The CEP 818 Creative Journey

I wrapped up a journey into creativity in CEP 818 just a few days ago. What a fantastic and inspirational ride!  I am once grateful for another amazing experience on my educational journey through the MAET program at Michigan State University.

There were so many highlights in this course but one that particularly stands out is the opportunity I had to both interview my nephew as my “creative person” and then bring things full circle by collaborating with him on my Creative with a capital “C” course project! I had an absolute blast writing the Assessing Creativity song and then handing things over to my nephew to sing, learn and play the music, and then produce the song. When I heard for the first time, and even when I continue to listen to it, I’m blown away!

My content area for this course was UI (user-interface) design for Web and Mobile. I chose a topic that I felt I could immerse myself in, one that I am passionate about, and one that I could learn more about and actually transfer the knowledge to my students. I couldn’t have been more happier with my topic choice – such a fun creative journey!

So what is my personal definition of creativity?

Creativity is thinking outside the box and looking at things in different ways. It’s about transforming ordinary and/or obscure objects into something that is thought provoking, inspirational, memorable, and/or functional.

In other words, creative thinking is essentially “box outside the think” as one of my CEP 818 instructors described it! How cool is that?! That will get you thinking!

I have one final course left in the MAET program before graduating at the end of the Spring 2020 semester. I am both excited and kind of sad that my time in this program is coming to an end but my journey in education and educational technology will never end. I’m excited where this journey takes me next!

Creativity in Song!

Assessing Creativity

I started my creativity project for CEP 818 by interviewing my nephew Christian, who is my “creative” person. Since he is heavily involved with music, I thought it would be really fun for him to create the music and sing the lyrics that I wrote for my song about Assessing Creativity within education. Christian excitedly embraced the opportunity to create, produce, perform the music, and sing the song for this project. This brings my creativity project full circle with Christian opening and closing the creative journey.

Assessing Creativity is a song written (by me) based on my thoughts from the article Assessing Creativity by Susan M. Brookhart with music, vocals, and sound production by Christian Wanner. Christian put his own creative spin on the original 1972 song “Dancing In the Moonlight” by King Harvest.

Take a journey back to the 1970’s! View the lyrics and listen to the sweet sounds of Assessing Creativity @ http://bit.ly/2OdvuTJ.

Warning…this tune is very catchy, don’t be surprised if you find yourself singing along!

Enjoy!

 

Abstracting an Abstraction

Hamburger Menu Icon

Abstracting the Abstracted

The cognitive tool of abstracting involves taking an object, concept, idea, etc., pulling it apart (physically and/or figuratively), examining its content and function, and then re-representing it differently than its original form.

I have chosen to focus on abstracting the UI Design element called the Hamburger menu. This is a design element predominantly used in mobile web/app design but has also been appearing more, in the last few years or so, as a design element used in websites that are designed for the desktop as well.

As you can see above, the hamburger design element is already an abstracted version of a hamburger. This design element is commonly used as a navigational element within websites/apps that provides a solution for listing multiple navigational links and information within a condensed space on screen. The hamburger menu design element is actually considered an icon not an image. The tiny icon takes up a minimal amount of screen real estate. It gives the app or site a clean minimalist look (O’Neill, 2016).

I chose this topic because I thought it would be challenging (and it was) and also intriguing at the same time. It’s something that I interact with often without much thought than it’s functional and serves a purpose. My personal challenge – “How can I abstract something that it already considered a minimalistic abstraction to begin with?”

Re-Representing the Hamburger Menu Icon

I abstracted the hamburger menu icon into the form of a limerick. I tried to capture its display, movement, and functionality using words.

A Hamburger Menu Limerick  

Three tiny lines on a screen,
A design that is compact and so clean.
One click and you expand,
Showing more choices.
So much information yet to be seen.

Graphical Visualization of an Abstraction of a Hamburger Menu

Next, I abstracted the hamburger menu icon into the form of a graphical art representation. Again, I tried to capture its display, movement, and functionality with the use of color in more of a graphical and visual way. I kept the three lines of an original hamburger menu icon but used the primary colors of the color wheel as a way to represent the “primary” site navigation. The movement from expanding the menu, to listing other options (secondary colors of the color wheel were used to denote a “secondary” form of navigation), and then the user being taken to another source of information is represented by the swirls of color.

A Hamburger Menu Icon Abstraction

The impact of Abstraction

The process of abstracting the hamburger menu icon design element allowed me to see, interact, and experience its design and functionality in a much deeper way than just viewing three small lines displaying on a computer, phone, and/or tablet screen. I had the opportunity to step inside, pull apart, examine, and allow myself to feel the interaction and motion of how this simplistic design element effortlessly transports the user from one area to another exposing them endless information and content. The journey continues.

References:

O’Neill, M. (2016, June 7).The 3 Line Menu Icon: What is a Hamburger Menu? Retrieved from https://smallbiztrends.com/2015/01/3-line-menu-icon-hamburger-menu.html

Creativity in Teaching & Learning

Today is the first day of the Fall 2019 semester and I’m super excited for my CEP 818 course at Michigan State University! I have been looking forward to this course since I started the MAET program.

Reading the first two chapters of the Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World’s Most Creative People, has totally captured my attention! I’m excited to read more in the weeks to come! In addition, Chapter 2 prompted me to finally use one of my free Apple Store movie credits to rent The Phantom Tollbooth movie from 1961 and follow Milo’s impossible quest! Read more about The Phantom Tollbooth on Wikipedia! 

“How can you see something that isn’t there?” grumbles the Humbug, one of Milo’s companions. “Sometimes,” replies Alec, “it’s much simpler than seeing things that are…For instance, if something is there, you can only see it with your eyes open, but if it isn’t there, you can see it just as well with your eyes closed. That’s why imaginary things are often easier to see than real ones.”