INTRODUCTORY QUESTIONS

H E L E N   X I U

  1. Helen Xiu
    Double majoring in Communication Design and English Literature
    Junior
  2. I am primarily an Illustrator with some experience in Graphic Design. I am a huge proponent of learning new skills to expand my practice, and Interaction Foundations provides the perfect opportunity to cultivate what I believe are some of the most important skills for a contemporary designer to have.
  3. I tried my hand at a computer science course in highschool (learning Java) and found myself floundering quite a bit. Outside of that one course, I have had very limited experience with coding but am very interested in giving HTML and CSS a shot.
  4. I'm very excited to learn how to build and manage my own websitw without relying on a stock template.
  5. I expect designing for a screen requires designers to think past the boundaries of static imagery. Rather than using only visual cues to communicate with a viewer, screens allow for high degrees of interactivity and a demand for a smooth user experience.
  6. Mailchimp exemplifies effective design with its simple yet compelling visual language. The textual and visual elements provide a unique contrast between the static and dynamic while the bright, poppy yellow background and pared down black text generate a similar interest through contrast.
  7. Darksky provides a clean, comprehensive and easily understandable weather radar. Darksky communicates effectively by way of its relatively simple structure and informational diagrams. Furthermore, Darksky utilizes hierarchy to highlight immediately relevant information.
  8. Behance neatly tackles the problem of organizing and displaying a high volume of detailed images. As a platform to display and discover quality art, Behance's use of large, tiled images with minimal space between them allows for a quick, yet sleek and uncluttered way to browse works.