Social Networking 55+

Under the title "Social Networking 55+" the brief in the first module of this semester was to design, in teams of four, in five weeks a cross-generational social network. It was important not just to take an existing concept and "translate" it for an older generation and put some large buttons and large type in to make it accessible, but to find a concept that is interesting for different generations. We were supported by lecturers and assistants with know-how from the fields of digital media and corporate design. A challenge for me personally was also to work in a new academic environment and with three skilled and motivated swiss girls with a relatively resolute attitude.



In the first week, we asked ourselves what is the commodity that every older person regardless of class, income, education or social status has. We realised that it is the experiences that have been collected over the years. For example memories of school, social services or personal success.

As this is a cross-generational feature, basically everyone can tell a story. Everybody is a witness to history. This is the term that would influence our concept the most. We imagined an old box, found somewhere in the attic, that contains family stories, secrets and experiences in the form of old letters, pictures or historical newspaper cutouts.

In a definition of the term 'oral history', a historiological method that collects historical information through interviews, we found this quote:

„Historians have recognized that the everyday memories of
everyday people, not just the rich and famous, have historical
importance. If we do not collect and preserve those memories,
those stories, then one day they will disappear forever.“

To counteract this disappearing of history, we came up with ´storybox'. Storybox is an online community where you can share personal stories in the form of image, moving image, audio or text and browse through them in their original historical context. Our aim is it to preserve and connect these fascinating pieces of history, mapping the changing zeitgeist through the ages. Storybox encourages the sharing of parts of personal history and connects them so that through associations new stories emerge. Collective historical events are being preserved. Through the sharing of personal stories, individual users will get encouraged to share their own stories as well. Stories are mediated directly without a third narrator such as historians or teachers. Authenticity and genuineness are important. Ideally different stories get linked together and form a larger "whole".

Storybox isn't specifically aimed at over 55 year olds, because even younger generations can already be witnesses to history. Storybox is for people that wish to share their own history or parts of it, preserve it for future generations and want to find out interesting things about other stories. Our users are people interested in history, nostalgic people and students that seek to find a personal position in relation to history and the teaching of it. Our users can therefor be from different age groups.

After we defined our target audience and decided what we want to do with our social network and what values we follow, it was time to think about the structure. The interesting lectures and workshops of a professional information and interaction designer helped us. Our website is roughly devided into two parts that are accessible with or without registration respectively. While our aim is to encourage users to sign up and share their own stories, we also want them to browse the stories of other people without having to join first so they can get interested. Without registration the user can view material through various filters and browse them. After registering they can write comments, manage their favourites or upload their own material. We visualised these scenarios in various sitemaps and flowcharts.

After the first three weeks we were clear about our concept, scenarios, sitemaps and sructure. Now we needed the visual design. Beside a suitable logo, branding and tonality we also had to design the seperate website elements (timeline, header, footer, menus, content, etc.) and put them together into a prototype that allows others to understand how our website works. In order to draw a connection between the web and stories or books, we decided to use Antiqua typefaces. Our logo is set in Hoefler Text Regular, a literary face with long tradition, and makes the user instantly aware of the topic ´stories'. The ligature represents the connections between the stories and offers a high level of brand recognition because of it´s rare appearence elsewhere. These are some of the logo variations from the initial design stage of the project:

Originally we decided to use Georgia for body copy, a contemporary system font which is reminiscent of book typefaces. As a sober contrast we decided to use Helvetica, a highly legible system font for captions and links. However I have changed this initial decision in my personal rework of the final design. The tonality of our website comprises of the colour red, combined with black and white as well as grey in 3 nuances. Although I changed this tonality later as well, I kept true to our initial inspiration, the atmosphere of an old attic as well as simplicity so that the stories are in the main focus of attention. Red was used as a signal colour, symbolising the leitmotif (in German a "red thread") through the stories and as an eye catcher. Additionally we designed several icons and pictograms for navigational elements that mirror the charme of our website.

After we decided on the tonality, typography and graphic language in week 4, we spent the last week designing the prototype. We had to design the seperate navigational and content elements. Part of this was the timeline, which we wanted to be the main content filter and navigation through the "story universe".

Tied in with the visualisation of the selected timeframe for the stories was also the visualisation of images, text, audio and video data in the virtual space and their connections. Here we created sketches and wireframes which we discussed and improved until we were happy with the way to encourage the user to browse through the content.

As far as the future is concerned, we could imagine that storybox cooperates with relevant magazines and media (e.g. Geo History, Die Zeit, Spiegel, BBC, etc.) and helps to support the convergence between print and online media. For a further financial independence, it could be possible to incorporate advertising space for related companies, magazines and organisations. Also a print option or cooperation with print on demand services (e.g. myphotobook.com) would be possible, so users could print their own story books. The storys could get a blog or comment feature and widgets for external applications could be published (e.g. dashboard, facebook or online magazines). But first, a prototype had to be created:

This was basically the whole planning and design process, which we went through in the 5 weeks of the project. What the final design and prototype actually looks like, how I added my personal touch after finishing the project where so many compromises were necessary and which mark the project got in the assessment, will be revealed in the next post.

Just another way

The last five weeks just flew by and I'm already at the end of the first module. In "Digital Media" a German/English guest lecturer directly from the industry (Interaction Designer for Skype, London) came in and taught us tricks and principles of digital media design, personas and scenarios, wireframing, site mapping and prototyping and guided us through the process of creating a social networking site. In groups of four, we developed concepts for cross-generational social networks that are suitable not only for a younger audience but also for the generation 55+. This was a very interesting experience for me. Not only would I learn a lot more about digital media, I also got the opportunity to do that in a team with very different and interesting people. On the other hand this also meant that I had to get used to a completely different style of working. Getting up at 7.30 every morning and getting home at 7 or 8 at night is different from the Bristol way of working.



Just to recap: In Bristol things are more, well, let´s call it "relaxed". Lectures are typically timetabled for 10am but usually don't start until 10:30. They take the form of a standup talk, seemingly improvised, generalising a lot (e.g. phrases such as "it´s all about appropriateness" or "consider your audience") and showing plenty of more or less relevant examples of work. How these link to the brief is usually left open for interpretation by the 85 students in the class (of which about 50 tend to turn up). Sometimes students don't attend because they simply forgot about it or didn't know it was happening because they don't check their university e-mails and the tutors misspelt their illegible hotmail address. Briefings fall into the scope of these "lectures". A brief typically consists of one or two pages (sometimes as short as 64 words), they get reused every year in order to allow tutors to "tweak" them until they're perfect. Tasks are usually very open and therefor not clearly outlined. There are no strict rules to follow as such, although the briefs frequently state style guides such as "Helvetica, range left, 10pt, 3cm margin". Apparently though these "rules" are there to be "challenged" by the student (and they usually make very little sense). Students come in two days a week for lectures and usually one day for a workshop of some sorts. They can work on the computers in the computer labs, which are shared with the entire faculty. Because this is kind of inconvenient, they tend to work at home, presenting their work in weekly tutorials or a crit at the end of the module. For a crit, 85 students put their work on the table and walk around it. There is a possibility to briefly talk about some pieces, but it´s usually rather painful to stand around for so long, so they tend to keep rather quiet. Tutorials happen in groups of 15 with one tutor per group for about 3 hours; that´s about 12 minutes per student. If students require more time, they can sometimes sign up for a personal tutorial and get 3 minutes more and 1-on-1 time. In the first 3 semesters (1.5 years) students have to give two short 10-minute presentations. Preparations for each of these 10 minute presentations take up a project length of 3 weeks. The first presentation is about their home and their heart, the second one on an industry research topic. Group work usually takes place once per semester in groups of 2-4. Because of the large number of students, groups dont tend to mix a lot. Usually keeners team up with keeners, bums with bums. Sometimes, you can be unlucky and end up in a team that you're not compatible with. That´s why people make sure they team up with others that they know will do lots of work or avoid it respectively. At the end of the semester students bring in everything they made, collected in a portfolio and accompanied by a module file which contains all the bits and bobs they collected over the semester in relation to the projects. They leave the work on the table and are asked to leave promptly so that tutors can spend days and nights trying to find their way through these files and judge a student´s performance on the things they collected in this big lever arch. About a week later, students can come in and queue up for their feedback. Feedback is given in 15 minute 1-on-1 sessions and relates to the performance of the entire module. It is usually written on a feedback form in 3 to 4 sentences and is usually as concrete as 'you are working well, you need to challenge yourself on a daily basis' or 'your work nearly teeters on the edge of almost being too gimmicky'.

That was just to recap and sum up my experience in Bristol. I'm not implying that´s bad (well, I kinda am, since I'm not very happy with it) but it´s one way of running a course. Well, people already told me to f* off elsewhere if I don't like it there, and now I have the great chance of experiencing how a course is run in Switzerland and can feed back my experiences. Maybe someone finds it inspiring. It´s different indeed, how most people would expect. After the first 5 weeks, at the end of the first module and having finished the first project, here´s a comparison. Again, I'm not saying one is better than the other, everyone needs to see for themselves which one they would prefer.

In Zurich, things are far more structured and organised. Improvisation isn't typical for the Swiss. Lectures are timetabled for 9am and they start on time. If you want a coffee at 8.57, forget it—or the door will be closed. Well, sometimes things don't run as planned, there might be technical difficulties etc. so delays do happen. But it still means that the 20 students all turn up for 9am sharp. Lectures are well prepared, accompanied by slides and outlined in advance so students can prepare themselves for it. They cover topics such as "Interaction Design" or "Prototyping with Flash" and use lots of relevant examples at the appropriate point in the lecture. You won't hear "consider your audience" but "how to create and visualise personas and scenarios in the conceptual process in order to tailor your design to a specific target audience and why this is important" (perhaps not in a sentence like this but you get the idea). This means instead of simply stating the obvious ("it´s about appropriateness") there´s a larger emphasis on the how, why and when.

Briefings are not lectures (by definition). However they still start on time as outlined in the timetable which students get e-mailed and can subscribe to in iCal. Students actually check their university e-mail address because a lot of important information is communicated by this means. Additionally it´s made very easy for them to set up their e-mail client through step by step guidance. Nobody needs, wants or does use a web interface to check this address because it puts people off. This is possible because it´s mandatory for every student to bring their own computer. The one brief I got so far consisted of 9 pages. It explains the initial position and background, the actual task with points to consider, a detailed to-do list outlining the different stages of the project, a timetable outlining what happens each week and what needs to be presented and prepared, examples of story boards for interaction and a template for own storyboards and scenarios. This brief was tailored to this class and while the modules and the learning outcomes stay the same every year for the appropriate semester, the brief still changes so people can't simply go to a student in a higher semester and get an idea of what it needs to look like. This obviously requires more work and preparation from the lecturers and tutors and can't be done by copy & paste. But that´s what they get paid for after all. It´s their job and they do it well. Tasks are fairly specific with some similarities to a real industry brief. They offer guidance by dividing the work up into different stages. Yet the task is not set in stone and still negotiable. If through their research students decide to make changes to the suggested task, they're free to do so as long as they can justify it. In this particular example the brief asked specifically to create a cross-generational social network that helps families to connect with each other. Through our research we found a multitude of networks that already fit this task perfectly and therefor decided to create a different social network but maintaining the cross-generational aspect.

Students usually come in every day at 9am and stay until 6pm, sometimes until 11pm when the school shuts. Because every student has a desk space in the studio and turns up every day to work (voluntarily), it actually feels kind of like a real job. A real job, with long hours. They even have a lunch break from 12-1, voluntarily. Nobody tells them to, they just do it. And why not? That´s what they pay for. That´s what they fought for at the entrance test. That´s where they want to be. They bring their own computers, everyone owns a Mac laptop. WiFi with 50 Mbit (I measured it) is provided as well as an A3 b/w printer per room (accessible without problems from your laptop) and A3 colour printers on each floor. The studio has 20 desk spaces and the flair of an open plan office. Everybody has a desk, 2 walls, 4 lockable drawers, a pidgeon hole, plugs and a network cable. There´s an A3 scanner with power Mac and hooded screen, a coffee machine, sink and a microwave. Also two A2 lever guillotines and a large cabinet with different sorts of paper (good paper, not just 80gsm photocopier paper) for everybody to use. It makes sense to come in every day, for the equipment and the company.

In this 5 week project, we had to deliver 3 presentations. That´s proper presentations with slides, notes, talking in front of the class and lectures, everything. These presentations were delivered to a high standard even though they were a tool and not a means to an end. We were told that we don't do a project to give presentations, we give presentations to pitch our ideas to the class and to the lecturers. Because the presentations were positioned at 3 points of the project, the beginning, the middle and the end, it gave the tutors a good insight into our process and where we stand at every stage of the project. It also allowed us to focus and make important decisions. I had the feeling that the structure really "carried" us through the project. There was no way we could waste valuable time or go off on a tangent. The structure always brought us back on track because it forced us to focus. That way, presentations really make sense. More sense than talking about your home just for the sake of doing a presentation anyway. Every week we also had tutorials. Because we worked in groups of four, we got 45 – 60 minutes with all four lecturers. The team of lecturers consisted of two specialists for branding and corporate design, an interaction designer and a web designer (all with an industry background). That´s a ratio of 45 – 60 minutes per student and lecturer with the advantage of getting advice of four experts on our project. Added note of awesomeness: the lecturers were so prepared for our tutorials that they each had a printed sheet with our names and photos (the photos are from the student ID database) on which they collected notes throughout the project.

The grouping was interesting too. Because I didn't know anyone I was worried I would end up with "shit people" as we usually put it when it comes to group work. I was lucky and got into a group with three highly motivated people though this didn't actually require a lot of luck. I don't think it really matters what group I got into, they were all awesome. Every single one of them.

And finally, the hand-in procedure. After our final presentation we handed in a documentation which was designed to a given style guide (not "Helvetica, 10pt, margin 3cm" but a proper InDesign template with a given grid). This documentation describes our process through every stage of the project, explains our decisions and ideas and had to be printed in an edition of 5 (and all that within the scope of the project — 3 presentations, a documentation and a prototype of a new social networking platform in 5 weeks). The reason for the style guide is that the documentations of every group will be collated into a book and printed properly. That way, everyone gets a copy of everyone elses documentation bound into a book and the tutors don't need to look at useless collected examples of made up research and process. It´s like a professional pitch document and together with the notes on our process that the tutors made throughout the project, forms a good basis for assessment. No need for module files that annoy both students and tutors. The 45 minute feedback session with all four lecturers took place only hours after the final presentation. We were asked to comment on our experience, what we learnt and what we had problems with. Then we got our marks and some very valuable feedback specifically on our process, presentation, final outcome, concept and visual design.















And that´s just another way to run a course.

Welcome to Zurich

Since I've been living here I got about a million letters from the council, asking me to fill in forms, answer questions that I've answered twice already and send evidence of things that they have long photocopied themselves. But the letter I fished out of my post box today was different. A nicely designed leaflet with the town crest on the front and an interesting fold invites me in ten languages to the cathedral for words of welcome and a short tour of the city to allow me to "gain interesting insights about Zurich as well as having the opportunity to make new contacts". This is not some Erasmus thing, it´s an offical invite from the city of Zurich to it´s new citizens. Nice.

And of course there´s going to be an apero as well.

You still have snow?

With an elevation of 1,312 ft above sea level Zurich is significantly higher than Bristol (36 ft) though still not high enough to be a winter wonderland. And so most of the time the town looks a bit like Bristol when the extreme weather hit Britain this winter. But when it´s cloudy and rainy or wet and grey, it´s always a good idea to catch the next train to the Uetliberg and explore Zurich´s strange version of the Eiffel tower which I see every day from my bedroom window. No matter how grey it might look in town, 1,600 ft or 25 minutes higher it looks completely different. Be sure to pack a sledge. To answer the question I got asked so many times recently: yes we still have snow and hell yes, it is fun!

The album with my photos from last weekend can be viewed here.



PS: Thanks for the hat, Mum.

Bread and Cheese and Education

There´s a thing I really love about the Swiss culture and that´s the apero. An apero is a small meal consisting of canapé and drinks, usually Swiss wine, Swiss cheese and Swiss bread with Swiss meat and typically happens at special occasions such as a getting-to-know day of international students at the university, a private view (vernissage) at the opening of an exhibition or an industry talk about proof technology. It´s also a great way to grab not only free food but also free education.



The numerous aperos that I took advantage of in the four weeks that I've been here gave me the opportunity to taste various kinds of the famous Swiss cheese, that would otherwise cost me a fortune to buy. But that´s not everthing, I also got free tours around graphics exhibitions or listened to product designers lecturing in Swiss German about the collaboration of designer and producer—though that was a tricky one, but they had free mulled wine. Last night, I refreshed my memory about ISO 12647-2 (Graphic technology - Process control for the production of half-tone colour separations, proof and production prints) at a talk where big names of the print and proofing industry talked about the latest technology in colour proofing and showed their products. Although I didn't buy everything that they tried to sell me as the truth, it was still a very interesting event where I learnt how much has changed in the 6 years that I haven't been involved in the print industry anymore. And it made me giggle, when I stood at the apero and thought about the last WEDF talk (Richard Murray, packaging design) where they actually took the ticket off you when you wanted a glass of wine to make sure you don't have two drinks. Things are different in Zurich. Industry events and talks are usually free and well busy. There´s usually free food and wine which makes people stay longer and have good conversations. I find them inspiring and want to visit as many as I can. Not necessarily for the cheese but for the free insider knowledge from a variety of fields and disciplines within the creative industry.



Sometimes it´s difficult though. Tomorrow I have two panel discussions to choose from, "Education between artistic standard and market: dilemma or symbiosis?" where a bunch of educators discuss how the economy influences art and design education, or "Good Design = Good Business? Design as a Factor in Advertising" with Jean Etienne Aebi (President of the Art Directors Club Switzerland), Ruedi Baur (a big name in Swiss design) and Stefan Haas (Head of Marketing of the Swiss national railway company). Both of them sound interesting but the latter has the bigger names and it´s already been marked in my iCal—which proofs to be a really useful tool with all the awesome things to see and to do here. So, I'm looking forward to another great talk, and perhaps an apero. Who knows?

Hellau and Alaaf ...

... are two things you hear in Germany but not in Switzerland at Carnival. Carnival, dear English people, is what most nations with some sort of catholic heritage celebrate between the 11th of November and ash wednesday with a peak towards the end of that time. Unfortunately—blame your own history—the only carnival related thing that survived the reformation in Britain is a pastry made of flour, milk and eggs. So while you commemorate the war at the start of the carnival season (11.11.) and enjoy your pancakes at the end of it—and actually think it´s an awesome custom to eat once a year what others have for breakfast every day—most of Europe turns topsy-turvy and parades through the streets with weird costumes, music and lots of alcohol. And of course with pancakes. Swiss carnival pancakes are called Fasnachtschüechli, that´s Swiss German for Fastnachtskuchen or "carnival cake". They're crispy and curvy and actually delicious.



The Swiss got something wrong though. I'm not sure why exactly, but many local carnival celebrations officially started after ash wednesday. Though this defeats the point of Fasnacht ("fasting eve"), since this is supposed to be the night before lent, the Swiss don't seem to bother too much. Particularly interesting was the carnival in Basel this week. It started on Monday morning at 4am with the so called Morgestraich. All the lights in the entire town were turned off at exactly 4am and an endless parade of masked people with lanterns on their heads started to walk through the streets, playing flutes and drums and didn't stop for 72 hours.

So on Monday night I found myself at a balcony in Basel, watching this spectacular show, then having flour soup and onion cake for breakfast at 6am and a little walk through the town by the river Rhine, which we crossed using a cable drawn boat with a hippy driver. When I finally crawled into my bed back in Zurich it was 10.30 in the morning and I knew I'd enjoy my 3 hours of sleep until I had to get up for uni again.

What do the Swiss say instead of Hellau and Alaaf? I don't know. You hear an Alaaf every now and again, but a nice diminutive Swiss version doesn't seem to exist. Maybe Alääfli? Anyway, it was fun. Better than boring pancakes anyway.