Based off of my previous project, escribo, I would like to further explore the interface of and interaction with an electronic-reading tablet device for my mini-thesis project. With the introduction of the Kindle and the iPad, electronic-reading is becoming more and more pervasive in our society. While user interactions with these technologies are becoming more commonplace, these experiences are also becoming markedly different from their physical/analog counterparts. Through the exploration of physical markup tools and software affordances, I hope to create a more natural and intuitive experience for users of e-readers.
Please also see my thoughts generated from our in class Visionary Scenario exercise.
[Update:]
After re-evaluating my interests and semester-long goals, I have decided to change my Mini-thesis concept and propose a new one.
Applications like Pulse News Reader and Newsmap excel at delivering news in an easily digestible manner, by highlighting trending headlines and allowing users to read content that is relevant to them. Where they often lack, however, is in emotionally connecting users to the content. Because technology has densely connected the world, we are constantly bombarded with news and information. Thus, every local crisis becomes a global crisis. The inter-connectivity we experience makes us feel more responsible for others’ problems because we are made aware of their problems. We are bombarded with information and we can no longer feign ignorance.
I have explored this idea in a few projects. Who We Pay For is a data visualization experience created using the US Federal Tax data from WhatWePayFor.com and Flickr images from the public galleries. The importance of the taxes we pay is sometimes hard to fathom, especially through numbers alone. Who We Pay For highlights the people affected by our tax dollars, as well the imbalance of money each agency receives. What Should I watch? is a simple application to help users answer the question “What (movie) should I watch?”, built using the New York Times Movie Reviews API and Processing. The goal of this project was to visualize recent DVD titles reviewed by NYT and to make movie-viewing choices easier for users.
I would like to explore these concept further, by visualizing data in a more humanistic manner and allowing users to connect to the people involved in news stories, rather than merely reading facts and understanding data points. I have not yet decided on a news source or topic (I will by Tuesday’s presentation!!), but I feel that this content will influence the type of visualization and experience I set out to create.
In-class presentation.
Tags: project