Design Journal #6 - Running out of time

This week has been a rough week. I was sick with a horrible sinus infection that had me out of commission. When I finally got back to work, it was my turn in the queue to have my office remolded. I couldn't escape the smell of the paint and the new carpet which irritated my sinus headache even more. I could barely open my eyes, let alone stare at a computer screen. Unfortunately, this sickness has set me back in my project.
Currently I have created 7 scrapbook pages (bath, first-year, food, arrival, onemonth, twomonth, threemonth). My intent is to create one for each month of her first year. Right now, I would honestly be happy with a snapshot of her first 6 months. I plan to have that complete by the dress rehearsal of the showcase on Thursday. I have yet to complete my Dreamweaver site. I am starting to get in a bit of a panic mode because, as I spoke in a previous journal entry, I always think big and struggle to finish at the end. Right now I am in a bit of a mental block in regards to the layout of these scrapbook pages. I am trying to be creative with the pictures and the journal writing, but I feel as if there is only but so many looks you can create. I did some "inspirational" research and looked at a website named www.scrapwow.com which had about 30 different layouts. I have used this site to jumpstart my creativity. This weekend I plan to work on overload to try to complete this project, as well as my 6170 final project.
That is another gripe --- whenever it is crunch time, it just seems to be crunch time in every class!

Now that I am done venting, I can talk about the interesting article that I read, Girl's preferences in software design: Insights from a focus group by Miller, Chaika and Groope (MCG for short). The article was discussing the gender gap in "computer interest and skills begins in the early grades, persists in the home environment, and continues into adulthood." I can agree with this comment. My initial interferes into technology was through a computer applications course which I was only introduced to in high school. Then the article states that "boys conceptualize computers differently than girl; they like to play games and program. Girls tend to view the computer as a tool, a means to accomplish a task." I then majored in computer information systems in college and I really didn't enjoy it. I hated to program, and was searching for the more creative means to use technology. I fell into website design and I really am enjoying working with programs like Dreamweaver and Flash which are more the artistic tools. I was also interested in the part of the article that spoke on the different ways computer games are programmed. For girls, most of the "themes are oriented towards teaching, collecting pieces of the map, moving around in a spider web or landing on an airport. Many of the boys' game themes were adventure hunts, and exploration." Boys games were also more violent and involved death or the idea of powering "over the physical universe". I had made the conscious decision during college when I saw many of my male colleagues spend hours on end playing games like Bond, and Grand Theft Auto that I was going to ban video games in my house. My 14 year old step-son doesn't agree with the ban, but I feel as if there is enough violence just on tv, that we don't need to voluntarily sign up for it playing video games. I think, after this article, I am still going to keep my up my end of the ban!


Reference:
Miller, L., Chaika, M., & Groppe, L. (1996). Girl's preferences in software design: Insights from a focus group. Interpersonal Computing and Technology: An electronic Journal for the 21st century, 4(2), 27-36.