I spoke at IMPACT

I am the student from UW-Stout who presented during the midwest Merit Award ceremony, (Singapore/ backcountry projects). Did anyone get a chance to see this? What did you think? I am currently looking for work experience, have any?
Check out my thesis project at http://www.feraldesign.net/pulse/

i think that the pulse project was pretty dope, my friends also thought your project were pretty good. i really was not paying attention because i sort of tuned out—your problem statement/scenario took to long for me to stay interested but from what i see it is some hot stuff, well laid and thought out.

tuned out…

yeah me too

too much flash, it was hard to tell the difference between the flash and content while you were presenting I got lost

you took the time to make this presentation and yet much of the work shown (sketches) are still so rough and unrefined

I would try to condense this presentation a little more
-what really needs to stay to communicate the message?

and I would do some more refined sketches of what you’ve shown


…what you base your happiness around…???

agree… sketching is not your best skill, (what’s with the funkadelic retro color combos) and everything needs to be condensed ALOT. I found myself ‘fast forwarding’ for most of it, after a while, i stop wanting to know so much research and info and ‘process.’

from a web design pov, i think there’s a lot of unnecessary bells and whistles and swooshing and wooshing and animating. granted you want to experiment and show what you can do with flash, but having them overtake your website/presentation, it becomes distracting and eye rolling.

ZIBA website has some clear, simple, flash “presentations” of their case studies, they also have some of the wooshing and flash whoring that you might like, but it’s overall done in a clean and calm way. check it out IF its still up there…

ditto

Great feel to the site, I like the intro, but also thought the wooshing getts a bit much after the 10th click. Nice research, though I read about 5 sentences before starting to hyper skim.

The final models look good, good attention to usability. I think the ID process was a little short. Also I didn’t see much of a competitive market analysis of current goggles. Why do riders tend to track toward specific styles and skiers to another? What semantic issues could the product design solve.

Good stuff overall. A very nice thesis. I would amp the sketching up about 5 notches. The ID process seemed to jump from some rough sketches to final 3d. I would have liked to have seen about 10 nice refinemed design, and then like 3-5 spicey photoshop renderings. When the level of presentation is so hich (complete website and what not) the Product Design must be at least at the same level.

Just my 2¢ input. It’s good to see something from a school outside the “usual suspects”. Thanks for posting it.

Thanks alot guys that helped. In regards to the sketching, I did paste in alot of my rough ones and totally excluded the really quick ones. Process is key and there was so much to consider for this entire system that alot is missing I agree. It will be there I just need to tighten it up, include my prototyping phase and publish it. Stay tuned… PEACE.

Jaker;

don’t be over process centric. the process needs to support and explain the idea, how you got to the soultion, to help simplfy the communication of the end result of the idea.

I’d like to see a tighter, more simplified process. not every reguritated riff you threw out.

You know you can (and should) redraw sketches if they convey a good idea, but their execution leaves something to be desired…

BTW thanks for the mailers…the site conveys way more info than the mailers do…

aaaaand in regard to the solution,…

Great Research. Good info on the technologies, user issues with existing receivers, use process etc. Great info on the snow and climate that the object would be used in.

I think I would tune out too, because there is just a dearth of unfiltered information there. You seem to spend a lot more time on the problem than on the solution. But really don’t state succintly what problem you are trying to solve, while trying to solve all of the problems associated with backcountry riding. Are you trying to make it easier to be rescued? Are you trying to make it easier to ride? Are you trying ot make it more accessible to less experienced riders? They are all valid ideasand problems to be solved. I’d pick one got for it as opposed to finding that blanket app. Keep it simple.

Its pretty weak when it comes to user centered design refinements. The goggle solution seem too… unconsidered…?

for example:–When you dump in deep powder, the first thing to go is your goggles. Also you tend to use your eyes and vision to pick lines while descending. Distractions in you field of vision are dangerous and can be very fatal. (that is unless you want the rider to drop in an emergency and need to be found so the rescue service can charge an arm and a leg to g oan get them,…)

Again the research is great, really great. end result is, unfortunatley, not as good as the beginning.

Love the website content. Take the sketching up about 5 notches. (this is more important than your website and it is your weakest link) Keep Pushin!!! Great start!!