Virtual Class Posting 5 - VET Virtual - 3 PM Darwin Time

Join Me in VET Virtual - 3 PM Darwin Time Sept. 27

VET Virtual is a virtual conferencing room utility with up to 16 simultaneous flash video or audio feeds. It has a text chat too and a whiteboard. You can share any kind of resource you'd like as well as upload and present most file types to participants. In short it is a virtual classroom or meeting space.

Here's what to do:

1. Go to this IP address 202.12.92.214
2. Select Enter VET Virtual from the menu on the left (option 2)
3. You are presented with the option to Enter Rooms
4. You can either - enter as a student/guest (text only) OR
5. Register for a room of your own (very easy sign up and you get your OWN Room to use and the ability to use audio and video)
6. Either way you enter - you will then be provided a list of rooms to enter
7. Join the Bill Wade room - we will be able to audio chat and video conference
8. Good luck trying it out and joining

Michael it will be great to hear how your trip is going - we won't keep ya long mate but join us if you can!

See you in VET Virtual, call me for tech assistance if you need to 8946 6026 or read about VET Virtual How To (menu item number 9 - from VET Virtual home page).

Virtual Class Posting 4 - Increasing the Appeal of Designs

Knowing a little about human perception can assist you in strategically increasing the appeal of a design for a target market. Remember our discussion about design firms even using hypnosis to get into the minds and perceptions of target market groups, e.g., young people do not hang out in StarBucks because ... "they only work there."

Well there are many other useful principles of human perception and communication that can benefit you such as:

The Most Average Facial Appearance Effect.
Facism Ratio (we already discussed this one in class, remember?)
Rule of Thirds (yup, good memory ... we covered that one too)
The Savanna Preference
Top Down lighting Bias
Cognitive Dissonance

Pick one of the ones you don't know about and Google it ... post a quick description in the comments section.

Vrtual Class Posting 3 - Learning from Designs

Sometimes we are called upon to create designs that enhance learning. There are many theories pertaining to designs that enhance learning, one of which I'd like to mention here, namely cognitive load.

Cognitive Load refers to:

The level of effort associated with thinking and reasoning (including perception, memory, language, etc.), thus potentially interfering with other thought processes. A user interface strives to minimize the cognitive load associated with operating the interface itself so that all of a person's cognitive resources are available for their task.

There are three types of cognitive load to understand:

Intrinsic Cognitive Load
Extraneous Cognitive Load
Germane Cognitive Load

See if you can find out what each means ... post your findings in the comments.

We will discuss this further online and in class.

Virtual Class Posting 2 - Printed Samples Due (Extension)

Well, guess what? Following your unit outline, your first five samples are due to be printed today. Yup - today. Well since we are meeting virtual - can we all agree to have them printed for our return after the mid semester break? So they will be due on October 11th. These should be good quality prints that you will eventually mount for the exhibition. Hopefully we will score some mounting equipment and gear to do some of those nice mounts that Simon taught us about.

So a BIG reminder - for this unit you are responsible for a total of 10 printed samples - which will be used for your exhibition. The final 5 are due on November 08, just prior to Emerge.

Any questions or concerns- please post in a comment.

Virtual Class Posting 1 - Flickr Badges & Working With Design Clients

Ok - this is cool. Get a Flickr account (free) Post Photos online, then add a nifty Flickr badge to your site like this one here ...

You access Flickr badges through the help menu search - badges ... why there is no direct link to badges is beyond me unless they don't want too many people knowing how to do it and drawing upon their server. As you now know, you then add the flickr badge code to your account via the "layouts" setting option in your Dashboard.

Anyhow - all of you seem to know how to do this now. It was great to see your blogs, which in essence are very detailed E-Portfolios that each of you have designed. Well done gang!

Think about how you could use these skills for working with clients.

A) Setup a Flickr account for your client's project
B) upload samples of designs to your client's account
C) Create a blog for the client's project
D) Send a Flickr badge to your client's project blog
E) Create posts to your clients blog (using sophisticated graphic design jargon and terms to justify your design strategy ... e.g., I specifically made use of anomally in this design to draw focus to the new product line ...
F) Seek comments and feedback on design concepts from your client
G) Make revisions to designs and upload them

What are your views on this type of technology, any pros / cons ... potential problems? Post your comments on this. (click the comments link).

All About Conceptual Design Metaphors

Using metaphors to describe conceptual design

Welcome to DSGN133

Hi everyone

This is my sample site to demo blogging skills for DSGN133, an advanced graphic design course at CDU. Students are engaged in understanding, synthesizing and applying more sophisticated design concepts to their work and design practice. We explore multidisciplinary approaches to design from perceptual psychology to communication theory and semiotics. Great fun! Join us here to see what we think about designs, our own work and the work of our colleagues.