Start

Who are you designing for?
The international WDKA student.

What is their relationship to the collection?
The collection is linked with art and art is linked with the art academie the international WDKA students attends.

Which content are you ‘interfacing’?
Art made by international and non international WDKA students. That is linked to routes and points in the nature of Rotterdam.

What type of interaction is fitting for this?
The interaction of communicating through nature by digital art existing in a real space.

What type of medium is fitting for this?
An object that can display digital art in an open space such as a field of grass. For example a projector.

From Research to designing questions:

In general: what are you trying to accomplish through the interface you want to design?
I want the international WDKA student to explore the nature of the city in a way that makes them feel connected to the nature by giving them a platform to share their art in the places of nature to create a place for them in the city that feels like a community / safe space.

Which visual design elements have you already collected/designed that can be useful for this?:

I collected these 4 pictures, because they had something to do with art in nature or nature art in a city. To me; Art in a nature setting such as green grass flatters the art piece and makes it more interesting.

Lesson 1_From research conclusion to interface design

Quick and dirty exercise:

I picked this art piece in Rotterdam from my interface archive as an example.

The medium of the interface of the art piece is a display unit in the middle of the city that allows artist to place their artworks in this unit to showcase it to passer-by's.

The interesting part of this interface that I could use for my interface as an inspiration is to display something in an open place that creates a space for interaction and makes the place more interestingly appealing then it maybe was before.

To encourage, to inspire, to motivate, to guide to enable, to activate and to entertain would by my main goals for the interface I am going to design. I thought about a rough concept of an interface, which could maybe be an app. This interface allows the international WDKA student to be guided to certain nature points / spaces in the city of Rotterdam.

The international WDKA student will be motivated to go there by giving them the opportunity to share their art through these points / spaces. The student can share their art when they are at the point and make their art appear via projection on different places in this designated area. The showcasing of the student's art which could be refreshed everyday.

Encourages the student to share their art and have a platform that is viewed by many people, without the restriction of a full exhibition. The art that is put on the specific places will be shown in the app and is the replacer of the place's name. The student can look at the app and see which art piece they would like to visit in a certain nature part in Rotterdam and is thereby motivated to go to the nature.

After the first sketch I wanted to
re-think the idea and made an adjusted / new idea with +/- 10 sketches:

Lesson 2_From Sketch
to Prototype

My new / adjusted idea is to make a one page website with a 3D tree in the center of the website. The tree can be rotated with mouse movements and can be looked at from all sides. The tree will contain apples that upon clicking can receive an artwork with an upload from the WDKA international art student.

After the upload is done, the apple will fall of the tree to the bottom / ground of the website. This indicates that the apple contains a digital art work. When the user hoovers over the fallen apple, a message with map will appear. This map will show the location of the artwork.

This location is in a nature place in the city. The international WDKA student is hereby motivated to go to this nature place and look at the presented artwork they or another student uploaded. A real 3D apple, with inside a projector will be at the location displaying the artwork on the grass (or other ground) surface of the nature place.

After 24 hours the website will refresh its tree and the fallen apples with empty upload spots will go back on the tree for new students to upload their art works.

The feedback I received and can apply to the idea is what the apple stands for and if I can search for an explanation / metaphor for this apple in my previous research.

Upon making sketches for the typography I would use in the interface. I looked for an organic typeface to be used as the title of the webpage and for the information and other topics on the webpage a very simple, digital pixel like font. I wanted the title typeface to be organic, because the webpage is about nature and the title (in the sketch which is not yet determined) will be a nature esque title as well. I chose the very simple, digital style font, because it can be recognised as simple and so the instructions will be seen as simple as well (for example Ikea using a simple font for their construction guides). The simple font is a contrast to the organic font which creates a good balance.

The others typeface Exercise.

Before.
Quick and dirty Exercise.

After.

Hierarchy Exercise Sketch.

Start designing process prototype

I started the one-page website design by making a 3D tree. I wanted the tree to look almost like a toy, so people would want to rotate it in the website. I did want to give the tree a natural feeling and decided to give the tree a cardboard texture. The tree had to be rendered from 25 angles to be fully rotatable on the prototype of the website.

The apple for on the tree had to be instantly recognisable as an apple. This apple would also be as a big version transformed into the design of the real life apple projector. Therefore it had to be recognisable as a small design and a large design.

The final design of the one-page website interface is inspired by the previously made type hierarchy assignment. After deciding the typeface for the website and how I would implement this. I started to get an idea of how I wanted the style of the website to be like. The style of the website is very simple, with a white background and black text and symbols.
I decided to make this very simple, so the tree and the apples would stand out on the website. They are the only coloured things. Together with the grass. I decided to make the grass 2D, because it creates a fun contrast between the 3D dimensional tree and apples. The simple design of the website co exists with the simple functionality of the website and the simple interactions.

The instructions on the left side of the website give a clear overview of what the website offers and adds an extra language with the symbols. The symbols next to the instructions explain where these instructions are located, because the symbols match with the symbols on the rest of the website. The night mode of the website that is in inverted background colour is there to refresh the website.
The contrast of the changing background colour indicates this change in the website. All the text from the website is in a simple digital, almost pixel like font. Except for the title. I wanted the title to stand out on the page and have a more organic feel, because organic is what the tree stands for. Nature.

The design of the real life apple projector is just like the small apple, except, it has a projector inside. This projector would be about 40 cm high by 40 cm wide. The projector, projects with a low angle on the grass and therefor the apple projector can sit on the grass and does not have to for example hang on a tree or stand on a platform. The back of the apple projector has a QR code linked to the one-page website. This gives the user the ability to discover the website via the projector instead of the other way around.