????? WHAT AM I DOING NOW..???

a detailed post regarding this will be posted soon .!!!! ... :P :P.......

The journey so far ......

THE BEGINING STAGE

State: excited

http://p-i-t-a-r-a.blogspot.com/2008/03/so.html

http://p-i-t-a-r-a.blogspot.com/2008/03/now-task-was-to-brainstorm-on-all-data.html

http://p-i-t-a-r-a.blogspot.com/2008/03/doodle-understanding.html

well ,the survey conducted resulted in various interesting results as the answers were in descriptive format.

THE MIDDLE STAGE PART 1

State: very excited

With all the results it did open, and gave a lot of ideas of what people could do with doodling

Or rather make people do with doodling. Basically sort of creative games!!! Which i came up with,

Now, I intended to do a desktop application , sort of Microsoft one note where u get to organize your notebook, here u get to select the sort of paper u want to doodle on say newspaper print, magazines, sand (if u doodle on this, it can't be saved)and so on. Basically trying to create the experience and a interface to just doodle. Apart from this you could go online and doodle. There were a lot of ideas when using the online feature but i personally wanted to do the following 5:

Concept 1: Pictionary doodling

1 player doodles, the other one guesses in certain defined time and then the second player doodles and the 1^st player guesses. A score card can be maintained.

Use : it helps u know how good are you in a visual representation.

Concept 2: Collaborative doodling

This would be a maximum of 4 player game, where turn by turn players doodle on a same paper making it a single graphic element. Here, u can choose the paper u want doodle on or upload a file 9bkgrd image) on which you want to doodle on.

Use: well u can create more creative graphics!!with more explorations of diff style on it.

Concept 3: Theme doodling

U can join a ongoing theme (topic) to doodle on. All doodlers will doodle on one particular theme. One is allowed to start their theme and doodle on it.

Use: can be used for ideation purposes.

Concept 4: Music doodling

U can select a track (a song or a music piece) to doodle on. All doodlers will doodle on one particular track. Hence you'll be able to see how everyone doodles on the same track, a sort of a music and art relationship, like what people think when the hear a particular track. One is allowed to upload their track and doodle on it.

Use: well doodling on music is supposed to be a creative exercise to free your mind.

Concept 5: Story boarding

U can movies out of your doodles by recording your voice ,while you doodle pause recording, draw, then record etc to create a sort of animation, a story.

Use: story telling!!!! Duh.!

explorations were done for the above , selection of these ideas frm more ideas were done ..!!! but i wasn't sure if it's the right thing to do , or if i actually wanna do this ..

THE MIDDLE STAGE PART 2

State: excited

All this while a major issue was in my head that i am making people doodle on a comp, or even on separate product, is it feasible..i mean y would people doodle at all otherwise. Away from paper they would spend only 30% of the time on a comp or any other interface9if i was to think it as a diff product).

SO NOW THE ISSUE WAS, whether this will lead to any software based solution that could truly contain the meaning of doodling. The moment you tend to introduce traditional UI elements to such a problem, it brings a lot of consciousness also from the user and that may defeat the purpose of doodling.

Also, if i could create something which can be done only by doodling , and not be replaceable by another technique,so that it truly holds it..!!!!

So from now on the focus was changed, doodling concept well would be best if remained on pen and paper.

From this point on i targeted designers (read creative people) as the user group. Since my entire user study was also based on them.

I now propose to use the livescribe technology, and develop a web application for it.

This application would be a part of the livescribe online community.

Details of the technology can be seen here,

http://www.livescribe.com/smartpen/index.html

http://www.livescribe.com/blog/index.php

With use of this technology, now i propose a web application to handle all your saved doodles and basically solve a purpose for the designers to be using them.

The basic purpose of a doodle for a designer is ideation. Hence i develop this application as an Ideation platform .

A designer , needs to

1. ideate , trigger ideas
   
2. make sure what he represents on paper is understood,after all tht's y he's representing
   
3. build iterations,or explore on his concepts
   

keeping this is mind , i now propose the following application.

Note: only few screenshots have been made till now.!!! Not keeping the heuristics in mind,also this is not the final thing,just a quick mock up, u may find a lot of elements missing.!!

My doodles link is where you organize your doodles,ie your own doodle pitara.

Doodle pitara link is where the option of 3 concepts(for now) will be available which will be connecting ideas, making sense, building ideas(the names will be changed).

Doodlers link is where you view doodlers profile and view their doodles maybe drop them a mail.

Doodles i love link is where all your bookmarked doodles will be available for view.

Symbols link is where all your tagged symbols and symbols tagged by others can be viewed.symbols as in say a face is drawn,it is a smiley for you.

Help link is well help.!!!!!!

MY DOODLES

This page basically helps in categorizing, adding titles, description, tagging in short basically organizing your doodles.

Next we go to, DOODLE PITARA

This page preview is not available, from here we click on CONNECTING IDEA links which would look like the screen below.

After clicking on connect ideas it would show all the doodles tagged with idea bulb in a connected form. The navigation part remains the same.

MAKE SENSE LINK FROM DOODLE PITARA LINK(select page)

Guess page

After guessing,it would show what doodler thinks abt ddoodle on left pane and what other's who hv guessed d doodle think about the doodle,d bigger d font size more time tht word has been guessed.

IDEAS TO BUILD PAGE

Here the idea is to build over your ideasJ basically get reviews in the form of comments.

How it works?

You can specify on your doodle firstly, what's the idea you are talking about?.Then, specify the time this doodle will stay with a doodler and the time for it to reach back to you. Then click on the button send .the system randomly send this doodle to another doodler who can add a comment, doodle a comment, review the other comments made and then forward it further or send it back to you. I n any case the doodle will reach back to you in the time specified by you.

In the next screen ,

Ideas i have recieved

inbox specifies the ideas like in mail ordered by date and would also indicate the no. Of comments added to it which can be viewed in the navigation below around the doodle.from here the doodler can forward it or send it back

Doodles i love page

CURRENT STAGE

State: excitement lost

Clearly not satisfied

so now, a little more question and addressing to issues of as to why and how, though with this concept a lot has been answer.!! validation or justification of the product can be done..!!! but still more explorations , conceptualization i feel is required.

Now the question,

Do you think not allowing, people to actually doodle in the system is actually a write thing to do?

Or is it possible to add the earlier thought concepts as a games link in this system?

Then what about the scope of the system?

Or well think of it a totally different point of view and well come up with a different outlook altogether?

Also, what about pattern recognition and doodle analysis? How and where do you think such a thing could be added.

Some links like the following are available

http://www.channelone.com/life/school/2003/10/07/doodle/

http://www.annakoren.com/doodles.html

http://knowledge-advantage.com/Doodles/

THE DOODLE UNDERSTANDING

---->> what you gain out of the doodle process?
---->> activities you do with doodling
---->> falling in both the categories

Based on the survey conducted ,i did the analysis of the doodle system and came up with this depiction of the system ,where almost (at least i hope) all the whats,when,why,etc. of the doodling system will fall into.

This was important as i find when developing my concept to keep coming back and provide me a platform to actually use doodling as a tool to serve many purposes.A sort of relation could now be developed on as to why and how a need or a technique to use doodling as tool for various purposes can be developed.

BbRAINSTORMING....

now the task was to brainstorm on all the data collected from the users, on what, why,when how of doodle.As I initially began it became difficult to figure out where to start ,as all the data i had was descriptive and more of personal views of people.This is where i understood how personal the process of doodling is and how it means different for different people but yet is a part of almost everyone's life.Here is where I'd like to mention what one of my very good friend akanksha (who thinks she's a doodle herself) wrote on doodling..just couldn't help but sharing it with you guys

what is a doodle to you....

Its a state of mind
the moment
an extension of myself
an appeal
my silent need to be heard
my silent need to be remembered
my alter ego
my hidden desires
my hidden regrets

It is what I was....and who I am.

But most importantly
Its who I'm becoming.

when do I doodle....

Not when I'm bored.....
A doodle is the child of a highly potent mind in action,
highly volatile thoughts in progression.
'Nothing' is the presence of everything.
A doodle is that everything.

I doodle when I'm avoiding eye contact.
I doodle when I've made eye contact and fucked up.
I doodle when the pen has red ink.
I doodle when I'm vulnerable
I doodle when my name can be written in yet another style
I doodle when I'm about to deliver the punchline for the day
I doodle when I'm defensive
I doodle when I feel the post modern angst to look creatively busy
I doodle when my mind has asked me to.

How do I doodle....

Whatever be the means, as long as it justifies the end.......
a part of me has been left behind.
Now who cares HOW thats done.

Also, someone raised an interesting question which is worth a thought...

is the thought process same while doodling and fiddling?

so now back to brainstorming,so then i decided to pick up words out of descriptive answers of what and why/when and categorize them to get a overview and answers , for my better understanding....

Now the task remains to even consolidate this data further and come up with minimalistic words to understand and extract the essence of this system better.

UNDERSTANDING THE SYSTEM

so ... when we talk about doodling .. and understanding .. it's aspects the few basic questions which need to be answered are .. what is a doodle?why do people doodle?and how do they doodle?I conducted a survey to find about the general notions of what people think about doodling,just to understand the entire process of doodling...it did give some interesting and well also some expected answers.. but yeah.! it did help in gaining insight about the basic psyche of a doodler...

with all the data given ,discarding the repeated answers this is what i ended up representing as ,a visual map for the survey to understand the system better(of course this is one of the good points of doodling as i found out from survey,make ur ideas concrete,represent them visually to make people understand :) )

ALL ABOUT DOODLE

Doodle is a type of sketch, an unfocused drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied. They are simple drawings which can have a meaning, a shape or just irregular forms.

It is well established that much of our creative expression is birthed in the subconscious mind. To use creative expression and solutions in your everyday life,it is necessary to dip into the subconscious at will. Doodling is one way of doing this.

Doodling allows the unconscious to render in symbolic expression.Symbols have universal as well as personal meaning.When you are stuck for an answer to a problem or looking for creative innovation, the technique of doodling will unleash the hidden symbolic powers of the subconscious mind.

The PROJECT

This project aims at exploring various innovative methods to create doodles and then use it as a technique for self introspection and communication. a channel to let your thoughts out.A method for mind mapping , helping in learning and making visual maps. It also aims at providing a collaborative graphical chat space. To use this non –verbal method of communication to create new graphics, explore new ideas and share thoughts. This system would be a tool for mapping inner space, and creating visuals for both communication and for personal reflection.

Various concepts could be build around it like sort of an association game,a place to maintain your doodles like sort of a scrap book , for self introspection and personal reflection purposes,to be able to doodle when listening to music or watching a video .. sharing thoughts...creating graphics.... building on to an another doodle.. collaboration.... .... ... ideas .. ideas.. ideas...!!!!!!

Hence it aims at exploring and finding the use of doodling to its full extent, and be able to use it as a useful, efficient and at the same time a fun tool for learning and thinking and being creative.