Student Work
Robot Salmon
Check out our web design school blog. We are students at Capilano University. Web design is our passion.
ROBOT SALMON
We decided to call our blog Robot Salmon because sometimes we feel like digital fish swimming up stream against a strong current of digital content. We thought it was fitting; like we were swimming up stream to spawn creations into the world… figuratively of course. Robot Salmon is our attempt to catalog and curate our journey to learn to become interactive designers.
If you are a web designer, information architect, web developer, copy editor, taxidermist or print designer then Robot Salmon can offer you some nostalgia (and hopefully some laughs) on your journey upstream and into the cloud.
We are Tayber Voyer, Nicole Farley, Laura Mason, Max Stockholder and Kyle Brownlow. You can read more about us individually in our profile pages. Together we are Robot Salmon.
(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)
Loading ...Online Portfolios
The clock is ticking on the 2010 graduating class preparing their online portfolios. The challenge of presenting 2 years worth of work through an authentic online portfolio is a task they are more than ready to complete, but it never hurts to have a top 10 list to drive further inspiration…http://designshack.co.uk/articles/inspiration/10-expert-tips-for-designing-a-one-page-portfolio
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Directions for Optimization
In the SEO / Analytics course Interactive Design students are optimizing four new sites surrounding this site and learning about the importance of keywords, links, descriptions, tagging, social media integration and above all else - compelling content creation.
Explore the directions north, south, east and west for their experiences.
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) Loading ...Monkeying Around
Recently in visual design class, students were challenged to draw monkeys using only type.
Here are the results:
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Twitter Best Practices
Obvious points
- It’s a new-media class on writing. So we should be writing for new media.
- Twitter is a new medium and, um, popular.
- Therefore, we should be learning Twitter writing.
In class on Tuesday, we talked about all kinds of social media and how they conform to the basic principles of writing for all channels: ie, that the writing must be clear, coherent, and suited to a specific audience. Then the students broke into groups (a painful process but I had Scotch tape handy) to work on a brief project.
Project
Capilano University’s Interactive Design program has engaged all 26 of you to come up with a social-networking media strategy. Steer the client toward Twitter as a channel for disseminating info on the program, come up with four categories of Tweets, and write five sample Tweets in your category. The attached photo sums up the four. Sample Tweets follow. I was impressed by how quickly they generated Tweets that were not only interesting and Retweetable, but that complemented each other in providing all different ways for our imaginary prospective student to get a feel for life in the Interactive Design program. Well done, all!
Sample Tweets
- The 2011 class just finished their 3-page website mockups. Check it out, it’s awesome! [LINK]
- Running around interviewing people on the street. Hear the funny things they have to say [LINK]
- Coding stuff in #Javascript & #Actionscript like the true nerds do.
- <head>for the brain</head> <body>for everything else</body>
- Arrive at school early for free street parking.
- Go to Starbucks before class or bring VIA.
- Hide all food consumption while in class.
- Don’t buy text books; use Google Books. http://books.google.com/books
- Aim to arrive early when taking the bus.
- Make good friends with Cathy.
- Finish assignments early or you’ll be sorry.
- Insure your laptop & software.
- John Burns’ class is da bomb.
- I’m having a super sick time at #capu #orientation day. Free food, prizes and games! Who knew school could be so fun!
- learned about Twitter today….and what NOT to say on here
- One day, I hope to work in an office that is this awesome: http://bit.ly/afB7j #vimeo
- Great example of how designing experiences can change behaviour: http://bit.ly/eQdkq
- School is stressful, kittens are not: http://bit.ly/7u6L5t
- About to start twittering for a class assignment. It’s a brave new world.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...The Deadly Dog Virus
We took a break this week from our magazine-publishing project to look at persuasive writing. How can we use logic, authority, and emotion most effectively to get what we want? In our classroom scenario, 10 teams advocated on behalf of owners whose dogs had been struck with a lethal dog virus (H2N2? Shih Tzu Flu?). The catch: the village vet (me) only had vaccine for two of the 10 dogs. Lively presentations led to even livelier voting, which culminated in these two winners. Meet the survivors…
Dog 1: Beano
Owner: PC Ryan Lee – Ryan is a thirty-year-old police officer who works with Beano, his police dog. Together they have caught many criminals. Last month they captured a terrorist who was plotting to blow up a train.
Dog: Beano – Beano is a well-trained ten-year-old police-dog. He is completely obedient to his owner and shows great intelligence sniffing out trouble.
THE STUDENT PITCH
Beano is a well-trained, protective, and dedicated police beagle. He is completely obedient to his owner, Const. Ryan Lee, and shows great intelligence sniffing out trouble.
Together with Ryan, Beano has helped catch many criminals. Last month, they captured a terrorist who was plotting to blow up a train, saving millions of lives. This action earned both Ryan and Beano a personal commendation from the Queen. She went so far as to call Beano a “national hero”.
Locally, Beano saves lives, and contributes to the safety and security of our community. If we allow this dog to die from this horrible virus, we put the entire community at risk. With the training that Beano has been given, our community has invested a great deal in Beano; allowing him to die would cost the community both directly and indirectly.
Because of the service Beano has given this town, we owe him this vaccine.
And number two…
Dog 2: Oscar
Owner: Lee Travers – thirty-year-old Lee is an international rescue worker who travels the world with his dog searching for survivors from disasters. He is married with a two-year-old daughter, but is often away from home with his dog.
Dog: Oscar is thirteen and a very experienced sniffer dog. Wherever there is an earthquake or a building collapsed or someone trapped underground, Lee gets paid to come with his dog and search for survivors. Oscar puts his life at risk searching for people using his sense of smell. Over the years Oscar has saved the lives of many people.
THE STUDENT PITCH
Oscar has saved over 700 people in his career as a sniff dog in England. England has a history of natural disasters including earth quakes, tornados, and floods. These natural disasters result in people becoming injured, trapped, and helpless. You could become trapped from a natural disaster. Oscar could save your life.
Oscar’s entire life has been dedicated to working and training as an experienced sniff dog. Oscar saves on average 60 lives a year — that’s one life saved per week.
Should Oscar die from the virus, Lee’s wife and his two-year old daughter will suffer, because Lee’s career depends on Oscar’s ability to save lives.
Oscar selflessly saves lives every day, so his life should be saved today.
Download the full classroom exercise, which I adapted here.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Win $50,000!
That’s the challenge for students of CMNS 165 (Writing for New Media). In five teams, they’re competing for funding of their group e-mag. (Note: My apology to all the design students for the hodgepodge of bolds/headings/subheads hierarchy. Suggestions?)
Step One: The Memo
The Challenge Write a memo to the funder, explaining the purpose of your site, its target audience, and what competition exists online. Choose two competing sites and write a memo targeting their strengths and weaknesses.
Group 1: Broke.ca
TO: Big Money Burns (Chief Editor)
FROM: Team Broke.ca
DATE: Tuesday, 20 October, 2009
SUBJECT: brokegradstudent.com and lifehacker.com homepage layoutAs readership is growing steadily at Broke.ca, we think it’s time to take a serious look at our competition. ‘brokeinboston.com’ and ‘brokeasstuart.com’ are both examples of sites with themes similar to our own.
- Broke in Boston is a website built upon the release of a published book of the same name. The book and the website cross promote each other, and the website is constantly updated with new leads and tips on saving within the Boston area. The website also includes a blogroll with additional information that’s related to both the book and saving money in general.
- Broke Ass Stuart contains similar information (with a less pertinent literary cross promotion) concentrated primarily on the New York area. What Broke Ass also offers is humour. More specifically, Stuart offers crass humour, limiting its audience to those with a flexible funny bone. One of the main differences between the sites is the ‘Do It Yourself’ section in Broke Ass. Another difference is the inclusion of information pertaining to other cities.
Both sites, considering the similarities they share with our vision, should provide Broke.ca with plenty of inspiration. That being said, we are not trying to emulate these sites, but rather build on their examples and create a superior end product. Combining Broke in Boston’s penchant for informative content with Broke Ass Stuart’s humour (though less crass), Broke.ca will be the premier source for affordable living information for the Lower Mainland.
Group 2: FutureOfThings.com
To: John Burns, Chief ResearcherF
From: FutureThings Research Team
Date: October 20, 2009
Subject: Progress ReportWe wish to inform you on the current progress of our research.
Futureofthings.com is a threat to our magazine. Their content consists of the type of articles we want to publish (i.e., conceptual products, products that might be in production 10 - 20 years from now, where technologies might be headed, etc.)
Retrofuture.com is a website that looks back to the designs of the past. Over history, designs have always found a way of reappearing in modern day things. When a designer hits the drawing board, the first thing they do is research into the past. Retrofuture.com addresses this. By referencing Retro Futureʼs theories on what they thought technology would be today, our articles will produce educated projections of what technology may be in the distant future.
FutureThings will enhance its content by incorporating the above ideas and consolidating this information into one online magazine.
Group 3: GeekLife.com
To: John Burns, Research and Development Liaison
From: GeekLife Magazine group
Date: 20 October 2009
Subject: GeekLife Magazine’s top two online sites are Wired and Geek MonthlyOur group is creating an online magazine for geeks about everything relating to “geek-dom”. This includes articles about the geek lifestyle, games, movies and cool new gadgets that fellow geeks will enjoy.
We have selected Wired Mag (www.wired.com) and Geek Monthly (www.geekmonthly.com) to be our two best sources for reference.
Comparative Site Analysis
Wired Mag
This site contains articles on gadgets, science, and technology. The articles cover a wide degree of topics to appeal to a larger audience. Each topic has its own individual section (e.g. blog, reviews, how-tos).Conclusion: This site would be a great example of the type of topics we should cover, and also as a guideline for how we should write our articles.
Geek Monthly
This is a printed monthly geek lifestyle magazine. It has articles relating to: latest technology gadgets, toys, science, entertainment for geeks (such as Anime, TV shows, and movies), how-to information, and zombies. This is essentially what we want to do online, but in print. The website itself focuses on promoting its print magazine.Conclusion: This magazine targets the same readership that we are hoping to attract with GeekLife. The website is not very well organized, but we should use the print magazine to determine the scope and depth of our articles.
We will send you the full comparative site analysis report next week.
Group 4: SoundOfCanada.com
To: Head of research and development department, John Burns
From: Sound of Canada Online Magazine
Date: Oct. 20, Oct. 2009
Subject: SOC Market ResearchIn order to succeed in marketing our online magazine, we must know our competition. The competition is quite fierce out there. Our online magazine is still in the development process, and it’s going to need a lot of work to be the best. To ensure our magazine reaches the top, we will have to take some useful ideas from the two websites attached.
The Radio 3 website has specific focus is on Canadian music and artists. The site has many good features such as event calendar, music samples, appealing layout, credibility, valuable information, accessibility and usability.
The Canadian musician website is very different. The design is not as remarkable and welcoming as the first one. This website has a broad range of American and Canadian music. It would be a good idea to use Canadian Musician websites as our inspiration to stay focused on development of our website.
I suggest we get together Oct.27/09 at 6 pm, one week from now, to discuss the ideas and development of our SOC online magazine.
Attachments:
http://radio3.cbc.ca/
http://www.canadianmusician.com/
Group 5: UrbanNosh.com
To: John Burns, Research & Development
From: Urban Nosh Team
Date: October 20, 2009
Re: Competition Websites EvaluationWebsite: chow.com Website: vanmag.com/restaurants
In preparation for the construction of the Urban Nosh website, a review was conducted of eight Vancouver “food centric” websites. Two sites have been identified as containing features useful to the creation of the Urban Nosh website.
Chow.com incorporates the following elements into their website:
• insider food/restaurant info.
• heavy on the recipe section
• restaurant reviews
• seasonal features
• blog and columns (articles – city specific)
• excellent section called “chowland” for forums, how-to’s, advice, where’s the best deli sandwich, etc
• excellent section called “mychow” is a customized page for your personal collection of chow.com content
• “Members”: publishing recipes, responses, questions, favourites, etc
• user review section
• ratings based on review ratings (5 stars)
• visual “How To” guides, video contentChow.com Summary
Chow.com incorporates many excellent elements that would work well for Urban Nosh. Additionally, this site exudes a professional yet casual tone similar to what has been discussed for Urban Nosh. It is not, however, Vancouver based and therefore Urban Nosh would retain a niche incorporating this type of format from a Vancouver perspective.VanMag.com incorporates the following elements into their site:
• article based
• lots of content (lists, recipes, videos)
• very good pictures
• robust search engine
• not possible to submit reviews
• mostly high end restaurantsVanMag.com/Restaurants Summary
Vanmag.com is an article based website, not drawn from user content. There is lots of good content, good photographs and the search engine works well. This site parallels the vision for Urban Nosh primarily with the amount of content, searchability and look.Conclusion
Chow.com and Vanmag.com both incorporate some of the elements we envision for Urban Nosh. It is suggested that both websites, while not perfect examples of what we envision, will no doubt be useful to our endeavors as we move forward in the development of Urban Nosh.
Coming up next:
Step Two: The Report
The Challenge: Present the results of your web analysis in a short formal report presenting your analysis of the state of online publishing in the area you have chosen for your own web site. Clarify what original contribution your publication will make that sets it apart from the rest.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...The Making of Lynncanyon.ca
To be a part of the Interactive Design Program at Capilano University is an incredible experience. The opportunities to expand your knowledge are endless. For the first time in ages I felt that “The World is My Oyster” and the program helped me to indulge in it. The program offered a self directed study and I took full advantage of it to broaden my knowledge and understanding of the Interactive Media industry.
With a background in photography I wanted to try something that was in the same field, but web oriented. I thought that trying out 360 degree panoramic photography was a good choice to increase my knowledge in the photographic as well as the web industry. I did some research of some amazing panoramic photos and virtual tours of hotels, cathedrals, and car interiors. I kept thinking of how to jump further outside the box so I took a different approach and picked a subject that I knew quite well. An exterior (outdoor) virtual tour.
Lynn Canyon Park was my chosen subject to photograph and the end goal was to have a virtual tour of the park live on a website. I sought out the best possible website URL and lynncanyon.ca seemed to fit quite well. It just the beginning of Fall and the weather was still great so I decided to start taking photos right away. I rode my mountain bike into the park a few mornings each week equipped with a tripod, panoramic head, and a Nikon D80 DSLR camera. I loaded up with memory cards as I would be taking a large quantity of photos each day and a spare battery as well.
3 weeks and 20 hours of shooting later I had a good set of images to work with. For each 360 degree scene I set up the tripod, checked the lighting for consistency in each direction and did a rotation of 18 photographs with the panoramic tripod head. Once the scene was complete, I would hike further into the park and take another 18 shots. Each day of shooting I photographed approximately 5 scenes. At the end of the 3 weeks I had photographed over 50 scenes (9,000 Photos).
Taking the photos was half the battle, and the fun part. I spent the next month stitching each scene together with Pro Software called PTGUI. This software was highly recommended on several forums so I gave it a shot. It worked wonders for what I wanted to accomplish. The next step was to take each stitched scene and put it into a virtual tour that linked each scene together. An open source application called PanoSalado that was currently in development appeared to be the best option. It runs on flash which appeared to be more promising than QuickTime VR. More web users have flash installed, at least thats what all the stats said.
The application took a lot of time to work with and a good knowledge of PHP and Actionscript is recommended to deal with it. I found several discussions online to set up my first 360 pano and the software developers were quite helpful with any questions I sent to them.
3 months and approximately 60 hours of production time, lynncanyon.ca was online. Today the website recieves visitors from all over the world and is increasing in hits everyday.
Visit Lynn Canyon and join the Lynn Canyon Facebook Fanpage!
Lynncanyon.ca was created by Jaden Nyberg - View Portfolio
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