Story direction

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Permalink Reply by Courtney Woo on March 3, 2009 at 8:08am

By Solution Type (similar to what Eileen suggested):
1. Alternative energy
2. Coal, petroleum, nuclear
3. Policy
4. Technology/design

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Permalink Reply by Eileen Mignoni on March 17, 2009 at 10:43am

I don't know where to put these things I am thinking about. It's not quite this and it's not quite the other. I've been trying to think about what role each of the types of media play in this multimedia project - text, video/audio slide show, and graphics.

In my mind, text is optimal for explainations, for bringing everything together and telling the whole story.

Graphics are ideal for expressing large concepts, great quantities of numbers, expressing patterns, and processes.

Before I thought video/ audio/photo slideshows were ideal for expressing emotional content and establishing a connection with the subject. While this may be relevant for some of our stories, I don't think it's relevant for all. Are we going to show someone crying about wind power - no. We might, however, show a family or community distressed about coal pollution. I think I am amending my idea of video and audio/photo to include expressing enormity and the visual (duh.) And that is the type of story I want to do.

When we're planning this site, I'm going to repeat a Laura Ruel.

People can only remember 7+/_2 menu items. We're fine in that scope.

Also, this presentation, the elements of digital storytelling may help in our
http://www.inms.umn.edu/elements/overview.php?title=Overview

As soon as I get the scan from phil, I'm going to put up some sketches Nacho made for his idea of the site design.

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Permalink Reply by Eileen Mignoni on March 17, 2009 at 7:54pm

The rule from Ruel is...

Seven +/- 2 is the amount of information the human brain can store at a given time.
I say "seven minus two" for the ideal number of menu items...
Basically between five and seven! ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Eileen Mignoni on March 17, 2009 at 9:09pm

Or, what if the resources are at the heart of what we are doing. Something which someone has to dig into the site to get to? It combines option 1&2

On the home page, we could talk about what share of our energy use goes to each of the given human needs. If you chose to explore that need, it can break down the components of that need, as well as show who is doing what where. So, if people in Seattle are driving the most, we show that. If people of a certain age group occupy most planes, we show that. Where are they going and why? How far? How much carbon is released? Then, one can explore each of the energy sources used to fuel that.

What else do I think? I think the website should flip over and on the back we should each have a simple column - our own personal energy blog for each of us. I think this is important to talk about what we are doing individually and why. We have been immersed in this stuff. We're probably feeling a lot of what those who see the project are and are worried but also hesitate to change our lifestyles. Maybe the website flip could be hidden, like a secret key in Mario worlds. That would be awesome. You could see it flip.

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Permalink Reply by Eileen Mignoni on March 17, 2009 at 9:25pm

Things I think we need...

I think need an info graphic explaining why fossil fuels are such a powerful energy source.

I think each energy type needs a video/ photo/audio piece to illustrate it.

I think there needs to be a video/ photo/audio piece on the destruction coal can wreak on a community, whether in its mining or in its use by electrical plants.

I think the electrical grid needs a photo/audio piece. The monolithic infrastructure that it is is not easily recreated to be condusive to alternative energy. My brother was here last week talking about windmills. There is a oil baron in Texas investing mad cash in putting windmills up from Texas up through the plain states. He can put up all the windmills he wants, but there is no means of getting that energy to the population centers that need it. Building the infrastructure would be a huge investment. Plus, 90% of energy is currently lost in transmission through electrical lines.

I think there needs to be an article on peak oil, as well as a graphic.

I think there needs to be an interactive graphic with sliders. One would be a slider of years. Population would be linked to increase in years - that could be represented by a bar graph on top. There would be another set of sliders with each of the energy sources, or maybe each of the energy uses. I don't really know what would happen with this. Perhaps the sliders would show current use of each energy type. Increasing one energy type, allows one to decrease another energy type. Maybe there could be a mountain top, or a little girl with a flower, and colors fade, or clouds cover the scene as more carbon enters the atmosphere. Maybe we could have a poor polar bear on an iceburg. Or maybe a little girl about to be eaten by a polar bear. See if anyone can run with this one. I think I've gone too concrete. Design gets messy and imprecise like that. And what does carbon output really mean? Maybe we just need a map with circles. World, or US? I think World is important here, of course, energy consumption is rising in certain developing nations.

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Permalink Reply by Eileen Mignoni on March 17, 2009 at 9:32pm

I still think users should be able to pick between needs and means. Like, they could have an intro that shows them the different energy types and another intro page that shows them the energy uses. They could choose which one they want when they come to the site, and perhaps the site could change between users. Although, someone might get freaked out if the site changed suddenly - like, when they went back to look again, all their options had changed. On the other hand, it might help them discover new content.

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Permalink Reply by Eileen Mignoni on March 17, 2009 at 9:35pm

I wasn't getting that before - so you're saying energy is a problem and these are the solutions? I'm going to think on that.

Courtney Woo said:

By Solution Type (similar to what Eileen suggested):
1. Alternative energy
2. Coal, petroleum, nuclear
3. Policy
4. Technology/design

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Permalink Reply by Melissa Moser on March 19, 2009 at 2:09pm

OK, I wanted to put up the idea (since it's not on Ning) that some of us had about organizing by lifestyle or topic areas such as politics, business, technology, sports, science, health, arts, style, travel OR other categories we come up with ourselves.

I think we need to have categories that would inspire people to click on them. I am not inspired to click on "shelter" or "coal" for example.

I think we need to consider what our target demographic (who is that exactly?) would click on.

Can we do an online survey of 10 questions on energy and send it to everyone we know in the target demographic (who's that?) and ask them what they want to read about in relation to energy? I bet we could get a few hundred responses. I would be willing to put the survey together in qualtrics if folks came up with questions.

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