🦆 Interaction Nerds by UXA | S24.01
The Optimism Issue: Character Design Pipeline, 2024 UX/UI Trend Predictions, and Managing Healthy Productivity!
👋 Announcements — New Beginnings!
Welcome to a new semester! ✨ We hope everyone had a restful and relaxing break and are ready for an exciting and action-packed semester ahead! 💥
🥲 Goodbye!
The first announcement—and this is a big one—we are both saddened and immensely proud to announce the departure of two beloved team members from the Interaction Nerds Crew. 😭 Please join us in saying goodbye to them, as well as wishing them best of luck as Alana studies abroad in Berlin 🛩️ and Sophie delves into the world of technical animation at Duolingo 🦉!
🥧 UX Pie!
Learn about how to break into UX design and research from industry guests such as the Head of Design at TikTok, as well as designers from Google, Microsoft, Meta, and C3.AI! 🤯 RSVP by Wednesday, January 24th at 11:59 PM 📆!
👀 Register for TartanHacks!
Interested in utilizing your UX skills in a tangible product? 👀 Register for TartanHacks 2024 - Amplify, CMU’s largest hackathon here! 💪 TartanHacks will be held February 2nd-3rd and registration will close on January 26th.
🍎 Club Compass — (StuCo) Intro to 3D Modeling: Character Design Pipeline
Written & edited by: 🧸 Ahana Banerjee
☕️ Do you have an interest in making cool 3D models? Would you like to learn more about an industry standard program? If so, check out the StuCo course 98-097 Intro to 3D Modeling: Character Design Pipeline.
🤔 What is 98-097 Intro to 3D Modeling?
In this course, you'll explore the diverse applications of 3D art across various industries and delve into the processes involved in character creation. This technical course offers hands-on experience with weekly projects, providing valuable insights into the character design techniques employed by leading gaming and entertainment companies. 👾
🧐 What do you do in 98-097 Intro to 3D Modeling?
Within this course, you'll gain insights into the tools and workflows utilized in Zbrush 🖌️, a digital 3D sculpting tool. Serving as an introduction to this useful tool, the course aims to assist you in enhancing your texturing and painting skills. 🎨Weekly assignments will be provided and critiqued, facilitating students in refining their abilities and progressing towards improvement.
🤔 What is Undergraduate Project in HCI?
There are no prerequisites required for this course! 🤯 Anyone who has an interest or wants to develop an interest for 3D modeling and character design, is welcome to take the course. 🕺
🍀 Editor’s Pick — 2024 UX/UI Trend Predictions!
Written & edited by: 🍳 Evelyn Lui
Now that we’ve stepped into 2024, what are some UI/UX trends of 2023 that will carry over into the new year? The previous year witnessed great transformative developments within the industry, e.g. AI-powered design tools and AR/VR. Let’s take some time to review design trends that the internet just couldn’t get enough of!
🍱 Bento Boxes
Characterized by its clean format, bento box designs initially started as a concept for dashboards and were used by websites such as PayPal and Microsoft. Its popularity exploded once Apple used the bento grid in its iPhone landing pages. The versatility of this design extends beyond just a layout style, as it can also include product demos, interactive experiences, and other unique designs.
👓 Spatial Design + Technology
With the news of Apple Vision Pro and its competitors, an entirely new market has been created. To create better augmented reality and virtual reality experiences, familiarity with spatial design will be the next in-demand skill.
💬 AI Design Tools
We’ve all seen the crazy things that some AI-generated design tools can do on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. However, remember that AI doesn’t have all of the solutions to our design-related problems. 2024 will be an interesting year for designers to experiment and master these new tools at our disposal.
🤔 What are some things you’re going to learn more about and explore this year?
🎯 Resource — 💪 Managing healthy productivity
Written & edited by: 🕺 Arin Pantja & 🚐 Sherry Chen
Your heart may be in the work but it can also be in other aspects of your life. 😫 If you overcommitted to too many classes and clubs semester, try a new way to manage your time. Especially because your time is precious, why not boost your productivity with Notion Calendar? 📆 Formally known as Cron, Notion Calendar is a beautifully designed way to manage your time. ⏰
🔗 Learn how Campus Leaders @UIUC are utilizing it to boost productivity for school
🛝 Fun — Queering the Map
Written & edited by: 🥸 Kaitlyn Ng
“Queering the Map” 🗺️ is a website where queer people can share and celebrate their queer experiences anywhere in the world. Explore “Queering the Map” here!
🤔 Who’s behind the scenes?
The editors behind this week’s issue are 🥸 Kaitlyn Ng, 🧸 Ahana Banerjee, 🕺 Arin Pantja, 🍳 Evelyn Lui, 🚐 Sherry Chen, and 🦝 Caleb Sun.
🥰 Follow Us
We look forward to co-curating future content with you! Let us know what you think about the content and send us some good vibes through these channels below.
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🌱 Join the Community
Join the Slack channel to get updates on upcoming events, learn about cool resources and opportunities, ask questions about anything HCI, and much more.