Stone Soup?

I had an inkling that I've heard this "Stone Soup" story.  All I could remember was that someone was tricked.  Wikipedia to the rescue: I read a lovely summary of the story (in which starving travelers trick unhelpful villagers into sharing food) and thought "so who in class is going to be tricked?"  I guess that isn't really the point though.  I assume we are ignoring the moral part of the story and focusing on collaboration and design process.  The process of design is incredibly important and I am excited to explore it in the context of group work.  I, for one, have my own way of "designing" - that is, an idea is sparked in my mind from some outside source (like seeing a poor design and me wanting to "fix it"), I plan out what I want to create, then I put that plan into action.  McCloud has a different approach, which is more thorough and detailed.  It includes six steps:

• Idea/Purpose - the initial idea for the design
• Form - deciding what form this idea will take
• Idiom - what style/genre will the design conform to
• Structure - deciding what to include and how to compose all the features
• Craft - actual creation of the design
• Surface - going back and editing, perfecting

McCloud's six steps really do outline how to create a successful, complete design.  Hopefully we can implement these steps tomorrow.

I'm excited to work with my group to create.... I actually have no idea what our goal is.  All I know is that it will be interesting collaborating with other people, each with their own unique design process, and stumbling through a new, group design process.

Image by Marcia Brown