Updated Purpose Statements

Oakland Animal Services.
Purpose: To increase adoption rates at the Oakland Animal Shelter by making information more readily available to users. To come up with a system that better displays the available dogs at the shelter; to create a more visual and interactive system for evaluating and understanding the various needs of the dogs.
1. "USERS": primary users; beneficiaries; stakeholders
Potential adopters; workers and volunteers at oakland animal services; the various animals who are housed and available
2. "ENVIRONMENT: the location, setting; context;
Oakland Animal Services is located in Oakland, CA. in a slightly out of the way place.
1101 29th Avenue, Oakland, California 94601

The setting is an animal shelter that houses dogs, cats, rabbits, and various other animals. The public can come to view these animals during business hours and adopt.
3. "RESOURCES": references; literature; comparisons; expert sources; etc.

My sources would potentially be the workers at the Oakland Animal Services (volunteers, workers, animal control officers), and potential adopters who come into the shelter.

Animal Shelter Magazine:

http://www.animalsheltering.org/

An article discussing No Kill shelter reform:

http://www.shelterreform.org/Wingrad.html

This website a student put together filled with reviews of various shelter activies:

http://www.squidoo.com/animalshelter

Visual Disorganizational System for Micah

Micah is a pack rat, who likes to collect things and have stuff available to him. He is not messy in the sense that it is trash, but more he likes to keep things that he thinks will be relevant to design or his inspiration later. He goes through wallets frequently because they breakdown after being filled with various things such as business cards, etc. He recently bought a three-fold wallet so he could keep things even further compartmentalized.

Micah says that he has never lost anything, so his accumulation of stuff is not do to him being scattered. He also says that he is always aware of things and where they are, that the only time its an issue is when someone else cleans his room or moves things. Also sometimes things being in a pile means its more difficult to reach items. Another issue Micah said he had was that he has to go to another space when he has to work because he finds his clutter distracting; this seems counterproductive, seeing as he saves many things to be inspirational for him.

My Design Solution: Wall panels/shelving that lines the entire room. The purpose of this is to move the clutter from the floor, and spread it out visually on the wall. This would allow him to see where everything is, and he could put it wherever he wants (there would be no overlaying or enforced organization such as "all CDs go here" etc.). The panels would be different colors or textures to allow for better memory retention in terms of where things were placed.

In addition to that, to remove the problem of his clutter being distracting, there would be retracting panels that folded down from the walls that would cover all the shelving units and give it the appearance of a flat wall.

(1) introduction

I'm a hypochondriac. I'm a graphic design student at san francisco state university, and I'm 24 years old. I play: the harp, the piano, the victim. Once when I was a little girl my brother Mark convinced me his name was really Dave, and I don't think I've been the same since. I'm a science geek, a religion and mythology aficionado, a history buff, and a literary snob. I sometimes try to lift things with the force. I would probably give my life for the existence of dragons (ok maybe yes, maybe no). Fears of: darkness, flying, and spiders. I dread someday encountering a combination of all three.

Six words to describe myself: intelligent, talkative, creative, flawed, indecisive, unforgettable. I am influenced by literature, mythology, and the past. I dream of a kinder world, and long talks with strangers on busses; I think we can fix the blogger "me culture," and come out with our humanity intact. I am passionate about learning, and have a thirst for discovery. Show me something new.

"After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true." -Spock.