logo

after doing lots of research on different squash logos out there... i started to draw up my own design.
its working out pretty well!

other than that haven't done much.
actually - let me take that back!

we have to submit a 3000 word essay at some stage in the next semester. i have been brainstorming. researching mobile media.

next week will be my last week at one small seed. has been great. went by really quickly. then next monday lectures start again.

holiday

with the holiday in full swing and all i decided it was time to start thinking seriously about the squash site. iv been researching different squash sites from around the world. just to have an idea on the kind of info that can be incorporated into our site. seeing as we are aiming to develop it for mobile phones it might be a bit different. however the idea is pretty much the same.
layout - have some ideas. colours, logo, style. will wait till back at uni to brainstorm with the group. as of now, i am really enjoying my internship at one small seed.

http://www.onesmallseed.com/

a fantastic magazine based here in cape town. its a wonderful experience.

srp - i want to do a whole lot of research in terms of mobile usability.
being accessible & interesting for our target audience is key.

will keep posting.
on and on i go

my portfolio site

having finished all my projects for this semester the only thing that was left to do was my portfolio site.

this site is my showcase of all the projects i have done this year, as well as some i did last year. the site has other features as well, such as a slideshow of photographs i have taken on my travels and some links to sites which inspire me.

please take a look at it. the address is

its simple. and i love it!

http://mendi.uct.ac.za/~engchr005



in terms of the progress on the srp... our group will hopefully be inspired with the idea and come back from our break with lots of funky and fresh ideas to spice up UCT SQUASH. wink wink nudge nidge karen & mo. LOL.
lol!
just thought i should use some internt jargon. felt appropriate at the moment in time.

ttfn
C

srp latest

latest news on the SRP group!
mo, karen and i will join together to bring our strengths in CSS, XHTML, Flash & Design together.

we will be doing our SRP on my initial idea of the squash site which is very exciting!

what will be great about doing a UCT based sports site is that all our resources are on campus, making research elements much easier.

karen and i are both part of the squash club, we play league and social squash so we have a good idea of all the happenings in the squash club. mo is a great asset to this SRP - he know so much about mobile phone usability and is extremely knowledgable about other elements of the technological aspect of a site such as my proposed idea.

ta ta for now

klipfontein OUT - srp IN

our klipfontein project is finished. with of course a couple of glitches along the way. last week was ridiculously crazy i cannot begin to explain all of it to you!

now that klipfontein is finished. we have to start focusing on the SRP's which we will start next semester.
on monday we had to each pitch our ideas. i have stuck to my squash idea. i met with marion (my course convenor) about my project and she suggested i look into mobile usability. on the basis of my users (being the sqaush players) not always having access to a computer. using their cell phones to access my site. so essentially, i would be designing 2 layouts. one for a normal desktop internet browser and the other for a mobile internet browser.

here are a couple of images from my presentation:




here is our main interface from our klipfontein project. our target audience is the tween age group. from 14 to 17 years.
we wanted to create a scrapbook-like effect.



and then the user would be able to click on different links taking them to areas of Klipfontein road and other elements they can explore.

so thats just a small update.

next week is the last week of lectures and then its exam time!
i will be sure to post an update before then..

progress!

wow. it has been a crazy past few days.
karen and i have been going non-stop. i guess because things are slowly falling into place, we can move on to new aspects of our projects and get them done.

we are featuring a little game/quiz in our project, which we are working on. having difficulty with it because we want our viewers to be challenged so we don't want the questions to be too easy, and will therefore probably bore them! and we don't want that happening.

a mistake karen and i made in our animation project last year was our file was REALLY big and took ages to play so we are being really careful with the things we are importing. making sure they are small files.


i wanted to post some pictures of when we went to klipfontein road and went very camera happy. i don't want to give away too much so im just going to post three photos.
im really enjoying working with flash. its really interesting and keeps me on my toes thats for sure! makes a difference having flash on my computer. really does. thank you my far!

well, just wanted to keep you updated. things are getting done. everything is going well.

update!

so.. just a little update on the Klipfontein Project. Karen and I are cracking on. we have a couple of weeks to hand it in .

research is a big aspect of our project. simply because we are creating a documentary about Klipfontein Road, so we want all our information to be accurate and also because one of our main aims is to educate our young target audience.

in terms of how we will be producing our project, we will be using a program called Macromedia Flash. Using Flash will let us create our project in a very cool way.

last week we went to klip road and took photos. it was really cool because after reading so much about the history and then actually being on the road and taking everything in was quite a nice experience!

klipfontein project

The interactive documentary that Karen and I will be doing, will be targeted for adolescents, primarily between the ages of fifteen and seventeen. We want our documentary to be centred on the youth of Klipfontein road, past and present. Our aim will be to try and educate today’s youth of the happenings on Klipfontein road, which affected many youngsters in the eighties, and we also want to take a look at the young people working and living on the road today.

I think one of our main traits that will be a strong feature in the documentary will be the use of photography and how we can incorporate images to create an interactive story, which will be helpful for the kids who will be using our project.

Our recurring theme will be the juxtaposition of the past with the present. This will be echoed through our images, the look and feel of the documentary and the stories that will be told.

Think I will try and visit Klipfontein road during our vacation and take some pictures. Just to help me get a better idea of the environment and the people.

lately iv been thinking about my SRP. mainly about the kind of users that would be potentially using my site. im quite happy with my idea of having a UCT sports site. i think it would be of great use to the various sports clubs. 

obviously my target audience would be the sports students of UCT, and in particular the ones from the clubs that would be featured on my site. 

in terms of my site strategy, mainly to make it easier to be a part of a sports team/club. Organising games, matches with other clubs, as well as incorporating a social calendar, would be possible to do with my site. i think a main feature on the site would also be the invention and discovery of a potential UCT mascot. 

the look and feel will be fresh, with a new kind of UCT flavour. incorporating the UCT colours - to energise some university spirit !

the first steps of my research was going onto the UCT site and searching for the various sports clubs and the information they have available for their users. the majority of the clubs don't have a site available, nor do they have any information accessible. the squash club has a site which only includes a homepage and does not allow you to navigate through it at all. so very pointless. i play league squash and actually had no idea this exists! not that it helps anyone anyway...

i am impressed by the tennis club, who have created their own blog. 

the netball club, like the squash club have their own site, with quite an interesting logo and the only thing accessible on the site is the gallery which consists of 5 pictures. 

 - this has made me very excited to get my project up and running - 

i plan on interviewing some key figures within some sports clubs to get their opinions on my project and if they think it will be of use to them and their clubs (i hope so!)

onto another project, karin and i have formed a partnership for our interactive documentary project on the history of klipfontein road. i will talk about this project in more detail in another post. at this stage, we have been researching like crazy. spent a couple of hours in the african studies library today looking at newspaper clippings from 1985... really cool actually. 

we have a couple of ideas right now, so we just need to narrow them down and then focus on a main aspect. 

oh - there is a documentary which we were shown in class, its done by the centre for popular memory, which is actually located on the UCT campus and its on youtube! no surprise there! its about klipfontein road..if you can, check it out. 

 

Centre for Popular Memory Documentary - Klipfontein Road

don't throw roses on my path. i walk barefoot

a new assignment we have at the moment is to analyse an interactive documentary thats on the web, which is really cool because the sites are just amazing. 

iv been so torn between which site to write about because they are quite a few which are so great. but its probably going to be the HAIKU FORGE site.

www.haikuforge.com

so the essay is basically going to be based on the user experience of the entire site. how the site represents time, the character of the site, the events they portray and what it depicts. 

this is a screenshot of haiku forge.
when visiting the site, the user is faced with three words, moments, lost and time.

these three words act as menus that allow you to choose from a selection of animated numbers, which displays a random photograph (which is stunning in its natural depiction) along with a random poem, which leaves you to ponder for a while until you move to the next number, presenting the user with another arbitrary piece of writing. 

the snapshot like animations go along with the simple elements of the site, as well as the theme. haiku-style illustrations accompanied with the grey scenes, depicting black birds flying into a rainstorm. the mood conveyed by random bits of sound, placing the user in a truly unfamiliar environment through its captivating interpretation. 

thoughts in my head...la la la

couple of things on my mind... 

we have a portfolio site due in this friday, which is exciting because it gives me a chance to brush up on my CSS and also to come up with a new design. im thinking of creating a sophisticated look and feel. chic and elegant. probably use colours such as black with red, or turquoise and grey, beige and maroon. 

at the moment i am busy with my mood board, which is where i basically think up of visual concepts for the project. for example - the type of images i will use, font styles, colours...  

on this site, i will have all my semester's projects as well as some extra links, like this blog and and work from last year. 

other thing on my mind is my SRP. iv been thinking of many ideas that i could do... some are just too extravagant. like creating a site for UCT students to register on... way too complicated...and plenty wishful thinking. also thought of a site for up and coming artists. people who don't have a lot of exposure... and can showcase their works on the site. give them an opportunity to be recognised by various galleries and potential buyers. 

i also had another idea, which i think i might just carry forward, after i have discussed it with marion... my course convenor... 

hi marion! :)

um... yes, so, the idea_ the sports societies at UCT could be much better organised. and what better way than to have a site central to all sports clubs? in my case however, it would be about 3 or 4 clubs. some i would have a good idea about, such as squash and golf... maybe tennis and rugby as well, after i did some research. 

the site would be a place where the clubs could put up notices, be an opportunity for match schedules to be uploaded in advance, giving players a chance to plan their week around their matches, practice timetables where people could sign up for practices, or book courts. meet fellow teammates and also be an opportunity where social activities could be organised by the various sports clubs committee's.

i also think it is important for the sports clubs to have a mascot, rather than different teams having single mascots. this would give the sports societies a common public identity. logos and merchandise could also feature the mascot. i think something like this would be great to be discussed about by the sports clubs on the site. 

being able to do production in the interactive stream has allowed me to explore areas of my creativity in a large way. aspects of the foundation course last year covered a variety of characteristics of online media and so the course in this semester will be an opportunity to expand on what we learnt last year.

a key element for this semester is the project management for the senior research project (SRP) which, im sure il be mentioning throughout this blog.

speaking of this blog, this is actually my 2nd blog which i've started up. my 1st is the usual run of the mill online blog where a character such as myself decided to share random details of my life.

www.christinandersen.blogspot.com

the purpose of this blog is to share with you the ongoing process of my interactive media course in my 3rd year at UCT. this is the way in which i will be documenting all my views and insights to do with elements of my production course.

pieces of my puzzle...by the end of this year, i intend to complete my puzzle. all the projects i will do, and the skills i will, hopefully, learn :) will be the collection of puzzle pieces to complete my final picture.