Sunday, February 12, 2012

Circles Of Trust Social Network

  • You can loosely base your design on Chat Circles - in this assignment we are not concerned with changing the representation of the user, so simple circles are a useful placeholder for people. The focus here is on the environment and how different spaces function differently and convey that difference.
  • You need to think about what are the different functions your space supports. I suggest some ideas here, you may use these or think of others:
    • spaces with "hearing range" and broadcast spaces
    • spaces where something special happens, like a raffle
    • spaces where special behaviors are expected, like listening to a speaker, or to music, or watching a film
    Board games and sports fields may also offer some inspiration, as they often have different zones in which different rules apply.
  • You need to think about how these differences are conveyed. Is it via lines? symbols? "physical" barriers (the circle cannot move across something)? You may choose to do something purely visual - or perhaps experiment with designing a visually illegible space that had barriers and other delineations discovered only by attempting to move in it.
  • You are responsible only for designing it - no implementation is expected. However, part of your challenge is to articulately convey the function and intention of your design.

My idea was one of a social network that would base your friendships of "levels of trust" that dynamically changed with increase or decrease of interactions. Within this, there would be a sense of control over your interactions that wouldn't require much input from the user.