Final courses of the first year and North Kingdom
The final courses and internship at North Kingdom.
We are taking the final 2 courses of the first year of cross media interaction design at the moment. The courses are:
Trends in Cross Media Interaction Design Research & Alternative interaction interfaces
The first of the above is oriented around the current research situation in cross media, and the second one is in the field of the complexity / complicated cases of interaction design and user experience. While “the trends course” is very straight forward “read and learn”, the alternative interaction interfaces course is very open to interpretation and exploration in the field of complex interactions. It is a very enjoyable scope of work we are performing, since we can choose to approach problems in a free and open manner.
I think I will be focusing on the local public transport as a kind of case for my PM in that course. I can see a clear need for a better system of travelling, especially since most of the people travelling by public transport here is older or lives outside of the city centre. I’ll probably identify some problems and come up with a re-design suggestion which is supported by the course literature. I’ve already discussed it with our teacher Andreas Lund. Mostly because I felt that the scope of the PM and results would be supported by a weak empirical research, which I would consider needed in a real implementation of a system like this, since there are so many people travelling, during different times of the day and for different reasons. Whatever I will come up with, it might serve as food for thought for someone else (hopefully, hehe!).
The courses are very literature and reading oriented, so I am not spending much time at the actual university at the moment. I am spending most of my un-scheduled days at North Kingdom, as an intern. At this time, I am trying follow the work of Linus here, which is a ux/interaction designer, and will be away this summer, and I am supposed to somewhat be a stand-in while he is away. It is exciting and I’m quite nervous about it, mostly since I have so little experience working in sharp projects. I guess that the time I spend here before that happens, will be centered around adjusting to the patterns and traditions of projects in this environment, so that I can produce/come up with the required work that is expected from me. As I said; it’s very exciting and makes me nervous, but it’s great to be here, and I can’t wait to dig in to the problems that will arise with the projects in the future.
May 7, 2012 Leave a comment
New CMID.se website, complex interactions, research and North Kingdom!
Update on the website, current courses and NK!
The website suggestion me and Sebastian created earlier is live at http://cmid.se/ ! Check it out!
So at the moment we are taking 2 courses: Alternative Interaction Interfaces (or complex interactions) and Trends and Current Research in Cross Media Interaction Design.
The courses feels really good so far. I havent had time to begin the reading the articles in the latter of them, but I will this weekend/in the beginning of next week. The complex interaction course is really neat. We are discussing how its important to know the difference between the state of the world and the situation, the difference between complicated and complex systems and so on. We’ve only had one seminar so far, but it held a really interesting discussion about the necessity and impact of complex systems and interactions in the world. Really interesting topic! And our tutor Andreas is really friendly and brings a good atmosphere during his classes, which I also enjoy!
I am also spending some time each week as an intern at North Kingdom! It feels really great to get the opportunity to learn more about sharp projects, real deadlines and the creative environment where stuff actually happens! I’ve gotten briefed in several really cool projects (secret!) and it will be great to see how if unfolds the next coming weeks and summer. I experience some pressure in delivering ideas and insight about what I know, and its sort of stressing me out, but I think its mainly because I have such little knowledge and experience about the “real” projects in this area of work. Mostly because its only been school projects so far and so on. It’s great being there anyway, everyone is friendly and helpful, and its very satisfying being around creative people all day!
I was also involved in creating a couple of short videos for a project by North Kingdom. Will post a link to the site if/when it goes live!
In other news, I am going to enjoy In Flames live April 24th! That will most probably be insanely awsome. After that, its Valborgs in Uppsala for my part! Ending with: Derp
(Also: Google+ remade. Please everyone I care about, start using G+ instead of Facebook. Facebook is terrible. Freakin wortless Timeline crap)
April 12, 2012 Leave a comment
Finished with some examinations at last
I’ve finished the examination of both the courses we are reading at the moment!
So, finally, I am done with the examinations in both our courses. Of course, this does not mean that I’ve finished them or succeeded in receiving a “Passed”. Time will tell in a couple of weeks. Don’t really know if I am satisfied with the result yet. I might be too hard on myself. Or not. I sort of don’t take anything in advance. We shall see.
Got a really great offer today, which I am quite happy and excited about! This is in discussion at the moment and we’ll see what happens.
Life is returning to awsome.
March 26, 2012 Leave a comment
Workload overload
Tired and not very motivated atm
This is the first time I feel extremely stressed out and un-motivated to continue with this. Actually the first time I even doubted that I have chose the right thing. Especially because one of our current courses, that have a really bad pedagogical structure for its own purpose. I’m more than well aware of my needs and best ways of learning new stuff, as well as delivering proper material for examinations and so on. This time, it is just plain bad. I see no scientific connection or point in the way the work is presented or meant to be delivered, and this time, I just feel that its unplanned and have very bad integration with the rest of our studies.
I do not complain about work piling up or the field of which it concerns. I do not expect everything to be of great interest to me. Lots of work is not necessarily a bad thing. What I feel very strongly about is the way it is presented and meant to be carried out. I am frustrated because I am not learning anything. I am just stressed and frustrated.
I have some feelings about certain figures involved in the situation as well, but I am not the person that expresses that kind of things publicly. Summarizing the situation for now: Bad.
February 29, 2012 Leave a comment
Working hard with a lot of things going on! (Exciting pitch closing in?)
Long time no real update; lots of things going on at the moment, lets get to it!
So TING is up and running under ting.nordsken.se and if you want to start/participate just visit: ting.nordsken.se/start
So far more people than expected have started, and we really hope that more will join in soon! We might have to put up more QR codes if we want it to pick up speed properly. We will attend Nordsken both during the actual event, and also before, so we have to time put up more codes for people to collect!
We also did a small clip for Nordsken as SwedishMealTime last week. It was quite fun, and have received good feedback from the public! Check it out:
We are also spending a lot of time on different examinations in both User Centered Evaluation Methods and Interaction Design in Cross Media .
MAN; or Museum Anna Nordlander, have given us a project to work on. We are supposed to develop an interactive strategy for them and strengthen their brand in their rebranding process. At the moment, me and Sebastian are working on an overall digital strategy, which will consider interaction with people interested in MAN on all platforms suggested (Twitter, Facebook, their website and the exhibition). We are also going to make a redesign of their website which will most probably be much better than their current one.
We are doing a lot of research paper reading in Charlotte Wibergs course (evaluation methods) and I think its quite a lot of work and information to take part of, but at the same time, it feels great learning new stuff. We are going to perform some extensive user evaluation (ethnographic studies) and it will be really interesting exploring that area as well.
After my visit to Piteå, representing informatics from UmU at the student booth thing, I had a chat with a person from UmU regarding a campaign idea I have for their general marketing. I’ll have a chat with him later today. It will be very exciting if I can pull it off and get some kind of budget to work with! Have already spoken with Jonas from Seize the Frame which helped me with the CMIDXM project last year. We’ll see what happens!
Ps. Had a “IAmA SwedishMealTime chef.” last night, and answered 800+ questions, streaming on from a #6 position of the frontpage. It was crazy. And fun! 
Check the thread here: http://goo.gl/qffqI
February 22, 2012 Leave a comment
Spending the day in Piteå with Umeå University
I’m spending the day in Umeå representing the department of informatics at a “display”
I’m not sure what the english word for “mässa” is, but either way I am representing the department of informatics there! I am going to get picked up by some other people going there in a couple of minutes. I enjoy talking about what I am doing an guiding people into making informed choices (there is no such thing as “correct” choices btw)
Anyway, will probably add some photos during the day! Live long and prosper nerds!
February 14, 2012 Leave a comment
Nordsken Campaign – Development progress and decision making
We have made some crucial decisions today are well on our way with the campaign for Nordsken!
With some final adjustments to functions on the website, how to collect items, call-to-actions and other stuff that feels very important and rough at the moment, we are slightly more confident after todays work!
Sebastian is very efficient with his front-end web development skills, so me and Niklas feel rather redundant from time to time! Wireframes are getting done, the design document for the client, the cross media bible and design work in general are rolling in. We are also receiving more and more pictures of the items that are supposed to represent the stuff you find. They look SO awsome. Truly brilliant work by all the people! If you by any chance see this: Thank you! You are great!
The next step is to get the web for both desktop and mobile browsers done, including back-end development, which we will hopefully get help with soon. Also, we still need more item pictures, and also the physical stuff prepared. We actually have to place out the items in the end!! We made a test with the size of the QR code today (A6 or A7 I believe) and it was just brilliant. Easy to see, easy to recognize, easy to read etc. We will work more on the campaign tomorrow, and hopefully be done by Feb 2nd for a digital release.
We are also getting help with the art for the website by Magnus Dahl, a photoshop artist from Umeå whom we know since before. Will be exciting to see what he comes up with!
January 25, 2012 Leave a comment
Developing a campaign for Nordsken
We are starting to get somewhere on the campaign for Nordsken!
A couple of weeks ago Peter Bomark came to us and asked us for help concerning a marketing strategy/campaign for Nordsken. We felt that this was a great opportunity to make good use of our cross media minds! We decided to go with a “game campaign” where you collect treasures that a man called Lodur have dropped, while travelling through fairytales etc. (One item you can find is “The Hood of Little Red Riding Hood” etc)
At the moment, we have figured out how the campaign will work in a gaming fashion (who gains points how, where do we need to help the players to progress, is it easy enough to progress or even start participating and so on). We are getting lots of GREAT help from talented artists to create the art for the specific items. Think of it as a mixture between the Nordic Mythology, Pokémon, Magic the Gathering (The card game) and Munchkin (humour wise etc).
It’s going to be a lot of work, especially when the actual implementation of the campaign comes. I think it’s going to be a great opportunity to learn more about the actual process, identifying what and when things can go wrong and many many more things. Still, it’s great fun and it is going to be very exciting to see it unfold when the release is closing in!
Here is an example of the first item our Lead Artist; Arvid Burström created. At the moment, we have around 7-8 people making pictures, with around 25 completed pictures (aiming for 50+)
January 23, 2012 1 Comment
Presentations – The Branding of the CMID program
We just had our presentations in Cross Media Communication
After a very stressful week, we have just held our presentations on branding. Me and Sebastian had an approach towards positioning the CMID brand according to other popular educations in Sweden, and wanted to make the website part of a grander digital strategy, rather than a platform for everything the brand/program has to be able to tell and discuss. Other touchpoints of the CMID program like Facebook, blogs like this one, Twitter and The Lodge can be used effectively to convey ideas that are better suited for that kind of content (more info on courses, projects, thoughts and feelings, future visions etc) .
Thank you Leif Rehnström from Hello Future & David Eriksson from North Kingdom for attending and giving us feedback on our work!
Also; I will soon update on a VERY exciting campaign me Sebastian and Niklas are working on for Nordsken – Norrlands substitute for Dreamhack! Lots of work, but REALLY fun and interesting to work on!
Here is the design suggestion on the CMID.se website from me and Sebastian. It’s not really about the design in general, but rather the idea of what the website should say and what kind of impression it should make on new visitors. Also the copy in this suggestion is copy/pasted, its more the order of the presentation and “ease of access” that is important.
January 20, 2012 Leave a comment