DietroVetro.com

A new version of the website for Norsk Folkemuseum (The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History) was launched yesterday. My company, Logica, was hired to design and develop the site in co-operation with the museum. As a part of Logica’s design department, UX, I have been involved in developing the concept and the information architecture for the site.

I might deliver a “final” information architecture (IA) to the client at the end of my department’s process. Still the IA will often evolve after a site is launched to meet new needs. Even though we always try to continue the dialogue with the client after a project is over, it is important that the client understands the principles of the information architecture. They have to deal with suggestions and complaints on a regular basis from within the organization…

When some colleagues and I went to the launch party for norskfolkemuseum.no yesterday, I was intrigued to hear that the people from the project group of Norsk Folkemuseum still could list the principles for the IA - over 6 months after my department was involved in the project. Yay!

What do you think of the site? Check it out in Norwegian or in English.

I have been invited to my very first wedding, and I thought I should find myself a special dress for the occasion. And then I found eBay. Wow! I know I am a quite late in discovering this shopping mecca… Fashionably late, I guess ;) But still. I am amazed!

What to wear?

For now, I am only lurking around even though I found some beautiful dresses. I am too busy converting inches to centimeters in my head, and measuring my waist over and over - whishing that some inches will be lost in mentioned area just in time for the final bidding round… Or should I just keep eating my daily dose of delicious gorgonzola cheese, and rather make the dress myself out of a pattern like this one?

Lots of beautiful patterns are available for sale on eBay. I guess sewing machine skills aren’t, though…

The weather has been incredible the last month here in Bergen. I have been wearing my 20 DKK over-sized sunglasses a lot lately, even though I actually hate wearing sunglasses. I have even been using them at night to keep the bugs away when biking. But a moth with cruel intentions made me realise that sunglasses for bug protection is a very bad idea…

While I was biking home recently, a moth flew in behind the glass. Trapped inside the glass, it attacked my eye over and over. I was so shocked and distracted that I just fell over!

Yes, I completely see the irony in this event and my oh so clever bug protection theory. I try to laugh of the whole episode. But I also try to sit straight, and it kind of hurts. I am so badly bruised that I probably should avoid wearing a bikini for a month or so. Good thing that I am leaving this casual student/BBQ/park/swim life style any minute now to go back to work at the Logica office - all covered up in appropriate office outfits. No bikes or sunglasses are needed there :)

Are there any characteristics that newsgames often have in common? Do such games demand to be played and experienced by the public in another way than the games that exist just for entertainment purpose? How are these games received by the public - considering that the public generally have been raised learning that games equal fun? I want to look into the background and the debate around newsgaming in general, and take a closer look at the game September 12th and its context, to try to find answers to the questions I have raised here.

This was a small excerpt from the paper I have written about newsgames called Games Combatting the Dictatorship of Entertainment. A Study of the Newsgaming Phenomenon. Read the whole thing if you like!

In the meantime I’m off to my family’s summer house just outside of Bergen. No vacation, though. I will bring with me a huge pile of exciting books about information systems. But in a week my days as a student are over. For now, anyway :)