Mon 22nd March:
It was a cool first day - I enjoyed it. Looking deeper into websites - from now and the future was a cool experience, also to listen to the others and see what they discovered. Getting to know the group and Stephanie was great. Some of the people I knew already, some I didn't, but nonetheless, this was a very nice start into the new semester!
Tue 23rd March:
This day I was getting into more new water. Never before having to create a Layer Statement, this was a new experience for me. I enjoyed taking up from the previous day and making more of that work. I found it a bit harder to find the correct Layer Statement. As it is my first time doing this - I was not sure what is the best approach to also get a good result out of it.
I am still not happy with my Layer Statement but I have one approach for an idea. I would prefer my Layer Statement going in the direction of "Simplifying for Understanding in the Interface". The reason for that being that I just recently experienced how my grandmother struggles to navigate through websites. I wanted to think about this and thus create an interaction where on the click of a button, the unimportant stuff hides and moves away from the interface, and the important stuff gets highlighted more. That's something I would like to approach.
How did I get here?
Well...I am writing this not on Thursday, the day this writing section was assigned, but on Saturday Evening. This gives me the ability to look back on the whole week - from start to finish. I did not know what to expect when I signed up for this course. I looked up Stephanie's Portfolio and saw some crazy shit ;) In a good way - otherwise I wouldn't have selected this workshop.
But still, I didn't really know what to expect.
Looking back though, I really enjoyed this time. From the start of just selecting websites that we like to visit, to actually developing pretty crazy prototypes in Figma, I remember Santiago's as a pretty good example - I find it fascinating how the week developed.
Starting with the simple task of selecting a few websites and collectively annotating and commenting on them was a very interesting approach to developing the Interface Statements. Because I didn't really know what the goal was, I was a little bit confused. That was not much of an issue as Steph did a great job leading the group in a relaxed and still focussed manner. A way where everyone felt heard and also supported - no one was left behind!
So no matter what the task was, I knew I could rely on Steph to explain it until everyone understood it.
So after all this annotating and creating a first statement on Tuesday, the project started picking up momentum.
I thoroughly enjoyed working with this Statement thing and creating a User Story from it.
I remembered an encounter I had with my grandmother a few weeks ago where she had issues with a website. So we Facetimed and for the first time in my life I actually saw how she experienced the internet.
As she showed me her screen on the computer, I immediately saw what she should press, but she did not. She started reading stuff I didn't even "register" when looking at the screen.
She also had so many windows open and layered across the screen - it was crazy.
On that day I decided something needed to be done.
Taking my Layer Statement "Exploring for Unfamiliarity in the interface" and my experience with my grandmother into account, I formed a different one:
Navigating the Unfamiliar in the Interface.
my User Story went as follows:
As an elderly user, I want to have less distractions within a website so that I can navigate it easier and focus better.
I wanted to experiment with a simple website and all its pop ups, ads and unnecessary stuff and see how I could create an interaction that could make it easier for the elderly to navigate the internet.
I had quite a few very nice ideas - but then I thought...wait a minute...I should maybe try to convey the feeling I experienced that my grandmother felt when navigating the internet, so that others can understand the problem.
So instead of trying to find a solution - I wanted to find a way to visualize the struggle I saw she experienced.
And the outcome is something that I am pretty happy with.
On Thursday evening I finished my prototype.
I wanted to create an experience as if you were visiting a real website. It's not perfect, also because it didn't have to be perfect, but it's pretty darn convincing.
You can try it out here:
Any questions?
Reach me here: maximilian.lindner@ue-germany.de
No personal portfolio yet...but if there will every be one - this is the place for it: max.li
Instagram: @iamlindner