&paintbrush

Mistake #2 - expecting people to visit

The blog world is amazing because of the reader interaction. It’s why I continue to publish on a fairly consistent basis. When I first started out I had no idea how to attract new readers, commenters, interaction etc. I had the impression that if I published new content I’d automatically find readers in my niche.

How wrong I was.

Successful blogging involves time, effort, and reaching out to fellow bloggers / publishers / authors (whatever you prefer). In fact, there’s a whole psychology behind blog publishing and I had no idea how it would change my way of thinking. Now if I see or hear something of interest I wonder how it can be incorporated into a blog article.

Mistake #3 - not writing as if I’m talking

My first blog on WordPress.com includes articles that are more like lectures. I don’t want to read, nor write a one-way lecture, and I know that’s not why you visit. I want to become involved in a discussion with you. I want to teach you something you don’t know and to learn those many things you can teach me. At the beginning I was killing the blog conversation, instead of making use of my comment section.

One of the best things about blogs is that they enable conversation between people with shared interests. It’s vital to be involved with relevant blogs in your niche (and don’t neglect those outwith your niche). I regularly visit a host of other blogs and leave comments that add to the conversation. This takes time, obvioulsy, but keeps the interaction flowing. Matthew’s asking if blog comments matter. People appreciate comments on their own blogs… a lot. I certainly do.

You have to find your personal brand and deliver it through your blog. The way you write, the words you use, your tone of voice, how you respond to comments, the design of your blog, the topics you cover… it all shows who you are.

I’m absolutely loving David Airey right now. He had the above post about different mistakes he made during his blogging experience, and I found out how much more I had to do in order to improve it and attract attention. And my most command mistakes are those two above: expecting people to visit and talking as if I am talking in my diary. I am going to do my best to improve in the course of next few months by taking advices and linking to others more. I hope my blog becomes as big as David Airey’s, and have my name “Cindy Oh” as one of the top designer bloggers in the web world.

Extremes. There are many extremes in life, whatever it may be. You can be extremely obsessed with gaming, extremely in love with someone, extremely bored… Whichever it is, I always thought that giving everything and doing things in an extreme ways were a good thing. I mean, who wouldn’t like a girl studying ‘extremely hard’ and getting a top notch grade, a girl who plays sports ‘extremely well’ and have many sports awards? But there’s always extremes like being extremely depressed or being overly obsessed with clean things, or being too superstitious. These extremes are at the ‘bad end’, something that shouldn’t be occupying one’s mind. I had these ‘bad extremes’ all my life–trying to be overly perfect, trying too hard to please someone, having an extreme food restrictions or even eating too much. But out of all these extremes, I found that balancing out extremes–finding the gray point–is the way to be. This might seem a bit obvious, but it’s hard to actually realize it unless you experience it yourself.

Unless you are someone who doesn’t care about extremities nor gray points.

Photo credits to: Pëque

My classmate, JaneH, wrote about how and if independence made us better off or not in Does Independence Make Us Better Off?

And I want to relate further on this. So does independence, the so called freedom really make us human beings better off? Jane believed that being interdependent is what we need, making us benefit off from each other. Being “mutual dependent” than being alone or being an individual, is what she said. And I agree that this is true–human beings are social animals, to have relationships and live off one another. We are beings of love, inevitably made to connect. But sometimes I think we are afraid to be alone. Sometimes, it’s hard to step off from the little circle we have created around us, a protective bubble, that we cannot get out of. Just like stereotyping and labeling in my previous blog, we have to find ourselves a group that we can be comfortable in. Of course, this is totally different than being interdependent or what not–because interdependency is beneficial. But sometimes this society, makes us believe that being out of the norm is wrong. Rather, being off track or off the pace can be a huge ‘no-no’ to a traditional culture like Korea or even the United States.

Because we have accomplished being interdependent, and know how to relate to one another, I think it’s time for us to get out of that comfort level and find ourselves our unique quality. And anyway, that’s how you shine out in this unseeingly mediocre world.

Photo credited to: Darwin Bell

from Dusk and Dawn

I can’t help but crack up at this funny and yet true analysis of office workers. Now, I am not sure if office workers are truly like this, but the stereotypes do seem to ring true. Like these, there are many stereotypes out in the society–one for each field of work, one for countries, one for race, or even small as one in high schools.

The one stereotyping that I can think of right now is one for high schools–because they are the easiest to identify. There are the cheerleaders, the jocks, the art freaks, the band geeks, and etc…and of course, these are too simplified to be accurate, but there are these kinds of people. But rather than stereotyping them, I thought of looking at these people as people with different interests. That’s kind of obvious, and that’s kind of a positive way of looking at different groups of people. But high school is full of teenagers who are trying to find their interests and find who they are and it’s ridiculous to name their category. And it can be the other way around too: the stereotypings are already there, and the kids just fit into them. Like an example of a jock: there can be a sports player who really likes to play soccer, for example, but also loves to draw and play music. Which stereotyping would this person fit into then? From what I’ve seen in average American high schools, this person would lean towards more of a jock because they are even more stereotyped to be popular.

What’s more important is that labeling and stereotyping is every where like the air we breathe. When we see a new singer come on on T.V., that person is instantly labeled as ‘an excellent singer’ or ‘just a fake with plastic face and boobs’, etc. When we see a new movie we instnatly rate them from 0-5, or give them stars, or thumbs up or down. When we see books, TV shows, new computers…it’s the same with everything. Even people are getting labeled, and that’s the society that we are living in right now.

Instead of fixing these kinds of problems, we seem to expect more out of each label we are ‘assigned’ too. Because I am Asian, I am expected to be excellent at math and play the piano. But the fact of the matter is, when I was in the States, I really was better at math and played the piano than other Americans. Because I drew and was in art classes, I was expected to draw well. I was expected to do everything an Asian did, but all I wanted to do was defy these stereotypes.

So…in saying, what stereotype do YOU fit in? And what kind of label are you living under right now that you can’t wait to get out of?

Photo credits to: chastinet , von_brandis

I’ve been going through David Airey’s site again, and looking through really interesting designs with letters. Here are some:

Nir Tober’s Flickr page.

-Behance

-Abba Richman at pbase.com

These are some very creative ways to portray letters that communicate our every day lives. Especially the one above, these are every day objects that we just pass by and never notice of. But if we just open our eyes a little bit, it’s there–it’s noticeable. I think that is the same with everything. Starting with new ideas, new inventions, and changes, everything starts with some unique person who bothered to take another look at our everyday lives. Design, therefore, is a tool for us to communicate with a little bit of pizazz.

Technorati Tags: kisaplit07, aplit07, typography, design, graphic, communication

I’ve stumbled across a designer’s blog, “Affective Design” by Trevor. And one of his blog was about having an interview with Dr. Fogg, a professor in Stanford University. Dr. Fogg is a psychologist who was really interested in how computers can persuade people and how designs are related to emotion. Here’s an excerpt from their long interview:

TvG: So, can you explain to my readers how persuasion relates to designing for emotion?

BJF: To do a good job of designing for persuasion, you have to design for emotion. The emotional state of the person determines how they will respond to requests, how open they are to suggestion and so on. So you really have to examine what is the current emotional state and what emotions would be beneficial. In other words, what emotions have to be present, or not present, to produce the desired effect. In almost all cases, emotions are the gateway to changing attitudes and behaviors.

TvG: As part of my thesis, I compared your model with Patrick Jordan’s, Donald Norman’s, and Pieter Desmet’s models. Would you draw a parallel between the three parts of the functional triad (Tool, Medium and Social Actor) and say, Donald Norman’s Visceral, Behavioral and Reflective levels? Both models deal with appearance or physicality in the visceral sense, interaction in the behavioral sense, and status and identity in the reflective sense.

BJF: That’s a good question. I’d need to think about that to give you a tidy answer comparing the various models. So I’ll gives you a simpler answer now: What’s intriguing for me is that the similarities in models suggest that we humans aren’t as complicated as most psychologists would have us believe. I don’t think we humans are complicated. I think our contexts are complicated, and the ways we interpret those contexts are varied. And that’s what makes us look more psychologically complicated than we really are. We have a few basic drives and motivators and those account for just about everything we do.

I love the idea of designing for emotions or designing to achieve certain emotions. It’s about how you get people into a certain state or mood that puts them in a position to adopt a new attitude or perform a difficult new behavior, like quitting smoking. I think that designing for emotional transitions is a big part of persuasion.

And that’s just part of it. Everything that Dr. Fogg had said was things that I was interested in: how to design with emotion, what design can do to us, how to persuade with design that has emotional values…etc. And I couldn’t believe how much psychology was needed into designing one persuasive product. Dr. Fogg had said that people would want to be persuaded into something that are pleasant to the eye and emotion. Also, no human being would want to be pained or gain negative feelings when they are getting persuaded into getting a product.

I learned something about this in psychology class I am taking currently: it’s called a positive or negative reinforcement. A person would definitely continue using a product if they got a good feeling towards it, and this works the same with persuasion and design. You want to design something that people would come back to, not push them away. That’s the nature in human beings, and that’s what we were taught as the right thing to do–be positive, be happy, be comfortable, etc. Anything that will comfort you and will not hurt you.

And this made me wonder about something else, in fact: if the nature in human beings are designed to become more positive and pursue comfortable feelings, does that mean that human beings were initially designed for good? You know, the whole aspect of good versus evil, Adam and Eve, fall of Adam, etc… does it mean that we were once beings of goodness, beings of love, who were always positive and knew that was the right thing? Because today’s society is so corrupted to even distinguish what is right and what is wrong.

Hmm. But I digress. Dr. Fogg was the topic here- and the fact is, design will always be a matter of emotional transitions, and tools for us to connect with each other. And that’s why I am pursuing design, and having psychology as a tag along to provide people with comfort in this fast paced world.

Photo credits to: WakenTheDead

Technorati Tags: kisaplit07, aplit07, design, emotion, persuasion, Dr.Fogg, affective, design

Media influence. Media brainwash. Materialism. Consumerism. Why am I saying these words? It’s because those topics are the very reason I am angry, and the very reason why I, along with rest of the world, act just the way I am.

Some time ago I read an article about how media can control everything. Starting with telephone, television, radio, newspapers, etc., whatever the sources tell us is the truth; whatever they say, we believe. We are bombarded with unavoidable company logos and banners, along with advertisements that supposedly makes us feel and live a better life. But if what the news says is true, and what the magazine gossips about is important, how come our world isn’t peaceful yet? How come, most of an average person wants to be rich, to be handsome or pretty, with designer clothes and brand name water bottles? This in turn, raises a question if we can ever act without an influence of the media. Some people might say, of course, we can act without T.V. and never worrying about what kind of clothes you wear. But the fact that there are labels on coke bottles, on books, on electric systems and everything, I think we subconsciously start believing which is better than what. And because media encourages us to try on this and eat that, our brain gets logos and banners, brand names and designer clothes embedded in our brain.

Consider this example. Today’s society is filled with stick skinny girls who proudly calls themselves models and believe that they are beautiful. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they are NOT beautiful, but just the fact that being skinny is the ultimate factor towards beauty. Now that’s a lie. But I am a hypocrite by saying that because I want to become a stick skinny and pretty model, too. You might be thinking that I am contradicting myself, and I actually am. I want everyone to know that I have two brains that constantly fight over each other, one that has the true priorities and values that I have and the other of the culture, the society’s norm, priority, and values. Whoever said being skinny was attractive? Media. If we portrayed a fat woman with her belly stretched out to the floor was hot for forty years, I think people might be brainwashed enough to conclude that that’s beauty.

Whatever the case is, I think we have gotten ourselves into a big hole that it’s too hard to get out anymore.

Crazy

Gnarls Barkley

I remember when,
I remember, I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so pleasant about that place.
Even your emotions have an echo
In so much space

And when you’re out there
Without care,
Yeah, I was out of touch
But it wasn’t because I didn’t know enough
I just knew too much

Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Probably
And I hope that you are having the time of your life
But think twice, that’s my only advice

Come on now, who do you, who do you, who do you, who do you think you are,

Ha ha ha bless your soul
You really think you’re in control?

Well, I think you’re crazy
I think you’re crazy
I think you’re crazy
Just like me

My heroes had the heart to lose their lives out on a limb
And all I remember is thinking, I wanna be like them
Ever since I was little, ever since I was little it looked like fun
And it’s no coincidence I’ve come
And I can die when I’m done

But Maybe I’m crazy
Maybe you’re crazy
Maybe we’re crazy
Probably

-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.–

I feel like writing about this song today. Craziness.
Because it’s near finals week, everyone seem to be having a little bit of chaos and craziness within themselves. I certainly did. Being gone in New York really made me pay back with all the school days I’ve missed, and the crazy load of work was bending my back. But somehow I was in denial–I laughed off at the amount of things to do, and in turn I actually didn’t do anything. Crazy, I know. I was thinking that if I close my eyes and sing loudly enough all the things I have to do would just pass by…..yeah, right. In reality, that will never happen.

Time and time again, I’m realizing how I cannot afford to avoid responsibility. That will not make me advance in anything, anyway. But everyone knows how hard it is get to a ’success’–I mean, with all the tears and blood that you put in your work, whatever it is. So…my point is…my mind is really all over the place these days…and I am becoming more insane as the clock ticks by. I don’t know how to describe this feeling, or this mood. Is it because I know too much information as the lyrics said? Is it because I am taking in all the other people’s opinions about where I should go in life and not mine? And really, am I in control of who I am?

Again, I have no idea. And I have no idea if this post is fit for this blog. My English teacher tells us to explore in variety of fields, but I can’t, because I am afraid of what others will say–what the people who judge me will say. So all I do is ramble on about some random, pointless crap and never get to say what is truly on my mind. And because this is a public blog, I can’t. But I am going to say one thing. I DON’T think I am control of my mind, or my body. As I was listening to “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley and doing research on my AP Art homework on media’s influences, I realized something big that would actually fit for this blog. Media and consumerism. And that’s my AP Art concentration theme anyway. Why not blog about it? Ha.

Photo credited to: jac.opo, nathi_rhapsody, ednothing

Technorati Tags: kisaplit07, aplit07, crazy, insanity, confusion, gnarls, barkley, reflection