HU2642 Assignment 3: Revised Design Plan

Design Plan

Mock-up of an improved GUI for the Avast! WebRep browser extension

To improve the usability of the Avast! WebRep browser extension and attempt to help the development team make a better product for their intended audience, I will create a visual mock-up of a redesigned GUI for the WebRep extension as part of a white paper. The ultimate objective would be seeing my suggestions implemented in the next major release of the software. This would improve the software for new and existing users, and would benefit the AVAST Software company via increased user satisfaction, recommendations, etc.

CCCC Conference: Tentative Schedule of Sessions

After several hours of reading and decision-making, I’ve produced a schedule of the sessions I plan to attend at the CCCC conference. A PDF version can be viewed online here (note: the session on food was my “fun” choice. As if any will be boring). I also hyperlinked the sessions to their respective descriptions for easy browsing (just click the session titles; they don’t look like links, but they take you where you need to go). Of course, I’m still allowing for my interests to change based on what actually happens at the conference.

Quite a few other sessions sounded interesting too. Here are some that were close to making the cut:

HU2642 Assignment 3: Design Plan, Rough Draft

DISCLAIMER: This post was written on too little sleep. Thus, it is very drafty. Prepare to be blown away.

Design Plan

Mock-up of an improved GUI for the Avast! WebRep browser extension

HU2642 Assignment 3: Statement of Purpose

I plan to convince the international development team of programmers and designers responsible for creating the Avast! WebRep browser extension that the graphical user interface has several major flaws, that if eliminated could improve usability for a diverse and global audience. The ultimate goal would be seeing my suggestions implemented in the next major release of the software, thus improving it for users and benefiting the AVAST Software company via increased user satisfaction, recommendations, etc.

HU2642 Reading Response: Wysocki & Lynch Chapter 3

*Note: Anne Wysocki is going to be at the CCCC conference and has developed an interactive display on issues surrounding the use of visuals/images and text. I'm pretty excited to see what she has to say if I make it to that session or at least get to check out the project.*

With a project in mind, after re-reading chapter 2 of Compose Design Advocate, chapter 3 was a worthwhile revisit to a familiar design process. I thought the quick connection to Bitzer was interesting, in that the authors discuss creating a change or “designing futures”, i.e. modifying reality through persuasion/communication (60). Bitzer and Baudrillard definitely need to be added to the “can’t be unseen” meme collection (Google at your own risk). The section on statements of purpose was helpful too.

Trying Something Different...

Originally, I was going to write a blog post about the design experience I had last weekend trying to develop a logo for Georgia Tech's Experimental Game Lab. However, since the majority of the content is visual, I decided to create a narrative Flickr set describing the ordeal. I hope you're inspired or at least entertained by my tale.