John Finley

• 2010-10-11

  Setting Constraints

  Having a broad arena from which to select an idea is one of the things you dream about as a student/designer/whatever; so often you are given specific assignments where the topic has already been chosen. “Wouldn’t it be great,” you think, “to be able to work on what ever I like?”

  I’m here to tell you that it is great, but it is also absolutely paralyzing.

  What you gain in freedom, you lose in focus. Everything becomes interesting, everything becomes a possibility. I can’t tell you how many new blogs I’ve subscribed to in the last three months—I’ve never done so much reading in my life.

  To me, it seems the only way to get to a place in my thesis where I am going to feel comfortable is to begin to eliminate things. I’ve selected the following as rules to thesisize by:

  • Not an iOS app. There are too many out there as it is. iOS (and mobile applications in general) is definitely in vogue and doesn’t have the hard-hack allure it once did.
  • Not going to be a Google Maps mashup. This isn’t 2005.
  • Should try to avoid the screen whenever possible. I’m looking for interactions that make people connect better with the places around them. Avoiding screen-based interactions should be the first step in that direction. Instead, I’ll be looking at the tangible and the temporal.
  • Should be primarily concerned about how people connect to where they are and who they are with. Just like how a postcard lets your friends and family know where you’ve been.

  Hopefully, these constraints will guide me down a path that is both interesting and feasible. And, of corse, rules were made to be broken—it will be interesting to see which of these I break first. And I’m fine with that as long as it gets me to a place I am happy with.