It's better to burn out, than to fade away

Ouch!

Bye Bye Wisdom Teeth, Hello Pain. I am seriously regretting getting my wisdom teeth out on Friday when I had so much to do this weekend. I'm hoping my work won't suffer from my cloud of pain and Vicodin....

Posting Day!

Today is posting day....a month's worth crammed into two hours.... Go me.

Little Pleasures

In this hectic semester, year, life, I like to take a little time and reflect on some little pleasure I get out of something I see, do, hear, taste or smell. Maybe I'll make it a point to write something about this each week as it will give me something to post(yay) and time to think about it. This week it is:

I take pleasure every time I get money out of a Wellsfargo ATM. After pushing the cash button, the processing screen shows a picture of a cute, smiling, happy guy. I enjoy the time I have with my smiling guy. I have named him Cole. So, this week, Cole, you are my little pleasure!

Everyone feel free to add your own little pleasure to my lonely comments. Or ignore me. Either way, have a nice day!

Thesis Prep - Scope Assignment

This is one idea. I have others, which I'll probably post soon

Title: Abreaction (sooo not marketable :) )

Description and Material
I envision a narrative television program. While I want it to be interactive, I do not feel comfortable describing this idea as such because it will not be immediately affected by the participatory audience. It will allow a single/small # of PA each week to shape content but for most of it the PA will be passive. If I were to decide to go with this topic, I would come up with and define a different term then interactive television.

Topic/Subject Matter
Memory is a powerful part of our fascinating brains. Often, the experiences and moments that stick with us the most are the ones that are more negative. Recently, I was sitting on a wall having a cigarette and all of a sudden a moment of an embarrassing nature popped into my head. Immediately, I flushed and actually cringed and turned my head away from the memory. This provoking, knee-jerk reaction really excited me. I’m sure we all have some of these moments in our lives. I would like to explore what can be gained by reliving/viewing them. Webster’s defines embarrassment as “the shame you feel when your inadequacy or guilt is made public.” It also is defined to, “hinder or prevent the progress or accomplishment of .” When is the point in our lives when we can put these behind us, prevent these moments in our past from hindering us in the future? How? Is it possible by examining it, holding it up and seeing it in a new way?
The Experience
For many people, television is a fixed medium. It is a passive experience, a babysitter, an entertainer or a deliverer of information. I would like to explore the television as a different tool, one for learning, helping, affecting the viewer’s life. My idea is this show is vehicle for catharsis, but I haven’t worked out specifics. Ideally, I would like the show’s content to be based on actual viewers and their moments, and have an aspect where they are involved. For most of the audience it would be passive and it wouldn’t be personal, but people like to identify with others, and many of us may have found ourselves in similar situations.
Question Answered?
Well, this doesn’t exactly answer why interactivity. Nor does it involve a specific character. I do think it explores getting a viewer into the world of TV, and at the same time getting something out of it. It explores mixing real life and created narrative.

542 Open Mic #1

Market Research!

To follow is my powerpoint slides on my open mic, with my notes(copied straight from pp notes btw) below each slide

Market Research – what is it? There are many definitions, but I like to call It the missing piece of the puzzle. IT connects the designer/creator/marketer to the user/viewer/consumer. It can be used in many different situations as well, perhaps sometimes it’s a border piece and sometime its not. It can be used at the beginning, and it can be used at the end of development. Most of this stuff, I have already learned or gleaned from my big bad extracurricular book. I’ve tried to pick out what would be most important to you guys.

Obviously, it is not necessary to go through all of this, I only have 30 minutes and I’ll already be hurrying to get through everything. But these are the 11 steps a researcher can take. This would be if you all were to hire someone, I’ll keep it more on a level of doing it yourself.

Before I begin with some of the steps, I’d like to explain a little more about research in case there are some things you guys don’t know
Primary researching is research designed by you to fulfill a specific need. Secondary research is the stuff we have all used in researching. Here is a site that connects you to other sources of research, though most of them are subscription services.

Numbers, surveys, statistics
Thoughts, feelings, ideas


Observation
Can be direct (watching customers), indirect (garbalogy), disguised (secret shopper), undisguised (people meters) structured (pays attention to what is needed) unstructured (records everything), usually requires videotape/audio & human notes

Depth Interviews
Probing questions one-on-one

Protocol Analysis
It’s thinking aloud. Placing a person in a decision making situation and asking him her to verbalize everything they consider when they make a decision.

Objectives of Focus Groups
(starting pt for new products or features)
(helps improve communication)
(reactions)
To understand findings from quantitative
Optimal size is 6-12
Homogenous characteristics
Up to 90 minutes in comfortable setting
Effective moderator required

Participants are projected into simulated activities in hopes they will divulge things about themselves that they might not reveal in direct questioning

WAT – reading words to a respondent who answers first word that comes to mind – used for deciding brand and copy. “response latency” a too long pause may mean no immediate association to the word
SCT – sentences that are incomplete used to find themes for example Someone who drinks tea is _______?
PT – describe reactions to picture by writing a short story
BT – line drawing with empty balloon, ask participants to fill it in
Role playing is pretending participant I another person such as friend or neighbor as what they would comment “What would your best friend say if you bought a $200 pair of Ray-Bans”


Do you need to do research? Think about Project X and decide what questions you need answered. Is there a way to get this information from another source. Perhaps there is enough available secondary data.
What else is out there? Is a project similar. How can you set yourself apart?

An objective is the actions you’ll take to achieve your goal. If you want to make a breakthrough new input device, what information do you need to know how to do this. For this, you need to Do your homework
Know what the problem or opportunity is. Do homework on it, using secondary research.

This is very important. In fact I think going through these last few steps and defining the statement could be useful even without doing the research. You will clearly define what you need to do to better your project. What are its principles. What are the symptoms of failure or Signals of opportunity (hopefully the latter). What are the causes. IF you research how will this better inform your research?

If you need to know how the 3rd and 4th fingers are used when using a mouse in your target audience that is 21-35 hispanic gay males—can you find that information? Do you need to do it yourself (probably yes) that’s a gap. Now you have an objective

I’m sure you have all heard these three terms, but the above presentation more then anything depends on knowing this. Wanting to “design for the masses” still requires knowing which mass of the masses will you want to use your product.

Target Audience is a definition of the demographics and psychographics of the ideal player user viewer participatory audience. Things to consider when deciding is avenue of distribution. TV has a different user then an art installation…

There also can be secondary audiences ways to include a broader range of people.

Demos – age, sex, location, income, education, race
Psychos – likes, dislikes, hobbies, interests, activities, values and opinions

Narrowing is usually done a lot more in the demo area then in the psycho area.