narrative: final logo build

narrative: garmin progress

narrative: union station final

Fixed the errors that were brought up in critique, and added music to the background

narrative: union station pre-final

The video needs refinement; there are times when the yellow circle (indicating the user) sporadically appears on the screen, and timing needs to be finessed. Overall, this is the general look of the video. We also want to possibly add music in the background.



Critique:
-make the location more clear
-make categorical selection clear, without the Jarvis Hunt photograph in either the Timeline view or Categorical view
-fix the user movement with the glithces
-fix the menu icon with just the lines
-add music to establish atmosphere of video
-bring back to the home screen at the end
-for the voice, make longer pauses, seemed a bit fast

narrative: progress

During the week, we worked on our script, recorded, and went to Union Station to film the architecture and take context photos.

Things we took into consideration for the script:
-Speaking in an active tone
-Making the viewer an active participant as opposed to a passive one
-Keeping out concept of "catching a glimpse" throughout
-using the audio to spark curiosity about Union Station

Script:

Union Station stands as a proud monument of Kansas City, both as a place of departure and convergence. Catch a glimpse behind the history of this iconic building by joining us on the second level to view the station in it’s entirety.  

When you tap on the screen to begin, the icons will indicate four different options to choose from. Tapping this icon will reveal two ways to experience the history: A sequential timeline view or a categorical view. After selecting timeline, vertical lines signifying moments in time fall into place. These fragments come together in chronological order to reveal the 100 years of history behind Union Station. 

Delve deeper into a moment with architect Jarvis Hunt. Diverge from the timeline to view the history in an alternate structure. Once you select category, choose from the five options to view the information. 

Select and shift the images for a clearer view. You can also enlarge the photo to learn more about the architecture. Key phrases within the paragraph will reveal corresponding photos. 

A glimpse in the past can affirm the longstanding integrity of the present. As the history of Union Station reveals, it has withheld the test of time and will continue to in the future. 

Listen to the audio here:

narrative: overall design

faster version below:



critique:
-looks "matrix-y", make more applicable to union station
-keep the typography consistent across screens
-user feedback is good, however, when they have to press on things twice, there may be an issue
-too much noise in some of the frames, clean it up a bit
-have a reason for the texture in the background

narrative: refined macro/micro

After critique on Friday, we realized we needed to clear up the screen in some places. There was too much going on with the rectangular shapes overlapping the grid with the tabs, so we decided to make it seem more structured and simplified it a bit. Still, we realize that our design is too modern and may not be suitable for Union Station. I think we need to think about how to make it more applicable to the architecture/style of the station and adapt it to our design.

narrative: macro/micro

narrative: iterations

MY ITERATIONS

MERCEDES' ITERATIONS

critique:
-think about how the user will be using the tabs --> seems more like a hover state

narrative: high fidelity wireframes

narrative: union station keynote + stuffs

I'm partners with Mercedes, see her post here:

http://mercedespadro.blogspot.com/2014/10/union-station-keynote-progress.html 

KEYNOTE

ONE POSSIBLE STORYBOARD

This is a rough storyboard of what the timeline will look like/what the user will do to in the timeline. The idea is centered around the half-circle, where the dates will occupy the rim of the shape, and each section will be enlargeable. See details in annotations. After doing this storyboard, I realized that Mercedes and I have to think more about how it can be more user-friendly, where the comfort of the user is the highest priority. 

USER PATHS

The user path above focuses on the three different tabs the user could click: home, about and history. We may add Amtrak routes as well, however we just focused on these three for now. The user path on the right has three different organizational styles. The first, "search", is for those who have something specific they want to know. The "explore" tab is for those who are more experimental and want to learn something new. "Discover" is when the person just wants to stumble upon a fun fact. 

WIREFRAMES TO SCALE

The first screen shows a grid of circles that emulate the floor pattern.
Three circles in the middle have each tab, "about" and "history."
The other blue circles could be other pages, however, we are not sure
what it could be yet. Perhaps they could just be images.

When the user clicks on "history," the screen will zoom up to the circle, only showing half of it. The user can turn the circle to show the other side. Each geometric shape links to another page. After clicking on "dates," the decades will fan out from the right side. When the user clicks on one date, this is what the screen will look like. After enlarging the section, and after the images and text have fully separated (refer to storyboard), the text will follow the side of the section.

WIREFRAMES IN CONTEXT:

FEEDBACK FROM "USER" 

In a paper context, the user did not understand that the words in the second wireframe were buttons. The user found the words and the arrows confusing in terms of which button to press to navigate to the next screen. The first and third panel were, however, were clear in terms of how to navigate throughout. Color changes and the usage of buttons can clarify the confusion in the second panel.

narrative: more research

More Research:

• 1878 - The New Depot
• A new rail station is created near the stockyards, nearby where Kansas and Missouri Rivers merge.
• Quote: Headlines called “Handsomest and largest depot of New York” 
• Symbolized the remarkable growth of the young Kansas City
• 1900 - The Flood
• West Bottoms becomes submerged in water
• Quote: “The flood’s peak the waiting room was filled to a depth of 6 feet 7 inches while outside only the black humps on top of locomotives were visible. The depot was closed for a week.”
• 1910 - The Opening
• 12 railroad companies united to create KCTR and a newly designed station under architect Jarvis Hunt. The railway company increases to gain popularity. Construction begins in 1911 and opens to the public in 1914.
• Quote: slogan for the construction of Union Station: “Make a Monument”
• 1920 - Liberty Memorial
• Local leaders bring together commanders of the armies in World War I to built a national monument in their honor. On New Year’s Eve, when the prohibition began, a few hundred people gathered to celebrate.
• Quote: For one night Union Station was the center of the city’s wide open, party till-dawn swinging culture.”
• called Union Station “the Heart of America”
• was the largest Union Station in the country aside from New York
• 1930 - The Union Station Massacre
• On June 1933, a shootout occurred at Union Station where Frank-Nash, bank-robber, escaped the penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Five people were murdered.
• Quote: “Put ‘em up. Up! Up!”
• 1940 - World War II
• Ridership continues to increase as World War II finally ceases in 1945. Soldiers pass through the station to get home after the war.
• 1950 - The Long Decline
• During this time, passenger numbers decrease as air travel becomes more popular.
• Quote: “Failure to modernize will be accompanied by the risk of gradual deterioration of the remarkably high prestige which Fred Harvey enjoys in Kansas City.”
• 1960 - Continual Deterioration
• The style of Union Station became outdated. In 1961, 35,000 tickets were handled, however, it dropped in 1969 to 13,000.  
• Quote: “There just isn’t any future or need for passenger trains.”
• 1970 - A Historic Site
• The federal government designates Union Station as a protected structure and is placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The space was used as an exhibition space from displaying vintage automobiles to cat shows. Later, Amtrak takes over the company as ridership continues to decrease.
• Quote: Union Station was “...no longer justified by its use.
• 1980 - A Time of Failure
• Amtrak and The Lobster Pot restaurant hold out despite Union Station’s state. Kansas City initiates legal action against the redevelopment company for failing to develop the station. In 1983, the station closes. In failing to refurbish the building, the station continues to deteriorate.     
• Quote: “Nobody knows what to do about it.”
• “I could see a train wreck coming.”
• 1990 - Lawsuits and Restoration
• The Trizec settlement allowed them to cut ties with Union Station. At this, the restoration effort began with the formation of Union Station Assistance Corporation. Kansas City then creates a tax to restore and redevelop the building which consisted of $118 out of the needed $250 million project. The building also housed Science City as a main attraction.
• Quote: “He wanted designers to think of “adventure and immersion.”
• The importance of immersion
• 2000 - The Upward Climb
• Amtrak partners with Union Station once more

sources:

Union Station Kansas City by Jeffrey Spivak
http://www.amtrak.com/pdf/factsheets/MISSOURI13.pdf 
http://www.kchistory.org/cgi-bin/showfile.exe CISOROOT=/Building_Pr&CISOPTR=23&filename=24.pdf
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED312206.pdf

wireframes

narrative: wireframes

Mercedes and I are in a group together, and we've been thinking about how the user will approach the interactive piece. Here are different ways the user will do to get to the timeline:

narrative: overall process

where all the stop-motion happened. set up a lamp and another

clamp light to the right and turned off the room lights in order

to enhance the color and make the frames look more warm.

i cut up black strips to make these letters, as well as cut holes

into the thick white paper for the black strips to go weave into

here you can see the strips weaved into the cut-outs in the

thick white paper.

for a specific motion sequence in my "A Table" video, here

you can see one of the frames where you can see two

different phrases simply by shifting the perspective.

all the cut-up circles that were glued unto thicker white paper

these are from my "A Centre In A Table" video

also printed out transparencies to overlap with the text from

a previous frame.

had to cut up the black strips into sections in order to make it

seem like the strips were growing

also cut out this placeholder for text for my "A Table" video

narrative: mid-tern self-reflection

Explain your process/tools for this project. Analog? Sound?

As Gertrude Stein oscillates back and forth from clarity to obscurity, I utilized ambiguous figure-ground to visually represent this experience with the negative, positive space fluctuation. In attempting to translate this with motion graphics, at first I tried to combine all my ideas into one video. The text simply moved on the screen, and there was no overall concept. This made the transitions seem arbitrary and unnecessary, with too much going on in the animation. However, after experimenting with different motion tests and sound tests, I had a more clear direction to go in. People seemed drawn to the visual of a digital screen impulsively breaking up, to a point where the image deteriorated into static. As I continued on with my storyboards and my video, while simultaneously completing my book for Typography III, I was more inclined to go the analog route with stop-motion. My Gertrude Stein book ended up unexpectedly "crafty," with black ink smeared on some pages and the binding clearly visible. Though I was unhappy at first with my book, I came to love its imperfections. As a result, stop-motion seemed the most appropriate, in terms of the relationship with my book. The next step was to collect sounds that would set the right tone and atmosphere of my video. Raw and simple sounds seemed appropriate for Stein's poetry; nothing with words or a myriad of instruments. Still, I was open to other songs that could change the reception of the video. Searching for sounds on Spotify, I ran across The Notwist and Barbatuques. "Lineri" by Notwist was more abstract and "Baiao Destemperado" by Barbatuques was playful and light. These were the songs that were picked during critique, so I applied them to the video. However, many things started to go wrong as I tried to finish the project. I ran into many problems with my computer, with my trackpad, and with the rendering. I realize that this all could have been avoided if I had just finished the video earlier, giving me time to fix these things before it was due. In doing anything with technology, anything can happen. I realize I should have allotted extra time for these sorts of issues. 

Does your project communicate the feel of Stein's work?

The look and feel of stop-motion lends itself to Stein's raw, unfiltered poetry. Her stream-of-consciousness writings collapse the ever-coming present, in which I try to translate using a fast pace. Despite having all her language on the surface, she also uses repetition of past words and emphasizes certain phrases that have similar sounds. Because of this, I repeated key motion sequences to emphasize this quality in her work. Though I used figure-ground as a starting point, the videos seemed to stray-off from this theme and ventured more into the concept of illusions. In doing so, I lost cohesiveness with the book and the videos, however, added another layer of interpretation for Stein's writings. Regarding the poems themselves, I may have been too literal in my rendering of "A Table" and "A Centre In A Table." For "A Table," the video accentuates the surface of a flat plane, having black strips run across the screen and forming letters perpendicular to it. As for "A Centre In A Table," Stein seemed to walk around the main point of each phrase, leading the viewer in a metaphorical circle. Including a literal circle may have been too obvious and expected.

What did you learn about yourself through this project?

This project was very telling of my design process. I struggled a lot in the beginning of the project in trying to think of ideas that were innovative and fulfilled the project requirements. Since Stein's writings are so abstract and convoluted, thinking of ideas with conceptual standing was difficult. On top of that, we had to think of the temporal elements of motion. While trying to combine all these components, ideas were hard to come by. In general, I often have designer's block in the beginning of each project, simply because I feel as though there are always better ideas and because I get overly ambitious. In the end, this always leaves me compromising my craft and makes me rush to complete the end product. I need to allot time for re-editing and finessing details. On a more academic level, I learned about the nuances of temporal elements, where one second can make a huge difference. The way something exits the screen or the way the movement matches with the sound all lend itself to the overall reception of the video. Similar to how a storyteller uses timing, the intonation of their voice, and variations in dramatic structure (rising action, climax, falling action) our videos are stories in that it depicts our own interpretations. 

Does it apply to future work?

For future work, I plan to be more vigilant in idea generation in the beginning of each project. With more iterations, I can come closer to a better idea each time. Also, in order to avoid technological issues, I need to finish things earlier to finesse my craft. I also want to think more deeply about how to tell a "story,"whether it be through verbal communication, motion graphics, or interactive mediums, and what aspects go into telling a story.

narrative: union station

This here is an old photograph of Union Station.
Mercedes, Marie, Janie and I went to Union Station to take some pictures. As we went at night, there weren't as many people around, but this allowed us to see the space in its entirety. Everything was dimly lit, and blue light was cast on the walls in honor of the Royals. It was smaller than I expected, but the height of the ceilings were definitely the most striking. There were many possible areas to place our interactive piece, and most of the pictures posted here are possible locations of where we could potentially install it. 

 

BRIEF HISTORY

The history goes back to 1878 with the completion of the Union Depot in the West Bottoms. A major flood in 1903 inundated the old depot, disrupted service for days, and convinced city leaders and rail executives that another train station must be built on higher ground. Thus was born the idea of Union Station. 

Twelve of the railroads serving the city united to form the Kansas City Terminal Railway in order to establish a new station. Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt was chosen to design the new facility. Excavation of the site began in 1911 and the new station was opened for business on October 30, 1914. Union Station was designed in the grand tradition of beaux-arts architecture, popular in Europe and the United States in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The massive 850,000 square foot terminal was the third largest train station in America at the time of its completion. With the destruction of Penn Central Station in the 1960's, Union Station became number two. Only Grand Central Terminal in New York City is larger. 

The entire Union Station complex included ten levels, and originally had 900 rooms. The North Waiting Room (now called Sprint Festival Plaza) is 350 feet long. Ten thousand people can assemble under its 65-foot ceiling. The Grand Hall measures some 200 feet by 100 feet and features a 95-foot, ornately decorated ceiling. 

It is difficult to overstate the significance of Union Station to Kansas City, to the region, and to the United States. Someone estimated that half of all the US soldiers in World War II passed through the building. Given its central geographic location, its sheer size, and its capability to handle huge numbers of trains and passengers, that is probably about right. 

One result of the Union Station massacre June 17, 1933 was the FBI being given vastly enhanced powers to battle crime within the United States. Citizens and Congress were outraged and appalled at the daylight gunfight that led to the deaths of five men and wounded two. The ambitious J. Edgar Hoover used this incident to fortify his fledgling agency. 

The coming of age of the automobile and the airplane meant vastly decreased demand for passenger rail service in the United States. Consequently, train activity declined dramatically. Nearly 300 trains arrived and departed Union Station on one day in 1917, and passenger traffic hit a record 678,363 travelers during the World War II year of 1945. By 1973, only six trains a day passed through the terminal. Amtrak (National Passenger Railroad Corporation), the quasi-government agency that operates the only nationwide people-carrying trains, conducted operations out of Union Station from 1971 to 1985. The rail company then moved into its own small building, located around the corner from the station on Main Street. It was unflatteringly dubbed the "Amshack," by railfans. 

Now the future of Union Station becomes even bleaker, as the last restaurant, The Lobster Pot, closes in 1989. The building sits empty and alone; rain, winter freezes and thaws, homeless persons and all manner of infestations inflict further damage. Large chunks of plaster fall from the Grand Hall ceiling without warning. Union Station is declared a dangerous building. 

Beginning in 1988, the city of Kansas City, Missouri became embroiled in a protracted lawsuit with Trizec Corporation, owners of the adjacent One and Two Pershing Square buildings. Trizec had pledged to restore the Station as part of a redevelopment project for the area, but never followed through. The city sued, and legal wrangling continued until 1994, when the two litigants agreed to settle out of court. 

A non-profit organization, The Union Station Assistance Corporation was born to begin the restoration of Union Station. Andy Scott took the job as director, and as the project moved along, Scott was primarily responsible for preserving as much of the original Station as possible, a task that he accomplished admirably. 

Nearly $100 million in private funds had already been secured when the historic Bistate Tax initiate passed in 1996. For the first time ever in America, voters united across the state lines of Kansas and Missouri to levy a one-eighth-cent retail sales tax to raise more than $118 million to rescue their beloved Union Station. The final cost of restoration exceeded $250 million. 

The main feature of this newly restored Union Station was to be Science City, an interactive experience aimed at youngsters and consisting of more than 63 hands-on experiments and exercises. There were also shops, restaurants, an Extreme Screen theater, a live performance theatre and a planetarium. Amtrak moved back into the station in December of 2002 and immediately began running six trains a day, the same number it had been operating before it left the station in 1989. 

The Union Station reopened November 10, 1999.

info from this website: http://unionstationphotos.com/index.php?c=history&pageid=33

found video on union station site