Artistss

INDEX: ENVISION | PROTOTYPING | USER TESTING | REFINED PROTOTYPE

 Artists' Online Portfolio 

A USER-CENTERED INVESTIGATION EUGENE, SAMMY & TRACY

**__PHASE ONE__** ENVISION



__INTRODUCTION__
In his presentation Mr. Bill Kirby informs that many contemporary Canadian artists use CCCA as their personal online space. In expansion of this, our group would like to investigate the various ways that the current system can be modified so as to provide a concise and elegant user-experience for:
 * the artist to manage his or her content
 * for the artist to present/customize his or her content visually
 * for the viewers who approach these potent spaces
 * the artist to finally use this as a publishing tool by adding social networking elements, such as a blogging system or the implementation of a subscription/feed system



__PACT__

 * **People** || **Activities** ||< **Context** || **Technology** ||
 * * artists || * updating bio and past works/exhibitions
 * uploading / managing own work
 * keeping up with colleagues
 * use as portfolio space / use as a self-promotional tool
 * manage subscriptions through rss
 * use as a blog to keep track of progress ||< * for artists who are unfamiliar with building a website from scratch
 * an online social networking platform for creative minds || * WRITING - a platfrom with which the artist/web-master/mistress can log onto, and edit the site using a set interface, without dealing with internet scripting languages like HTML or CSS ||
 * * those who view the artist's web portfolio, for educational purposes (students and educators) || * use as educational tool to demonstrate work
 * use for research to gather information || * demonstrate work in class
 * allow collecting a wide variety of information efficiently for possible art-related researches || * ability to 'fullscreen' work
 * program the demonstration
 * efficient search for finding connections ||
 * * people in the art industry, inside and outside of Canada || * gather information for organizing shows
 * get information on artists' current activities and upcoming shows
 * contacting artists of interest ||  || * tool for contacting/tracking artists if they are interested to do so ||
 * * general public interested in Canadian art. || * browse trough work || * sitting at home in a comfy chair with a mug of coffee || * READING - a cohesive, concise page for viewers to browse through enjoyably. This should be a structured site using grids such as Blueprint ||



__Systems in Existence__
There are many systems that allow artists to publish their own work, many of which come fixed with particular sets of style not agreeable to most people. For example, [|carbonmade] and [|deviantart]. These exisiting "online portfolio" systems, among some ten or so other ones are catered towards youngsters and adolescents

[|Indexhibit] has omitted these needless elements. Let me re-state here waht was previously posted in the Benchmark/Best Practices section: "created strictly for artists and designers to publish their work on the web. Indexhibit describes itself as: "A web application used to build and maintain an archetypal, invisible website format that combines text, image, movie and sound." The same applies to [|Unlimited Edition], a [|Wordpress] theme designed by Hexaplex.
 * Indexhibit is made up of PHP and MySQL scripts, but the user does not need to deal with those scripts unless they want to
 * is very easy to use, and lends itself to customization: simply install, log in, upload, organize and you have a beautiful web portfolio. A basic knowledge of CSS will do.
 * many artists and designers use it to quickly upload a simple, elegant and completely functional web portfolio. Although, many people tend to like to challenge what Indexhibit can do and make masterpieces of coding. Browse through "participants" to see it all.
 * Hides the complex back-end coding for artists who have no idea how to use these technologies, yet is capable of such fluidity that gives way to creative freedom."

The greatest merit of these platforms is perhaps their simplicity and cleaniness, and their well thought-out user-interfacing that answers to the need of their specific niches.

Our task now is the following

WRITE setting up a webspace with enough capacity to host every artist (which is already in place), with the needed scripts already installed

READ setting up a presentation, or the "skin" of these backend coding that is user-friendly and very pretty.



There are a number of interactions already in place that we find very well thought out, which then only needs to be organized

Although it is usually the first page that pops up when you search a Canadian Artist's name on Google, the result is a gray, disoriented, uninteresting page with titles on the top that have nothing to do with the artist, a weird white box, a jumble of words, links taht are not obvious, and a placeholder image that you cannot click on.
 * 1) P resentation of the Artist's Main Page**

The artist can showcase their pictures in a variety of formats:
 * 2) Presentation of Artwork**
 * [|TIMELINE]
 * [|DETAIL]
 * [|THUMBNAIL]

__PROS__ Each has its merits, and I believe it’s a wonderful way of structuring one’s oeuvre of work, especially for one who is especially prolific. I think the interaction present are very methodically thought out, the only thing that is required is a revamp of the look, and arranging important elements in a hierarchy.

__CONS__ However, especially in the case of multi-disciplinary artists, such as artists working with multimedia, 3 dimensional objects or installations, he or she would want to present multiple views or the same art piece. This is when these formats fail to operate. These three formats creates a strict parameter where the user authomatically recognizes that these are individual pieces of art, not multiple views of the same project. Therefore, these data needs to be reordered into a system with proper hirearchies.

Some of the art is showcased on the main page in the form of the slide show, which is a great idea. However, the reel is fixed and does not generate content dynamically; so the viewers see only the work that was included in the show in advance. Additionally the reel is not clickable and it is impossible to switch to the artist's page by clicking on the piece of art showcased in the reel.
 * 3) Home page reel**



__Re-design__

 * Some questions as part of the concept map/case scenario study:**


 * //where can the artist describe his or her own piece of work? Where would it appear?//


 * //how would he/she add an "ABOUT ME" page, and where would it appear?//


 * //how would the artist add his/her own resume? where would it appear? will it be significant? will it be a part of the bio?//


 * //is there a way for the artist to inform the interested viewers on the upcoming shows, collaborations?//


 * //how to improve the demonstration of a large body of artist's work and make the current model (timeline, thimbnails, etc) better?//


 * //what sort of customizations can there be in terms of the aesthetics of the artist's personal page? How far will this go? How can we give the artists enough freedom yet maintaining a high level of visual integrity?//


 * //how can elements be integrated without turning a sophisticated web database into a facebook? what kind of information will be fed by the RSS? Will blogging benefit the system? Will commenting?//

__Functions__
Publish Manage Arrange/Re-arrange Edit Describe Organize Share Preview Drafting Multiples Connect Converse Update Promote __Manage & Publish__ uploading work.


 * a kind of interface will save the trouble of going into the back-end coding work while creating a easy data-flow for the user.
 * a set of publishing tools: consisting of simple functions like Add, Delete, and Edit.
 * an interface //relatable// to the published site.
 * an interface icon-driven, since most artists, especially those who are represented by the CCCA, are unfamiliar with web-based functions, such as the idea of uploading.

__Arrange__ presenting the uploaded material.


 * different sets of widgets to add to the sidebar: re-organizing the hirearchy for him/herself.
 * different ways of going through a body of work: fluid, playful, or rigid, Swiss, and straight to the point.
 * "themes" does not seem to be the right answer to this.

__Edit & Update__ editing the existing information.


 * publishing tools return with the interface that allow not only too upload work and input the information, but also edit it in an orderly fashion.
 * some of the information might need to be updated quickly and often, such as the artist's current developments, show information etc.
 * as described earlier this is a part of the publishing interface.

__Organize__ allow artist to built his/her own hierarchy for work or use in-site templates.


 * artist's work might be organized and displayed in different ways, such as chronologically, according to exhibitions etc. This organization methods should be universal for all artists and embedded within the website.
 * tools should be available that would give artist freedom to organize his/her works in a desired fashion, and consequently be displayed in that manner.
 * The organization might be linear as in folder structure, or non-linear as in a structure that uses tags.

__Preview__ as a part of the publishing tools, preview function is going to make editing of the artist's page easier and faster as it will allow quickly see the results of ongoing editing.

__Promote__ function that will help artists to promote them selves.
 * ability to RSS feed from the artist's page, which would keep interested users up to date with artist's current development.
 * improved version of the art reel on the main page that would display RANDOM art and be clickable.
 * such trivial functions as 'contact to the artist' might help artists to be found by curators, colleagues, and others who might benefit artist's successful development



__Flow Charts__
We have two sets of Flow Charts:


 * WRITING**

Click [|here] for a really really big version on the web. Click here for [|.pdf] version. ||
 * [[image:3005_Group4p1_A.jpg width="351" height="407" link="http://3005-w09.wikispaces.com/file/view/3005_Group4p1_Asm.jpg"]] ||
 * Click [|here] to enlage.

Click here [|for .pdf] version. ||
 * [[image:group4Wire.jpg width="292" height="520"]] ||
 * Click [|here] to enlarge

For users to view and interact with the artist's webpage.
 * READING**


 * [[image:way_to_art3.jpg width="228" height="178" align="left" link="http://3005-w09.wikispaces.com/file/view/way_to_art3.jpg"]] ||
 * //Basic way around the site for the general user// ||



 * [[image:ets_port_browse1.jpg width="211" height="187" align="left" link="http://3005-w09.wikispaces.com/file/view/ets_port_browse1.jpg"]] ||
 * //The navigation within the artist's portfolio// ||


 * FLOWCHART DRAFTS AND PROCESS**

[[image:flowchart_addimage.jpg width="375" height="202" align="left" link="http://3005-w09.wikispaces.com/file/view/flowchart_addimage.jpg"]]
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<span style="font-size: 200%; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; text-align: center; display: block;">__Resources/Links__ The following are resources to keep in mind while designing our system.

[] [] This is an open-source library thing of javascripts, home to widely used java scripty things like the Thickbox

[] This is a really powerful data managing/publishing platform. We will use this to create our prototype.

[] This is the guy who made the drag/drop javascript that is used by Werkplaats Typographie's interesting website

Some examples of nice web portfolios:

E Roon Kang [] Very interesting use of the idea of "space" on the web. Instead of a static window, he has created something dynamic and expansive. There is always a pleasure when we find traces of analog in the digital form, in this case, the concept of a "canvas"

Electronest [] Very interesting layering effect happening. The colours bug me though.

Werkplaats Typographie [] drag/drop, layering, absolute programming wonder.

Lee Mawdsley [] Built with a hacked indexhibit