Today’s online class was a short yet brief introduction to our IXD304 module. This semester is all about narrative and storytelling about the Apollo 11 Mission conducted by Nasa in 1969. As soon as I heard this I was instantly grasped. I did Moving Images back in A-Levels and it was one of my favorite subjects, so I should be able to combine my A-Level years with my IXD to hopefully create something compelling and beautiful. An interesting and coincidental thing is that during lockdown before IXD I was creating a motion graphic animation of space. Using art direction narrative and pacing of animation (both information and broader content) to create an immersive and compelling story.
Looking at the previous student’s examples, this is extremely beneficial to see what kind of content I can include and a clearer understanding of this module. I really loved how the ‘Heros & Villians’ hand-drawn prototype incorporated a sense of secretiveness and classified documents using opening/sliding animations to pace her work – similar to the detective movies where they slowly open documents and a reverse low angle shot is used – eventually cutting to the paper and scrolling down in order to build suspension and balance the pace.
Another prototype by Emma Corbett takes interactivity to a whole new level. Emma presents her content in an incremental and gamified manner. By breaking the conventional standards of a digital Ebook she opens a miniature world up for users to explore allowing them to explore their surroundings to match their own pace. Outside being the introduction and inside; a bookshelf being the main piece. Inside the house, I really like her ability to incorporate flexible routes into the narrative of her prototype through the multiple-choice at the bookshelf. This is because users don’t really follow conventional paths while navigating these types of interfaces, this gives them the ability to gather information at their own pace. Additionally, the colours, visuals and typography match the contents and visualization of a book.
Dan Gold, a previous student webpage stood out to me right away as the loading screen is presented with victorian-Esque typography that mimicked high authority and confidential information. This ultimately introduces the user and creates a symbolic connection to his work. The animations that are presented are elegant yet provide a sense of confidentiality. The content is displayed sparsely but in a proportionate manner, this gives users time to build anticipation and react to what they have just read. The black background contrasts against the white text to inflate its meaning and add to the overall ‘shadowy’ or secretive nature of the webpage. Each page has an exclusive colour palette different from the last this gives the user a unique and diverse viewing experience. Additionally, Dan gives a screen selection or menu at the bottom so users can choose their own path, however, he does number it to show the relevancy of each page – a simple yet effective concept maintaining a sense of value in pages while allowing freedom of navigation.
Another example of an interactive webpage is from Calum Dixon. It is a really interesting and unique take on this project presenting the website as a newspaper. Calum uses black and white as you would expect from a newspaper (except for highlighting links or important information). I really enjoyed his historic use of consistency throughout the typography, images and structure – however, I feel like the navbar is a little out of place as it looks too modern to fit with the overall structure. Additionally, the column structure feature gives an opportunity to play around with (seen with the occasion ad) and gives the user flexibility when reading the content on the website. Overall, this webpage offers a unique experience providing and matching the structure and feel of a newspaper from that era.
Conclusion
Today’s class was an interesting and exciting start to the semester, as a kid, I was always interested in space (who isn’t). This module will give me the opportunity to creatively and artistically express myself using the many talents that I have learned over the years e.g. graphic design, animation, storytelling, etc. Additionally, it was extremely helpful to look at some student examples to see how previous students deviated and created unique and diverse projects and how they intertwined a sense of storytelling through both visual and communicative forms.
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