Project 1  - Drawing Tool

Project Requirements

Create a drawing tool with the following qualities:

1. The tool must enable the operator to create perceivable strokes, lines, or other visual elements on the canvas.

2. The tool must allow the operator to set the color of their piece.

3. The tool must impose one or more aesthetic constraints on the creator- e.g. it should be easier to create works in certain style or characteristic using your tool.

4. The tool should not require any verbal instructions on how to use it. All guidance must be supplied directly within the tool itself.

Possible Starting Points

1. Identify a visual artist or designer with a consistent style and aesthetic in their work and create a tool aimed at reproducing elements of their style. Examples: Data Ink and Dear Data 
   Note: Discuss with Prof. Jacobs if you are considering the use of an LLM in this process. Artists generally do not appreciate having their work copied and reproduced by GenAI.

2.  Create an oppositional tool that directly thwarts the objectives of the operator. Example: Fugpaint

3. Create a tool that helps creators author drawings of a particular kind of object or subject. Example: Random Fish Generator

4. Create a tool with a gamified, collaborative, or competitive element: Example: Sloppy Forgieries

5. Create a tool that utilizes various input methods beyond mouse/keyboard/stylus for generating visual elements and colors. Example: StudioPlay

6. Create a drawing tool with an animated element- Example: Golan Levin's YellowTail

7.  Create a tool that integrates another modality with drawing- Example: Eric Rosenbaum's Singing Fingers 

Project Deliverables

1. Source code with comments uploaded to GitHub.

2. Complied working version of app brought to class for Review (see below).

3. Description of project functionality and design principles in accompanying README.md file, also uploaded to GitHub. Minimum 500 words describing your process, reflections, and outcomes.

Example Student Projects

Sam Bourgault's Megafauna - later a research paper:  https://expressivecomputation.com/publication/megafauna
Jungah Son's Emotive recoloring tool (PDF presentation)
Devon Frost's Weaving draft editor / Harmonograph Simulator
Sihwa Park's 3D Lissajous curve generator
Sihwa Park's Sound Brush

Review of Project

In Groups of 2, let your partner try out your drawing tool. One person will act as the "observer", the other person will act as the "user". Observers will give the user their tool to try out. Observers can respond to direct questions from the user, but otherwise you cannot intervene.  Users- during your exploration, screen capture 2-3 drawings produced with the tool. Try to avoid asking questions immediately unless you are truly stuck.

Engage in a short discussion with your partner (7 minutes).

• How did the drawing tool constrain your creation in ways that were useful, interesting, or productive? 

• How did it constrain you in ways that were undesirable or limiting?

• What elements of the interface were the most confusing or counterintuitive, and why?

• What elements of the interface were the easiest to discover?

Follow this with a joint group discussion to discuss the results of the observation.

What was unexpectedly challenging about designing the drawing tool? 

How did you approach making decisions between the appearance and functionality of the interface, and how you wanted to enable people to interact with color?

How did working with these new color pickers make you think about color differently?