Media Design

Week1. Media Design
Design through collective action / collective action through design
Le Dantec, C. (2016). Design through collective action, collective action through design. Interactions 24(1), 24-30
Get it via the UQ Library.

Designers, think big
IDEO’s Tim Brown on how design can be used to address social problems.

Misereor: social swipe

JWS True Issues report

Class summary
We’ll define issues as situations where there is a gap between what we have and what we want. The work we do this semester should aim to change a situation in some way.
This class is about identifying how issues are currently communicated. It is about getting the students to think about the intersection of issues, people, and media.
Activity
• Pair up and use the JWS report to identify some potential issues to address via media design. Groups should pick three. For each issue, make a note of:
• How is it communicated currently? (they may need to do some online research);
• Who is involved? (identify as many people or groups as possible)
• What is each person/group’s perspective? (how do they see the issue?)
• What is an ideal situation for each of these perspectives?
• Choose one of these perspectives — aim for one that is as far removed from your experience as possible:
• what is an ideal situation from this perspective?
• how could you communicate about the issue?
• Feed back to the class.
Critique
Make sure you nominate a week to present your Design Critique.
One-on-one
• Discuss project ideas or course challenges with your tutor.

Week2. Issues & publics
Design and the construction of publics
DiSalvo, C. (2009). Design and the construction of publics. Design Issues 25(1), 48-63
Get it via the UQ Library
Rowland’s strategy for Sibelco

Salamander Superhighway
Another aspect of Jaramenjenko’s Environmental Health Clinic. This clip will give you some insight into the way she thinks about the issue she is exploring. Consider how she has incorporated social and digital media into a largely physical project.

Class summary
Lecture discussion
1. What are the differences/similarities in approach to understanding issues and publics by Rowland (Stradbroke Island case) and LeDantec (women’s shelter)?
2. What are the differences between the Butterfly Bridge and the posters from the World Wildlife Fund?
Group activity
• Form small groups and break down the coronavirus pandemic into issues and publics. Identify as many as possible;
Choose one issue and further and define it and its publics. Answer:
• what are the various perspectives on this issue?
• who holds those views?
• how are they communicated?
• what are the underlying assumptions in that perspective?
• Feed back to the class.
One-on-one
• Discuss project ideas or course challenges with your tutor.

Week3. Research for media design
Being Ethnographic
Chapter 3: Talking to people: negotiations, conversations and interviews
Chapter 5: Looking at people: observations and images
In: Madden, R. (2017) Being Ethnographic: a guide to the theory and practice of ethnography (2nd ed). Sage.
Available via the UQ Library:
https://search.library.uq.edu.au/permalink/f/12kerkf/61UQ_ALMA21188297890003131
An earlier edition is also available.

Richard Baker on the importance of talking to people

Interview tip sheet

Observation check list

Class summary
Doing fieldwork
All students must assess the risks involved in research activities before they begin fieldwork. The School has developed a generic risk assessment that should cover most circumstances. Students must read the assessment and consider if it covered their planned activities. If not, then they will need to develop a new assessment. Guidance for this is on Blackboard. Please read the generic assessment.
Lecture discussion
1. Why do we need to do research? Don’t creative people just have good ideas?
2. What are people’s experience with interviews. Discuss challenges, anxieties and ways of managing them.
Research planning
• Form small groups and begin developing a research plan for your project. If you have not settled on a topic, then use one of the issues from previous classes.
• Discuss what evidence you will need to complete the Media Design Brief. Identify:
• People to talk to and what to ask them;
• Locations or events to observe;
• Images or objects to analyse;
• Data and/or documents that might provide background information or facts.
• Aim to leave the workshop with a plan for research.
Find a report
Find a report that relates to your issue. This might be an industry or government document. Or it could be an annual report from a company or organisation that operates it the sector.
Observation exercise (in class or at home)
• Go somewhere local (on campus or in your neighbourhood). Choose somewhere unfamiliar.
• Spend 10-15 minutes observing. Focus on particular people or a situation eg: a cashier; a particular table; groups of people.
• Note things such as plot (series of events); details of interactions; atmosphere; location.
• Aim to capture as many details as possible using notes and diagrams;
• Avoid talking to people;
• Avoid analysing or drawing conclusions—capture details;
• Use as many of your senses as possible.
One-on-one
• Discuss project ideas or course challenges with your tutor.
For the next workshop
Between now and the next class begin desk research. Use the Factiva database and other online search tools to understand how the issue you are pursuing is currently communicated. Bring summaries, notes, screenshots, and quotations to class.

MEAA Code of Ethics

Week4. Creative judgement
Designer nights out: good urban planning can reduce drunken violence
Kees Dorst’s piece in the Conversation.

Recycling: how corporate Australia played us for mugs
How message framing impacted our recycling practices.

Video: Problem framing in design

Class summary
Attached Files:
• 4-workingwithdata.pdf (15.271 KB)
Lecture discussion
1. How do you generally approach decision-making? Write down how you have tackled a creative challenge in the past. How does this resonate with the approaches outlined in the lecture?
2. Creative practices involved a level of ambiguity: you don’t always know what the solution is. What is your experience of this? How have you managed it or be more comfortable with it?
Data analysis
You should have some background material to work with. If not, spend some time on Factiva and other online sources collecting quotes and details from news stories, reports, etc before doing the following exercises.
1. Thematic analysis
• Look at the data you have and organise it thematically. Use post-it notes and/or whiteboards.
• Start by writing down single quotations, observations or facts from the data you have. Be liberal with this, don’t make judgments or decisions about the value or importance of any data point yet. What you want to do, it get the information into a form you can work with.
• Only write one idea per note. We’ll call these ‘insights’.
• Once you’ve identified the insights, begin to grouping them thematically. For example, are people saying similar things; is a different problem emerging; what are the pain points in a process.
• When you have done this, write down the five or so strongest themes or insights about the issue, along with the relevant supporting evidence.
• This process will help you to identify themes that are worth investigating or developing further.
2. Reframing exercise
This activity aims to encourage new ideas.
Refer to the attached diagram about the idea that campuses make the most important aspects of campus life invisible.
Steps
• Work with the insights you have identified in the previous exercise.
• Pick an insight then analyse it by asking:
• What is made to seem normal? What is made to seem extraordinary?
• What is made visible or noticeable? What is left hidden?
• What is your attention drawn to?
• What values are implied?
• What is taken as good or right?
• How else could you describe this situation?
• Who has agency? Who is victimised?
• Value fiction: come up with ideas that subvert or invert the norms, values or expectations that you have identified.
• Repeat with other insights.
• Make a note of any ideas that emerge as a result.
Before next week
Collect some human data. You should have an interview to work with.

Week5. Community & engagement
Community engagement and the third sector
Attached Files:
• Demetrios2014.pdf (7.75 MB)
Demetrious, K. (2014). Community engagement & the third sector. In Johnson J., & Sheehan, M. (eds) Public Relations: Theory and Practice (4th ed). Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin
Attached here or available via the UQ Library:
https://search.library.uq.edu.au/permalink/f/12kerkf/61UQ_ALMA2198697130003131

Why engagement matters
Introduction to Engaged Journalism
Bastell, J. (2015). Engaged Journalism: connecting with digitally empowered news audiences. New York: Columbia University Press
Get it via the UQ Library:
https://search.library.uq.edu.au/permalink/f/18av8c1/61UQ_ALMA51163986840003131

How the FT users reader comments to engage audiences

World Without Oil

Guide to Copyright & Creative Commons

Class summary
Lecture discussion
1. Brainstorm some examples the various degrees of engagement: discussion, feedback, customisation, production.
2. Are any of these examples of empowering publics? Or are they simply fostering the growth of networks (ref Carah & Louw).
3. What were some of the strategies the FT used to engage readers on the issue of Britain’s future?
Personas
Develop three personas for your issue based on the research you have collected so far. Identify:
• who is the person?
• how do they experience the issue?
• What concerns them about the issue?
• How would they like things to change?
• One-word descriptor.
Engagement
Think about how you might engage each of these personas in your designs. Consider:
• what you could reveal or provoke for each.
• what action could they take?
• how might you engage them?
Consider real and digital opportunities for:
• Discussion
• Audience feedback
• Content customisation and sharing
• User involvement in production or design
What platforms might help?
How do these map to Batsell’s five principles of engagement?
• Convene audiences in person
• Interact at every step
• Serve the passionate vertical
• Empower audiences to satisfy their own curiosity
• Measure effectiveness and capture value.
Continue to work on the personas and bring them to class next week.

Week6. Communicating meaning
Surreptitious Communication Design
Hirsch, T. (2016). Surreptitious communication design. Design Issues 32 (2)
This paper outlines a project to design communication for trafficked women. The key lesson here is the importance of understanding the situation in order to design messages in a particular way for this group of people.
Get it via the UQ Library.

Eyes Wide Shut
Short semiotic analysis of the Stanley Kubrick film.

Class summary
Lecture discussion
1. What are some common signs we recognise in relation to themes such as: environment, health, safety, etc?
2. How did Natalie Jaramenjenko adopt cultural signs in the Butterfly Bridge project (week 2)?
3. What meaning is being communicated in the image of William and Kate?
4. In the projects discussed in the reading on Surreptitious Communication Design: what did you notice about:
•
• The approach adopted by each group?
• The relationship between messages and their publics?
• The potential effectiveness of the communication artefacts?
• The value of primary research.
Concept board
Spend some time developing a concept board focused on communication about your issue.
Take screenshots and paste them on to a blank document (landscape). The aim is to evoke a sense of what visual messages are used to communicate about the issue.
Analyse each example in terms of what is denotated and connotated.
Identify themes across the sample.
Designing communication
Working with the personas developed last week, think about discuss how you can address these questions in terms of your project:
• What needs to be communicated?
• What media thing might be devised to do that?
• Who will receive the communication and how?
Signs and meanings
Aim to synthesise these exercises and develop some ideas about what signs will communicate meaning to your publics.
Week7. Designing content
Writing feature stories
Chapters 9 & 10 of Writing Feature Stories focus on structure:
Ricketson, M. (2004) Writing Feature Stories: how to research and write newspaper and magazine articles. Sydney: Allan & Unwin.
Available via the UQ Library: https://search.library.uq.edu.au/permalink/f/tbms52/TN_pq_ebook_centralEBC239658

The power of storytelling in PR
Kent, M L (2015) The power of storytelling in public relations: introducing the 20 master plots. Public Relations Review, 41, pp 480-489

Writing for the web
A 20-minute module from the UQ Library.

Guide to Copyright & Creative Commons

Week8. Principles of composition
Slideshow: An agoraphobic photographer’s virtual travels

Urban Burqa

Graphic Design School
Dabner, D., Stewart, S. & Zempol, E. (2014). Graphic Design School: The principles and practices of graphic design (5th ed). Wiley.
E book available via the UQ Library:

https://search.library.uq.edu.au/permalink/f/18av8c1/61UQ_ALMA51163037470003131

Universal Principles of Design
Lidwell, W., Holden, K. & Butler, J. (2010). Universal Principles of Design: 125 ways to enhance usability, influence perception, increase appeal, make better design decisions and teach through design (2nd ed). Rockport.
The UQ Library has this as an Ebook and a real book:
https://search.library.uq.edu.au/permalink/f/12kerkf/61UQ_ALMA51132510920003131

Week 9. Designing pages

Book: Don’t make me think
The latest edition of Steve Krug’s book on web design is available via the UQ Library: https://search.library.uq.edu.au/permalink/f/18av8c1/61UQ_ALMA2189256970003131
Web Link
The Noun Project
Royalty free icons
Web Link
Million Dollar Blocks
File
Basic grid
Item
Class summary
Lecture discussion
When you go to a news or business web page, what are your expectations. How do you expect information to be organised?
What are some websites you have found particularly difficult to use? Why was this?
Wireframing
Choose a tool to experiment with wireframing. Options include:
PowerPoint or Keynote;
InDesign;
Online wireframing software such as MockFlow or wireframe.cc
There are many other applications all with free and paid access. If you choose to use an online tool you will need to make sure you can export the project in a way that allows you to submit a PDF.
Million Dollar Blocks
Use paper or PowerPoint or similar for this exercise.
Create a wireframe of an existing webpage, such as a news website or a campaign page. Use only boxes and labels.
Start by creating a grid of the Million Dollar Blocks page shown in the lecture:
http://chicagosmilliondollarblocks.com
Sketch a grid of the underlying structure, then block out specific areas such as headers, navigation, image, text, subheadings etc.
Analyse structures
Head to the WordPress themes page: https://wordpress.com/themes
Spend some time looking through the various layouts and identify some of the common structures.
Take note of how various elements are used:
header and navigation sections;
content wells;
sidebars;
Use of alignment and hierarchy;
the scale of images.
An important difference between these designs and the one you need to produce is that your page is a single page only, so you should not design for ‘clicking through’ to another page.
Wireframe
Now move on to your own project. List the content they want to include;
Identify how they might engage the reader;
Start wireframing;
Consider these elements: main content (images & text); navigation; links; scrolling; interaction.
What labels or annotations re needed to communicate effectively?
Show your wireframe to someone else and find out if they understand it. If anything is unclear, redesign it.

Video: Short history of typography
Web Link
Graphic Design School
Dabner, D., Stewart, S. & Zempol, E. (2014). Graphic Design School: The principles and practices of graphic design (5th ed). Wiley.
Ebook available via the UQ Library:
https://search.library.uq.edu.au/permalink/f/18av8c1/61UQ_ALMA51163037470003131

Web Link
Universal Principles of Design
Lidwell, W., Holden, K. & Butler, J. (2010). Universal Principles of Design: 125 ways to enhance usability, influence perception, increase appeal, make better design decisions and teach through design (2nd ed). Rockport.
The UQ Library has this as an Ebook and a real book:
https://search.library.uq.edu.au/permalink/f/12kerkf/61UQ_ALMA51132510920003131

Week 10. Typography & colour

Web Link
Tool: Adobe Color
Item
Class overview
Work in progress
Stick up your poster, images, stories or wireframe around the room or put them on tables.
If there is something specific you want feedback on, write the question on a sticky note beside the design.
Spend some time looking at everyone’s work and offer some constructive feedback by writing it on a sticky note and putting it beside the design.
Aim to critique the designs in light of the principles discussed in lectures.
Type as image
Take a quote from your data and work with it to create a composition.
Using only the letters and words in the quote, create a typographic image that communicates the meaning implicit in the quotation.
Start by sketching out some ideas in your sketchbook, e.g.:
lower case, capitals, a combination:
Alter size, weight and proportion of the letters;
Break up parts of the quote;
Arrange the works in portrait and landscape.
Once you have a few ideas, start working on a computer. Use Word, PowerPoint or one of the Adobe programs to further experiment. Try serif and san serif typefaces and vary the font.
Experiment with white space and composition.
You can add lines to the composition also, but not images.
Consider how the meaning of the quote changes as you alter the typography and layout.
Colour
Now apply a colour scheme. Again try to use colour to communicate meaning.
Experiment with monochromatic, analogous and complementary colour schemes;
Vary the hue and shade.