Matthew
Lego Hidden Side (Spring21)
On 08, May 2021 | In AR, Branding, Gaming, Interaction, Motion, Visual Comm. Design IV | By Matthew
Open-Ended Question: How can our next Lego AR theme be more physically interactive (hands on bricks) than LHS? How can our next Lego AR theme improve the UX/UI problems observed in LHS? How can we tell the story of our next Lego AR theme to Lego stakeholders?
See the seven best student solutions below.
Crowdsourcing DataViz App (Spring21)
On 12, Mar 2021 | In Branding, Interaction, Motion, Visual Comm. Design IV | By Matthew
Open-Ended Question: How can a crowdsourcing app resolve a user’s complaint by empowering them to input a small amount of data and see the impact of their contribution (DataViz) on a larger community?
Students worked in a group and individually through: Benchmarking, Personas, Pain Points, User Journey Maps, Scenarios, Task Flow Analysis, Wireframes, User Testing, Naming, Branding, Lo-Fi Prototypes, Hi-Fi Prototypes, and an Explainer Video.
See the ten best student solutions below.
Kirjalo
On 08, May 2021 | In Branding, Hand Lettering, Typography, Visual Comm. Design Cap I | By Matthew
Kirja: Is a Finnish word for book.
Kirjalo: Is a sustainable, homey bookstore that makes reading cool.
Design and the Play Instinct
On 12, Dec 2020 | In Design History, Print, Typography, Visual Comm. Design III | By Matthew
In “The Play Instinct in Design Education,” authors Hester and Hannaford identify several misconceptions students have about the creative process: namely, that graphic design is not an intellectual pursuit, software will fix all their problems, and creative outcomes can be “correct.”
A timeless undergraduate project asks students to create using “Design and the Play Instinct” by Paul Rand. The internet is replete with examples of students mindlessly laying out page after page with almost no consideration or understanding of how Rand talks about play and restraint nor the processes discussed in this classic text.
To combat these misconceptions, I ask students in my class to physically make some of the processes discussed in the text. For example, my students first played with Photogram and Cubist Collage processes before laying it out in book form. As Hester and Hannaford say, “the psychology of play is conducive to learning and problem-solving.”
Read more…Rullo
On 12, Dec 2020 | In Gaming, Interaction, Web and App Design | By Matthew
Rullo is a math-based game where the user removes numbers from the grid so that the remaining numbers in each row or column add up to the numbers at the beginning and end of the given row or column.
Students explored UX/UI principles in this project.
Read more…Book Series
On 12, Nov 2020 | In Print, Typography, Visual Comm. Design III | By Matthew
Scenario for Students: Your publishing company has bought the rights to distribute the Thames and Hudson series of manuals on the arts. Your job is to explore many conceptual options and present them internally. We’ll have four internal drafts before meeting with the stakeholders at the end of October, where we’ll deliver our best two concepts. Instead of designing all 11 manuals, we’ll give the stakeholders a taste of our skills and only show them three manuals, but with two visually distinct concepts. Since they’ll be comparing and choosing one concept, we should present them the same three books, but with two visually distinct concepts.
Read more…Type Legibility as seen by Historic Design Style
On 01, Oct 2020 | In Design History, Print, Typography, Visual Comm. Design III | By Matthew
Students communicated the principles discussed in the “The Legibility of Type” through a historical design style.
Read more…Final Project NCSU
On 03, May 2019 | In Research | By Matthew
Abstract: 38.4% of people in the U.S. will receive a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. Those facing cancer are likely to experience cancer-related psychological distress. A warped sense of self and one’s circumstances is common as well as depression, anxiety, fear, and feeling discouraged. Depressed survivors are twice as likely to die prematurely. Suicide is twice as likely for cancer survivors. Additionally, cancer patients with high levels of distress have a 32% greater chance of dying. Mental activity affects behavior, and behavior can negatively influence physiological and molecular processes like cellular apoptosis, the cell’s rate of mutation, immunity, and growth speed.
Cancer is, at least in part, beyond the understanding of even our greatest minds and buried in the essential elements of our biology and as a result, must be undertaken with a broad range of experts beyond traditional medicine. Consequently, it should not be surprising that patients struggle to understand their future with this disease. Cancer is an unknown entity. Fearing the unknown future is a source of distress for cancer patients.
Metaphors help patients make sense of their past, present, and future experiences with cancer. The embodiment of a metaphor refers to the idea that cognition and communication form by physical experience and bodily interaction with a tangible world, as well as giving shape to thoughts and feelings.
VR can visualize metaphors or provide alternative ones that help distance patients from cancer and regaining control over it. Games are inherently metaphorical because the user plays as a character and gains said characters abilities. In addition to the metaphorical benefits of VR, the medium also helps reduce psychological distress.
This investigation mapped cancer patients distress, comfort, and metaphors, and connected it with VR game concepts and interactions. Additionally, this investigation explores the metaphorical presentation of cancer in a VR space.
Women’s Suffrage in Motion
On 14, Mar 2019 | In Image and Tech Tinkering, Motion, Typography | By Matthew
Dr. Ham trusted me to work independently with the students to lead critiques, lectures, and tutorials.
Module 3: Animated Design Systems: In this assignment, students take their printed posters from Module 2 and explore how their message changes when setting their work in motion. Then, they study how their work changes when put into a real-life scenario.
Read more…Women’s Suffrage in Print
On 15, Feb 2019 | In Image and Tech Tinkering, Print, Typography | By Matthew
Dr. Ham trusted me to work independently with the students to lead critiques, lectures, and tutorials.
Module 2: Computational Design Systems: In this assignment, students explore making grids with Shape Grammars and rules for how their design elements will fit into the grid. Then, they test their design system by creating two very different posters with the same rules.
Read more…