{Interactive} Information Designer
mel.seyer@melsbox.com
+44 (0)798 559 20 36
Quicklinks:
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Starting point
More and more information design has to come to terms with an increasingly complex content that is in a permanent state of flux and can be rearranged in multiple possibilities.
Furthermore we are becoming irritated by an overload of
information but would like to instantly access it
wherever we are. These developments demand a new discussion about the actual needs of users and how this effects the structure and the design of the navigation and its content.
The actual engagement with the content is still very limited for the user, but the rapid progress within technology makes it possible to incorporate sensorial experiences by using touch, sight, and sound to navigate through information.
The Digital Music Volvelles 1.0 project aims to contribute a new application and design for the interface in order to structure and access content that allows the user enough space to intuitively explore the information and interact with it. The playful approach intends not only to enhance the experience of actively looking for information but also to motivates the user to explore related content.
The Circle
The Design of the circle has always been adapted to the standard of knowledge within a society. The more complex the view of the world became, the more complex the geometric forms got, too.
Left:Multilayered infochart.
James Fisher. London: Penguin Books Ltd, 1951.
Right:The study of geometry. ; Robert Lawlor. London: Thames and Hudson, 1982.
Left: Colour sphere. Uses; Harald Küppers. London: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1973.
Right: Transparent infolayers. Content structuring self-studies; Melanie Seyer, 2008.
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Based on something old
The main aim of the Digital Volvelles is to design a new and more intuitive solution to access and to structure today’s information overload.
Two years of research on information representation methods from the past to now, has brought the form of the circle and one of its permutations, the paperwheels, into focus. The final realization of the Digital Music Volvelles is mainly based on insights gathered from these focal points.
One of the researched elements that has been carefully revived and translated into the digital world is the playful and interactive approach paperwheels demand from its users. They have to take the wheels into their hands and turn them in order to reveal information. At the end, this insight has led to a self-built multitouch-screen on which the users can touch and turn the now digital wheels.
Geometry
"GEOMETRY IS FROZEN MUSIC"
Geometric forms are considered to be the crystallizatons of the creative thoughts of God, and the human hand, in manipulating and constructing these forms, will learn to position itself .
Left: Mandala on Buddah's hand. Robert Lawlor. London: Thames and Hudson, 1982.
Right: Stained-glass-window. Robert Lawlor. London: Thames and Hudson, 1982.
Left: 7" 45 rpm vinyl single.
Right: Self-built multitouch-screen. Built for the Digital Music Volvelles 1.0 by Johannes Luderschmidt, 2008.
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Any content goes
The content plays an important part in this project. The multifaceted and complex information about popular music has been chosen for the first case study involving the Digital Music Volvelles 1.0.
However, the application and its design were realized to work with any complex content.
Left: Horoscope wheel, 1932. Jessica Helfand. New York: Princeton Architectural, 2002.
Right: Quiz wheel, 1964. Jessica Helfand. New York: Princeton Architectural, 2002.
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Personal adaptable
The Digital Volvelles provide the user with the opportunity to structure and vary the combinations of any content fragments in order to receive exactly the information he is looking for.
Future versions of the Digital Volvelles could offer developers the chance to completely customize wheels to structure the content they desire in exactly the way they want.
The Wheel
"IT'S REMIX CULTURE"
"Knowing neither vertical nor horizontal, the wheel does not belong and it doesn't have to obey. Roundness is the suitable shape for objects that belong nowhere and everywhere." (Rudolph Arnheim, "The Power of the Center")
Left: Selfmade 80s tape cover. By Ulrike Pötschke
Right: Fragmentising content. Content structuring self-studies 2; Melanie Seyer, 2008.
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Accessable from all sides
The form of the circle features a special quality: As the information to retrieve content is shown in a circular way it can be approached from any side or turned to any side.
Furthermore the Digital Music Volvelles 1.0 has been realized as a multitouch-able interface, which provides multiple users the opportunity to deal with it together at the same time.
Left: No beginning and no end. Content structuring self-studies 3; Melanie Seyer, 2008.
Right: Accessable from all sides. Content structuring self-studies 4; Melanie Seyer, 2008.
Left: Century Calendar, 1946. Jessica Helfand. New York: Princeton Architectural, 2002.
Right:
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Future
"THE BEST WAY TO PREDICT THE FUTURE IS TO INVENT IT"
Version 1.0 is out now, but there are lots of
possibilites to enhance and improve the current prototype.
One would be to expand the ability of the wheels to work like a round table where friends and family sit together and exchange information and maybe some photographs.
Therefore the next step for the wheels would be to allow users to create content and add it to the overall information.
The second step could be,that users can create their own personal wheels with their own playlists, videos, likes, and dislikes. Imagine people exchanging wheels, like they did with the former record albums, that can be put on top of each other to retrieve and mix the content of other people.
Another focal point would be to refine the possibilities for the visualization of content as well as to continue research on how to implement a sensorial feedback on actions taken by the user.
Left + Right: Study for Digital Music Volvelles 2.0. Possible development of the Volvelles 1; Melanie Seyer, 2008.
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Team -> Back to top
This project is also about fusing together specific
expertise in graphic design , technology, and
programming in order to achieve the best solution.
Melanie Seyer
http://www.melsbox.com/
http://www.digitalvolvelles.com/
Idea, Concept, Design; Art Direction
http://jadehopper.com
http://niquimerret.com
Technical Implementation, Flash Programming
Johannes Luderschmidt
http://johannesluderschmidt.de
Multi-touch table engingeering, Backend, Flash
Lelo Brossmann
http://www.leloproductions.com
Flash Animation, Refinement
Special Thanx to Anja Merret and Nico Roicke for their support and help with the text and content on this project.
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