In addition to making a group on facebook, I created a blog page on wordpress… please go to whatfeedsyou.wordpress.com
getting the “what feeds YOU” word out there February 1, 2009
Okay so I decided to make a group on facebook to start getting user participation with my project. Here is the group I posted and what I asked them to do when they join.
The group on facebook is called whatfeedsyou… please join!
Hi all,
As you may already know, I am working on my master’s
thesis this year and have come up with a concept that I am
very excited about. The campaign, ‘what feeds YOU,’
focuses on increasing the awareness around the issue of
emotional eating, and a key attribute of the concept is to
build a community based on this topic.
I am asking people to share their stories about and
experiences with emotional eating and would love to have my
friends and family be a part of the community. From my
surveys and questionnaires, I believe that many of us
struggle with it in some form based on where we are in our
lives. My goal is to create a positive peer-to-peer network
that shares and distributes unbiased information on the
issue of emotional eating.
I’m in the process of creating an online experience where
people can post their stories, poems, artwork, photos, and
videos about their experiences with emotional eating. This
is an area where people can express themselves in a creative
way and be inspired by others’ stories and experiences. On the ‘what feeds YOU’ site, users will be able to feel comfortable sharing as openly as they want while maintaining whatever level of anonymity they desire.
I need to get the ‘what feeds YOU’ word out there
and Facebook is an excellent first step. I am asking all of
you to share any stories or experiences that you have had
with emotional eating. If it is something that you know you
do, talk about it. Tell us what kind of food you turn to
when you eat based on emotions—what is your comfort food?
If this is something that you used to do but found a way to
move past it, give us some pointers on how you were able to
gain control.
The stories don’t have to be long; just share with us
your experiences. If you are someone who is more visual and
would like to express your feelings by a photograph you took
or a drawing, share it with us.
Are you bored at work and are tempted by the office snack
table and want to eat? Get on Facebook instead and use that
energy and tell us why.
Are you a student and stressed out with projects, papers,
professors, and exams? Share your story here to get
suggestions from others.
Are you planning a wedding and are stressed out
with family, time, and details? Take a picture and talk
about it rather than turning to food for comfort.
Basically, tell us why you are driven to emotionally eat
and gain support from the community to live a healthier
lifestyle—in mind, body, and spirit. The more
participation the better—if you have friends and family
who would be interested in sharing their stories and
experiences, please pass this along.
Angel Investors January 8, 2009
I found a pretty good site that describes what an Angel Investor is and does. Here are some key points that I was able to find.
• Invest in businesses looking for a higher return than what they would see from more traditional investments
• Entrepreneurs who want to help other entrepreneurs get their business off the ground
• Funding can vary, but usually stays in the range from $150,000 to $1.5 million
• Angel Investors offer more than money, they also offer expertise, experience and contacts
• The total amount invested by angels has been estimated at anywhere from $20 billion to $50 billion
• Angel Investors Expect a lot such as a possible board position, good communication, quarterly reports, weekly updates
Some research on Information Architecture November 18, 2008
Notes from Information Design Handbook
• “The function (and often the physical form) of the design piece is primarily determined by two factors: the information density, and the audience.
• The quantity and accessibility of the content affects the suitability of a specific vehicle.
• The following artifacts are utilized by information designers according to the needs of the end user, the resources of the client, and the time available…
Calendars, timelines, and timetables
Charts and graphs
Diagrams and schematics
Exhibitions and environments
Exterior signage, wayfinding elements, and kiosks
Icons and symbols
Interfaces, both physical and digital
Maps
3-d models and computer simulations
Storyboards and narratives
Technical illustrations
Tutorials and instructions
Websites, animations, and interactive media
Proper process to follow
Defining a problem move through research
Prototyping
Testing
Refinement
And final focus on a delivery
• Most definitions of information design include language such as “design for human use” or “human-centered.” But what happens when the intended audience isn’t mankind?
*** Look up Muriel Cooper **** “marriage between design and technology
• “The goal of any information design task is to communicate a specific message to the end user in a way that is clear, accessible, and easy to understand.
To achieve this…
• The designer spends hours researching subject matter and intended audience
Exploring creative, conceptual, technical, and production issues
• Carefully crafting that message with rhetoric, imagery, typography, layout, and form
Learning styles
• All individuals prefer some particular sensory method (or mode) of experiencing, interacting with and remembering new information
****Look up Kenneth Dunn learning styles****
• Visual, auditory/verbal, and kinesthetic/tactile
Visual meant to be remembered by picture, map, chart, or film
• Auditory/verbal, Written and spoken words
Presented in the form of lectures, written documents, and group discussion. They study by reading, writing notes, listening, and talking
• Kinesthetic/tactile
Acquire knowledge by doing
Physically experience new information by using large and small muscle groups and need to touch and feel content.
They will act out skits, role-play
Keep things consistent
• Use grids, flow-lines, and typography to create familiarity in layouts. Studies show that consistent placement of content creates scanpaths to which the viewer will soon become accustomed.
• The term “wayfinding” describes how an individual orients him- or herself within a new environment, and the cognitive processes used to determine and follow a route, traversing from one point to the next.
• Keep the design simple so that users feel comfortable.
• Avoid anything that doesn’t serve a function (decorative flourishes, unnecessary gradients, meaningless patterns.
********** Look up Jonathan Harris*************
Mood Boards November 10, 2008
I need to move further with some rapid prototyping. Before I do that I needed to go back, research and get some inspiration after speaking with Kirwan. I worked on some wireframes this weekend, but realized that was the wrong direction to be moving forward with. I need to create someone more than what is already out there. This is no surprise… I just got a little stuck, but now I feel that I have some steam. I put together these mood boards to get a general idea of what I need to begin prototyping. I researched a lot of sites and found ones that were similar to what I am trying to accomplish with my final deliverable. 
User Testing November 1, 2008
Proposal:
Date: Thursday October 30, 2008
Location: Thesis studio classroom
Time: 6:00-7:00 pm
Partner: Alpay
Attendees Prototype 1:
1. Name: Catherine Lewis (2nd year DT)
Prototype 1: Video confessionals
Role review experiential prototype and provide feedback
2. Name: Tarynne Goldenberg (2nd year DT)
Prototype 1: Video confessionals
Role review experiential prototype and provide feedback
3. Name: Julia Valera
Prototype 1: Video confessionals
Role review experiential prototype and provide feedback
Prototype 1
Catherine and Tarynne
Julia
To view the video documentation please go to this link:
http://www.vimeo.com/user893152/videos
Attendees Prototype 2:
1. Name: Julia Valera
Prototype 2: Media Collage
Role review experiential prototype and provide feedback
2. Name: Subalekha Udayasankar
Prototype 2: Media Collage
Role review experiential prototype and provide feedback
Prototype 2
Prototype 2_Julia
Prototype2_Suba
Please watch the video:
http://www.vimeo.com/2127827
Experiment:
The experiment will consist of two videos. I will be showing my previous video prototype with another video as a continuation of new documentation. I feel that it is important to show both because I am creating another layer to the original one. I want to find from my users what is and is not working. Since I am working with multimedia it is time for me to incorporate the other forms of media that I am working with other than video.
I will be demonstrating this with QuickTime movies through projection. I feel that this is the best way to demonstrate my work for the time being as it will eventually take on a new form. The video will consist on my documentation and point of view of emotional eating. I will show this through video, pictures and text.
Alpay will be documenting this experience through the form of video and photo documentation. Once this experiment is conducted I will take the documentation and combine them together to make a movie. Once that is set up I will post it on my blog.
User testing feedback:
Catherine and Tarynne Feedback Prototype One:
Overall, I received a lot of useful information from my peers. The first group, Catherine and Tarynne had a lot of valuable feedback. They viewed prototype one of the video confessions without me explaining anything beforehand. I wanted them to go through the experience without leading them in any way on how to view or what to look for in the prototype. Their overall feedback was they needed to feel more of an emotional connection with the people in the videos. This was exactly what I needed to know in order to move forward with this concept.
Catherine expressed she had a disconnection with the video at first. It was unclear to her if the text displayed was the dialog of the people in the video. She appreciated the “cocktail party chatter” 1 that was going on in the background, however she wanted to hear each person when they said their comments. She wanted to know what they were saying actually came from them and was not reading false text. Catherine had a great suggestion to have the constant chatter lowered and raise the volume when the comments are shared.
Tarynne agreed with Catherine that there was some disconnection during the video. She wanted to hear the words of each person, as it would have impacted her more. They were both distracted by the choice of font and would have rather seen something less upbeat. One element that impressed Tarynne was the fact there was a mixture of men and women expressing themselves. She also expressed that this has a lot of potential for growth and could become very effective.
I asked them both if they thought people would be able to relate to this. They both said “absolutely” 1 and 2. I found it very interesting how Catherine openly came out and said that she suffers from emotional eating and was able to relate. They agreed this could eventually become a community for people to join and gain resources. They both believed that it would make sense to present this data and form of interaction live on the web or via video.
I was very happy with their feedback and gained a lot from hearing what they had to say. Moving forward I will use a lot of their suggestions because I agreed with most of what they had to say. Even though they are DT students in some cases they actually ended up being my target audience.
Julia feedback Prototype One:
Again, I was very pleased with the feedback I received from Julia and believe that I ended up picking strong users who had valuable feedback to offer me. Julia stated that it made her realize how many people have a commonality with issues relating to food. She expressed it had a big impact for her to see all of the videos playing at the same time. It was interesting for her to see all the different types of people who suffer and how some of them at first didn’t appear to have food issues.
Her feedback on the functionally of the video at first, was how hard it was to hear and focus on what the voices said. She was too caught up in the overall chatter, which made it difficult for her to make a connection with what voice went to what face. The text made it clearer and she was able to “bounce” 3 around the screen in order to understand what was happening. She mentioned she could see a community form around this and used YouTube as an example. I found it very interesting she was able to make that connection, but also she was able to realize there is no connection with YouTube that can easily support these people. Seeing it all in one place was a huge impact for her as she was able to understand the topic and have a meaningful connection with the subject material.
Julia feedback Prototype Two:
Prototype two was not as clear as Julia would have liked it to be. She was focused on the text in the middle and was trying to make a connection between the dialog and the text. She was expecting to see the words she was hearing match the text she was reading. Once she realized they didn’t connect she understood what was being communicated afterwards. Julia responded well with the different visuals being displayed and felt they were effective. She explained the videos at the top were too small and would have liked to see them scaled up in the middle. The more memorable visuals were the videos of the talk shows because she could identify with them.
I feel she had some helpful suggestions on how to make the piece stronger. One idea was to keep all of same elements, but have less playing at the same time. This would allow the viewer to focus more on understanding each area. Overall, Julia felt there was too much going on at the same time and was not able to make certain connections. This was excellent feedback for me because now I can revisit this design and make it more cohesive.
Subalekha feedback Prototype Two:
Subalekha’s user testing was very motivating for me and got me even more excited about my project. Her feedback was so interesting because in a way she started to create her own confessional of her past struggles with food. She was able to open up to it and change something in her life to overcome her problems. Subalekha came to this country fascinated by the fast food choices available to the public. She explained that McDonalds was exciting for her because it was something not offered at her hometown and the concept of giving a dollar and receiving your order within minutes was something very new to her. Like most Americans, she began to notice her food obsession began to show on her waistline. She also expressed other areas in her life that contributed to her poor eating patterns.
Aside from Subalekha’s personal story she offered to share with me she was able to present me with some feedback regarding the prototype. Her comments started off with the prototype being very clear at first with the voice describing their emotional eating problem. I know that she was able to make an emotional connection because she mentioned that she felt very bad for the person talking in the background. It was powerful for Suba to see the persons face in the end because she was able to identify with the person speaking. Once she expressed her emotions about the person telling the story she was reminded of what it was like for her to feel the same way. She made that connection and related it with her own experiences. In a way this was very rewarding for me because I was able see this first hand.
Subalekha had several comments about the video, including she felt there could have been one more element added that appeared to be missing. She wasn’t sure what it was but felt a disjoint between the overall piece. She suggested that one possible idea could be to change the order of the information to make it more interesting. I liked her idea of a surprise element to keep the viewer drawn to the piece. She expressed that she got the point and desired more variety to keep her attention.
Overall, the user testing was very beneficial for further development. A lot of my questions were answered and some new ones arose. I was impressed with the feedback I got and honestly felt my users were excited about my project. The feedback I received has motivated me to want to take this to the next level. The main questions that I have to answer next are:
Shrink Yourself October 22, 2008
Out of all the sites I have seen dealing with emotional eating, shrinkyourself.com is the most beneficial one. There is a section on the site that specifically deals with emotional eating. There are a lot of informational articles that touch upon food and emotions. I really enjoy reading all of the blogs that people participate in with sharing their struggles and concerns. I have used a lot of these blogs in my journals in my search to create a successful thesis that people will care about. Michelle Fiordaliso is a Clinical Director for Shrink Yourself who writes on the blogs and has a lot of helpful tips.
Blog
Please check out the site:
link
Paris Fashion Week October 19, 2008
It is no surprise that America is obsessed with beauty and body image. I searched around for images from paris fashion week that was held a few weeks ago. I saw lots of photographs and video footage of the shows. Are we obsessed with the beautiful clothing coming down the runway or are we obsessed with the models that walk the runway? They all have the same characteristics tall, thin and flawless. Is this behavior teaching our society that a size zero is what defines beauty or can this been seen as an art form? I have a deep appreciation for fashion, however there are some forms of it that I find unnecessary. All of this images can put more pressure for everyday normal people to have the desire to look like these people.
I looked at these images to research how my topics somewhat relates to body image. I think it was productive because I may be able to use some of these images in my archive.
style.com
