I am as surprised as you are............

I am not sure what is going in the tiny little design mind I have. it wasn't more than a few weeks ago that I was talking about how I was using powerpoint again. I have justified that to myself as a very necessary evil, as part of teaching.today I had a productive 2 hour meeting concerning a website design project that I have been working on for a while. I left the meeting having agreed to create a splash/entry page probably using flash, though I will have a think about that.

a few years ago I would have refused to even consider such a thing!
all the usability studies suggest that these pages detract even alienate visitors but I am think perhaps not now, with better internet connections and faster processors perhaps now is the time to revisit preconceived ideas and do it properly, that or I have just gone a little mad!

corny >> predictable

yes I know this picture is corny and even predictable.
so to set the scene I was rushing home to get in take the dog out, change and rush out again to go and collect ben from the child minders. I was late, as I had spent time at work sorting out .pdf files that were part of re-structuring a web site using a more naturally creative way of doing things. the basis of the idea was to save time for the user by making the front end intuitive and useable so that everything they need is on one page, only what they choose is downloaded so making the website very readable and text light.
any-way in my rush, cross with the rain and the sun at the same time I just glanced at the grasses and noticed the tiny droplets of water. I had to take a photo without my proper camera handy I only had my blackberry. the camera on it is ok so I took some pictures, this is just one.
I thought a while the colours and the water made me relax a little, I stopped rushing still got to the child minders in plenty of time to get ben, happier for the tiny break to look at something corny and predictable, oh well that's me then.

its back to 'the hub' >> I am still trying

I haven't given up on 'the hub', I have mentioned it on this blog a few times.
it is a silly idea really, not because it wouldn't work as I believe it would but it would be just too expensive, and unless created in its entirety it would not have the same impact.

I don't now why but it has continued to make me think about the use of space in an educational situation and will still for a long time yet.
I have clearly seen that students or learners of any age react to their surrounding in such different ways but one thing they all do it respect something that had been designed with their use and only their use in mind, rather than something that just looks good.

futurelab have some really good stuff on their web site but it still follows the classroom model, in the original sense. however I like their (now unfortunately closed) invitation for ideas to create a better working and study space for learners.

I think what I am trying to say is that students are led to believe that a classroom must be quiet and the teacher speaks and the students listen the process is then repeated over and over for an hour. then they move on to someone else (another teacher) doing the same thing in another room that looks the same. in the later years of education I believe it is not really preparing them for employment or further vocational study because the situation is so different to the work place.

I know when I am studying I usually like it to be quiet but I well remember not to far from the college I graduated from there was a pub full of books looking as much like an old book shop or library as it did a pub.

it did get very lively in the evening yet within that environment some of us read books, often books we would not have even given a second chance in a way that was alien to us but good fun.

that said I want to make it absolutely clear that I am not advocating student of any age drinking alcohol in classrooms.

I do think that consideration to different solutions has to be found. just consider most of the larger waterstones book shops have a costa coffee shop in them to encourage browsers to spend more time thinking reading and in the end buying, a result as far as retail.

here are some current educational space practitioners web sites to have a look at if you are interested further.
ncaltd.com
tq.com
jisc.ac.uk

to be continued....................

thinking >> it's just words

I spend hours and hours keeping up to date with both (ICT/enterprise) educational thinking as well as current business practice.
I worked in the real world as a designer, and a retailer before hiding away in the comfortable world of education! (well perhaps not that comfortable but for different reasons).
but I find myself spending more and more time reading only half the book, the first couple of pages of an academic paper or a .pdf document only to get bored at the point when I realise that so much of the stuff I am reading is probably just common sense wrapped up in a well designed cover, perhaps by some-one who hasn't even read the book, or 'just words' telling me the same thing.

whether it is web usability or information architecture, even planning for business success through a multi layer intranet. I have say that some stuff I have seen and read lately simply is just not very good, that said I am still a great fan of jakob neilsen and the useit web site.

I keep thinking about what my photography lecturer (in the late 70's) said to me when I was trying to measure to perfection where I was going to put my lovely art school 'black and white photo', using a really clean stainless steel ruler and my finest mechanical pencil spending ages and then finding that it still looked a bit wonky. I also remember feeling a certain amount of horror as he took the photo away from me and picked up a new clean piece of mounting board and with out measuring it at all put it in exactly the right place, saying "if it looks right it is right", but then it's just words, or is it common sense?

'the hub' >> a working title

I am rather absorbed in thought at the moment I have been doing a lot of thinking and looking over the last few days. sort of hinted at it in yesterdays blog, but I am try to plan a layout for an educational space that is very different from the usual. I have a whole lot of work to do as I want to be able to present some complex (interesting/exciting) plans for 'the hub'. this is a working title as I would like to treat it as a hub of fact finding, learning and communication.

the main aspect of the design is a central 'hub' of the work space is an interconnected bank of five stations/computers all equipped with, well I will explain that at a later date as I am not sure of the spec yet. all I have is a head full of ideas I can almost see it in there but I need to be able to explain it that needs some more work. all I have so far is the first scribble (left).

I have obviously looked at and visited a whole bunch of places, along with my experience of both working in design studios and in schools and colleges I hope to be able to draw the many different elements together to produce a 'zone' of enjoyment and learning that is a great place to be as well as a great place to learn.

I have added some of the research I have been doing to this blog. looking through other schools with amazing buildings but tending to conform to the use of the inside space as in the picture (left). as you can see the desks and chairs are formally positioned. , chumleigh community college, classroom of the future, chulmleigh, devon. devon property, county hall, exter, devon. riba awards 2005. I want to move away from the formality of rows of tables and chairs.


absolute designs a design company based in falmouth, cornwall, uk have produced some design solutions, showing an inspiring use of interior space. you can see a couple of projects they have worked on. pictures (left) of falmouth college of arts and cornwall centre for professional development (right). for a better view have a look at their website its quite an amalgam of design from interiors to branding, packaging, design for print and more.

I still have plenty of planning and more thinking to do yet but a sensible proposal will hopefully come, whether anything will actioned is another thing completely. as a designer/ideas person you kind of get used to that. whatever happens the creative side of problem solving is often enough to fuel me to move on to the next project.

presentation? >> its not over

it will all make sense, it is still presentation. as used in teaching and learning. here is just a little look at some little things.

I promised to watch the rugby RBS six nations with my (8 year old son) ben today rather than spend it here, so please come back for a look later.

another week >> scandinavian design

I thought some scandinavian design was long overdue an airing on dgthekneelo for no other reason that I like a lot of it. 2Krogh as I am sure some of you will have heard of them. they produce some really good stuff, this is (left) their entry page logo I like it, (right) is the index page designed for the sculptor peter hesk moller's website.

it is a very neat clean/clear website. I find it relaxing to browse, as it uses a lot of flat colour making it nice for me to get away from the flowered themes that have been going through my head of late. can't seem to get flowers out of my head, even dream about them!

on the scandinavian theme I had to add this blog 0645am. I really do like the logo it not flowery but it is surfy, very simple and very swedish.
it is the blog of a swedish surfer! it use to run as a website but now runs as a full time blog.
I have linked through to it from my surf site surf98 for years, and have watched it evolve, perhaps it is the way forward, I am not sure. what to you think should we all use blogs instead of websites?

just having a look round >>

it is strange that it is so easy to become stuck in your own blog world and look at the really good blogs/websites that you usually look at. I had some time this afternoon an exam was going on in my teaching room so I had an hour of complete silence to browse around looking at as many different sites as I wanted.
I am normally either too tired or too busy to have this opportunity and the themes for each days blog just come to me while I am teaching or driving or talking.
I very rarely get time to just look. here are just a few blogs amongst many that I found interesting enough to want to share.

notes by cati vaucelle
yasmine abbas
the landscape blog
design observer
society of illustrators of los angeles



these are just five to have a look at whether they are to your taste or not I like them, I have also been looking at some french blogs. it seems that there is some great design and text driven stuff.

it has been a >> headache

I wasn't going to post anything today as I have a touch of man-flu (where did that saying originate? please leave a comment if you know), headache, feeling pathetic and tired and annoyingly ill you (know the feeling). even had to miss an important meeting tonight.
so here is a picture of something nice instead. 17" MacBook Pro

oh yes, this is an interesting blog to have a look at (the author got in touch with me) webtechlog

not much time >> surprised to be 46

well I didn't think I would manage to get a blog written tonight been at work and had a whole heap of stuff to sort before indulging myself. I will not be long and very few words of wisdom (nothing new). I did spend a long time today discussing the way that the adobe applications photoshop CS and illustrator CS series software that we have used for ages. are not as intuitive for the students we currently are teaching as the macromedia suite with fireworks as the main web graphic software, but much more of that another time.
I also spent a long time reminiscing today with my line manager/boss bob, about the first few Apple Macintosh's, the Archimedes, and the Amiga computers that I worked with in the '80s. we were both thinking about how we would like the the 17" MacBook pro as it seems a good combination of power and usability and it looks nice! just a bit pricey. that's from two people who have to spend all or most of our time working on PC's.
however it could be all the reminiscing today was because I was thinking about the passing of time as it was my birthday (not that I have an issue at all with age) but I was actually very surprised to realise that I was 46! thanks for all the cards and presents, especially carol.

lazy day >> papers and non-achievement

hardly done anything today, a long (well sort of long) look / read of the newspaper this morning and watched the rugby this afternoon.
so many ideas that I have been thinking of don't as far as design stuff and software stuff have been moved aside by other stuff but they are still in there.
had a nice chat with gabriel today "go with what you will be interested in for two years and remember there will be many boring bits!"

I will have to make some time to get the work stuff done tomorrow.

I have played around with the Firefox browser a bit downloaded/updated some of the new add ons. I like it, really useful stuff (it's cross platform so works as well on Linux, Mac and Windows) oh dear! I am even beginning to a bit too geeky even for me. must remember that it is the design and usability that is important. I will just have to think 'cow gum', to make me get things back it to perspective!