Final Project
CS237 November/December
1. Dates
Out
|
Tue, 10/22
|
Due 10/24
Due 12/10
|
Project Concept Sketches
Completed
Projects
|
2. Goals
- Combine
the many design aspects we’ve explored thus far into a cohesive whole
- Become
more expert in the design space of the Cave
- Refine
your understanding of fluid flow
- Work
with real scientific data
- Understand
how your ideas fit in with what’s been done in the research community
3. Design Criteria
Your final project proposal should clearly have:
- A conceptually
and visually cohesive theme. Your
model should be comfortable at least and possibly thrilling or soothing to
experience. An overall intuitive connection with fluid flow in the sense
of place and the phenomena that are documented is definitely desirable.
- An
appropriate scope for the time frame of the rest of the semester. As indicated in the schedule below, we are
gong to be running on tight deadlines. If a stage of the task is finished,
move on. Any time we might save will be useful at the end for tweaking and
revision.
- A
Larger Scope Or Direction Beyond What Can Be Realized. Although our primary task is to realize these
designs in the Cave as it is currently configured, a larger goal is to ultimately
suggest extensions of the cave’s possibilities. These can be suggested in
project descriptions that accompany the model, or by the inclusion of a
virtual or physical tool that doesn’t really function but suggest an
interesting “what if”. There must be a functioning toolset as well,
however.
- A
realistic plan for implementation (see below) with weekly measurable
milestones. It would be good to keep
track of your pace as the weeks progress. If it is taking too long to
achieve certain aspects of your model, you might want to anticipate
running out of time at the end, and simplify your plan.
- Specific
intermediate results to present for group crits in the class schedule: See the schedule below.
- An
optimally functional interaction component: Your final model should respond to the user on a comfortable and
intuitive basis, according to principles we have discussed in the first half
of the course. It should also, of course, work.
- An
optimally functional visual component:
Your design should be easily legible and interpretable, making effective
use of formal metaphor and color. Transformations of color and icons in relation
to data variation should have an intuitive visual legibility.
- A
scientific component, showing things
important to one of our scientific users Sharon Swartz, Peter Richardson,
or George Lauder. This is of course, the whole point, but will be
difficult to determine absolutely in advance. We will integrate input from
our scientist collaborators into the design process.
You should build on all of the work that we’ve done in the
assignments, wherever applicable.
Below is a rough schedule of classes for the rest of the
semester, with an indexed set of milestones for your project designs. There will obviously be roadblocks and
mis-starts that may alter this schedule. But we must try to establish a pace
that will get us to functioning models by semester’s end.
10/24 due:
idea sketches
10/28 due:
final interface designs including plans for physical toolset, virtual tools
designs,
interaction and navigation
metaphors.
10/31 due:
trial coding for basic artery geometry
11/5 due:
trial coding for basic virtual toolset including navigation
11/7 due:
revision of virtual toolset, revised coding.
11/12 due:
trial coding for implementation of physical toolset including navigation
11/14 due:
revision of physical toolset
11/19 due:
final designs for wall icons or other visual variables including interactive
controls, trial coding
11/21 due:
revision of wall designs, interaction and coding
11/26 due:
final designs for streamline icons, including interactive controls, trial
coding
12/3 due:
revision of streamline designs, interaction and coding
12/5 Final
Presentation and Critique, Group One
12/10 Final
Presentation and Critique, Group Two
12/12? Public
Presentation, Holiday Ho-down?
4. Assignment for 10/24
Project Concept Sketches
Simple drawn plan or written description for the following
aspects of your project:
- Basic
environment: visual metaphor for the scene: e.g. Bright and punchy;
fluid dream; star trek 2002; undersea nightmare, etc. Role for overall
color, texture and spatial character.
- Basic
physical interface objects: gloves, harnesses, sensors, shoes,
helmets, wands, palm pilots, knobs, buttons, etc
- Basic
virtual toolset: maps, palettes, pickers, virtual wands, surrogate
hands, selection lassos, filters, floating happy faces, porpoise buddies etc.
- Basic
genre of icons and data coding: streamlines vs. “toys”; color vs. 3D
texture;
- Basic
interaction mode: particle emitter vs. constant flow; filling the void
or pruning the jungle; role for animation, alternate viewing modes,
snapshots, saved views etc.
The point is to give us an idea what you’re thinking, not to
fully flesh everything out. You can refer to aspects of your previous designs
(I will bring your hands-ins to class). We’re looking for an overall coherence
to the plan at this stage, rather than particulars.