The Crash
My laptop’s hard drive had met its fate apparently. When I got off the phone with Professor Field I was about to start researching more on the connection between ramification and graphic design. That is, until my laptop randomly restarted as it has been for several weeks. Except this time, it shut down by itself. I took a breath…then decided to give it a few. I restarted 5 times before it went all the way through the start up. I immediately started backing up everything again just in case! I left my laptop on “life support” (not letting it turn off) for several hours as it backed up my data. I went to my old MacPro which is slower than I remembered it and started to again briefly touch up on some research in regards to gamification, user experience, and graphic design.
While I ran disk utility to see the extent of the damage of my laptop, I proceed to think about some areas to explore. Although a few topics, they still needed to be tweaked. But, then the report came in and pretty much my hard drive was on the verge of doom. I wrestled with the issue of making sure I had all the files necessary and links of what I had already looked up.
Guidance from Clark
I went back to Irene Clark’s “Writing the Successful Thesis and Dissertation” and looked at how I can try to focus my attention on what areas to explore next. I took a look at four questions that she mentions when searching for a topic.
What is already known about this topic?
What would someone in the field like to investigate further?
What question can I ask that will lead me to find out more about this topic?
What method can I use to find an answer to this question?
With those in mind I looked back at the top of the iceberg research, the notes I acquired, and started to dive into it a bit more.
What is already known about this topic?
The topic or term “ramification” appears to be fairly “new” and recent. I use these terms loosely though because after discussing the idea with Professor Hemstad and looking at research ramification is another form of multi-modal and multimedia. But, it has been very popular recently because of gaming trends and new uses in corporate America.
What would someone in the field like to investigate further?
Looking at it from the perspective of graphic design; looking into the parallelism that exist between gamification and graphic design. Specifically in the areas of user experience, visual methodologies, visual culture, among others.
What question can I ask that will lead me to find out more about this topic?
How about did ramification come about? What makes the instant satisfaction of completion a driving force in ramification? What’s the philosophy and theory behind gamification? Does gamification meet the meet the cultural expectation of (graphic)design? What is graphic design?
What method can I use to find an answer to this question?
Possible methods would be to research a bit on the different fields mentioned prior to this and noticing connections and parallels between each.
Overall I feel confident as to where I want to take this topic, I’m just having a bit of a hiccup to deal with that is quite negatively keeping me from doing so and it does hinder things a bit.
Works Cited:
Clark, Irene L. Writing the Successful Thesis and Dissertation: Entering the Conversation. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007. Print.
Hey Roberto,
You mentioned in your notes, “How one field touches design in all fields” This is interesting because I was actually thinking about this too, graphic design is one of the essential tools for one to run a business. Majority of the other design disciplines they could do without or isn’t necessary because of the amateur road shows that are out there. However, overall you have a great grasp on the 3 subjects…btw great questions that you exemplified in your post! I might borrow this idea too!