Hannah Donovan

Web 2.0 Expo New York

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 01:37:09 +0100

On Monday I gave a workshop at Web 2.0 Expo with all-new material about something I’ve had on my mind for a while now: designing for the trails of data we’re creating, from tweets to scrobbles to checkins. I had some lovely conversations with the people who attended, and there were lots of great questions, so thank you everyone who attended, you guys rocked!

The slides from the workshop are on SlideShare and SpeakerDeck, or you can download the PDF (13 MB). If you attended, you’ll find some bonus material I didn’t cover in the session, so enjoy!

Note: to all the attendees, apologies I couldn’t get the slides up sooner — lack of stable internet en-route to Sydney for Web Directions! As Danielle suggested, I’ll put slides up before I give a workshop next time!

We Are The Makers Of Things

Mon, 30 May 2011 22:25:00 +0100

Photo by Jeremy Keith

On Friday I had the pleasure of speaking at Web Directions @Media again. I spoke on “finding our 3/4 view” and the design tools we’ll need for the future. Influenced by my research into industrial design, architecture and animation, this was a pretty personal talk and an absolute killer to write. There are practical bits, but it’s also filled with open questions and personal experiments I agonised over how to include. You could say I was a little bit relieved to get off the stage and discover people actually liked it.

You can download the slides (zipped PDF with notes) or view it on Slideshare.

A silly number of books piled up around my desk while writing this talk, so for the extra-curious, I snapped a picture of the ‘further reading list’.

This post wouldn’t be complete without a huge thanks to my sister Monika. She got me thinking about this stuff in the first place and pointed me in the right direction when I started asking questions about industrial design.

Eleven Sketchbooks Later

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:58:26 +0000

When I moved to London in 2005 to work for Last.fm I thought my dream had come true just finding a job that combined my two loves: design and music. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

But there was all sorts of more. I count myself incredibly lucky that Felix, Martin and RJ decided to take a chance on me (I can never thank you three enough); that I got to work with a shit hot technology team (you guys are incredible, I hope you know that); that miraculously, I got to put my designs in front of millions of users (you have taught me so much); and that I had the opportunity to meet so many talented people along the way (you’ve been such an inspiration).

One acquisition, two redesigns, and eleven sketchbooks later, it’s just time for the next adventure.

My first order of work is to take some much needed time off. People talk about the power of time off, and I’m frankly, I’m terrified, but here we go. I’ll be doing a bit of travelling too: Austria; The US (Austin, and San Francisco); and Hong Kong. Lovely people of those places, I can’t wait to see you.

I’ll be back in London mid-April and looking for a new gig. This gives me butterflies too, but couldn’t have signed up for my next job without first knowing I was rested and able to give 100% again. If by then you need an interaction designer for your next adventure, I’d love to hear from you.

From now on, you can get in touch at: han @ thisdomain.com

Right then, I reckon it’s time for a drink.

Spacelog.org

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 01:18:50 +0000

Last week we launched spacelog.org — an accessible, linkable, searchable version of NASA’s (PDF) transcripts. We did two missions: Apollo 13 (that’s the dramatic one where they barely made it back alive) and Mercury 6 (the first manned earth orbit). With your help, we’re aiming to get more missions up soon!

I was lucky to work with a fantastic, talented group of people on this at something called /dev/fort, a week long holiday in a fort with no internet. You can read about the design process we used in my article for 24 Ways.

Mogle Brand Planning Poker Cards

Sun, 19 Sep 2010 22:43:12 +0100

This is probably the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever made.

Tim planted the idea in my head a few weeks ago when we were brainstorming on a leaving gift for Matt. I’ve had an itch to make something physical for a while now, and this seemed like a fun weekend project. The theme for the deck came from Matt’s love of Raymond Chandler, 1920s aesthetics, and the colour orange.

For the process-curious: I drew the portraits with a tablet in Photoshop, using photos sourced from Flickr/Facebook as reference on another layer. I printed the card fronts on an ink jet using Epson matte paper (to make the blacks look nice and velvety). Then, with the windows open, and using a lightbox to correctly position things, I spray glued the fronts to the card backs (which I printed on orange heavyweight stock) — using a ‘permanent mount’ (glue on both sides). I trimmed all the cards by hand using an X-Acto knife with a #11 blade — definitely the most reliable way. The box is an old chocolate tin I’d saved (I save everything) and spray painted black. The finishing touches were a label for the font (sealed with plastic film for durability) and a paper inlay to protect the edges of the cards from getting duffed up. The card back design and flourishes under the suit symbols are made with P22’s lovely Art Deco Extras and the typeface is Refrigerator Deluxe. This all involved a number of trips to Atlantis, my favourite art supply shop in the east end.

Jam Session at dConstruct 2010

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:20:18 +0100

On Friday I had the delight of presenting at one of my favourite conferences, dConstruct.

I gave a talk on something I love: how music improvisation relates to design. It was a lot of fun! I even managed to get the rather badass Matthew Ogle and Jeremy Keith join me on stage for live improvisation (video).

Download the annotated slides (PDF); view on slideshare; or listen to the podcast.

Annotated Slides from @Media Web Directions

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:52:00 +0100

Slides and audio of my presentation this summer are on the Web Directions site, but a while back I promised a more fully annotated PDF. You can download this now (15 MB).

Why the fully annotated version? When I speak at conferences I like to work off a loose point-form script that includes directions to myself like [greet people!] or [explain the story about the blah now] or [don’t forget to do that thing!]. So instead of that, you can now read a hopefully more sense-making annotated version.

OK Go actually published the embed code for this video on their...

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:14:17 +0000

OK Go actually published the embed code for this video on their blog in the form of an open letter explaining (really well) the problems they face with publishing their content—from territorial restrictions to issues around embedding. Attempting to educate their fans, they report: “crazy as it may seem, it’s now far harder for bands to make videos accessible online than it was four years ago.”

All that aside, this video is pretty damn cute and the GRASS MONSTERS are awesome. Pay careful attention to the trombone grass monster, he’s the best.

LCD Soundsystem for hypem.com

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:00:52 +0000

My illustration for LCD Soundsystem, featured on Hype Machine’s Music Blog Zeitgeist. This felt like a lot of responsibility—they’re the sound of a generation. (The lettering on the Manhatten skyline was somewhat influenced by this).

New print work

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 01:23:00 +0000

I recently did some print work for my friend Darren Fung, a film composer, who needed to update his promo reel package.

Darren’s music is full of stories and dreams, so it seemed fitting to pair the wordmark (that I did for him a few years ago) with some emotive hand-rendered visuals. The end result was this red colourfield I painted as a sort of visual track to his sound.

The process behind the kind of music Darren creates is unique, so we thought it would be fun to let this unfold with the packaging of this personal promo piece. The visuals include some of the tools he uses in his job. It’s a visualisation of his artist’s mess; we all have one.

Customisability and cost efficiency were a requirement, so we opted for stickers (Darren can print himself) of the track listing and mailing label. Since the whole design is a bit ‘messy’ it only adds to the authenticity if the stickers go on a bit wonky!

My Texture Garden

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:02:00 +0100

The other weekend I gave a BarCamp talk about my dream to have a texture garden. I love touching things—especially things with interesting textures: furry, soft, smooth, fuzzy, spiky etc.

Yes, my friends do make fun of me for reaching out to furtively touch old ladies’ fur coats; people’s dreadlocks (just ask Pete); and plants. I love markets with exotic spiky fruit or conservatories with fuzzy-leafed plants and hairy-trunked trees.

I’m just as in love with how things feel in the physical world as I am with the virtual world. When I first got my iPhone, I just sat there watching the window bounce back by scrolling it too far. Later with my 3GS, I got the same enjoyment from watching the app icons dim by slowly sweeping them away to reveal the search UI.

I walked listeners through my thinking (in very broad brushstrokes) behind the design for the texture garden, approaching it as I might an interface design project:

Brief garden history and analysis of other garden types
User needs and objectives; my usecase “where can I touch plants with interesting textures”
Constraints including location, climate, sunlight, soil quality, pests, boundaries and horticultural requirements (plant lifespan, perennial or annual, growth habits, context) and the zoological aspect, a rabbit named Stu and a tortoise named Thing.
Interaction design with a matrix exploring the “texture wheel” centrepiece, and defining a potential userflow for moving through the garden with main touch points to consider for the interface design
For the interface design, I drew a garden blueprint and showed a collapsed view of the varied-height plant beds which consider the best touching environment for the different types of plants (as well as the herbivore rabbit and tortoise)
Lastly, I touched on the visual design with a rendering of the “texture wheel” centrepiece plant beds in SketchUp.

Partially to combat my recent RSI, and partially to try a less “designed” approach to design-talk slides, I revealed the narrative of the talk sketch-by-sketch on a large piece of craft paper.

M83 - We Own the Sky by David Altobelli Really gorgeous video;...

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:31:00 +0100

M83 - We Own the Sky by David Altobelli

Really gorgeous video; the type of motion graphics I want to project on a giant wall and let dance around me.

MacWorld cover in the making (time lapse video) Impressed these...

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:39:17 +0100

MacWorld cover in the making (time lapse video)

Impressed these guys thought to get the whole thing on camera, a process like this is intense enough as it is.

This is just so beautiful. Exhibit by farrowdesign.com for the...

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:41:38 +0100

This is just so beautiful. Exhibit by farrowdesign.com for the Science Museum.

Manhattanhenge (via ROCKETBOOM) This starts to get really good...

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:15:31 +0100

Manhattanhenge (via ROCKETBOOM) This starts to get really good around 0:54.

Measuring up

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:23:32 +0100

As was its intent, this article got me thinking about criticism within my personal creative process.

Mine is a cycle where the pivotal moment is hypercriticism. Criticism happens throughout the process (I never stop being critical of my work) but it’s secondary except for one stage in the cycle where self-criticism is the primary activity.

So, I get excited, I start making stuff—I’m on a roll. Then, I burn out, my “creative tap” goes on drip and I get hypercritical. I hate everything I’ve made. I have to recharge, then get excited again… The recharging bit can be tricky—everyone has different methods of recharging. Mine is cross-disciplinary. I like to switch between something creation-based (ie. design) vs. interpretation-based (ie. classical music).

This cycle is usually within a one large project or a few short ones. I try and work my lifestyle around this cycle so it happens in the most efficient and useful way for the project(s) I’m working on—which means keeping my life fairly routine-free and subject to change.

This is the micro version. I recently noticed this exact same cycle happens on a mega scale too. The mega version seems to happen on a 6-year-ish cycle, and the self-criticism step can be downright depressing. It needs to happen a few more times before I have anything truly useful to say about it, except that recognising what’s going on helps.

I try and recognise my patterns because understanding a cycle like this can be a useful barometer; it reflects change in my emotions and opinions. The barometer is a rational yardstick for the things we seek in design: efficiency, originality, quality, longevity. Next time you start criticising, check your barometer and measure in context.

Design for Conversion

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 18:23:00 +0100

Slides from my presentation on Interface Magic I gave in Amsterdam last week.

Design for Conversion had a really interesting conference format, the attendees got to work on real-world design problems, which made for a really interactive experience.

Possibly the most fun was the speakers dinner the night before. We got to make our own meal in a ‘cooking studio’. Each team cooked a tapas dish and we all got to know each other. Delicious and awesome.

Team prawn salad: me, Arjan and Karl

Upsell vid for a design consultancy with a few gems about...

Sun, 24 May 2009 12:34:35 +0100

Upsell vid for a design consultancy with a few gems about searching for the right ideas.

America Is Fucked…graphically at least (via Spiekerblog)

Mon, 11 May 2009 22:55:05 +0100

America Is Fucked…graphically at least (via Spiekerblog)

Kitsuné Maison 7 teaser ‘Oda vs. Elias’ with hot...

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:05:30 +0100

Kitsuné Maison 7 teaser ‘Oda vs. Elias’ with hot models and hot music. Check out the electro-pop sounds of Two Door Cinema Club.