Ethan Kennerly

This is in response to the assigment (appended below).

Like: Psion Revo
Inspired by: The Illustrated Primer in the The Diamond Age
Proud of: HeroCard Nightmare

Psion Revo

This is a PDA, designed and manufactured by Psion, which was a pioneer of PDAs. The Revo is a clamshell design, and folds to fit in the pocket. The keyboard, until recently, was large enough for me to type 20 words per minute. I got through analysis of algorithms, taking notes that served the whole class on it. The device turns on when you open it. It easily switches between open applications. Even though it only has 16MB of RAM for operating system, files, and applications, the file formats are compact. The features were just enough and optimized for use. The outline allows quick searching of word documents.

I used to write my ideas down and notes I needed to remember in highschool on a pocket notebook, but it got to be a hassle to retype notes and find them, after generating so many words a year.

Although they stopped making Revo in 2000, I kept using it until only a couple months ago when with age my fingers began cramping. I miss it though everytime my Palm keyboard freezes up, and every time I have to assemble the keyboard rather than simply open the clam shell.

I'm curious about the conflict of usability and presentation, which Donald Norman brought to my attention in Design of Everyday Things. He noticed that appliances received confusing and unnecessary features or less usable control maps, because they looked better, and it wasn't until using the object for a while that the usability became an issue. Palm PDA and cellphone/PDA have caught on but a better solution to my use cases, and probably to many wired writers is presented by Psion Revo. I can't find a PDA that meets my needs, at any price. It's not a tech limitation; Revo hit it in 2000. It's a design decision. Why? Can the niche I belong to be served?

Diamond Age, Or The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

A tycoon commissions an artificially-intelligent educational computer book for his granddaughter. A copy of the book falls into the hands of a street urchin. The book adapts to her story and raises her from pauper to princess.

This book teaches the child through interactive fairy tales and games. It teaches the finest quality material in an entertaining format, adapted to its user's personality and environs.
This was a part of my personal statement. If I can craft software that both entertains and educates in the direction of the Illustrated Primer, then my life has been meaningful.

HeroCard Nightmare

Players and developers praised the scary artwork of HeroCard Nightmare. But the simulation and story channels of its design were not that consonant with the art. The project was cancelled. I didn't want to see Gregor's chthonic art be buried forever. So I offered to redesign the simulation and story while preserving the look and feel. I designed the simulation as inverse Clue, you start knowing where you will die and who will kill you. The story of a cursed camera that takes prophetic photographs and a nightmare from which only one, the murderer of all the others, wakes up raised eyebrows.

Out of the three published boardgames and a few unpublished ones, Nightmare is my best design. Everyone I've played more than one game of mine with agrees, including my most brutal critic, my son.

Confluence

Together these items form an odd triangle. The Psion Revo and the Illustrated Primer have obvious connections: A PDA is a predecessor to the fantastical Primer. Nightmare is a game whose simulation and story are consonant; in fact all of its channels of game design (simulation, user interface, story, and look and feel) are consonant. They all contribute to the "Nightmare".

My area of interest is making an edifying videogame. This requires a well-designed game with consonant channels of simulation, user interface, story, and look and feel. Additionally it requires each channel is consonant with learning a skill or principle useful in an artistic, business, or academic pursuit.

Having written that, I can't help feel I've cooked my conclusion. Those are honest articles and the motives are pure, but because I've been prototyping and designing my thesis for the past six months, I can't disentangle my current direction from this conclusion.

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This is in response to the assigment:

Part 1: Pick 3 objects (You've done this already)

a) Something significant from your childhood, something important to you - a toy, a talisman a momento.

(don't think too hard, just pick something)

b) An inspiration - a quote, a song, a book, a lyric, a piece of art, an experience, a philosopher, a scientist, just ONE.

c) Something you've done or pursued on your own initiative (scholarly or otherwise) that is deeply interesting/satisfying to you.

Part 2: Questions (Take some time to do this properly, post it.)

a) Why this item is interesting/meaningful/important to you (or universally)?

b) What are the issues, concerns, principles, processes or attributes that surround each item?

c) How is each item relevant: socially, technically, politically, phenomenologically?

d) What do you not know about the item, and would like to investigate?

Part 3) Step Back (Post this as well.)

a) Look at your three items as a whole and see if you can discover similarities (literal or abstract), are there intersections?

b) Does your analysis suggest an area of interest, or (series of) questions?