Caleb Sands

Web Designer, Full Time Student

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MDD410 Reflective Essay

As my MDD410 course comes to a close, I wanted to take some time and reflect back on the past eight weeks as I prepare to take on my last eight weeks of my college career. These past two years attending DeVry have been a whirlwind. My goal going into DeVry has been to complete and finish my bachelors with a 4.0 GPA and eight weeks stand between me and reaching that goal. MDD410 was one of the classes I had to take in order to graduate and it was a very eye-opening class. 

I didn’t really know what to expect from the class. The class title is called “Emerging Multimedia Technology” which I believed to expect us to learn about new emerging technologies that can potentially have an impact on the multimedia field such as web design/development and graphic design. I got to learn a lot more about new technology that is coming out that I have never heard of and learned about new concepts such as AR (Augmented Reality). I was aware of VR (Virtual Reality) but never knew the concept of AR and that mobile apps and software are already being rolled out supporting this fairly new technology.

AR (Augmented Reality) was definitely the highlight of the new concepts that I learned. I got to take my design skills and learn how to create an AR interface through and app but another thing that really was fun to do was learning how to create 3D objects in Photoshop. I use Photoshop on a daily basis for my full-time job but I never dipped into 3D. It’s really cool what type of 3D models you can make within Photoshop and what you can compile!

The key takeaway that I will retain from this course is obviously 3D printing from Photoshop and AR. I think that, within my career as a digital media designer, I can implement 3D renders of objects within Photoshop and apply them to the graphics that I make for clients. I think having that skill to be able to fully create 3D objects can help me become a better asset to the department that I work for and will allow me to create a lot of better-looking graphics and more professional style graphics for clients and their promotions or contests!

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The Future of Web Design (Opinion)

If you all don't know, I'm a digital media designer for a radio company. I work as a web/graphic designer for various radio stations in Green Bay, WI and Evansville, IN building promotional and contest web pages along with graphics corresponding with those promotions and contests. It's worry some to me about the future of web design and development with online builders such as Weebly, WIX, Squarespace, and even WordPress where developers are creating these resources that allow anyone to really create any site without little to no coding or design knowledge. That really worries me because it puts web designers like me, who love to code and design in graphic editors out of business. Essentially, what I could do is just give in to this trend of Do it yourself web design and charge clients Weebly, WIX, Squarespace, or WordPress sites. On the upside with WordPress, it's open source so you can essentially make your own website that is compatible with their back end system. You can't with online website builders like WIX.

This is a trend that has started since the mid-2000's. I remember when my teachers in middle school were creating their own personal class websites using Weebly. I even tried it out once and tried to add my own layout and design, but it didn't work. That's the down side with these websites, because it limits someone's creativity and imagination and I strongly believe that someone's creativity and imagination can lead them to success if they put the time and effort into. That's the problem though, some people don't have the creativity nor the time and effort to build a website so this is where they come in, especially for small business owners who don't have the money to pay a agency or freelancer. It's a lot cheaper in cost and time to use a website builder online. It essentially transforms the market where only a handful of programmers will design and create this program/website builders while majority of the market will move to online business and these programmers will dominate the industry, where as small designers like me who love the coding and designing by hand aspect of the field get pushed down to the bottom of the barrel. This trend has it's pros (consumers) but it also has it's cons (developers). I think this type of technology is good if it doesn't weed out jobs. For someone who loves this industry, it's terrifying to know that developers are out there creating technology to make us obsolete.

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Fad or Trend

In society, we see the concepts of Fads and Trends and this also reaches into the technology that we use. New technology such as smart phones or VR headsets can easily become a fad or trend. In this article, I discuss what a fad and trend are, plus I'll give a few examples of technology that were fads and trends.

To begin, a fad is simply something that is popular for a short time. Fads usually last for a total of one year but mostly last for less than a month. They quickly disappear as fast as they appear. A very popular fad that lasted for about a year was Pokemon GO and it's AR experience. Now, AR is becoming more popular, the mobile game that thrived itself on AR schematics only lasted a short period of time. I remember when it first came out and everyone was talking about it. It was nonstop "Pokemon Go this! Pokemon Go That!" After a while, it quickly died off and those Pokemon Goers began to play Fortnite.

Speaking of Fortnite, that leads us into trends. Trends have a much longer lifespan than fads. Trends can last for years or even decades. The big difference between fads and trends is that trends have the potential to be long-term influences on the market where fads are not. An example of trends is drones. Drones are AWESOME! Drones have been around for years and aren't going anywhere. Drones are being used for various things such as TV, military use, personal use, and even farming. The technology within drones are constantly being upgraded and worked on to make them capable of doing more things that we can possibly think of. I, personally, do not see Drones dying off anytime soon.

Sources:

Fad, Trend or Classic: What's the Difference? | Mark Schneider Design. (n.d.). Retrieved February 20, 2019, from https://www.markschneiderdesign.com/jewelry-article/fad-trend-or-classic-what’s-difference

Hudson, S. (2014, September 15). Top 10 Emerging Technologies That Are Changing The World. Retrieved February 20, 2019, from https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-10-emerging-technologies-changing-world/

Thubron, R. (2017, January 30). Biggest Tech Fads of the Last Decade. Retrieved February 20, 2019, from https://www.techspot.com/article/1321-tech-fads/

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Resources for Keeping Current on Emerging Technology

In the digital age and how quickly society is developing new technology, it's hard to get left behind on emerging technology. In this post, I will provide 5 resources for you to use that help you keep up to date on new emerging technology, so you won't left behind! There are various tech blogs out on the inter-webs that stay up to date with various emerging technologies, some social media platforms work as well!

Here are 5 resources that you can use to stay up to date on emerging technologies:

1. Facebook

A lot of companies and brands are turning to social media platforms such as Facebook to help spread their message out to their audience through. There are also opportunities for you to join various groups that discuss and share new technology ideas and inventions.

2. CNET

CNET is a very popular online technology blog that discusses various new technologies and reviews of different technology that are rolled out to the public or are about to be rolled out to the public  in the near future. An example is CNET talking about Mercedes' new AMG E53 coupe and the technology that has been incorporated within their new car.

3. YouTube

YouTube is another good resource to use for finding new technology. A lot of people may use YouTube for tutorials or watching funny pet videos, but there are alot of new technology or just technology channels that showcase new inventions. One of them is TechZone. TechZone has 1.4 million subscribers and reaches an average of 20K views per video and each video is roughly 10 minutes long. This is a great channel and only 1 out of hundreds that do these types of videos.

4. Business Insider

Business Insider is a blogging website that covers a range of topics. One of those is Technology and they are very good at keeping up with new technologies. One story is Elon Musk and SpaceX. A recent article posts about SpaceX is developing a "bleeding" heavy-metal rocket ship and how it may be 100x more difficult as NASA's most difficult mars mission. It's definitely worth the read if you love space!

5. Wired

Wired is another online blogging website that covers various topics but they specifically talk about technology in different fields such as, Business, Culture, Science, Security, etc. They specifically look at new emerging technology and how it impacts culture throughout the world. A recent article talks about how smart replies are making us humans more dumb. I believe this is specifically talking about Gmail's auto suggestion feature, which I use once in a while, my self.