Category: briefs

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briefs

reverse-engineer an interface

In this assignments, students have to reverse-engineer a digital interface, such as an app, a website, or a digital terminal (e.g. an ATM).

They need to :

  • Identify a workflow they will analyse and reverse-engineer.
  • Select the screens they will work on.
  • Re-create the screens, using an interface design software.
  • Create wireframes.
  • Create a raw sketch.
  • Create a basic style guide / pattern library / interface inventory.

Some write-ups of similar exercises:

  • Wireframes by Alexis Gilardi
  • Wireframes by Andasha Wardhana
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sketchnote a TED talk

Produce visual notes for a conference or talk. This is a common exercice in classes and workshops that teach “The Art of Visual Notetaking“.

A typical assignment is the TED Talk by Margaret Gould Stewart, How giant websites design for you.

Writeups:

  • Sketchnotes by Juliana Gregori
  • Sketchnotes by Alexis Gilardi
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a page from another world

An assignment by Golan Levin and Claire Hentschker, at CMU School of Art, in 2018:

Students were asked to write code which generates “a page from another world”: a composition of asemic writing, to be rendered by a computer-controlled Axidraw plotter.

Links

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designing an election campaign

In a class at UMBC (University of Maryland, Baltimore County), by instructor Gary Rozanc, students received the following assignment:

You will be designing an election campaign for a Baltimore City Councilman.

The project is conducted by teams of four. Steps included:

  • Researching political campaigns at the local level
  • Conducting an interview with a councilman who is running for election.
  • Creating a Project Brief & Production Schedule.
  • Give a 10 to 12 minute presentation on why your design decisions are the best choices for the client.
  • Submitting final campaign files.
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briefs

fictitious mobile application

Create a fictious mobile application, with a prototyping app (Sketch, Adobe XD, InVision…).

Found in the student portfolio of ​​​​Felecia Wilkins, from Elon University, assigned in Visual Aesthetics class: https://feleciawilkins.wixsite.com/portfolio

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Kinetic Typography

Create a kinetic typography video that accompanies an audio of your choosing.

Found in a student showcase from Elon University: https://feleciawilkins.wixsite.com/portfolio (archive)

In my Visual Aesthetics class, which focused on graphic design principles, we were given the task to complete a kinetic typography video that accompanied an audio of our choosing. I chose the poem titled “The Dream Keeper” by Langston Hughes because I found it to be inspiring and uplifting. 

Each illustration was made in Adobe Illustrator and imported into After Effects afterwards to be animated.

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Robocall

Students have to design a “Robocall”, using the audio capability of Adobe XD.

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People as pixels

An experiment carried out by John Maeda at MIT (Computational Media Design Course) in 1996. Described in his book Creative Code (p.216):

As a continuation of the collaborative coding process, we attempted an experiment to better understand visual design on the computer. In the atrium of the Media Lab, we rigged up a camera on the fourth floor pointing downward; in the lower lobby, we projected the image seen from above so that the students (as pixels) could see themselves. The idea was that each student took charge and “programmed” the pixels, whether by script or direct commands.

Maeda mentions the source of this idea:

My inspiration for this experiment was a Bauhaus story of an old Master taking his students to the gymnasium to walk on the paths of large circles to graps the form’s essence.

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One-line-at-a-time collaborative programming experiment

An experiment carried out by John Maeda at MIT (Computational Media Design Course) in 1996. Description from his book Creative Code (2004):

One day I brought a computer and projector to class. I opened up an empty Java program skeleton, and asked the class to edit the program as a collaborative process, whereby one line of code was entered by each person.

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design tools survey

An assignment by Manuel Schmalstieg at EAA La Chaux-de-Fonds. The students had to produce a survey of tools and methods used in a professional field.

A class of Interactive Design students created a “2018 survey” of design tools used by digital agencies, in Switzerland and France.

The tasks involved:

  • Defining the questions of the survey.
  • Selecting an online survey tool (we chose Typeform)
  • Building a contact list to mail out the survey.
  • Creating a Mailchimp newsletter to send out the survey and allow for follow-up.
  • Designing a visual concept for the presentation of the survey results (we used Figma).
  • Coding the website.

Time available: 28 hours (in 7 sessions).

The initial brief: https://github.com/eaa-imd/designtools

The resulting website: https://eaa-imd.github.io/designtools/