Design. Research. Technology. Experience. Life.
Thoughts and Reflection
Skim Reading is the answer so far. There are plenty of different websites that teaches skim reading. But I have tried this one in particular and found that the methods here and the exercise they offer is very helpful.
http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/570/pulp/hemp1.htm
Unknown graffiti artist. Image photographed by Nurul Rahman,
2011.
Unknown graffiti artist. Image photographed by Nurul Rahman, 2011.
Kita Pengguna, pembeli dan penjual (we are the user, consumer and seller)
An interesting speech by Dr.M reminding Malaysian about the their roles and status as citizen at the World Consumer Day & launching for the Harmonious Family competition on the 4 June 1996. Most of Dr. M speech can be obtained in the online achieve (most of it is in Malay language). The speech is related to the government efforts to create an awareness among people in understanding the roles they play as consumer in their everyday life. Dr. M reminded the people that their everyday life can affect the country’s economical status, thus, they need to understand how they conduct and managed their everyday life. In his speech he discussed about roles as individual, a seller, and a buyer. He also includes in his discussion about the services that is provided by the government staff, that every services offered have to be acknowledge that it is part of the circle between user, consumer and seller.
Sydney CBD Crossroad-Image NurulRahman2010
For example a person who is a government clerk is also a user (which means he or she still have use the other services provided in everyday life, she or he still will be using the hospital facilities, paying electric and other household bills, etc). The same person is also a consumer, he or she will have to buy products for everyday life, going to the market, buy the household products, and other necessary needs for day to day life. In many ways, the person, is also selling or promoting a service, where he or she as a government staff is providing some sort of services to the others. If the process of productivity work accordingly the level of the inflation will be stable, and everyday life circle will be secured.
There are other point highlighted in his original speech but these are among the significant one.
6. Hakikat asas ini perlu kita ingati sepanjang masa. Terlalu ramai daripada kita hanya memikir diri kita sebagai pengguna dengan tidak sedikit pun sedar bahawa kita semua adalah pembekal. 7. Mungkin kita percaya kita tidak mengeluarkan apa-apa untuk dijual kepada sesiapa. Mungkin secara langsung tidak. Tetapi secara tidak langsung, dengan kesan yang tidak sedikit, kita `menjual' khidmat atau barangan sekurang-kurangnya kepada majikan yang membayar upah kepada kita. 8. Kerani dalam pejabat Kerajaan menjual khidmatnya kepada Kerajaan dan khidmat Kerajaan kepada orang ramai. Jika ia tidak cergas dan cekap dalam memproses atau menaip surat, kelewatan itu mempunyai kesan kepada bekalan khidmat kepada pengguna. Budak pejabat yang melambatkan penghantaran surat pun boleh merugikan pelanggan khidmat Kerajaan. Jika kerana ini Kerajaan menjadi tidak efisien maka kos segala-galanya akan meningkat. 9. Dalam syarikat pembekal khidmat atau barangan, tiap seorang kakitangan menyumbang kepada kejayaan membekal apa sahaja kepada pengguna. Daripada kerani dan pemandu kereta hingga ke eksekutif tertinggi, semuanya bertanggungjawab dalam membekal keluaran syarikat. Kelewatan atau mutu yang rendah barangan yang dihasilkan bermakna kos meningkat dan pengguna tidak mendapat haknya. Kemajuan ekonomi negara juga akan terjejas. 10. Jika kita dapat ingat sepanjang masa bahawa kita semua adalah pembekal dan bertanggungjawab kepada diri kita sendiri sebagai pengguna, maka hak kita sebagai pengguna akan terpelihara sepanjang masa. Jika hari ini pengguna berasa hak mereka tidak diberi pertimbangan yang sewajarnya, sebabnya ialah kerana kita hanya melihat diri kita sebagai pengguna dan lupa akan tanggungjawab kita sebagai pembekal. 11. Pengguna dan gerakan pengguna memanglah baik untuk memelihara kualiti khidmat dan barangan yang dipasarkan. Tanpa gerakan pengguna khidmat dan barangan akan jatuh mutunya dan harga akan meningkat. Dengan itu bermacam-macam masalah akan dihadapi oleh masyarakat dan negara. 12. Barangan yang bermutu rendah atau/dan harganya yang tinggi tidak akan berdayasaing dalam pasaran, baik di dalam mahupun di luar negeri. Untuk pasaran dalam negeri Kerajaan akan diminta melindungi barangan tempatan. Perlindungan oleh Kerajaan sebenarnya bermakna memaksa pengguna tempatan membayar harga yang lebih atau menerima kualiti yang rendah. Dengan perkataan lain bukan Kerajaan yang melindung pembekal tetapi pengguna yang melindung pembekal dan memikul beban. Ini sudah tentu tidak adil kepada pengguna. 13. Sebaliknya barangan yang kos pengeluarannya mahal atau kualitinya rendah tidak dapat dieksport. Dengan itu jumlah keluaran tidak tinggi dan tidak dapat menolong mengurangkan kos pengeluaran. Sekali lagi pengguna tempatan terpaksa menanggung beban.
Yes, it is difficult and most of the time, you think that it will waste your precious research time. Well, the answer is you don’t have to spend time trying to understand what is the core of the thesis content in your first attempt. It will definitely put you off. But somehow you have to read it because it might have some interesting discussion that you might be able to use or refer to in your research. For sure you don’t want to missed out some important literature. But at the same time you don’t want to end up feeling ‘what a waste of time’.
Skim Reading is the answer so far. It help you to gather the core ideas in the thesis so that you are able to understand, not to missed out, and then to make decision whether you should spend a bit more time reading the thesis thoroughly. On the other hand you will be able to say to our supervisor that ‘Yes, I have read the thesis. It is interesting research but it is not relevant to what I am researching at the moment’. There are plenty of different websites that teaches skim reading. But I have tried this one in particular and found that the methods here and the exercise they offers is very easy to learn on how to skim read.
Reading thick thesis is not that difficult after all. Good luck!
http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/570/pulp/hemp1.htm
I would like to thank Prof Mark D. Hill for sharing the oral presentation tips (1992 revised January 1997).
Some of you might think that this oral presentation tips might not be relevant to your research areas as the oral presentation here is created for computer science program. But, trust me when it comes to presentation slides, it all goes down to the content, and that is what you need to add in. Others, which is the structure, is almost the similar. Just have a read through.
1. Oral Communication is different from written communication
Listeners have one chance to hear your talk and can’t “re-read” when they get confused. In many situations, they have or will hear several talks on the same day. Being clear is particularly important if the audience can’t ask questions during the talk. There are two well-know ways to communicate your points effectively. The first is to K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid). Focus on getting one to three key points across. Think about how much you remember from a talk last week. Second, repeat key insights: tell them what you’re going to tell them (Forecast), tell them, and tell them what you told them (Summary).
2. Think about your audience
Most audiences should be addressed in layers: some are experts in your sub-area, some are experts in the general area, and others know little or nothing. Who is most important to you? Can you still leave others with something? For example, pitch the body to experts, but make the forecast and summary accessible to all.
3. Think about your rhetorical goals
For conference talks, for example, I recommend two rhetorical goals: leave your audience with a clear picture of the gist of your contribution, and make them want to read your paper. Your presentation should not replace your paper, but rather whet the audience appetite for it. Thus, it is commonly useful to allude to information in the paper that can’t be covered adequately in the presentation. Below I consider goals for academic interview talks and class presentations.
4. Practice in public
It is hard distilling work down to 20 or 30 minutes.
5. Prepare
See David A. Patterson’s How to Give a Bad Talk
This new robot, iRobot Scooba 230 somehow reminded us of the modern popular living style the world is adopting. The purpose of this new design is to assist busy life that most family is facing at the moment, juggling between work and some quality times with family. More design similar with this robot will soon occupied our household, and yes at the moment this all changes is making you feeling uneasy but, it won’t take long when it become something that we need. Mobile phone and internet, was regarded as the unnecessary product a decade ago, now, can we live without it?
In one of my PhD chapters (2011), I discussed about the construction of Malaysian identity through establishment of national history and argue by examining and showing how it is constructed. To think about the idea of national history is not far from thinking of selection of what can be considered as national and what is not. Now, if history means the study of the past (Oxford Dictionary 2010), then to established the notion of national history should mean the study of the past that linked to the nation and the state. We all knows, I hope, that to includes all history of the nation, the people, their culture, believes, achievements, tragedy and so on, is an open ended. So the questions here is firstly, how does the selection of choosing the ingredient of the Malaysian national history occurred? Secondly, how does it been perpetuated as the national history, and thirdly, nonetheless, is the most important question, what purpose does national history served?
Image construction by NurulRahman-Oct-2010.
For a new country such as Malaysia, this is the current impact of the establishment of the term national history. In public schools and higher education, the national history is the most emphasized subject of history. Students are asked to memorized the date of the significant events without being involved in critical discussion of the events occurred to provide clear understanding of the historical incident. Due to that, most of the history classes became monotonous and uninteresting. Most of the students were required to remember the important dates and events because it will be asked in the exam. History has never been interesting for me at school. Until I have learned the other side of the history, or the invisible gaps in Malaysian history, through different readings, mix and match from several different artifacts. Interestingly when I discussed about my discoveries to some of my fellow Malaysian friends, they said to me that most of the books or literature that I have read is regarded as the attempt of the western action to destroy the sense of unity and harmonious living in Malaysia. They also advised me instead to look at publication of Malaysian history written by local historian and refer only to the literature that were published in Malaysia. As they said, it will provide the most accurate history of Malaysia. Shocked, yes, thinking how can one believe only on one side of the stories (in this case a country’s history) without researching, comparing the materials and gaining knowledge from others? Can the notion of national history be that linear? Then our discussion goes on by my fellow Malaysian friends by showing examples of the movies that they believed linked to the national history, such as Bukit Kepong, Leftenan Adnan, Abang, and even linked to the legendary Malay icon, Hang Tuah. The mixed of history, national history, folk and legendary stories is part of Malaysian history. I am not surprise if Hang Tuan and his fellow friends is part of the discussion in history classes in Malaysia. Besides legendary Hang Tuah is already part of the exhibits artifacts of Malay Kingdom in Malacca National History. How can I contest the artifact that were exhibited in National history as not part of the country’s history?
This curiosity of trying to understanding my own Malaysian history, and origins of national identity became my past 5 years PhD research topic. I stand here as I am at the end of writing my PhD’s conclusion, that the notion of Malaysian identity that once I believed in and still many of my fellow Malaysian believed in is no more than an imagining ideals of Malaysian identity.
Today in a Malaysiakini online newspaper, this topic have pop up, and I hope that many Malaysian will began to take notes. The curiosity that I have felt alone is shared by the author, Raja Petra. In this article, Raja Petra wrote that Malaysia ex-prime minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad states that ‘Malaysian history as currently taught in schools was inaccurate’ (Malaysiakini.com, 11 September 2011). At least that hypothesis that I was trying to prove in my PhD is supported by Malaysia ex-prime minister. In Tun Mahathir own words he stated, ‘Many from the younger generation do not understand history and the origin of the nation, as there were attempts to alter historical facts into fantasy,’ quoted as saying in a Bernama Online report 11 September 2011. The National Professors’ Council (MPN) also has taken debate further in claiming that Malaya was never colonised by British Empire. Thus, Higher Education Minister, Datuk Seri Mohd Khaled Nordin began to comment that the current history syllabus in schools needs to be reviewed.
It is also known that Malaysia Prime Minister’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, and the Deputy Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, are currently in London where it is believed they met the British government to discuss amendments to the British distortion of history. It is claimed that there are some errors in the documents kept in National Archives that gives the wrong impression about Malaysia. As stated by Petra in online newspaper Malaysiakini.com articles, ‘The documents in the National Archives in London talk about the British Colonial government of Malaya and refer to the Colonial Office. This gives the wrong impression that Malaya was a colony of Britain whereas this was not so, says Malaysia. Malaya was never colonised by Britain, argues Malaysia’ (11 September 2011).
If the national history that was taught, proud and claimed for years as part of the nation history celebrating the independent day Merdeka on the 31 August 1957, is now stands as incorrect and doubtful, will there be a truth in the history of Malaysia?
This blog content is part of a working paper by the author. Any republication of the text, ideas or statement in any form should be in an agreement of the author – Nurul Rahman 2011. (contact nurulrahman [at] gmail . com]
A french journalist Pierre Lardet discovered a cocoa based recipe made of cocoa, cereals, honey, sugar and banana flour during his visit in Lake Managua, Nicaragua in 1909. He brought this recipe home in Paris and introduced a new drink called Banania in.
On of Lardet strategies to promote his cocoa based drink is to integrates his drink with the colonial troops around World War I. Banania used the tagline of pour nos soldats la nourriture abondante qui se conserve sous le moindre volume possible (‘for our soldiers: the abundant food which keeps, using the least possible space’ by promoting it thorough an image of a Senegalese man enjoying his Banania drink. The mixture of color yellow (to indicates the banana ingredient), red, blue and white (from the Senegalese man uniform and also to indicates France as the origin country of the product) is used as the highlights of the advertising of banania cocoa drink.The tagline which is originally ‘Ya’bon’ (means it’s good) is supposedly derived from a pidgin french language spoken between the soldier (which in fact it is an invention), later transformed to the slogan and the character became inseparable as the expression was coined: l’ami y’a bon (“the y’a bon buddy”).
In 1970s and 1980s, Banania sponsored the Yellow Yersey for Tour de France to continue its promotion around France and gained its name internationally. The advertising promotion of Banania began to attracts attention from the local who their origin is from the black ancestors and also others who are concerned on the impact of the pop culture advertising to the image of France. As much as it has caused several conflicts with its ‘manipulative image’ of a black guy in its product branding, banania became the cultural icon in France. Even though the form of the character of Banania have evolved through years, its name and its original advertising continue as one of the popular culture around the world. Banania posters and reproductions of the packaging, tin-plates sign of the pre-war advertising continue as a demand on the current market.
Banania logo in 1930 (image from wikipedia)
Yes, no doubt it is attractive, superb and eye catching. An installation arts using 350,000 Post-it to sell the footwear brands. It appeared to be a success branding strategies but there are other concern that can be thought of before this process happen. One interesting comment in the blog from a designer wondering what happen to the post-it notes once the whole installation process ended.. Designers’ dilemma, to waste or not to waste, for the glory and the marketing process.. is there any other option? you tell me..(click on the photos for the link).
(Photo: Melissa, a Brazilian footwear brand, creates a giant time-lapse video using Post-it notes as pixels)
This article is taken from IOWA State University, United States of Amerika published on 12-06-10.
Iowa State University graphic design faculty and graduate students were part of a two-year collaboration to create universal symbols that help non-English speakers find their way through health care facilities. The 22 navigational symbols — along with 28 designed previously by professionals — were released this fall for use in health care facilities around the country.
The project is featured in the current issue of SEGD Design, the journal of environmental graphic design, (available online at http://issuu.com/segddesign/docs/segd30_digital).
Lisa Fontaine, an ISU associate professor of graphic design, was one of four professors selected to participate in the national effort that involved Hablamos Juntos, the Society of Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD) and four design schools. The project was funded under a grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to Hablamos Juntos, a University of California, San Francisco program that develops practical solutions for language barriers to health care.
In addition to Iowa State, the design school consortium included California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; Kent State University, Ohio; and University of Cincinnati, Ohio. Each school has symbol design within its graphic design curricula as well as experience in user-centered design and design research.
Students in the four design schools worked to design 155 symbols that would be understood by linguistically diverse subjects.
“This was the first time this type of collaboration has happened nationally, with multiple design programs working together on one design project,” said Fontaine. The consortium met by phone each week to discuss and compare curricular approaches.
Graduate students in Fontaine’s symbol design studio course worked on the project. The students started their design process by studying symbol history and taxonomy, as well as existing pictographic symbols and standards.
“Symbol systems have tremendous potential for cross-cultural communication, but their extreme simplicity also risks the possibility of misunderstanding,” Fontaine explained.
Each school worked on a different subset of 22 symbol topics. Iowa State students worked on symbols for imaging, alternative medicine, health education, kidney center and mental health.
After the symbols were created, they were tested with users. Fontaine directed the research phase of the project. Speakers from four different language groups (native English, Spanish, Asian and Indo-European) assessed the student-designed symbols.
The collaborative adapted a standard comprehension test instrument for responders to use to identify the symbol that best represented a specific meaning/health care location. Five different student-designed symbols representing the same location (i.e. kidney center), along with that location’s name, were presented on one page. Responders were asked to estimate what percentage of people who speak their language in the U.S. would understand each of the symbols shown.
A total of 231 respondents – with at least 50 from each language group — completed the survey. After the data collection, Fontaine compiled the findings and prepared the preliminary analysis.
“Our main goal was to select the symbol with the best results overall,” Fontaine explained. “Fortunately, we didn’t see much difference from one language group to another — what was clear to one group, was clear to another.”
Differences in language and culture can affect the comprehension of symbols. Fontaine said the lack of cultural difference in the selection of these medical symbols could be because they’re technical topics.
One of the greatest challenges for the designers was determining whether the symbol should depict the area of the body affected or the process. According to Fontaine, their findings show that, in most instances, people wanted to see the placement on the body.
“They have to see it and understand it immediately. We found the more metaphoric the symbol was, the worse the comprehension,” she said.
Cath lab symbolThe symbol selected to represent the cath lab was designed by an Emmanuel Saka, an Iowa State graphic design graduate student from Ghana.
Fontaine and her colleagues on the project have presented the research at Sign ’09, the international sign conference held in Vienna last December; the SEGD Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. in June; and the International Humanities Conference in Los Angeles in June. They also will present the research at the Usability Professionals Association Conference in Atlanta next June.
“The project also gave the academic programs an opportunity to work together in a highly focused effort to develop a national capacity for ongoing graphic symbol design and evaluations,” Fontaine said.
This article is taken from http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2010/dec/UniversalSymbols
As a Malaysia graphic designer trained and practiced over nearly fifteen years, I have always belief that graphic design is much more than just working on the surface of the visual. Indeed it is part of the line-of-job that visual improvement and enhancement is required, however, the construction of visual meaning and symbols influences the way we portray the graphic narrative work to others. We, as graphic designers concerned with the communication process, whether it is convey clearly to others or not. But do you also concerned about the impact of the meaning that we created, do we influence the political views and social consciousness, or we just don’t care.
I am aware that in the other parts of the world the roles of graphic designer and other visual artist have strengthen. Most of the artist such as Shaferd Farley, a graphic designer and graffiti artist have make use of their talent and knowledge not only to communicates information and make social commentary but also to express and connect on particular topic of discussion with the other part of society. The solo exhibition work done by Shaferd Farley (Obey) is discussing about political changes and influences in our life focusing on how it is narrated advertisement, is similarly discussed in one of my PhD chapters in the context of Malaysia.
Here are some of his work and further link to his work OBEY
