📝 Penn Week 2 Notes

❓How to Critique

Inspired from Lauren McCarthy’s presentation at The School for Poetic Computation’s Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn seminar.

Describe, analyze, interpret, evaluate

Describe

Take a look at what you’re looking at. What does it look like, literally? What are you seeing? What stands out to you? What is getting your attention?

Example
I’m seeing a lot of pop up windows.

Analyze

After describing what you see, take a step back and consider how it’s impacting the design

Example
I’m seeing a lot of pop up windows which are making the website feel invasive.

Interpret

What do you think the designer’s intentions were with this project? This is a good time to ask questions to get more information.

Example
Is this project intended to be disruptive to prove a point?

Evaluate

With the information you have, consider if the design is successful. Consider if parts of it are clearer than others. Provide ideas on what might help, or other possible outlets for exploration.

Additionally, this is a good opportunity to be a bit more critical. Is this memorable? Yes? No? Why not?

Example
I’m seeing the train of thought of wanting to create a disruptive experience on the website. It feels interesting, but I’m wondering why the pop up windows are stylized in an early 90s web aesthetic? Are these design choices necessary to the experience? How can we try something new?

“Craigslist's founder Craig Newmark and CEO Jim Buckmaster aim to provide users with a helpful, noncommercial way to connect with other people in their communities.”

👀 Gifs Show and Tell


👉What is HTML?

HTML
CSS
Javascript
Architect (Structure)
Interior Designer (Style)
Plumber (Behavior)
What it says
What it looks like
What it does

HTML = HyperText markup language

“A markup language is a system for annotating a document in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from the text.”