The article predates Facebook and the slew of social “spaces” that have emerged across the internet over the past decade. These digital third places fill some of the needs Oldenburg describes throughout the article — perhaps most notably, the need of meeting points for people who share special interests. As Oldenburg harkened back to historic third places like colonial taverns, candy stores, soda fountains and beyond, it became clear that social media filled this need in a unique, unprecedented and important way. It expanded the “local” to what Marshall McLuhan aptly predicted would become a global village, fostering all kinds of new connections between people with interests, lifestyles, needs, identities that could not have been accommodated in a corner store. It continues to mobilize these people, giving them the gifts of like-minded communities, a platform for sharing their stories, a network of support, and in some cases, a reminder that it gets better.

While this is all fine and dandy, it’s worth nothing that these digital third places don’t completely fulfill Oldenburg’s vision. Many have argued that the lack of physical co-presence is a veiled sort of isolationism, Facebook is commonly critiqued as making the notion of friendship superficial and facilitating idealized presentations of life thatmakes people sad.

With the advent of wearables, interactive installations and other kinds of ubiquitous computing, technology is trending in a direction where digital and physical boundaries are more blurred. In the context of public spaces, the emerging question seems to become: How can the digital complement or enhance our experience of the physical third place?

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by | September 9, 2014 · 5:29 pm

Week One: Spaces, Senses and Introductions

Class recap

We spent the first day of class getting acquainted with the course syllabus. Michael walked us through a few examples of projects he’s worked on that involve storytelling through space. To get us thinking about how different senses work together to shape our experiences, we did an exercise that involved performing tasks around the studio with a sensory impairment (examples: wearing a blindfold or sitting in a wheelchair).

Assignments

1. Reading (due 9/13) – Oldenburg Our Vanishing 3rd places. Create a blog post that has two ideas from the reading that stand out to you. Put it under the “Third Places” category (see screenshot below). Please post this by Saturday, Sept 13.

2. Assignment (due 9/15) – quick dirty individual project – take a project or an aspect of a project you have done at SVA (ideally your thesis) and locate it somewhere in the NYC subway system. Create a simple 3-5 minute presentation of it. Put a link to it or post it under the “Quick Indie Project” category. Please post this by 5pm on Monday, Sept 15.

When you create a new blog post to respond to this week's reading, check the "Third Places" category on the right panel before you publish.

When you create a new blog post to respond to this week’s reading, check the “Third Places” category on the right panel before you publish.

Likewise, when you create your project post, please sure sure to tag it with "Quick Indie Project"

Likewise, when you create your project post, please sure sure to tag it with “Quick Indie Project.”

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