Purple Moon a Success?

I just wanted to write a little response to this weeks readings and our meeting in second life. What stood out to me most this week was Utopian Entrepreneur by Brenda Laurel because of its personal writing technique. All of us as students in Second Life talked about how this book is professional yet personal. It is definitely a book in which media students would enjoy for reasons of design in the book itself. The bold words and graphic like interface on some pages seems to apply media conglomeration in a book. I feel this design is good at illustrating transmedia because it combines computer like simulation and game situation in a text document.
The fact that the games made for girls by Purple Moon failed speaks volumes to the idea of being different in a mainstream pop icon capitalistic society. It wasn’t violent it was smart; is that why it failed? Questions like this cannot have simple answer and are as diverse as the individuals who try and answer them. For the reason of media design research I feel Purple Moon’s defeat is in fact a victory. This book would not seem so personal or different than others had it been just another shoot’em up game success. No, it begged for social change and it its failure it may have done just that. This book is being taught to students who most likely take from it a way of thinking. That in itself is causing social change.

Trial Study on Cell Phones

I have argued that media technologies found on most if not all cell phones today such as, video recording and picture making are the future of mobile phone mediums. These high tech devices need to be molded in a conglomerate way as to better suite user ability and thus enhance use among consumers. With an easier to use media based cell phone profits will increase for shareholders of the technology because ease of use makes more people interested and more people buy the phone products.
I am a mid twenty male and use my cell phone many times a day. A person of my age and demographic tend to be more technologically minded because we grew up with the boom of computers. It is not my intention to argue that older individuals use cell phones much less however, I do feel it is important to realize that in the near future say 20-40 years people of the younger age will grow old with new technologies of today. These people will see large improvements in technological advances. For instance, computers once needed a whole room of space to fit in; now they fit in a hand. Secondly younger people tend to use more technology than older people new to it, simply because it is already a part of their way of thinking. Myspace, Facebook, Youtube, Google, Iphone all of these new technologies were invented by people in between their 20’s to 40’s roughly. Why; because this is what we know.
Because of these reasons, I simply talked to friends my age and local college students about their media use on cell phones. I asked questions about why they like new cell phones and how they view them in the future of the world. These simple questions illustrate the understanding that cell phones are important now among young people who view them to be important throughout their life. These young adults are using media within their cell phones and will continue to. As a designer I wish to ask what can be done to insure media use on cell phones will advance with other technologies and will be easy to use now and in the future. Here are a few quotes I found interesting when asking young people about media use in cell phones. These ideas are important because they support the need media in cell phones is presenting to young consumers:
Ben age 20: I use video on my phone because then my friends can see what I am doing: It’s fun.
Ashley 25: Pictures can sometimes speak more than words; that’s why I use them.
Jessica age 18: I use media on my phone because it allows me to talk when I couldn’t before, I can send pics during class and stuff.

These few ideas are fundamental in the progression of media technology on phones. We as designers need to forecast use in the future by doing research today. That’s why this study is important.

Cell Phone Use!

This gets the point across.

from www.youtube.com posted with vodpod

March 8th Work on Research Design

I am really trying to get both a fisable resarch topic as well as a uniquie and intresting one. I am very into movie technologhy, well technology period I suppose. Here is an original email clip of my what I first wanted as a formal idea for this project:
I want to illustrate how video phones as a design are changing the way emotion is felt through communication on the phone.
For example, until a relatively short time a go we were used to using cord phones. Imagine cord’s on phones! Now there’s blue tooth and all wireless technology. With this new tech, people are able to travel far from their homes and yet keep all close contacts with them. One can text during a meeting, call during a taxi ride and send pictures well basically whenever. In fact cell phones now can write a text or a picture then wait until there is signal strength to send. Now it is pretty obvious how travel friendly cell phones have become. What I want to research is how their design, be it a computer on the go, helps drastically with communication boosting long loved relationships in an emotional manner.
How can I do this paper?
This question allows me to reflect on some of the reading made in the last week and a half. This week’s readings have focused on how one must step away from preconceived notions about a product or way of life in order to have as clean a mental state to harness a good design as possible. I have read other students writings this week and a trend seems to be that the above statement is easier said than done. I could not agree more. How does one have a clean slate then analyze the end like Dorothy Deasy’s explains in the essay “Non-Assumptive Research?” I am a terrible technology freak, how then do I keep my assumptions at bay? Here are my ideas for this research’s methodologies.

I have a lot of friends who strictly use their cell phones for the only phone they have? Why is that? Is the technology that convienent or is it too expensive to house other phones?

For work, cell phones are used to highten communication during travel. What designs in the phone itself help to ease communication when traveling?
Finally, how do cell phones make a family more in touch?

Now that I have truly wrote down ideas in a rambling way I wish to write a new sentence that fits my research idea better. Maybe.
How has cell phone design made telephone communication more personal among its users?

One last tid bit I found was intresting in my own life regarding this weeks readings is that we learned to be a good designer by someties seeking out a culture of design. We are doing this in our SL meetings. Researches working with other researchers to better their work is SL in itself for this class. Also, in my own life I will be heading to Madison this April for the WI Film Fest, what a great creative outlet for a film designer. To be around others who share a similar passion, is this not our readings and why we are taking this course?