Progress Blog - Professional Practice Module Pt. 2
Wednesday 31st Jan
Recieved an email back from Greg who was Stuart's suggested contact for a webhost quoting a price of £50 per year for a massive amount of storage. I sent an email to Paul Wilgeroth in a bid to persuade him to ok the money so I really move forward with this. The email said;
Hi Paul,
I've looked into whether the university servers can support the
necessary script (PHP or mySQL) in order to produce the kind of site
we spoke about and unfortunately they definitively do not. Stuart
suggested a trusted web host that could host the site for us and he
has quoted me £50 for a years usage of very large amount of space.
2.5gb with a 20gb a day transfer capability. I realise that we would
ideally avoid this cost but without this kind of server I could only
deliver a static HTML site which would be very awkward to maintain and
update. Additionally free space on the external host could be shared
out amongst students for personal websites and so on. Please let me
know what you think as soon as you can and I'll do my best.
Thanks a lot
Nick GerrardI also finished the three scamps ready to send although I'm waiting for a reply back about the hosting first. They are all inspired in different ways about the nature of the art and design faculty. My favourite is the grey one with the brightly coloured letters as it has a certain gravitas and sophistication but is very visually interesting. The sketchbook style one is a bit wild but I really wanted to see how it would look as sketchbooks are a unifying factor of all our courses and are the birthplace of many of our ideas.
Greg Turners's reply to my enquiry;
Hi Nick,
Wordpress isn't forum software, it's blog software. Having said that,
it doesn't matter from the point of view of hosting which software
you use. I can install Wordpress or phpbb for you (unless it is a
course requirement to install it yourself!).
How much space you need depends on how many users you expect. You'll
easily be able to get started with 2Gb space and 20Gb monthly
transfer, which is £50/year, plus domain name fees (max £15/year for
yourdomain.com). If you regularly go over this, then we'll look at it
again.
Cheers,
Greg.I had explained that the university servers wouldn't support forum software, which was a mistake he was quick to point out!
Progress Blog – Professional Practice Module
Progress Blog – Professional Practice Module
Monday 11th December
I attended the Student Council meeting in December with no expectations of gaining the opportunity to work on a live brief. However the lack of good communications between the Faculty and the students was raised, especially with regards to a recent visit from the BBC production designers who had worked on ‘Torchwood’ as well as other exhibitions and events which most of us had missed because we weren’t made aware of them. Also they wanted to open channels of communication between students on different courses and generally give everyone more of a chance to find out about each other. I pitched the idea of a community website as it seemed the natural solution to their communication difficulties. My idea was for a site that staff and students could both contribute to; a ‘one stop shop’ for any information that would be of benefit to us. The Dean of the School of Art and Design and the other members of the Staff Council agreed that given my enthusiasm and the nature of my course that I’d be suitable for the task.
I gave my contact details to Michelle Brown, the Dean’s secretary and she agreed to try and contact me before the university broke up for Christmas to arrange a meeting as I had stressed that I would prefer to be clear on what they expected of the site so I could begin designing it over my month off. However, in a very hectic last week of term we weren’t able to schedule a meeting and I had to wait until January to get back in touch with the staff council members.
Wednesday 13th December
I told Stuart about what had happened at the meeting and suggested that I create the CSAD Student Council website for the Professional Practice module and he agreed it was a good idea. It would give me an experience of designing for a client that I felt would be more similar to real world practices than undertaking a competition brief. I was also excited by the prospect of developing a site that would be genuinely useful for hundreds of my peers and adding a web based project to my portfolio.
Wednesday 17th January
In my first week of term I arranged for a tutorial with Stuart so we could talk over some of my ideas and agree how I should progress with this project. We quickly dismissed the idea of creating a traditional HTML site as it would be awkward to maintain and timely to produce. Stuart suggested a number of Open Source authoring programs for me to research and I was persuaded to reschedule my meeting with members of the Staff Council which we had arranged for the nest day in order to be able to meet a BBC Television crew who were coming in to speak to us about our research.
Thursday 18th January
I had a good look at the ways in which I might quickly and easily create a community website and I soon discovered Wordpress (www.wordpress.org) which seemed both very powerful and very easy to use. Given my limited time and fairly lofty ambitions for this project this blogger-like software seemed the only viable method for me to accomplish the functionality that I saw as vital to the site’s success.
Monday 22nd January
Emailed Michelle Brown about the meeting, she called me to check whether I was available 2pm on Wednesday and we agreed a meeting at Howard Gardens for then. I prepared for the meeting by taking another look at the Wordpress website so I could talk with some authority about its suitability for the task. The positive points I listed and took to the meeting were;
- W3C compatibility for accessibility
- Ability to create a site combining static pages and an advanced forum/blogging area
- You can set different levels of users, with different privileges
- The site will allow users to post images and even videos very easily
- Users can set up RSS feeds to their home computers so they don’t miss anything
- Search function
- Automatically updating links to other blogs
- Blogs easily organised; recent/top posts, categories and monthly archives
- Largely customizable, both the web address and the design
- Intelligent text formatting
Wednesday 24th January
I had my first proper meeting on Wednesday, with a Paul Wilgeroth who told me he had been tasked by the Dean to oversee myself and the creation of the website. In industry terms I would equate this to a ‘Scoping’ meeting. I wanted to set out clearly what I understood was required and what I felt I could produce. I was well prepared for this meeting and feel that I carried it off in a very professional manner, I feel that it was an important step in my personal development as an experience quite new to me. I outlined the timescale I was working within, my confidence in Wordpress and gathered a lot of useful points about the kind of site the staff (as my clients) wanted. We agreed that other than the CSAD (Cardiff School of Art and Design) logo I was free to design the site as I thought best while remembering that as a CSAD site it had a certain responsibility to be visually appealing. I promised to produce three scamps for him to choose between. Paul expressed concerns about the accountability of comments left on the forum and was happy to learn that it would be easy to require member’s logins from posters. I was told that the name should be as straightforward as possible so the project is now called the ‘Staff / Student Liaison Website’. I explained that this whole project as I had explained it would only be feasible if the university server could support PHP 4.2 or a version of mySQL at level 4.0 or higher.
Thursday 25th January
I emailed Stuart today to ask for helping in solving our little PHP/MySQL issue which I feel is hanging over the whole project at the moment as I am concerned that a the site I wish to make may not be possible. I am beginning to consider worst case scenario alternatives in case the university servers really aren’t prepared to play ball. I have also been browsing other sites and blogs created with Wordpress so I can gain a better idea of the level of customization I will be able to carry out.
Monday 29th January
Stuart informed me that the university servers do not support PHP or mySQL so external hosting is now my only option for creating a Wordpress site as planned. Stuart gave me the email address of a trusted web host and I have emailed him to ask for an idea of how much space I will require and a quote for the cost.
CCS - Techno-Utopianism
Techno-Utopianism
“Keep on flying says Blair – Science will save the planet”
The Guardian, Tuesday, 9th January 07
This headline caught my eye from the news-stand yesterday. Science and Technology are once again being asked to save us from ourselves and deliver us to a gleaming future, in this case one of super efficient planes allowing government ministers to fly round the globe just as much as they wish. I see this strand of Techno-Utopianism around in the world more and more, providing the easy answers to a world many of us feel increasingly uneasy living in.
I noticed two adverts in particular that have been everywhere recently. The TV adverts for Honda’s new ‘More Forwards Please’ campaign features an astounding little robot wandering gracefully around a technology museum while the accompanying posters show a progression of different versions of the final, toddler size robot, from an awkward looking contraption to the TV ad model, smooth and sophisticated, like an I-pod robot. Honda aren’t selling robots, they’re selling the dream of technological progress. By buying Honda you’re buying a bit of the dream; technology will deliver you ever cleaner, more beautiful, more efficient cars. Taking a very different line, AOLs ‘What do you think?’ campaign was one of the more thought-provoking and intelligent adverts of recent years. One TV advert argued that ‘The Internet is a good thing’ and another illustrated its potential for misuse, with the same question being asked at the end of both. So, one shows children researching their school projects online while the other gives us a glimpse of the filming of exploitative porn for the web. The advertisers realized they don’t need to actually ‘sell’ the internet; everyone has a fair idea how it can be used and misused, no-one holds AOL or any of the service providers responsible for Al-Qaeda’s online recruitment drives. These days the net just ‘is’, it’s as ubiquitous as the air. The answer to the question ‘what do you think [about the internet]?’ is of course ‘it’s as good or bad as the people who use it’. The adverts were so clever because they encouraged people to grasp a tricky concept with far reaching consequences for all of us. Technology won’t save us; anything created by man will mirror both the better and worse aspects of human nature.
“Each wave of major technological innovation in the twentieth century, from the automobile to TV to nuclear power "too cheap to meter" to the Internet, has been greeted with wild optimism, but each has brought a slew of unintended consequences. Let us remember our current collective behavior is not sustainable: global climatic integrity is imperiled, biodiversity is plummeting, fisheries are collapsing, etc. We are so far not handling it; our civilization is careening out of control, and a lot of our ills are technologically induced or exacerbated."( http://www.garynull.com/Documents/LAPIS/genome.htm)
I found this piece from on an online technology magazine and it is very much the viewpoint I subscribe to; I just don’t believe in a future where science and technology have solved all our direst human and ecological problems. Utopian societies always fail, whether religious or secular they fail because they ignore the fact that you can’t change human nature. It was John Gray’s book Straw Dogs that first opened my eyes to these concepts;
“Those who ignore the destructive potential of new technologies can do so only because they ignore history. Pogroms are as old as Christendom; but without railways, the telegraph and poison gas there could have been no Holocaust. There have always been tyrannies; but without modern means of transport and communication, Stalin and Mao could not have built their gulags. Humanity's worst crimes were made possible only by modern technology.
There is a deeper reason why 'humanity' will never control technology. Technology is not something that humankind can control. It is an event that has befallen the world.”We are ever more involved with technology, ever more reliant on it and much of its effects have been positive but I think Techno-Utopianism has entered the public consciousness very much over the last few years. Influential thinkers like Richard Dawkins have proposed that Science replace religion as the basis of our hopes for a better tomorrow, but I believe it’s a fatally flawed ideology that distracts us from finding practical solutions to our problems. Surveillance technology won’t mean an end to global terrorism any more then online communities have provided any meaningful substitute for the real communities we had sixty years ago.
rrr
CCS - Locative Media
Locative Media
Locative media is all derived from an American department of defense initiative, the Global Positioning System whereby you can use any three of the 24 GPS satellites orbiting the Earth to ‘triangulate’ your position based on your distance from each one, your position on the globe can then be placed to within 5 or 7 meters. The GPS devices necessary to locate you in this way are now little bigger than mobile phones. The technology we use everyday will shortly become ‘location aware’ and the potential implications to our understanding of the space around us will be profound. If your PC became location aware it might begin showing you banner ads for local shops and services. You may be able to receive updates to your phone or PDA giving you a realistic time of arrival for the location aware bus you’re waiting for. These developments will surely seem commonplace within years but at the cutting edge of digital expansion scientists, artists and communities of dedicated individuals are envisioning and exploring uses of this technology that will create a whole new level of reality for many of us.
GPS advancements along with the real possibility of ubiquitous wireless networks in our cities has paved the way for a second layer of reality, an invisible virtual reality to be overlaid on top of our physical world. In one sense another layer of reality exists anyhow, every place has a history and specific memories for all those who spent time there. A park bench might just be a point on a map, a construction of wood and metal but for some it will be a place where the met or split up with a lover, where they once made a life-changing decision or played when they were children. Now in the virtual world, people can attach information to a specific place that others can see and experience for themselves. People will be able to ‘read’ places and access layers of meaning that would never have been available to them before, humanizing seemingly impersonal and empty spaces. With this technology I could create a unique experience of a favourite space or journey of mine that others could share as they passed through where appropriate music would be triggered and images, feelings and memories I had of that place could be viewed. Layers of meaning could be embedded anywhere and everywhere.
The advent of ‘augmented reality’ where virtual objects can be placed in real space and viewed through special glasses or the screen of a laptop or PDA will further blur the line between the physical world and the world of information that increasingly surrounds us. Animated 3D characters could play with children in school playgrounds and the creatively minded could redecorate our cities with virtual graffiti, another vision of reality, open to all.
Already traditional past-times are being blended with locative media technology to create truly new game playing experiences. The city is turned into a playground by the creators of Cititag (http://cnm.open.ac.uk/projects/cititag/), as players dash around with pocket PCs tagging others or for the unlucky tagged player, rushing to find friends who can un-tag them and get them back in the game. Other players are visible on the map as are graphics displaying your current status. I was very interested in this as it is in essence a computer game but demonstrates how games of the future will break out of the home and into the outside world. The games can be played anywhere and we will need more than just our thumbs to play them.
Another use of locative media technology that impressed me was the Bristol based Futurelab’s learning project for 10-11 year olds, ‘Savannah’ (http://www.futurelab.org.uk/showcase/savannah/index.htm#projectarticle) where children learned about the world of Lions on the African plains by role playing as lions on a virtual environment laid on top of their own playing fields. With their PDAs displaying the virtual grassland the children have to make decisions and move around their territory as a lion would while chasing prey, finding watering holes and so on. This kind of experiential learning is not only very enjoyable for the kids but allows them a deeper level of understanding that books or the internet alone could not.
URLs of Interest
http://www.netzwissenschaft.de/mob.htm#mixed
A list of many of the cutting edge technologists, collectives and their locative media projects.
http://www.c5corp.com/projects/gpsmediaplayer/index.shtml
A GPS media player showing images and descriptions of hiking paths alongside a map which displays the hiker’s progress.
http://netpublics.annenberg.edu/locative_media/beyond_locative_media
A fascinating article on the social implications and future of fully networked public spaces.
Production Processes
Production Processes
As part of this module exploring the working practices of design companies I visited ‘Sequence’, the largest new media house in South Wales where I spoke to Richard Shearman, one of the account managers. I pitched the same questions that I asked him to a friend of mine who is the lead designer at a small design company called ‘Firstline Media’ in the Newcastle area. The idea was to better understand how the size and structure of a company affects their working practices by comparing the feedback I received. I decided on five questions, covering a broad spread of the information I hoped to obtain.
1. Is the majority of your business client based or speculative work?
Both companies had business plans based on continually marketing the company, seeking out new clients and pitching for new work.
Sequence has a New Business Team and a Sales Team dedicated to making new contacts and winning work. I was surprised to learn that Sequence actually pitched ideas for work on an entirely speculative basis to large companies like the BBC; this is called ‘invitation to tender’ and often showcases the use of new technologies and software that might be of interest to the potential client. For briefs where they are competing with other companies the designers will prepare a visual pitch, normally three A3 boards which they will send to the client. The whole company operates on a dynamic business model and 50-60% of their work is gained by these business acquisition teams.
Firstline Media’s business is an equal mix of client based and speculative work although the emphasis has recently been increasingly on actively seeking new work by cold calling and pitching for briefs. They are too small a company to have a dedicated team for this so the designers must play a role in the new business acquisition side too. To help in maintaining repeat business from clients it is sometimes agreed in the contract that any follow up work will also be done by Firstline.
2. How is your team structured in terms of in house and freelance expertise?
The two companies have quite different attitudes towards buying in outside help and expertise when required.
Sequence stressed on their website that an important part of their ethos was to keep everything ‘in house’ as much as possible to maintain consistency in their output and avoid the complications and added cost of hiring freelancers. Sequence employ more then thirty people but there are still occasions when outside help is necessary to complete projects successfully and on time. Richard Shearman identified the two most common occasions when they need to do this as being when they are given much less time to complete a project then they have calculated they would need to do it and when they are called upon to produce very advanced or specialist coding, often for Flash applications.
Firstline Media have a much more compact team to draw on with just two designers, two developers and a Technical Author. However they very rarely use freelancers and will simply not take on work that the company cannot handle internally preferring a more modest business plan based on maximising their ‘in house’ resources.
3. Do you use a standardized project cycle model on each job?
There were major differences between Sequence and Firstline in the use of project cycles which seem to derive as much from the company’s ethos as the necessary differences in business models because of their different sizes.
Sequence use different models for different jobs as they prefer to adopt a project cycle that is a ‘good fit’ for the client. For example they prefer a Dynamic Systems Development Methods for most jobs where they feel that the expectation of changing needs and requirements suits their flexible working practices but they also employ a more formalised model like Prince 2 when a more controlled environment is needed. This will often be when they are working with government agencies or the BBC. They also have different models for print and web projects and will always try and agree and tailor the best working model for each client before a contract is signed.
Firstline produce a wide range of work from 3d visualisations to websites and print projects but use the same project cycle model for each one. This covers every aspect of the project design and development from initial visualisations to final deployment. The team there prefer the consistency of fitting every project to a working model that they are used to and are comfortable with where it seems that Sequence’s designers and developers must be more flexible in order to accommodate the client. I think this is partly down to Sequence dealing with larger and more demanding clients and partly a slight disparity in the levels of expertise at the two companies.
4. How do you encourage collaborative working and successful communications with your clients?
Both companies stressed the importance of good relations with clients as it makes the design process run more smoothly and increases the likelihood of repeat business.
Collaborative working with clients is central to Sequence’s ideology and this begins at the very earliest stage where employees are chosen for a job based on their perceived compatibility with the client. At Sequence the client is seen as an equal partner in the design process and this begins with design workshops which run at an early stage of the project and help the client feel an involved member of the team. It also helps the Sequence designers to gain a good idea of what the client really wants which might be different to what the brief asks for. They break the project into ‘would likes’, ‘should haves’ and ‘must haves’ based on the workshops and their own expertise, the client will be made aware how these levels of priority will fit within the constraints of the project. Communications channels are always open and Sequence employ several dedicated account handlers to ensure that anytime the client calls wishing to enquire about the project they will be able to speak to a well informed member of staff.
Good customer service is also key to Firstline Media’s business plan and a similarly high value is placed on the client’s views and opinions. At the earliest possible stage of their interaction with the client they present them with clear documentation detailing not only what they plan to deliver but also what they expect from the client, this has proved an effective way of pre-empting problems and establishing trust between the two parties. Throughout the project they regularly update the client with progress reports and ask for their feedback so they always feel included in the progress of the work. After a project is completed they stay in regular contact to maintain the relationship and demonstrate a level of care and attention that will hopefully result in repeat business.
5. How do you test your work before completion; I.e. User / Expert Testing?
By this point in the questioning I had learned that both companies were striving to be client-centred and I had heard a lot more about this then I had user-centred design. Whether it was assumed to be implicit in what they were saying that each project would be right for the end user or that as a business they have to put the effort in to please the people who pay their wages first and foremost I’m still not sure. Both companies didn’t usually conduct testing on the public but had ‘in house’ experts that would put each project through its paces before the handover. At Sequence this was a Quality Inspection team while at Firstline the Technical Author and Technical Director both gave finished work the final check over.
Sequence tests each part of a multimedia project in isolation before the design and development teams get together to make sure they have a fully working end product. They do conduct user testing when a piece intended for use by children or the disabled as it is hard for the designers to understand the exact needs of these groups. Often they just use ‘Profile Testing’; the designers will role play as the intended user, speaking aloud and using an interaction style that they feel is appropriate. While I’m sure that this will uncover most of the major usability issues it must be difficult to view a piece of work you have been involved with for weeks or months as a first time user who may be of a very different background or age then yourself. I wonder whether the time and effort of conducting thorough user testing has led to it being viewed as a luxury by the design industry.
The balance between designers, client and end user is a very interesting one and it was important for me to see how design companies are first and foremost businesses and I imagine that in some cases compromises are made to please clients that may well not result in the most appropriate product for the person on the street. I was very impressed by Sequence and I understand now how their business model has led to a fast rate of growth and financial success while I have also gained and insight into how a much smaller company can be successful while working with local clients and smaller jobs.
Thank you to Richard Shearman at Sequence (www.sequence.co.uk) and Kevin Myers at Firstline Media (www.firstlineinteractive.co.uk)
