OUGD504 - Studio Brief 02 - LUST Studio Research

LUST is a multidisciplinary graphic design studio based in The Hague, Netherlands. LUST takes a more experimental approach to design for screen and digital platforms. Much of their practice focuses on new media and interactive installations, in exploring new pathways for design where new media, information technologies, urban systems, architecture and graphic design overlap.

Glasgow Atlas and Megacities - Institute For Future Cities:
The aim of this project was to seek improvement of the quality of human life in urban areas across the world, and enable current and future cities to be understood in new ways. LUST studio helped this through the production of a website that showed interactive maps visualising statistics on topics such as, housing prices, drug use and hospitalisation, deprivation and population, in showing how the role of cities potentially impacts these aspects in regards to quality of life.

https://vimeo.com/102519438

This project shows how maps could potentially work on an interactive level within my initial idea for a large-scale interface. One aspect of this interface pin points megacities on a map of the world, highlighting the more predominant areas based on specific statistics, such as population. Each pin pointed location can also be hovered over to reveal more in-depth statistics and graphs. Such elements could be transferred into the production of large-scale interfaces for transport through the inclusion of a map of the area a user is situated, initially viewing their present location in order to help gain a better sense of location for navigation purposes. Users could potentially use a sidebar to make the map more specific for their needs, such as using it to highlight the nearest train stations, bus stops and taxi ranks, etc. Like specific maps within LUST's design production, colour could be incorporated in ways to code and differentiate between modes of transport, for example, and other such elements.

*UrbanSensing:
The aim of this project was to bring a new product into the urban design, city planning and urban management market. This involves the production of a platform which extracts usage patterns and the perceptions of citizens concerning city spaces, through the analysis of user generated content (UGC) shared by users and inhabitants over social media networks and digital media. This platform allows the analysis of users' perceptions related to specific geographic locations so to understand how the population reacts to new urban policies within participatory mechanisms.

https://vimeo.com/87756472

This project shows again shows how maps could potentially work on an interactive level within my initial design idea, however this time the maps are based on the real-time use of social media networks and digital platforms, such as Twitter, which means the maps are open to change. This allows users to interact with the platform showing them the real-time effects of these interactions. Such elements could be an incentive for the public to use a large-scale interface in that showing the effects they are having on certain aspects of the interface could make it a more personal experience, catering to the users needs at that specific time of use and interaction.