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DTC Homework #17

Creating a wallet prototype for my partner following the stages of design thinking was interesting and allowed me to be creative. Throughout the designing process I used the logic presented in “The Design of Everyday Things” by Don Norman. Norman stated “The design of the door should indicate how to work it without any need for signs, certainly without any need for trial and error”. Though I am not designing a door I felt this logic should be included in most all designed objects.

As I learned more about my partner, Ian, I learned that he had recently lost his wallet and instead was loosely carrying around his cards and cash in his pocket. Ian intended to only replace his wallet with a similar simple bi-fold wallet. The issue with this solution is that Ian could easily lose his wallet again. I wanted to create a fun and easy to use wallet that Ian couldn’t lose. When we each drew out our creative-“out of the box” designs he really liked the dog idea and thought I should carry it through into a prototype. I didn’t intend for this idea to go far, but it was fun and interesting and it did fit Ian’s needs for a wallet. The dog also fit the logic within Don Normans quote, most everyone has interacted with a dog in their life and knows how to walk a dog and give it simple commands. The design was fairly simple, a dog is trained as a usual companion animal or even a service animal but the dog carries a wallet-like pocket on their collar so that the owner can always have their wallet with them without losing it. The dog is trained and therefor it wouldn’t lose the wallet or run away. The wallet dog would be registered as a service animal as well so they could follow their owner into public establishments. Ian suggested the dog have a basket that it carries around too so they can help carry things when the dog accompanies the owner shopping or getting food. The greatest part about the dog is it could easily accompany Ian’s needs as he suggested ideas. After I created the prototype he suggested the dog have a way to communicate in case he wanted to send the dog out to accomplish tasks while he stays home. Easily you could write a note and stick it on the dogs collar and send it to pick up food or groceries as long as someone could receive the note. Overall the creative process was fun to create new inventions and thoroughly design them based off needs and critiques.

While I created a wallet for Ian, he also created one for me. I showed Ian my current wallet which is a phone case with a sliding compartment where I fit my cards and some cash. I explained that I liked this wallet because it was convenient since I always have my phone on me, and it’s great for carrying around my cougar card which I need to get food and get into my dorm. I explained that it was somewhat small and I had little room for cash and I would like to be able to carry around more with the same convenience. Ian had carrying ideas ranging from a glove that held cards and cash to backpack. We landed on an app that could hold all the cards and cash and all you would have to do to pay is hold up your phone to the receiving device and done. This app could work with my cougar card and ID as well. It was interesting to see what he would come up with to fit my needs based of the short interview but in the end the app was a great idea. After he created the prototype I suggested that the app could be social and work with other users similar to venmo, so that all payments could be contained within one app. The great part about his app is it is very possible within the future as people become increasingly reliant on their phones and the paying process becomes more efficient.

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DTC Homework #13 Hashtags

Homework 1: entertainment, humannature, humans, Kline, manufacture, progress, purpose, society, sociotechnical, survival, Technology

HW DIKW: Algorithims, data, DIKW, education, Ethichsoftechnology, Information, Knowledge, KronosTest, qualifications, SarahWysocki, Technology, wisdom

Homework 6: bargraph, Boston, city, data, datavisualization, graph, Information, map, music, pattern, trends

Homework 8: ads, advertising, amazon, anonymous, data, facebook, instagram, personaldata, pullman, snapchat, socialmedia, targetting, trends

Homework 9: concentration, curation, distraction, education, Information, Popova, socialmedia, twitter

Homework 11: candy, djkhaled, funny, halloween, hiphop, itsfreerealestate, meme, pocky, reddit, strawberrypocky, tank, yikes

Homework 11b: buddytheelf, creative, cupcake, dinosaurs, dog, dogs, friends, funny, germanshepherd, guyfieri, instagram, kimi, memes, richarddawkins, share, snapchat, snapchatart, thegrinch, viral

Major Project 2 Abstract: adventurer, colorful, curation, family, feeling, introvert, ISFP-T, observent, personality, personalitytest, prospecting, style, turbulent

Homework 12: contributor, coverage, creator, data, date, description, dublincore, format, indentifier, Information, Kent, language, organization, personaldata, pullman, relation, rights, source, subject, title, type, USA, Washington, WSU

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DTC Homework #12 Dublin Core

  1. Title: McKenna Minister
  2. Creator: Christi and Barry Minister
  3. Subject: Animal Science Major
  4. Description: Quiet, Nice, Funny,
  5. Publisher: Friends, Family
  6. Contributor: Washington State University, Kentridge Highschool
  7. Date: January 3rd 2000
  8. Type: Female
  9. Format: Short, Green eyes, Brown hair
  10. Identifier: Kenna
  11. Source: Iola and Bob Callahan
  12. Language: English, Some French
  13. Relation: Brendon Minister
  14. Coverage: Pullman Washington, Kent Washington
  15. Rights: United States Constitution, Bill of Rights
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DTC Major Project 2 Written Abstract

The personality test results I received were ISFP-T meaning I am an adventurer. These results in more detail demonstrate that I am an introverted, observant, feeling, prospecting, and turbulent. I found these results to be very accurate, many people have described me to be observant and always changing. The only aspect of my results which I find somewhat inaccurate is that I am 78% feeling, I believe that I more often using logic as my main source of reasoning as opposed to emotion. Overall these results represent my personality well, I am definitely an introvert, but I am spontaneous and enjoy taking risks. I am always very aware and observant and I focus my goals towards what will make me happy. I am curating towards my family which includes my Mother, Father, Brother, and Grandparents. I have a strong relationship with my family and I believe curating my personality test results towards them will help to strengthen the family bond with a better understanding of myself. For my style of curation I plan to include a bright and colorful color scheme because according to my results, adventurers live in a colorful and sensual world. Each of my images will be comedic and memes because my family and I always joke and I never take anything too seriously. For each letter in my personality test I will center them around different color schemes since adventurers are always changing, the images will still be similar in style to the rest of the letters. My style of curation is carefully thought out to accurately represent my personality.

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DTC Homework #11b

My Senior year of highschool I came across an image while scrolling on instagram of what is commonly called “snapchat art”, it is when someone takes a picture and uses the drawing tools on snapchat to create a detailed masterpiece. Discovering this image spawned an idea that I could also create these pieces of “snapchat art”. What began as a simple idea to try drawing on snapchat, became a daily habit which Incorporated my friends and family.  I could not copy others work, so I took this idea and created my own unique take. I would take a picture of my dog, Kimi, everyday and draw her as a different character. Susan Blackmore made a statement in her TedTalk, “Memes and Temes” which I believe captures how this idea came about, “You don’t need a designer, or a plan, or foresight, or anything else. If there is something that is copied with variation and it’s selected, then you must get design appearing out of nowhere”.  When I began creating what I called “Kimi art” I had no plan, I did not have the foresight that I would be creating over 200 pieces of Kimi art. The first creation I made was my dog Kimi as Guy Fieri, it was simple and flawed but it changed how I approached social media.

After my first piece of Kimi art I began getting messages from my friends requesting what I should draw my dog as next. What started off as a creation out of boredom and a simple idea on instagram, became an online shared community of people who inspired and enjoyed Kimi art. My friends had genuine interest and input in my creations. I soon put more care and time into my artwork, and many more pieces of Kimi art were created using options via snapchat.

 

I would not say that these silly snapchat creations went viral with only fifty people involved, but the situation matched what  Dao Nguyen described in “What Makes Something Go Viral?”, she said “We hypothesized that they were excited because they were participating in the shared anticipation of something about to happen”. This description accurately fits this situation because friends of mine were genuinely excited for my creations, they would pick a character they wanted drawn a week in advance. I even was asked to draw my friends animals as different characters, for example the Grinch in the image above. I developed themes in attempt to organize the ideas I was receiving, I asked everyone for their favorite dinosaurs and would then draw my dog as such. Kimi art changed how I approached social media, I then decided that everything I post should contain as much care and time as I put into these snapchat drawings. Kimi art became somewhat of a meme within my small friend group. Abby Rabinowitz quoted Richard Dawkins in “The Meme as Meme”, “Instead of mutating by random chance before spreading by a form of Darwinian selection, Internet memes are altered deliberately by human creativity,”. This quote represents Kimi art to demonstrate that it is not random and is not created by one single individual, The unforeseen complexity of Kimi art makes them comparable to memes. Kimi art, though just a creative joke, was important to me because it incorporated my creative side into my daily life. I am in animal sciences and I plan to be a vet, in a scientific field it is difficult for myself to remain in touch with my creative side, Kimi art incorporates my love for animals, my creativity, and it allows me to stay in contact with my friends even at long distance.

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DTC Homework #9

In Maria Popova’s article, “In a new world of informational abundance, content curation is a new kind of authorship”, she brought to light an interesting point about twitter, “The point is that new tools in general, and Twitter in particular, greatly challenge the binary dichotomy of attention as something that is either given or taken away, distracted. Instead, these tools allow us to direct attention to destinations where it can be sustained with more concentration and immersion”.  I found this quote particularly interesting because it challenges the negative reputation social media has for distracting people and making them obsessed with their phones. Popova rather explains that social media, specifically twitter in this example, are used to feed people information and further connect them to more information. I recently wrote an argumentative essay that distraction doesn’t exist because it is difficult to determine what is a distraction and what is a valuable use of time, and anything can be categorized as a distraction. This quote by Popova furthers my claim because she argues that social media isn’t a distraction but rather a different facet which one concentrates upon. What makes social media great is the diverse ways in which it can be used as Popova implies, social media links people to new sources and feeds curiosity. There are accounts made for educational, promotional, personal, and commercial purposes which creates many possibility for what can be gained from concentrating on social media. Maria Popova states in this quote that attention is neither given or taken away meaning that any use of time is of value so no-matter how your time is used you gain something from the experience. Popova’s view is truly insightful because it opens up the possibilities and understandings that can be gained from social media.

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DTC Homework #8

After reading “Your ‘Anonymous’ Browsing Data Isn’t Really Anonymous” by Daniel Oberhaus, I became aware of all the data advertising companies have access to. I don’t often post on social media, but I do frequently visit social media to remain updated on who I’m following. I’ve noticed ads pertaining specifically to me more recently on Instagram, I follow a lot of rappers and local rappers and recently I’ve gotten many rap related ads. On Facebook I often see ads related to things I’ve looked for on Amazon. Though Facebook and Amazon are two separate sites I’ve noticed they share user data since all my ads are directly specified to what I’m interested in on Amazon. An interesting flaw in this data is since I share an Amazon account with my family, the advertisements I receive on Facebook don’t always pertain to me, but instead are directed towards my brother but Facebook doesn’t know we share the account. Snapchat is different than Facebook or Instagram since I only use it to follow personal friends, not celebrities, and on Snapchat you don’t create a personal profile that others can see to learn about you. Interestingly I still receive personalized advertisements on Snapchat. Snapchat does track location, and I chose to keep my location on so I could use geographically related filters. Snapchat has used my location to direct me to ads for businesses in the Pullman and Moscow area. Even Facebook has done this same thing even though I didn’t update my profile to say I am living in Pullman. Advertisers have access to an abundance of personal data, in some ways I can change settings to avoid this but often this takes away options within apps that are useful.

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DTC Homework 6: Data Visualizations

http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/project_details.cfm?id=980&index=980&domain=

 

This diagram displays the areas most walked in downtown Boston, it uses lines to demonstrate a path of travel, the darker and denser the line, the more popular that street is walked. The map is much darker in the center and diffuses out, streets near the water are also more populated. We can learn from this that the city center and water ways must have something attracting people likely food, jobs, and activities that cause more people to want to be there. We can also tell from this that the city was likely designed to have these things closer together so people could easily go from place to place. The areas by water are likely attracting people because it’s more scenic for walking and running, for those living in the city it’s better to walk or run away from the center of the city where there is a lot of traffic. This is useful for people in Boston to see where most activity is so they can find places, or avoid highly trafficked areas. This is interesting because it differs from a normal map which only shows the streets, instead it actually shows the areas on the streets that are populated. The data here is interesting because this also demonstrates a pattern, if we were to look at other city maps showing places of travel we would likely find similar results, a dense city center and coast.

https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/9ddzey/oc_amount_of_music_listened_to_vs_time_of_day/?utm_content=title&utm_medium=hot&utm_source=reddit&utm_name=dataisbeautiful

The bar graph demonstrates the number of songs listened to per given time of day. There are large peaks at 3pm and 9pm, we can use these trends to see why people are listening to more music at these points in the day. We can assume the 3pm peak is from students getting out of school and listening to music and the 9pm peak is from people listening before bed or partying. There is also a smaller peak at noon, we can assume this is because most people are at their lunch break around this time. The graph is in no way symmetrical, the left side is empty from 3am-8am while the rest of the day is packed with music, this is likely because most people are asleep from 3-8am and aren’t listening to music. This data can be used by companies to know when they should put in ads to make sure they reach a larger audience. The trends in this data is interesting to understand not only when people like to listen to music, but also to understand society. People often listen to music independently today on their phones with headphones, this data shows us when people are more independent during the day. It also demonstrates when people usually wake up and go to bed. Data can represent more than just what the variables show nbecause data trends demonstrate other trends in society.

 

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Weapons of Math Destruction Through The DIKW Framework

Cathy O’neil explores the ethics behind using algorithms to determine if specific people are adequate matches for certain jobs. Specifically she analyzes tests such as the Kronos test which determines if someone would be a good fit for a job, and the impact tool to weed out underperforming teachers. Both are computerized tests that lack human input, which leaves out many important factors in determining someone’s ability to do a job. Comparing the Kronos test to a human creates two very different processes, I’ll demonstrate through the DIKW framework. One data point the Kronos test may receive is “yes”. The information test has it that this is a response to the test question “Get mad easily?” which the Kronos test knowledge would understand this as a red flag. The wisdom in this situation would be that this person may not be good to hire since they may act irrationally due to their anger. The test doesn’t leave room for explanation or justification as a human might. An interviewer in the same situation may go through a different process. In this situation the interviewer would receive the same data point and information, but the knowledge and wisdom would be different since an interviewer can see things in shades of gray unlike the Kronos test. The knowledge an interviewer may have is “this person may have a mental illness” and then would be followed by the wisdom “I should ask them to elaborate further on why they may get angry easily to better understand the candidate”. There are many contributing factors to why someone responds the way they do on a test, using tests like these are good ways to gather information about a job candidate, but one cannot rely solely upon a test otherwise they won’t get the full picture. The same situation applies in the example including the Impact tool, this only uses mathematical scores, it doesn’t include human responses. In the case with Sarah Wysocki she was known to be a great educator, but her impact score said otherwise and she lost her job. The DIKW framework in this situation would result similarly to that of the Kronos test. The data the algorithm receives is just a number, it reduces a person down to one single score, which isn’t a fair way to estimate someone’s value. The computer would receive this number with the information including many similar scores from other teachers. The knowledge the impact score has is to compare these scores to find the lowest scores. The wisdom that the algorithm shows is that the lower scoring teachers are less fit for their job and therefore should be laid off. This method is unethical and eliminates possibilities for having strong educators like the Kronos test eliminates the possibility of some good workers.