Sh*t Design

community and thinking environmentally

Skyscraper Farming

In the future is this what sustainable living could look like? With the ever growing population of people having to live in Urban centres farming applications for the urbis would need to be developed.
I don’t know if this is a solution but it would indeed be a way of living with the shrinking, compacting space, creating only sustainable structures within our cities and growing our own food within the urbis reducing the need for transportation from rural/regional areas.

For more info check out the web urbanist blog

Information Design a solution to sustainable design?

Learning the values of user testing and application of performance requirements for design as a tool has been a new experience for me. As I have worked in an interactive studio before where “focus groups” took place it was interesting to note how little focus was placed on the performance of the website to the user, as more attention was given to branding, look and the design of the site. Don’t get me wrong usability was apart of the overall design process but there was never any testing undertaken with future users of the site.

After conducting some user testing myself for the information design honours subject based on an older website to be re-designed, I have come to realize the importance of user testing and its potential to increase a designers ability to give the client exactly what they want the first time.

Using such a methodological approach makes me feel that it creates more sustainable, functional, and purposeful design, which works, and can stand the test of time. Is this an avenue to becoming a more sustainable multimedia designer?

In relation to the major research project and our outcomes; one of our research methods is conducting case studies on websites in relation to our subject matter. Combining this with user testing will allow us to create a sustainable functional design within the digital realm.

An interesting reference I have found through my research of conducting web based case studies can be found here  at Information & Design.

Mapping the Pervasive Media (1c)

A locality comparison of two users in relation to influential media.
Interesting results regarding a town which has a greter industrial purpose to a more suburban sprawl or “urbis”

Click here to view full size

City of Stonnington’s Indigenous History

With our groups interest in Aborignal networks and culture we have decided to narrow our scope of understanding to an area to make it easier to obtain relevant data.

We emailed the Stonnington council for any information they had on the Aboriginal history of City. We were provided with an excellent response from the Stonnington local history librarian David Tuck. We were provided with several documents outlining the history of Aboriginal people form 1830 onwards and the growth of Stonnington. The documents can be viewed here.

Structural thinking toward the design process

By using structured, managed thinking processes throughout the journey of design we as designers will be able to push our lateral thinking ability.  This as a tool maybe a powerful asset to designing the sustainable future. Where through the thinking process anything is possible; ideas and notions are weighed evenly against each other and co-operative resolution is highly encouraged.

The 6 thinking hats using multiple view points from every brain in the room in a structured segregated manner

The Mind @ Melbourne Museum

The hunter collector brain and Craig Austin’s lecture on Edward de Bono and human thinking process in relation to design has sparked my own interest in the human mind. Not sure what i am trying to get out of it at this stage maybe it will become my own research for art/design/motion projects, or further research into human thinking in relation to sustainable design. This exhibition at the Melbourne Museum might be worth a look though. The Mind: Enter the Labyrinth

Jim Schembri – The Paperless Society: we got gypped, folks

 The Paperless Society: we got gypped folks  

Link to article by Jim Schembri addressing why in this modern age of the ‘network society’ and the information superhighway we as a society still have to deal with the socially awkward and ever frustrating annoyance of the paper cut?

also why are we still using paper?

Sustainability and change as the Consumer (1b)