How do you solve problems with interactive media design?
The topic here is one we as designers must ask ourselves. While the world is changing at an alarming rate, we are always evolving to meet what our customers want. I look around at our fellow classmates at the school and realize that what they do is in a way set in stone. Once an animator finishes a project, thats all she wrote(I don’t count directors cuts) But web designers can change there final designs with a few quick key strokes. I never did notice this till now but even after I graduate, I will continue to learn everyday as the web changes and we must keep up with it. Just two years ago Adobe put out CS2, and then last year CS3 was released. True they just threw in a bunch of bells and whistles but still it in a way has become its own entity. Almost as if it had its own life. The same goes for the web. Coding evolves and it can sometimes seem impossible to ever know enough. To solve any problem with IMD I think you just have to do your best. You can never know everything but you can keep learning and getting down what you need to know to make your customers happy. even if you are not happy with your design, if its what the customer wants, then thats what they will get.
Luke you’re the man, you really know what you’re doing. I will be your best friend. I might need your “help”….maby. (wink wink). I’m just a lame graphic designer that doesn’t know any coding.
I agree. Our field of study changes daily, and I’ve noticed that after I visit a website lately I look it over carefully to see if there is something that I can do or learn to make my websites better. If I am doing that, I can almost guarantee that clients are doing the same. The internet is a breeding ground for new ideas, technologies, and services.
I think you are right, though i have one little addition, If we know the technologies that are available, then we can let our clients know about them. Even if we dont know exactly how they are coded or put into action, if we can know what they are and tell our clients what they do, we can get a project and then learn how to work with that technology and get a better project done for our client.
The constant changing of technologies is one of the down sides to this industry. Having to learn the new options in a program that we just finished learning, but at the same time it helps things from getting boring. The English teacher is going to teach the same thing ten years from now that they taught today.
Although I have to admit the constant changes in adobe are rather frustrating.
Its a valid point. Many of us have had to pump out inferior designs either based on feedback from professors or clients, but keeping their wishes in mind while trying to create something you like is the great balancing act of our industry. As a graphic designer who likes to play around with the web, I have spent many years learning how to cobble pieces of code together to get what i need. Through further study I can write my own code these days fairly easy; although, eventually I will have a demand that will make me need to learn more. Until that time, seeing as I don’t know what I will need to know then yet, I will have to actively spend my own time developing my own skills. I don’t envy IMD because of this. I learned Illustrator several years ago, before 10 was even released, yet I will forever know how to fully utilize any newer release based on my past experiences. Not so for the web world it seems, the technology improves at such a steady rate, i have no hope of keeping up with it all.