design courses, syllabi, schedules, resources and policies
As for my Lyric game, I feel like it was very successful. Everyone seemed to enjoy playing it. I need to work on things like time–how much time do they have to answer? Also adding more categories.
For my checkerboard game, I was not exactly happy with it. I think it needs a lot of improvement. I plan to start from scratch and redesign the board again. The spaces did not work with the dice and the game went too quickly. I plan to add a few different tactics to improve it.
Lyrics vs Mankind Rules
There is no limit as to how many people can play.
We recommend 6-8 players for the ultimate party.
BASIC RULES
To start the game, each player takes a white board and marker.
The oldest player begins as the Lyric God by choosing a card from either the
Hip Hop, Pop, Rock, or Oldies pile and reading the lyric out loud.
Everyone else will create the next line of the song by writing it on their white board and placing it face down in front of the Lyric God.
Gently shuffle the whiteboards. The Lyric God will then read the Lyric Card following by the whiteboards out loud. For the full effect, the Lyric God should re-read the Lyric Card before presenting each whiteboard answer. The Lyric God will then choose the best answer and whoever submitted it gets one Rocker Point and collects the Lyric Card.
After the round, the player to the left of the initial Lyric God becomes the new Lyric God and will play a new Lyric Card.
Red Zone Rules
2 Players
BASIC RULES
To begin, the youngest player will call out a color (black or white) and they will be subject to those squares. Both players will choose five pawns and line them up at their end of the board on their color.
Player 1 will roll Dice 1 providing a number one through six, following by Dice 2 providing Left, Right, Up, Down, Stop, or A Star (L, R, U, D, S, ). If the player rolls and 2 and a R, they will move right 2. If they roll a S, they do not get to move that turn. If they roll a 3 and a , they can move 3 in the direction of their choice.
The goal for each player is to get to the opposite end of the board without passing over their opponents pawn. If the dice requires that you move Up 2 and that requires you to pass over your opponents pawn, that pawn is eliminated.
Players must get all 5 pawns to the opposite end of the board without landing in the Red Zone. The Red Zone is obtained by all 4 corners.
The player with the most pawns at the opposite end wins.
Review:
In week 4, we first played Nanobots. I got a very thorough understanding of this game and I really enjoyed it. It was fairly easy to learn and understand. Each turn was justified by the action card and the players strategy. I feel like this was a game of chance but also a game of strategy. Even if the player had a great strategy, the action cards picked by their opponents could easily kill them. As for the other game, we didn’t have time to thoroughly play the game, but from what we did get to do, it was very confusing. I was not a big fan of this game. There was a very long list of rules that didn’t really make sense.
5 Building Games:
Review:
Last week, out of the two games, Pandemic was my favorite. I like how involved it was and how it was easy to connect with it emotionally. I feel like the game made it seem like you were in a real life situation, and you felt responsible any time there was an outbreak or a city was destroyed. I also like how everyone had to work together in order to succeed, which meant there had to be a lot of communication. As for the panda game, I liked how this game had a strategic value but for me it wasn’t as easy to connect to. It was very confusing at first and took a few rounds to get the hang of. This game was odd because everyone kind of had to work together, but at the same time you were competing against one another.
Game Themes:
1. Crime—this would be a board game where every player is a different character. There would be cards that lead you through the game that will either help or hurt you from finding the criminal. Whoever detects the criminal first wins. If no one detects the criminal and the criminal gets to his destination first, he wins.
2. Love Match—make love matches between different characters based upon likes and dislikes that are on the character card.
3. Money—test your strategy on making and saving money.
4. College Life—based upon personality, interests, and location, players will have to find the best college for their character and help them survive it.
5. Wizards—each player will have a character that is a different wizard with different capabilities. Players will race to the finish line using their powers against one another.
Flux: This was my least favorite of the games we played. It was very complex and easily became confusing. What I did enjoy about the game is that there was (almost) constantly a new task to complete or rule to follow.
Hannabi: This game was especially interesting because it required everyone to work together. It was a game of trust. You must trust the instinct of your fellow players in order to win the game.
Love Letter: This was my favorite game of the three. Its very interactive but easy to understand. I like that it has a very laid out story to follow. It makes the game more interesting and easy to connect to.
After watching “Objectified”, my views on the interactive world changed a lot. I learned that the key to designing is that the goal of creating is to design something that is different than what’s common. When designers are brainstorming ideas, they can’t just think about the average person that it would be using it, they should consider the extremes. They used an example of not making a product the average person, say 22 years old, would be able to use—they want to create something that somebody even with arthritis could use. It taught me that even though as designers we put a ton of thought into our product, we shouldn’t over-design it. The product should be fairly easy to use and make sense to the user—it should feel natural. We as designers should look at a design in a formal way. Although we want the product to look appealing, we have to also look at what it does—function vs form. Sometimes a product might look appealing, but it will do what it is supposed to. Also, designers need to take the future into consideration. You want to create a product that lasts, but only an amount of time until the designer feels it should be replaced. The product should be able to be used in a year or two years after the purchase without being outdated. “Objectified” taught me a lot about being a designer and entering the field I am going into.
What are the goals of Apple’s website? How does Apple’s website address the needs of a user who has just purchased their first MacBook? (pp. 41-56)
The goal of the website is to promote and sell their products. There are full descriptions of everything as well as an option to purchase. If someone had just purchased their first MacBook, it gives them a method of communication with the company incase any questions need answered and it also recommends accessories to go with the new purchase.
▪What are the functional specifications of Facebook’s wall? If you are not on Facebook what are the specs for the signup page? (pp. 72-75)
Facebook’s wall gives a variety of things. It gives you a timeline of what other people you are “friends” with are saying. It also gives articles with news updates, recipes, shopping, pop culture, etc., however, whether it is your friends update or an article, you have the option to “hide” it so you don’t have to constantly see things like that. Above all, the very first thing on the page is an option for the user to type something, “share a post”. The user that is signed in is always the first priority.
▪What are four architectural approaches to information structure? Find one example of each. (pp. 94-106)
Sequential Structure: An article of a recipe that gives the reader step by step instructions on how to make it.
Organizing Principles: A news website that has options at the top such as “Local News”, “Sports”, “World News”, etc.
Language and Metadata: Amazon. The site lists the product name, the seller, price, type of product, etc., and everything is using common language that almost everybody can comprehend.
Team Roles and Process: A visual representation of the stock market; what’s up and what’s down.
▪What percentage of The Huffington Post index page is navigation, and what percentage is content? What about Google, Wikipedia, and Etsy? (pp. 116-134)
The Huffington Post: 40% navigation, 60% content
Google: 10% navigation, 90% content
Wikipedia: 20% navigation, 80% content
Etsy: 30% navigation, 70% content
▪How does http://www.landor.com guide the readers’ eyes and focus their attention on what is important? (pp. 144-155 )
They use very bright colors as well as large, bold texts. The images are very large so that you cannot miss them.
For the final review, I compared my fusion restaurant, Taco ‘Bout It, with TakoSushi.com. I will say that I am very impressed with Tako Sushi. Their home page is very intriguing. The color scheme is red with grey and yellow accents. It has a very vintage feel to it. Their navigation bar is located across the top. The give the options of “Our Story”, “Menu”, “Locations”, “News”, “Products”, “Contact”. These six options are separated by their logo, which also acts as the button to their home page. Their navigation is very easy and is suitable for any person.
I also like that Tako Sushi has a “Products” option where they sell t-shirts, tumblers, art, and their sauces. Having company products with easy help attract customers. T-shirts, especially, will attract a lot of people, especially since they are only $5 on Tuesdays.
The only flaw I have with TakoSushi.com is that it is not very consistent. Some pages are aligned left, while other pages are aligned center. Also, some pages are very heavy on the yellow accents, some only have a few yellow accents, and some do not have any at all. Going page to page, it is not appealing to see yellow, and then no yellow because I feel like the yellow gives off a happy vibe, and then changing to a dull grey changes that vibe. In comparison to my site, I think my site has an advantage because it is consistent. Each page is aligned the same. Having everything the same makes it easier on the eye to go page to page. Also, the color scheme is the same throughout. There is not one page heavier on the accent colors than the others, they are all even. TakoSushi.com has its flaws, but it also gave me some inspiration.
For Review 3, I reviewed No. 9 and Six Penn Kitchen. These websites were fairly similar in their set up. Each are placed upon a black background with the main information in the center. No. 9 had some added emphasis to their site by creating a color contrast around their text.
Six Penn Kitchen is very consistent. They have all of their options across the top, and whenever you click on “Menu”, for example, the other options are still visible and available for navigation. No matter what page you go to, the layout and color scheme is the exact same. No. 9 has their options along the left hand side, and as the options stay consistent, the format of the pages do not stay consistent with every single page. Some have just a picture, and some have a picture with a border. Other than this, the website is uniform. Each website has navigation panels that makes it easy for any reader to navigate. Six Penn has a feature that I do like more than No. 9’s website, and that is that there is a button to navigate back to the home page.
Out of the two, I must say that I like Six Penn Kitchen more. I find the color scheme and the layout extremely appealing, and very easy to view. It makes the site look very intriguing. No. 9 is a little bit too plain for me with the colors.
Studio Dunn is an interior design practice in London. My first thought of the website was that it was very modern looking. It almost reminded me as if I were looking at a home magazine. I think that the color and texture used made it very distinctive as to what the website was there for. I also enjoyed the navigation technique for this single page website. You did not have to scroll up, down, right, or left; instead there were arrows on the right side of the page that pop up as your mouse scrolls over them that lead you to the next set of images. Because this is a website for interior decorating, there are a lot of images used. The arrows made it much easier to navigate and I feel like it made the website look cleaner. In the upper right hand corner there is a button with three lines, symbolizing more content, which takes you to the “about me” portion of the website. Here there is a short summary about the company, its history, and what they do. They also provide contact information in this section. The only issue is that in my browser, the words began to run together at the end of the type. It would be more beneficial to the reader to make sure that the words are spread out enough on every browser. I think the use of images and the arrows makes the site extremely easy to navigate. There is not a lot of buttons that have to be clicked, which can be confusing to some people. I like the short and sweet About Me section, as it is almost as if they let the work shown in the images speak for itself. Overall, I think that the design for this website was done extremely well. It has a very modern look to it, which greatly fits the Interior Design theme. It is easy to navigate and appealing to look at.
For my first review, I decided to review Sephora. Being a makeup artist, I am constantly looking for new products and browsing new websites to find them. Going on Sephora’s website, I wanted to see how the website navigation was assuming I was making a purchase. I searched the product “Champagne Pop” by BECCA. As soon as I searched it, the product I was looking for immediately came up. Viewing the product, it was easy to access the details about the product, the description, the price, etc. The “Add to cart” option was fairly large and easy for the viewer to see. As soon as you add a product to your cart, there is a pop-down menu with the options to either checkout or continue shopping. If you choose to continue shopping, the “Checkout” option is large in the upper right corner. I feel as if Sephora made the website very easy to navigate. It is easy to search things and the site is rather self-explanatory. Even if you are not sure exactly what it is that you are looking for, everything is categorized and the filters are very specific. I feel that even someone who may not be great with technology could navigate this website, which is a key element for something that has a large target audience.