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Redesigning New York: City Hall

This was a challenging redesign for me. It was tough to think of a good reason that would merit a redesign. I ended up deciding that I would not alter the function of the building and that I would focus on the design/structure/aesthetic of the building instead.

I decided to make city hall made chiefly out of glass in the form of a very simple shape.. Specifically, I'd use the specific type of glass that is reflective on the outside and transparent from the inside (so that you can have an unobstructed view of the city from inside the city hall). The driving force behind this decision is the concept that you'd feel like you were literally surrounded by city when you're in the hall. You'd almost feel like you were outside and not inside.

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Technologic Kinetic Type

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Playstation Network Outage

I'm not really sure what to think of Sony right now, in regards to the Playstation Network outage. For those who aren't aware, hackers broke into the Playstation Network nearly two weeks ago and, as a result, Sony shut down the online service to prevent the hackers from causing harm or stealing personal data. This is fair enough, but it's been almost two weeks and there's isn't much of an indication that the servers would be up soon. It's quite frustrating for online gamers or gamers who've purchased content which requires a connection to the PSN for use. It's also highly inconvenient that this happened only a few days after the release of the two highly anticipated (online multiplayer enabled) titles, Portal 2 and Mortal Kombat (MK9).

Apart from this, there's also the matter of the personal information of the over 77 million PSN accounts, that has now been compromised. It's logical to conclude that if a hacker broke into the PSN, that some of you're data or personal information may have been compromised (if you're a PSN user). But most companies (especially larger and popularly acclaimed companies such as Sony) take extensive precautions when it comes to the personal information of it's users. However, not only has all our information been completely exposed, but it took a week for Sony to inform that our data has, in fact, been compromised. Sony has now advised us that it would be best to change our passwords. They have at least said that there's no indication that credit card information has been stolen, though that isn't exactly reassuring (and they have said it's a possibility , even though it's encrypted.)

I don't want to be too hard on Sony. I understand that they were attacked, and that they probably are trying hard to get PSN back online. What's astonishing is just that they seem so ill-prepared for this occurrence. I mean clearly, the Playstation Network wasn't exactly Sony's shining jewel (the Playstation 3 hardware, was). And what's worse is that they haven't even so much as apologized or offered up the smallest compensation. They just seem to keep pointing their fingers at the hackers and aren't taking any responsibility for it. It's just not really what you'd expect of Sony, I suppose.

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Jeez Capcom..

So Capcom has recently come on to announce that an early playable version of Megaman Legends 3 will be available at the launch of the Nintendo 3DS E-Shop in late May for around $2-$3. Being a fan of Megaman and especially the Megaman Legends series, I thought this was pretty cool - I’d love to get my hands on an early demo to give it a whirl. 

To my horror, however, a recent post on the a Capcom development blog has revealed the evil intentions of this so-called “Prototype”. 

“the heat and excitement surrounding this downloadable title would determine whether or not the full game could be greenlit. If hype is strong, the full title will be a go. If not, it’s a no-go. I don’t even want to think about that outcome!”

This is outrageous. I understand that MML wasn’t exactly a popular series, at least not when you compare it to the successes of the main Megaman Series or to other Capcom game series. So it’s fair to gauge how the game may be received, before its greenlit. The thing that makes this so ridiculous is that the 3DS was released BARELY a month ago in the US/EU/AU, and two months ago in Japan. Not everyone has a 3DS yet, and the e-Shop is barely a month away. So it’s almost as if Capcom is looking for an excuse to cancel this game. Not to mention that many fans of the MML series have even expressed on message boards that they’re waiting for the release of MML3 to purchase a 3DS. 

If this would have been something that was done on the Playstation Store, or Xbox Live Marketplace, or even WiiWare, it wouldn't have been that bad. But it's not, and it doesn’t help that they’re charging for the demo - though I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and hope that the proceeds would go towards funding MML3.

A smart move would be to re-release MML1 and MML2 as PSOne Classics on the Playstation Store, in addition to releasing a demo for MML3 on the e-store. This would be a much more effective way to gauge the 'hype'. That and they'd make a pretty penny if it works out well (kind of similar what happened when the announcement of Blizzard's Diablo 3 sparked the sales of the original Diablo titles).

But maybe they’re bluffing and just trying to make some more money. Though that isn’t much better. I for one just hope that they aren't just trying to look for an excuse to cancel the game - and that really take into consideration how new the 3DS is when they're gauging the response. 

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I love this. (flower girl from royal wedding)

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Redesigning New York: Welcome Sign

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Redesigning New York: NYT

I've already done a redesign for the NYT. This time, I wanted to make an application/online version, instead of a paper redesign.

There's not much to write about it. I just wanted to make the interface very accessible, simple, clean and attractive. Something potentially accessible on a wide range of devices.

(Note Below: The squares are arranged in order by date, and the red squares are "hot topics").

Below is an actual article. There would be options for text only, and for text and pictures.

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Redesigning New York: Bridge

I decided to add a new bridge instead of modifying an existing bridge for this redesign. This bridge (actually there's four of them. interconnected) would go over central park and would cover the four cardinal directions. They would make it easier to bypass the park from any of those four directions. 

I'm imaging a bridge that curves upwards and then back downwards at the ends. It's very important that the bridge's look compliments that of the park. I don't want the bridge to take away from the park, but to enhance it. I definitely do not want the park to look ugly because of the bridge.

Also, the bridge would only be accessible with a bike or by walking/jogging. I don't want the sounds of automobiles to disrupt the park's ambience. Below is a diagram of the park. Alternatively, there could just be one bridge going north and south (down the center), instead of two.

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Redesigning New York: Taxi

I have two complaints with the NYC Taxis. The first one is with the light at the top, the second is with the seating capacity. 

The taxi's have lights at the top of the car to indicate whether or not the taxi is occupied. The problem is that it's hard to tell if the light is on or off from a distance. Also, sometimes they just flat out don't work properly. For the redesign, make the light bigger, brighter, and say "OCCUPIED" in big letters on all sides of the light.

For the capacity, I would propose to make them slightly longer. Just long enough to accommodate for seats that face each other, for more seating.

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Redesigning New York: Street Cart

For this redesign I used a homeless person as my muse. I would redesign the street cart with homeless, starving people in mind. 

The cart would operate very much like a soup kitchen or bread line. It would be run by volunteers or volunteer organizations. There is not very much profit to be made here. The cart would carry very low cost foods, such as water, bananas, breads, soups, oatmeal, beans, peas, potatoes. It would either sell them at low prices or let people exchange sums of empty bottles or cans for food. Occasionally it would hand food out for free. 

To prevent exploitation by non-homeless people, the volunteers would reserve the right to not give food to any single person more than three times within an hour. It's possible that the volunteers would relocate the cart several times during the day, to increase their chances of finding homeless people. These carts wool be more prominent in poorer neighborhoods. 

The design of the cart itself is very typical, except with a small door at the bottom that reveals a large space to put bottles and cans into.There will also be large pictures of the food that the carts carry, also with a price on it with large letters. As there are several kinds of low cost foods, and a limited amount of space for food in the cart, the volunteers could rotate which foods are sold on a day to day basis. Perhaps some fundamental or very cheap foods would always be on the menu (such as bread and water).