Publishing 2: Mass Communication - Project 3

Week 10 – Week 12

David Ho Ming Aun (0328394)

Publishing 2: Mass Communication

Project 3

Instructions:

Final Project & Portfolio 40%

The Brief

The Book. (Part 3: Digital Book)

Duration of Assignment

3 Weeks (Briefing on Week 9)

Deadline

Week 12 (12 Jun 2016)

Description

In this final project 3 you will be required to adapt the printed book you have designed for the purpose of on-screen reading. The design of the digital Book will be dependant on the device it will be read from or the type of format used; ePub/PDF/HTML. Presently most digital books are in the ePub/eBook format (How To Create a Fixed Layout Ebook with Adobe InDesign CC), which is adaptable across devices. However this format is only available in Adobe CC. We shall strive to explore and decide on an appropriate format. Your input here is vital.

One very important area to focus on is navigation between pages; this has to be well thought through, as the user interface must not be an obstacle to seamless reading.

Note: Project 3 is an attempt to work on methods that are developing as we speak, so as your lecturer I too am learning these new features, with project 03 our classroom will effectively be a laboratory. Even so we shall strive to produce work that is of good standard.

Requirements

The student will adapt the designs from the printed format without loosing the identity and style of the said in the digital book. The final work will be uploaded unto the respective eportfolios and printed out in thumbnail formats for the hardcopy portfolio. The softcopy (printed book and digital book) will also be burnt on a CD. ‘Packaged’ your InDesign files to ensure all elements of your book has been collated when burning it on the CD.

Submission

1. All gathered information (failures, successes, epiphanies, sketches, visual research, printouts, websites, images, charts, etc.) documented logically and chronologically in the A4 Clear Sheet folder. The works must be labelled and dated.
   
2. All gathered information (failures, successes, epiphanies, sketches, visual research, printouts, websites, images, charts, etc.) documented logically and chronologically in the eportfolio for the duration of the project in one post and for the duration of the course in a separate post as instructed in class.
   
3. Softcopy of the digital book uploaded unto the eportfolio for the purpose of reading. A thumbnail printout of the digital book.
   
4. All files packaged and uploaded unto Google Drive and link provided in the eportfolio. Ensure all folders are labelled or named appropriately.
   

Objectives

1. To develop students ability to adapt the various elements attractively in a digital book.
   
2. To develop students ability create seamless navigation from page to page.
   
3. To develop students ability to maintain a consistent identity with acceptable variation.
   

Project 3 Final Submissions:

Desktop Version (1366x768px)

Thumbnails:

Figure 1: Desktop eBook Thumbnails (1/2)

Figure 2: Desktop eBook Thumbnails (2/2)

Online eBook:





iPad Version (1024x768px)

Thumbnails

Figure 3: iPad eBook Thumbnails (1/2)

Figure 4: iPad eBook Thumbnails (2/2)

Online eBook:





iPhone 6 Version (750x1334px)

Thumbnails

Figure 5: iPhone 6 eBook Thumbnails (1/2)

Figure 6: iPhone 6 eBook Thumbnails (2/2)

Online eBook:

Feedback:

Week 10

Desktop e-book was satisfactory as well, just minor edits to kerning of the numbering and italics should be applied. Should begin work on the iPad and iPhone version.

Week 11

iPhone version has nice ways of dealing with the space issues, especially the hold-to-reveal subtext function. Upon further consideration, body text of iPad version could afford to be larger. iPhone version needs to be resized to the revised iPhone 6 dimensions.

Week 12
Portfolio and final submissions are in order.

Reflections:

Experience

I felt that the whole class was trying to fumble our way to figuring out how eBooks work, but fumbling is good and essential to learning, so that's okay. However, I personally found it strange to design ebooks for the laptop, as I never do any heavy reading on the laptop! But it's a changing world, and I think it's important to be open. I felt quite at home when playing with the buttons/animations panel in InDesign, trying to figure out the different possible combinations required to reach my desired outcome.

Observations

I observe that with the rapid technological advancement, students need to stay up-to-date with the latest versions in order to gain access to all the features. My software was unable to perform certain tasks, but thankfully I have very kind classmates. I observe myself referring to samples a lot, especially when choosing a suitable point size for formats I am unsure of.

Findings

I find that this assignment is good and is paced quite well! I enjoyed the challenge of translating the book into the desktop, wrestling with the drastic change of format from a tall, thin page to screen dimensions. The decrease in size posed new challenges and I found myself working faster as I progressed.
Image Sources:

Figure 1 – 6: Personal Documentation

Information Design - Final Project Milestone 2

Week 11–12

David Ho Ming Aun (0328394)

Information Design

Final Project: Milestone 2

Brief:

MILESTONE 02

Weeks 11 - 12

Develop

Your creative design approaches. How are you going convince and sell the idea?

Compare apples with apples and oranges with oranges. Have a benchmark/yardstick. Use a consistent metrics and type of data between the two topics (i.e. percentages with percentages, numbers with numbers and facts with facts).

Visual References:

I looked at some references for an animated 'collage' style, to challenge myself. Here are some great ones from vimeo.

A Mystery: Why Can't We Walk Straight? from NPR on Vimeo.

Not exactly a collage style, but I like the tone and manner of the video.

The Collage Travel from Tigrelab on Vimeo.


Collage Deposit from Caco Neves on Vimeo.


Madam President from Tom McCarten on Vimeo.

Munn, After Losing from The Drawing Room on Vimeo.



Revised Points of Comparison:

An English Gentleman’s Guide to Dating in the German Language

ACT 1: Initial Flirting

Writing your first Letter

• Shared Alphabet, introduction of umlauts and ß
• Word length, more paper to be used
• Formality (Sie and Du)

ACT 2: First Date

• Time system (12-hour, 24-hour; rounding off)
• False friends (Angel, Gift, Kissen)
• Numbers (paying the bill)

ACT 3: Further Correspondence

• Affectionate nicknames
• Pronunciation: on it’s harshness(?)
• Word gender (?)

Information Design - Final Project Milestone 1

Week 10–11

David Ho Ming Aun (0328394)

Information Design

Final Project: Milestone 1

Brief:

MILESTONE 01

Weeks 10 - 11

Data to Information

Prep work for the design by starting with doing some Googling on the contrasting/complimentary topics. Research at this stage also includes reading articles and books, checking out other data sources or information sources such as available infographics, or even interview experts within reach.

Prepare 3-5 summative points (as a narrative structure, 3-act or 5-act) preparing your data to be turned into a story (information).

In each summative point break down the core data meaning that you pick 4-6 essential points worth comparing/contrasting to strengthen your case.

Secondary Research: German and English Language

Note: only High German (Hochdeutsch) is being considered in this comparison. Niederdeutsch or Plattdeutsch is not being counted!

Outline:

1. Origins, Background

• Linguistic origins
• Role in history

2. Numerical, Geographical Comparison

• Number of speakers and native speakers
• Countries that speak the language

3. Linguistic Comparison

• Alphabet
• Genders
• Cases
• Compound Words
• Shared Words (True Friends and False Friends)
• Counting Conventions, Number Order, Time telling
• Capitalisation of Nouns
• Proverbs
• Formality

1. Origins, Background:

German and English are West Germanic languages, which stem from the Indo-European language branch. One of the pioneering books that sparked the western printing revolution was Gutenberg’s bible, which was set in German.

2. Numerical, geographical comparisons:

Number of speakers:

Language	Total number of users	Native speakers
English	983,522,920	372,000,000
German	129,502,820	76,800,000

Number of countries where it is used:

English: 106

German: 27

3. Linguistic Comparisons:

Alphabet:

Mostly the same alphabet is utilised, from A to Z. Just don’t be afraid of the few extras that come with the German language, namely the three umlauts, ä, ö, ü, as well as ß. making it much easier for an English native speaker to pick up German, compared to a Chinese or Japanese speaker, for instance. You’ll notice the german keyboard looking quite different from an english one!

Gender:

German words have gender, and the articles change based on the gender. (der, die and das)

Netural: das Kind

Masculine: der Tisch

Feminine: die Zeitung

Plural: die Getränke

Cases:

German grammar has four cases, which also affect the article. Let’s take a dog for example.

Nomativ: Das ist ein Hund.

Dativ: Ich spiele mit dem Hund.

Akkusativ: Ich mag den Hund.

Genitiv: Das ist der Ball des Hundes.

A couple of tables to demonstrate the hell that is the German language:

English: ‘a’

German:

	nomativ	akk	dat	gen
maskulin	ein	einen	einem	eines
feminin	eine	eine	einer	einer
neutrum	ein	ein	einem	eines
plural	eine	einen	einen	einen

English: ‘the’

German:

	nomativ	akk	dat	gen
maskulin	der	den	dem	des
feminin	die	die	der	der
neutrum	das	das	dem	des
plural	die	die	den	dessen

Compound words:

Germans are all too fond of compound words, with the famous autobahngeschwindigkeitbegrenzung (autobahn speed limit) or the Rindfleischetikettierungsuüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (law for the delegation of monitoring beef labelling).

Shared words

True Friends:

Elegant, Illegal, Normal, Dessert, Demonstration, Doppelgaenger, Restaurant, Rucksack, Job, Kiwi, etc. They have the same meanings but they are pronounced differently! English and German share 60% of their vocabulary!

False Friends:

Der Angel = the fishing rod

Das Bad = The bath, bathroom

Der Hut = the hat

Hell = bright

Gift = Poison

Some words with same spelling in English mean different things in German!

Counting Conventions

Similar counting conventions are used, and can be clearly seen in the numbers 10 - 20:

English: ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty.

German: zehn, elf, zwoelf, dreizehn, vierzehn, fünfzehn, sechzehn, siebzehn, achtzehn, neunzehn, zwanzig.

Number order:

Instead of saying twenty-one, Germans go einundzwanzig, which literally translates to (one-and-twenty).

Time-telling:

Telling the time is also different. For instance, 3:30pm would be halb vier in German. A 24-hour system is favoured in Germany.

Capitalisation:

Every noun in German is Capitalised!

Proverbs:

Germany loves their proverbs! Here are some really funny ones:

Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei! (everything has an end, only the sausage has two!)

Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof (I only understand train station)

Formality:

German has different words for ‘you’, Sie being for formal situations and du for more casual situations. The verb changes along as well.

Mindmap:

Sources:

Fluentu.com. (n.d.). 5 Surprising Similarities Between German and English That'll Help You Learn German Today | FluentU German. [online] Available at: http://www.fluentu.com/german/blog/similarities-between-german-and-english/ [Accessed 14 Jun. 2017].

Listenandlearnusa.com. (2015). 9 Surprising Facts About the German Language | Listen & Learn USA. [online] Available at: https://www.listenandlearnusa.com/blog/9-surprising-facts-about-the-german-language/ [Accessed 14 Jun. 2017].

Leicht-deutsch-lernen.com. (n.d.). Same Words in English and German |. [online] Available at: http://leicht-deutsch-lernen.com/same-words-in-english-and-german [Accessed 14 Jun. 2017].

Ethnologue. (2017). Summary by language size. [online] Available at: https://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size [Accessed 14 Jun. 2017].

Vistawide.com. (2005). Top 30 Language Spoken in the World by Number of Speakers. [online] Available at: http://www.vistawide.com/languages/top_30_languages.htm [Accessed 14 Jun. 2017].