Author / Luna

by Luna

Reading Response- Class 12

Question: How do you project surveillance affecting the digital future? 

I think surveillance is one of the most important civil liberty issues of this generation.  As digital spaces consume every aspect of our lives, the distinction between “real life” and internet lessens, and our personal and private information becomes part of the Internet and by extension, becomes part of corporate and governmental matters.  I think judging on the way we have treated whistle blowers like Snowden, governmental-secret curators like Assange, and corporations like Facebook and Google who profit off private information, it is fair to understand how individuals and corporations are treated very differently when it comes to discovering secret information. Unless we prioritize a shift of knowledge and rights around the Patriot Act, I think many people, in the Untied States and affected by U.S. policy will find that they are unfairly targeted because of the use of digital spaces to profit off of supposedly private information.

by Luna

Reading Response- Class 8

Do designers have a responsibility to do good? 

Yes and no.  I think the ability to create and the exercise of creating is positive, no matter what it is, because creating is what propels us into new realms of living.  The ability to imagine and then make what before was just fantasy, is beautiful.  If we continue to imagine and create worlds based on that imaginative thinking, we will continue to grow as a collective species.

 

This is not to dismiss the issue with designing destructive products; there are obvious concerns with 3D printing a gun or even on a greater level- making the atomic bomb.  While it would be great if people chose only to design positively, the issue is not with the way people design, but with the way people think, and the power and profit that go to ideas that are negative towards the earth and other humans.  Censoring ideas will do nothing but circulate more negativity and the real solution would be to foster environments and spaces that invite positivity and beauty as opposed to fantasizing destructive apparatuses.

by Luna

Reading Response (Class 5)

Is web design really similar to designing a book? What are some issues with the idea of robots designing web pages?

 

The podcast compared the web design layout to the ways books are designed. On a superficial level this metaphor is useful but I think that the way web design can be viewed should be deeper than this.  The fact that our society is so interconnected with the way digitally is viewed and used should push us to stretch our minds in order to think of new ways to see digital spaces instead of neutralizing it.  The act of standardizing what websites look like implies there is a departure of web design from art as it becomes more about fitting the norm. This is also concerning when thinking of computers as opposed to humans creating websites which would ultimately yield to the end of intentional and thoughtful human interaction with digitally.  The design of digital spaces and websites does influence the content we view and I think as creators it is important to stay involved.

by Luna

Reading Response (Class 4)

Is “killing your idols” the end all be all in regards to the myth of objectivity?

In his piece, Kothary points the reader to Haidt’s research that posed reason as  an unstable concept with no possibility of being truth. Our natural inclination to find the truth often goes hand in hand with our desire to find reason and if reason is not a consistent truth than much of what we believe to be objective is created in the mind. His metaphor of the rider / elephant  can be seen in institutions like media and education where we are showed only what has been deemed as objective but as Kothary explains the insidious desire for objective truth affects taste as well.
In order to kill idols I think there is also a greater need to kill objectivity and our desire to see objectively. Killing what we have noticed before as being beautiful is important but I think there is also great value in continuously deconstructing what we see as “knowledge”, where it comes from  and who created it. If we see something as beautiful, it is definitely helpful to realize there is beauty and importance beyond that, but more important is the realization that the institution of beauty has been created in our society to maintain certain patterns of thinking.
by Luna

Reading Response Class 2

How has the development of hyperlinks and technology impacted the way we tell stories today? 

While the article mentions that the non-linear information sharing site, “Buzz”, failed, I can identify some ways that the idea of pulling together fractured sections of stories is used today to create a broader constellation of archives.  When thinking of the way in which media and specifically journalism sites work today, the individual users’ ability to access and contribute to online sites also changes the information we receive.  Through social media sites like Twitter and Facebook as well as through blogs and online news sites that use citizen journalism, people who have historically not had a voice are able to share their perspective when it comes to news, technology and cultural events.  While before news was written by an elite few who had access to education and a certain rhetoric, the somewhat neutralizing landscape of the internet makes it so that anyone with access to internet can contribute.
Because we have more individuals from different ethnic, gender, location and class backgrounds contributing knowledge, we collectively have more holistic stories. I think the most fundamental idea this challenges is that of objective history and knowledge; what we previously think of as “fact” we now can see is heavily dependent on the individual viewpoint and experience. Therefore the line between fact and opinion are blurred to create a non-linear and inclusive story.  While there is not one singular site that can create a a “hyperlink story” in which all different aspects are shown, the idea lives on through the internet as a platform that allow individuals to search and explore one topic or event through different websites that are specific to different communities and individuals.
by Luna

Web Designer Profile- Luna

Andrew Hinton- Information Architect

    1. Hinton is currently working with an information architecture consulting practice but in the past, in addition to working with these types of businesses, he has also worked a lot with investment management companies among others.
    2. Hinton has been working in experience design and strategy for twenty years. He studied at the University of Louisville where he went to get an MA, as well as University of North Carolina at Greensboro where he got and MFA.
    3. As a person on the lecture circuit, Hinton uses public speaking skills every day.  As a blogger and author, he also uses writing skills every day.  He also actively uses his skills in design strategy, mobile design and content/ context strategy.
    4. Hinton is really interested in social software as a tool and an object of research.  He uses and studies many different softwares including Facebook, Path and Twitter.
    5. Some people he works with and admires are people who are also part of the Information Architecture Foundation which he helped create, including Abby Covert, Judy Siegel and Samuel Bowles.
    6. Three websites-

Most of Hinton’s work is in the strategic background aspect as opposed to the visual components.  These are three projects he has worked with.

      1. http://iainstitute.org/en/about/our_mission.php– This is an institute which was started in part by Andrew Hinton. Committed to education, advocacy and services, this institute strives to bring awareness to the importance of the “invisible work” of information architecture that is usually looked over.  One of the values listed is that of “strengthening brand” which I think is something that can make or break a brand, but is often not highly valued.  
      2. https://investor.vanguard.com/corporate-portal/– This is one of the earlier websites which Hinton helped create as the senior information architect. I admire it because I think his detail and emphasis on brand shows and what is located on the front page is well curated. In addition, I think it is important to make something complicated like investing easy to understand and I think he did a good job doing that with this website.
      3. http://www.macquarium.com/services/– I really liked this websites because I thought it was really interesting at first glance and did not realize it wasn’t a “creative’ type website. I think the brand is simple and elegant and the way in which he laid out the flow of the website to be easy for an every-day user is important.  Overall it seems that he tries to make more complicated corporations and businesses more accessible for everyday users and I admire that!