This was an adventure. I feel like I am just a bit better with coding CSS now than I was a month ago. I wrote over 400 lines of code for this website, which is very little, but that’s certainly more than I did for my portfolio website!
Tbh, I don’t like working in Squarespace all too much. It’s not as quick and customizable as WordPress with Elementor. However, I am pleased with my final website outcome.
Here’s the link to the website, it should be active for 5 more days!
For designers, butterfly ballots & the 2000 elections were the beginning of a huge realization: election design is a mess & democracy has a design problem.
11/27/20:
Now that I finally had some time for myself, I decided to give a crack at listening to the wireframe podcast. I chose to listen to their latest episode, as it was about the election, and that is still quite fresh on my mind.
I found this episode interesting because I never really think about how design and especially UI/UX design plays an important and influential role in our election process. I was alive during the mess that was the 2000 election, but not cognizant of the concept of voting, something I wouldn’t even do up until this year at age 23. I wasn’t even aware of the many ways you can actually cast your vote, (mail, paper ballots, digital, etc.) The butterfly ballots really sounded like a user experience nightmare, and I’m almost positive that they influenced the close race against Gore v Bush due to their confusing design.
I think that voting in one simple to navigate avenue would be best to ensure no hiccups in an election, but I can see how that would disenfranchise those who can’t physically go to polling places, or those who would feel most comfortable having their vote cast in the presence of election officials.
I found it interesting that in a study with Californian voters, voters seemed to favor paper ballots over digital vote taking machines. To me, I think digital is way easier to navigate, at least from my experience voting this past election. With paper ballots, they don’t confirm whether or not the people you cast your vote for are actually the ones you chose, while with digital tabulation, at the end of the almost questionnaire-like task, they ask you if all the information you selected was correct, adding that extra layer of assurance that who you selected is who you really want to vote for.
I think the real problem with design and the election is that how we cast our votes is extremely and needlessly politicized. Mail in ballots have always been a thing, and lots of states like Washington have made it routine and seamless, so why can’t the rest of the states participate in voting like that? Again, it comes down to politics and the assumption that the results will be fraudulent due to one side thinking the other has a propensity to cheat more than the other.
Even if voting becomes as seamless as it possibly can, I don’t think that it will help with the divide we have in this country. Some way, some how, either side will make unsubstantiated claims as to how certain methods of voting are flawed, and there will never be peace. Voting is annoying design-wise, but it is necessary, and each voter really needs to keep their eyes open to possible UI/UX design flaws when they are voting, or else another 2000 election scandal will be inevitable.
So for my final school project, it’s time to learn Squarespace. I feel like I’ve really been lagging behind, and the holidays haven’t made it any easier on top of the 2 other classes I have work for. Hoping for smooth sailing.
Morale has been down quite a bit this week, but I finished my app thankfully. I have a love-hate relationship with XD and it’s constant updates, but I always enjoy the process of making something that’s “alive.” Very pleased with the outcome of this project.
A lot has been going on outside of my emerging tech class, but I’m still making time to design my app. Just thought I would share my special guests screens. Hopefully I’ll find a way to make the text scrollable in XD and add schedule a meet and greet buttons to each of their featured screens.
This past week, we learned a bit about HTML5 and CSS. I have a brief background in coding, so I welcomed this topic with open arms. I found that working in HTLM5 was a lot different than coding in C++ like I was accustomed to all those years ago. CSS on the other had was more like C++ in syntax, which felt more familiar to me.
Our projects were simple, we did a crash course on HTML5 on Skillshare, but I opted to make my website geared towards a cartoon character rather than chocolate chip cookies.
It was also my first time working in Dreamweaver, and we had to build a website about a llama named Boberick. Super straightforward, nothing crazy.
https://allisonbahr.site//exercise/llama.html
I kind of wish I chose web development as a career instead of design now, lol.
So much fun doing this projection! Couldn’t have done it without my wonderful groupmates! We had a few set backs regarding the DSLR camer and tripod, but we found a way to record, no matter how janky it looked, lol.
Thank you so much for the hard work Ean and Paige, so happy with the outcome you guys! <3
Lots of work being done this past weekend, I didn’t even have time to post! These past two weeks we started doing a projection mapping animation for a non profit organization.
Here is all the work that went into it, from sketches, storyboards, previsualization, to the first draft. It’s been difficult, but I’m happy where we’ve gone as a team so far!
Tomorrow we get to actually project this animation, so I’m pretty nervous and excited. Hoping for good things!
This week we worked with HeavyM and projecting on multi-sided surfaces. I chose one of my favorite songs, Raspberry Beret by Prince, to be projected. :) Lots of fun!
3D modelling has been a bit of a challenge this week.
I’ve found Photoshop to be good for some use cases of modelling, and it can actually be kinda fun to see what you can make, but rendering out my creations has been a bit difficult and taxing on my computer, plus they never look right exported into Aero, so I took a stab at exporting my models into Dimension. I knew I wasn’t going to animate my models in Photoshop, so I gave this program a shot just for the sake of scene creation and easy model export.
I actually love Dimension. It has an excellent base of starter assets you can use and put graphics on, which really helped with my pop can problem I was having in Photoshop. I also sourced the splash from Adobe stock, but I may find another one that suits my needs better, or I’ll just end up making several liquid blobs in Photoshop 3D to better suit the look I’m going for in this AR experience.
It was easy to put the graphics back on my own modeled limes, as the texture was lost when exporting it to an OBJ file, and the spinning text graphics came out better than I expected!
Overall, I’m pretty pleased with my progress. I have very minimal experience with modeling anything, and I’m just proud that I was able to model limes and cherries that actually look true to life. Maybe someday I’ll master modelling pop cans, but that is a journey for another time. :)
