Blog 6

• In an interconnected world, what are the limitations of design when cultural, political, economic biological and environmental systems are increasingly open?
Well, in a digital world we run into digital problems as designers. We must work within the platforms and within the paramaters that we are instructed. As we become more connected and more and more ideas and design are exposed to the world, the world becomes saturated with overlapping content and the threshold of new design seems to be reaches. So with the world connected, we have the issues that we must face in a digital world. Not everyone staring at a computer screen worldwide has the same resolution as the designer had when they created the design. Political and economic barriers seems to as well seem to make it difficult for everyone world wide the ability to see content on a level playing field.
Does new media present the “new” direction for design? Describe how new media does or does not present “new “directions in design and provide an examples (links or screen grabs) to support your assertion.
New media certainly does provide an additional platform to display design. But as the article suggest, with the limitations of screen resolution on a plethora of devices nowadays, content becomes more important than how the design may look on a digital device. Screen resolution is no match for real life design so every though there may be more platforms to display design, those platform may inhibit design, forcing design to conform to the more limiting requirements. http://www.theloopdesign.com/images/Medias.jpg. Web design can be beautiful, but it is still content on a flat screen.
• Is it time for designers to reintegrate disparate fields in order to consider new directions in design? Give examples (with links or screen grabs) of some new ways that design might be considered. These do not have to be existing ways, just ways that might yield some new and interesting results.
I would think that it is always time to integrate disparate fields of design, especially now as there are so many different types of platform to work with and fuse to create new design. Even though technology may present some issues with how the end products due to screen limitations, video worked into any other media can generally be interesting. I like the idea of creating motion projects that are set up for a dome projection, like at the planetarium. The dome I would thing would create some interesting challenges for designers display their message.
• What is the next “big thing in design”? Why do you think so and based on what criteria? Provide examples to support your assertion.
I think Flash is going to take us as designers in an interesting direction. It used to be that flash websites were cumbersome and slow and just about the “eye candy”. But with the way software like Dreamweaver and Flash are more seamlessly bridging the gap between website and full on interactive experience, The new flash sites are becoming more than just great eye candy, and providing a structurally immersive experience supported by appropriate and interesting content.