Mentor/Mentee

During the first three weeks the professor in studio class asked to create a mentor-mentee relationship between the 2nd year and 1st year students. For me, this specific learning style is to train our leadership&communication skills in practice and recall what we learned in studio class in our first year. Obviously, the great part is to use our precious experience to help others avoid the same mistake we made.

I’m glad to help Christin in her personal project this semester. She is smart and has a good sense of visualization. We met once in the second week to decide our mentor/mentee work schedule. Basically we all want to keep a flexible working relationship, since I won’t be the baby sitter and she will take the most responsibility for her project. As a result, we decided to meet weekly by a flexible schedule: Wednesday or Friday basing on the progress of the project. Besides, I’m totally open for answering questions, feedback or any concern that she has. Hopefully we will have a great semester working together.

How might your research could tell a story?

From the beginning to the end, I hope my research could not only try to touch the high bar of design theory, but I can tell a story about a one-year research.

I got Donald A. Norman’s new book “Living with Complexity”. It is the third Donald’s book I read (those last famous two are in Chinese). He always uses the way of story telling to talk about design or design thinking. I really appreciate the simple tone he used and interesting stories relevant to daily life. This time, he shows the complexity of the technology and how it changes the world. The world is complex; our tools need to match that complexity. However, good design can tame complexity. The same as this research, when you are telling a story of complex, keep simple and clear in the logic could help to tame your research.

(draft)

First Draft

The first draft of my thesis proposal has been done. It include: researchable question, sub questions, justification, limitation, literature review and research plan. These six parts will be refined one by one with feedback from my later research committee meetings.

After class, my committee have been decided. It’s exciting to have these people in my committee:

Chair: Christopher; Lee ; Jeff.

 

Go in Depth and Look for Connections through Design Lens

Through last week, my goal is to reveal the real problem in journalism, and, in particularly, how and why the design thinking. I looked for the connections and reasons for what I can work forward. I wrote down a summary for last week. I sketch a lot and I’m going to make a nice visual.

As John Pavlik points out, media organization, particular news, have not invested sufficiently in research and development to expand or update their product line over recent decades. Also, media business have not responded well to change by new information and communication technologies. Many have been slow to recognize the potential of the Internet and adapt to it. Many media industries and organizations have responded defensively and rigidly clung to traditional practices. These facts I found indicates that many sections of journalism are threatened by current changes and uncertain futures.

People trust that audience-centered journalism with novelty and innovations by technology creating the behavior as the daily utility could provide “good journalism”. The new model, audience-centered journalism, aims to use customer loyalty to create cumulative long-term value. They believe the new model could build brand franchises and goodwill provides opportunities to diversify product lines and broaden their revenue base. Moreover, printed newspapers, as an example in conventional model, need to recognize that their business is not necessarily news or paper, and think of themselves instead as media organizations. Journalism could regain its competitive edge by focusing on in-depth feature articles, investigation and analysis, leaving the breaking of news to news services and the myriad on-the-spot citizen reporters.

I believe my focus could not be at every context of journalism but in the modern new context – creative Internet-based journalism. Since technology in the modern age has a direct relation to the phenomenon of innovation and novelty. It means examining a technology or device at the point of introduction, before it has become part of a nearly invisible everyday life of habit and routine. But it also means examining this move from dazzling appearance to nearly transparent utility, from the spectacular and astonishing to the convenient and unremarkable. “The central question seems to be to what extent storytelling can be content– or connectivity–based, and what level of participation can or should be included in the narrative experience.” said by Mark Deuze. In one of his article, he also gives some good examples of media work combining various elements of storytelling as a hybrid form between content and connectivity, and considers the normative and economical implications for the professional identity of media workers in journalism and advertising.”

Finally, I wrote down my HM.. question to a new version: “How might visual prototype help collaborative creative decision-making process to better communicate with people in order to effective transform knowledge(content) and provide better narrative experience?”

Facilitation: visual prototype

Process: collaborative creative decision-making process

Understanding: communicate with people

Content: effective transform knowledge(content) and provide better narrative experience

Finally, I want to summary the whole research process so far. First, define the big trend and revolution of journalism. Second, look for what conventional journalism lacks and prove how they descend (the phenomena these years ). Third, look for the reason to prove why audience-centered journalism is good for the future. Fourth, seek problem that still exists in current changing process. Right now, look for how design could help journalism in this big (r)evolution.

The Quest Continues for a Tablet PC – NYTimes.com

It’s interesting to see Bill Buxton’s photo in the news. Recently I read the book Sketching User Experience again which is wrote by Bill Buxton. He is a great design in Microsoft and help the people in Microsoft understand the power of design. He notes Sketching is a good way to catch people’s experience and it includes many specific method. For me, sketching is a also good way to rethinking the design and even ask feedback, known as collaboration,  from/with people. I am thinking to transplant and makes sense of some ideas from that book to my research.

Quietly, several high-tech companies are lining up to deliver versions of these keyboard-free, touch-screen portable machines in the next few months. Industry watchers have their eye on Apple in particular to sell such a device by early next year.

Tablets have been around in various forms for two decades, thus far delivering little other than memorable failure. Nonetheless, the new batch of devices has gripped the imagination of tech executives, bloggers and gadget hounds, who are projecting their wildest dreams onto these literal blank slates.

In these visions, tablets will save the newspaper and book publishing industries, present another way to watch television and movies, play video games, and offer a visually rich way to enjoy the Web and the expanding world of mobile applications.

.via The Quest Continues for a Tablet PC – NYTimes.com.

Discovery and Pin on the Journalism (R)evolution

Journalism (R)evolution Visualization

Although my research was mostly focused on journalism for weeks, the content in journalism is too broad to reveal and connect to my design research. I’m glad to see the new track where I am in which is definitely narrow down a lot on content.

After whole week literary review in the library, I’ve learned a big change, which journalism professional call revolution or evolution. The trend of the existent journalism moving into an online environment cause the role of journalism changed in the society. Basically, they could no long play a top-down storyteller, whereas they want/need to be a bottom-up facilitator or moderator in the near future. From another perspective, audience don’t view them as a godlike teller anymore because they have multiple paths to get more information and what audience really need today is a fair conversation.

Regularly, it involves a philosophical shift in journalism to form a new relationship with audience. Instead of top-down, one-way monologue, gospel, sermon and lecture, journalists need to engage media users interactively. As John Pavlik in his lasted text, Media in the digital Age, he mentioned a “sea change” is occurring in the relationships between and among journalists, their sources, and their audience with far reaching implications for the nature and function of journalism in modern society. Furthermore, technology is redefining journalism, changing the way journalism do their work, and providing new means by which that work is presented to the public (du Fresne, 2007).

The new contextual practice, which some professionals believe being the “fifth estate” for journalism, is asking an audience-centered journalism instead of the traditional journalist-centered one. In the traditional world of media, interactivity between producer and audience is almost non-existent, limited for the most part to a few letters to the editor (John Pavlik, 2008). The future goal comes from civic emergent media and would foster the changes in journalism. My research focus on using collaborative design to assist this multiple-channel change.

I really like the topic that I am working on. However, right now I’m looking for the reason to prove that the future goal of journalism is valuable to pursue. I want to understand why journalism need/must go this way and how did they work. Lee suggested me reading one book called “rethinking media change”. I already hold the book in my hand and look for my answer.

Never think of wasting time at library

I spent three afternoon time in the library and enjoy the “big bang” time this week. Before this week, I looked for all information online, went to the library to quickly get a book back or even ordered online to Herron library. However, I felt all the knowledge that I knew about my problem space, journalism, is only a piece of cake on their table. I was dragged by different topic from one spot to another and lost. This week, I want to a “real deep understanding” of my problem space because I clearly knew where I am and what I want after all talks with professors and my classmates. I knew several piece of facts in journalism field. I don’t have a system understanding of their field, their research methodology and high level understand to answer every question about “why” and “How”.

Internet searching is more goal driven process and you could hardly receive something that you don’t know. So I had a hard time to go through the current fact I have ” they didn’t make a good job on online news.” Why do they continuing lose their user even they chose the new technology? How do they work right now? How do they do their research? Yes, I brought these questions to the library. Although there is still amount of books, the library is the space which already built up a system in each field. Wednesday I focused on the Journalism area in the forth floor. Thursday I turned to research in mass media. The two area sounds very similar to me and I used the terms as one until I really looked at their different branches on the book shelves.

Never think of wasting time on library. At first, it helps you on learning the broad area. For next step, bring the specific questions back. It’s still a good choice for deeper understanding.

The Power of Talk

It was a crazy busy last week, I tried to update my blog as much as possible. Enjoy two formal talks with Lee and Christopher with two of my visualizations, as well as Chris and Juhi gave me some other ideas that the way I could go through. The bright side is that I began to figure out where I want to go and fill my boxes in my table, while the bad side is that since last Thursday after talking with Lee I’ve noticed that I have a big mountain to climb. Right now, I’m still working on clear my question. But I need more personal research to deeply understand the area by asking myself “why” and “how” questions.

Week 5

• How might collaborative design process generate research to help new mass media design to attract more readers of journalism in online news consumption?

• How might design make a collaborative design tool used for examining journalistic cultural authority to increase importance of better translate news for public readers?

• How might collaborative design process help journalists to use autography to provide a high formal level knowledge to high-educated people?

• How might collaborative design redefine the relationship between news with audience to evaluate new marketing?

• How might collaborative design help journalists in a specific local news area negotiate and knowledge claims?

• How might collaborative design tool help journalistic knowledge to articulate and deploy in professional field of journalism but impact reader in the field?

• How might design a tool to help journalist to conceptualize to make a conversation mode for their article?

• How might collaborative design transform user interface design process to attract young people ?

• How might collaborative design research restructure the newsroom and the news industry to reflect more social problem?

• How might collaborative design process build a new tool of information technology to gathering more efficient news from broader space?

• How might collaborative design help news companies to examine crisis behind new opportunities of online customers?

Week 4

How might contextual design research help information business to understand cloud computing?

o   How might contextual design research help information business to evolve by cloud computing?

o   How might contextual design research help newspaper business to design next generation news by cloud computing?

• How might we create a tangible user interface, using cloud computing concepts to deliver information?

• How might we use information visualization create a cloud computing platform to deliver news instead of traditional newspaper industry?

• How might tangible user interface transform large traditional newspaper press to new mode with cloud computing technology?

• How might we use tangible user interface with cloud computing service to promote next generation newspaper industry?

• How might contextual interaction design help newspaper press on global collaboration basing on cloud computing technology?

• How might we design a interactive information platform on a cloud computing platform to promote traditional newspaper design?

• How might contextual interaction design provide high quality information for newspaper audience using cloud computing?

• How might contextual interaction design help to keep both subjective & objective information for newspaper audience basing on a cloud computing platform?

• How might we use information visualization create a cloud computing platform to teach English for children in poor countries of developing countries?

• How might contextual interaction design help balance global education resources, in particular from poor countries around western China to US, base on a cloud computing platform?

• How might contextual interaction design provide an educational sharing resources platform with cloud computing technology for language teaching in primary school in developing countries?

Week 3

• How might design research build a cloud computing interactive tool to improve global newspaper industry?

• How might design help newspaper press on global collaboration basing on cloud computing platform technology?

• How might designer create a co-design tool to evaluate current quality of news for younth?

• How might co-design method improve global collaboration inside newspaper companies?

• How might design provide high quality information for newspaper audience basing on cloud computing technology?

• How might design help to keep subjective & objective information basing on cloud computing?

• How might cloud computing build a new platform for newspaper industry by design method?

Visual & Rethinking

visual map

I made a visual to summary current research. The left part in the map shows the literary review in information delivery and the right part shows the research in cloud computing. I sum up the main idea in a book called Cloud Computing which summarizes this technology trend. But what interested me is the part focusing on its application on the business. Four layers show the growing trend how applications apply on different user interface. In the center of the map,  a gap between the application of technology on information deliveries and those fields cloud computing want to apply. It’s the place I want to involve collaboration design research in. Furthermore, the contextual design is a term in HCI design research. I want to combine the core idea of them there.

However, after a great talking with Lee, I’m rethinking my research questions about the topics I have.  Till now, cloud computing sounds as a solution to the problem of information deliveries. When I touch the research about trend, for instance, the future user interface, they are all focusing on the solution but now field research. The metaphor of could computing is too vague to open, but, n another side, the user experience could be designed through different kind of user interface, for example, tangible user interface. Therefore, I’m rethinking my topic maybe take a little move to focusing on information delivery design research. Could computing could be one component as tools of information delivery, in particular, news.

Thank you, Adrienne! The article is really useful.

Visualization should be one part on every Tuesday class!