Iconathon!

Hey everyone!

Last week we had an Iconathon where Kelton taught us the basics of Adobe Illustrator and best practices for icon design.

Kelton goes over how icons communicate information

What are the defining features of an idea we are communicating? Kelton explained that while the idea can be complex and specific, the icon that is perceived must be simple and universal.

Imagine you had to show to an alien what humans are like. Each person’s face has unique features, but if we want to represent people as a whole all we need are two eyes, one mouth, and one nose. The point of using an icon is to show the most important information.

Now, what are the defining features of a mustache? For the Iconathon, each of our designers made a mustache to put what they learned about icons and Illustrator into practice. The winner’s mustache will be in our final CUxD icon!

Our designers working hard on their mustaches

Our final winner will be announced at our next meeting! Thanks Kelton for an awesome session!

Ashley Sams | President

First CUxD meeting of the semester!

Hey designers!

Last week we had our first meeting of the semester and it was great seeing old & new faces. We started out with the following question:

What does design mean?

Everyone wrote down his/her own definition on a card, which we collected and later turned into a wordle. Given the diverse group that showed up, we were excited to see the range of descriptions that were given. Here’s what we got in the end:

Some interesting keywords: process, function, purpose, strategy…is there anything else you would add to the wordle?

Afterwards, we talked about CUxD’s mission and our plans for the semester. For those who missed the first meeting, we have a range of meetings planned from design events to speakers, so stay tuned!

Now, on to the fun stuff: we wrapped up our meeting with a quick breakout session on brainstorming a redesign of an academic management system used by Cornell. We divided people into groups of 6 and asked them to brainstorm ways the system can improve based on user needs, goals, and problems.

Groups discussing problems and possible solutions

Recurring problems with the system that people raised were clutter, an ineffective announcement/calendar interface, and inconsistent content between courses. Some of the proposed interfaces were a single calendar-based page and a course-based page with tabs to easily navigate between classes.

Boris presents the system’s issues such as manual course enrollment and outdated courses

Our meeting next week will be a session on how to use Adobe Illustrator. To put what you learn to practice, we’ll also have an Iconathon!

Thanks for everyone who showed up and we are looking forward to seeing you next week!

Ashley Sams | President

Typography session

Hey everyone!

Last week Information Science PHD candidate Nick Chen gave us a presentation about typography. Nick talked about terms related to typography, the history of well-known typefaces, and design principles for typography. It was really informative and fascinating to see how typefaces have emerged to adapt to its age’s needs!

The key for legible typefaces is x-height!

A simple rule when picking typefaces: aim for contrast

Typeface when the printing press was first invented

After the presentation, we had a typography exercise and split up into groups of two. Each group was given a prompt for a word and came up with a poster to depict the word in that mood using different fonts and colors. At the end, each group showed its interpretation of the prompt and how it matched the word.

Aluminum is a leading marketer for sportswear and equipment. Its mission is “to bring inspiration and to every athlete in the world”. Guess what company this prompt is modeled after?

Thanks Nick for an interesting and insightful talk about typography! We hope you’ll stop by again!