Over the last two days I’ve been iterating a lot on my design for the critique portion of my capstone project Give A Crit. I’ve locked myself in a whiteboard room and sketched and sketched, and sketched some more.

Here is an example of a whiteboard sketch.

I took this particular sketch and decided to quickly mock it up using Keynote (taking only 30-40 minutes). This was done to help me begin to better understand the design and interactions. This particular concept uses the idea of ‘purposeful progression’ (Dewey) through a three step process for contributing a critique.

However, I wasn’t really happy with these sketches. So, I talked to some colleagues and showed them my work. They gave me some great feedback. So much so that I felt compelled to come back into the studio at 9pm and sketch some more in the whiteboard room (love that room). Here are some sketches I came up with then.

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I wanted to explore my capstone design problem a bit today. So, I decided to head into our whiteboard room (3 walls of whiteboards, 1 wall of glass) and start sketching. Here are some of things I came up with.

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As always, I welcome feedback, comments, and critique. These are just some initial ideas. It was helpful for me to get these out of my brain and into the world. If these provoke you in some way, or if you have some awesome insight, let me know!

I’ve been sketching and thinking deeply about my capstone project lately. I’ve done close readings of web based critique systems like Flickr, Deviant Art, Dribbble, etc. I’ve also been talking recently about the value of quickly prototyping a design. So tonight, I took a recent sketch of my capstone project, Give A Crit, and created a quick (non-interactive) prototype. This took me about 40 minutes using Keynote templates by Keynotopia, just one of many providers of keynote templates for prototyping. So, I present here, for your critique, a quick prototype sketch of Give a Crit, specifically of the critique functionality.

One main thought behind this sketch is to provide some ambiguity of the design so that photographers giving critique can provide meaning as they see fit. Furthermore, this sketch is totally lacking in the photograph’s technical details, which I believe will add value when giving a critique. These technical details could live below the photograph’s description, but I haven’t put much thought into that feature yet. Click on the image below for a full size version.

This project is ongoing and will change by leaps and bounds. I’ve conducted very little primary research at this point. Most of my thoughts have centered around a formal analysis of flickr, facebook, deviant art, smug mug, dribbble, and others. Formalist theories (Bell, Wolfman), Structuralist theories (Hebdish, Polhemus), and Use Quality theories (Lowgren) have also provided some grounding to my work, but will be further expanded upon in the future.

In looking at the critique of photography, I want to start out by looking at the formal qualities of a photograph. In this post I will attempt to list out all the formal qualities of a photograph. In the future, I will use this list, and whatever might be added to it, to tease out certain styles of photography which might eventually lead me to better understand how photographers might critique each other.

The list:

• depth of field
• perspective
• light
• focus
• composition
• rule of thirds
• leading lines
• shadow
• contrast
• detail
• clarity
• saturation
• shapes
• framing
• looking into/out of the frame
• abstract
• approach
• expression
• theme
• texture
• value
• angle
• background
• balance
• contour
• vantage point

What have I left out? Have I included things that shouldn’t be in the list?

While shaving this morning, I had several “ah ha” moments. I decided to quickly jot these down on my blog for mere entertainment and fun. I’m probably not the first person to think about these things, but none-the-less, here they are for your reading enjoyment.

image courtesy of lintmachine

[note: this post has absolutely nothing to do with anything that I'm actually working on]

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image courtesy of Qiao-Da-Ye

For my final capstone (thesis) project of my master’s program, I’ll be working on the topic of photography critique in a digitally mediated environment. Below is my initial plan for the project. I have a great passion for photography and critique in general and I don’t believe there is a good solution for providing critiques of photography online.

Background Opportunity

Critique is essential in almost any craft or art. Photography is no different. I want to provide a system so that photography students can have their worked critiqued by other photographers.

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As many of you know, my current capstone topic is about Discovering Local Music in a Digital Age. Upon glancing at the cover of today’s IDS (local student newspaper) I found this article, which covers a local music festival that was held just this weekend. However, I wasn’t in attendance. Why, because I didn’t freaking know about it!

image courtesy of amboo

My initial reaction is that I’m already failing at my capstone topic. If I was really interested and passionate about local music, wouldn’t I have know about and gone to the show? What does it say that I had no clue this was going on, and worse that I had no clue about the local music label Crossroads of America (XRA Records)? Does this mean that I’m really just not that into local music? Does it say that I’m not working hard on my capstone?

Or, does this show a really great design opportunity? What if more people (like me) had known about the ‘festival’? More importantly, why didn’t I hear about the show? What things could have helped me to learn about this event? Was this poor promotion on XRA’s side? Or am I really just out-of-tune with what’s going on in local music?

I don’t have the answers here, but this certainly frustrates me and stresses me out. It makes me re-think my feelings about my current capstone topic and question my commitment to it.

What do you think?

Note: I’ve decided to scrap this idea in favor of something I feel more passionate about, photography and critique. You can read about my new capstone topic, Online Photography Critique, in a newer post.

For my final capstone (thesis) project of my master’s program, I’ll be working on the topic of discovering local music in a digital age. Below is my initial plan for the project. I’ve narrowed my focus just a bit from just Local Music in a Digital Age because I believe it will be a more interesting space within which to work. I’ve always been a fan of music and local music but I’ve had the hardest time finding new music which I might enjoy.

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Golden Questions is a technique used by designers to invigorate and stimulate thinking on a certain topic. They are typically used in or near the beginning of a process. Furthermore Golden Questions help to explore the depths of a problem space and all the little details that might surround it.

Nokia's Ovi

For my capstone (thesis) project in my masters program, I’m working within the problem space of Local Music in a Digital Age. In an effort to spur my thinking and uncover some of the deeper issues surrounding local music, I’ve come up with the following list of Golden Questions. I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject, Golden Questions as a technique, and my particular list of questions.

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Over the past two weeks I participated in a local event called Dev Derby. Dev Derby is an event where developers come together to “code for change”. The event was held during the first ever Bloomington, Indiana tech conference called The Combine. For the event I was part of a three person design team. We were challenged to design something that would be useful for non-profits and that developers that could build within 6 hours.

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