University of Westminster

Navigator, navigation and narratives

Bauhaus: people, time and workshops

Simone Nogueira

June 2006

2

This text presents the development of the design of an interface that was built to provide

different approaches to access information by the users, allowing them to decide the way

they want to navigate in a subject. There was an attempt to design a navigation that

enabled the navigator to “discover” the subject in a non-linear narrative, constructing

their own knowledge about the content according to their intent by an interactive process.

The School of Bauhaus – divided in people, time and workshops - was the chosen subject

to develop these ideas.

This text was organized in the sequence presented below:

- Research

o Bauhaus

o Navigation in printed books

o Navigation for an interface

- Project development

- Conclusion

Research

The interest in develop a virtual system about Bauhaus emerged from the desire of

research a subject that was related to Design, which could result in a practical project for

learning and that could allow a deeper understanding about navigation, navigator and

narratives. The first step was to research about Bauhaus and the projects designed

during its existence, focusing in how visually the Bauhaus’ projects could be helpful to

develop the navigation, organization and aesthetic of the system in a consistent way.

It was noticed how Geometry was an important concept in the Bauhaus’ projects.

Squares, circles, triangles, rectangles and lines were a constant in the most designs. An

analyse of the tapestry, products, paintings and photography were relevant to realize

how the school explored different areas of art and design, approaching theory and

practice according to its modern teaching-learning process.

3

Figure 1. Tapestry. Paul Klee.

Figure 2. Teapot. Marianne Brandt

Figure 3. Light and dark study. Friedl Dicker

4

Figure 4. Chess set. Josef Hartwig

The difficulty to find information about “workshops” and “people” was realized during the

research about Bauhaus. The books researched were organized following a rule defined

by the author. Some were written chronologically, others were written divided by the

most important people – such as teachers and students -, and others were written by

topics (see figures 5, 6 and 7). If one wants to research about a specific person who

taught at the school in a book which was organized chronologically, one have to go to the

index and take notes of all the pages the person was cited in the book. The research

could last a long time, as the information is not gathered and disconnected. The same

occurs if one researches in a book which was divided by subject. If one wants to research

about the Bauhaus’ workshops one wouldn’t find easily an information organized by this

subject. It could be interesting to design a system where it was possible to research

about Bauhaus based in the questions “Who, When and What”, joining all the information

in the same system, creating connections between them.

Figure 5. “Bauhaus” book. Organized by “people”. Walter Gropius is cited in 47 different pages distributed in the book.

5

Figure 6. “Design” book. Organized by “chronology”.

Figure 7. “Design” book. Organized by “topics”.

6

In this moment one question arose: how is possible to research about people, time and

workshops in the same system? And how an interactive navigation could be designed in

order to make sense for the navigator the connection between the separated information?

In order to answer those questions a research in the book “Envisioning Information”

(Tufte 1991) was important for the project. Reading about Information Design gave to

the project a new perspective, mainly concerned about representation and organization

of information. A figure presented in the book was chosen to be the main reference for

the design of the navigation. The way Roy Lichtenstein organized and designed his works

in the “Mural with Blue Brushstroke”, created for the lobby of a building in New York, matched to the aspiration of a new concept of navigation. Roy Lichtenstein’s mural allows

the navigator to explore the images separately and at the same time understand that all

pictures make part of a whole idea.

Figure 8. Mural with Blue Brushstroke. Roy Lichtenstein. Envisioning Information (Tufte 1991).

7

Project development During the development of the project the understanding of how information could be

organized engaging the user with the system helped to construct the main concept of the

design of the project. Differently from the organization of the books researched, the user

should choose the way they want to research about the Bauhaus and the system should

allow the user to gather the divided information presented in the interface (Figure 9).

Figure 9. User interaction with the information in the system.

Firstly, two different interfaces were designed. The first one represented the groups of

information – who, when, what, where – and explored how a specific information could

be presented and connected with the others. For example: if one chose a person from

the “people” the system should present automatically the connections with time,

workshop and place related to that person (Figure 10).

8

Figure 10. Development of the system (1).

The second environment was designed based in Roy Lichtenstein’s “Mural with Blue

Brushstroke”. The same concept of the first interface was applied but it was still not clear

how all the information could be designed and connected (Figure 11). The idea was to

remain in a timeline the information that was accessed by the user in a panel with all

pictures about the content. The first attempt was developed connecting image-

information and time.

Figure 11. Development of the system (2).

9

A structure was designed in order to organize the navigation and understand the

possibilities of the connections. The follow graphic presents this structure.

Figure 12. Structure.

The idea of the two first layouts helped to develop the definitive design of the system.

Joining the organization and connection between the information of the first layout with

the design of the second resulted in the proposal of the project: accessing the

information navigating in a discovering process connecting the information about people,

time and workshop.

There was an attempt to insert icons in order to allow the user to access the content

through different options (main page and menu) but this represented a redundancy in

the system. This idea was discarded and the solution was to change the names and

workshops which weren’t been explored in a different colour – in this case in brighter

Gray for the hidden subjects and dark Gray for the accessed subjects.

10

Figure 12. Development of the system (3). As the project reached a defined structure, another concern arose: how the navigator

would know the information accessed by him/her and the information that wasn’t

accessed.

In order to keep the consistency of the project which was based in the relation with the

subjects (who, when and what) and the panel, the navigation was represented by a panel

constructed by the path that the user did during the interaction with the system. Each

picture, text and word accessed is recorded in a new panel that can be viewed clicking in

an icon on the screen. Differently of the panels of each subject which are mixed, the

navigation panel is linearly organized. Through the recorded navigation the user can

return to the points where s/he has been in the system.

11

Figure 13. Navigation recorded.

Conclusion As presented in the development of this project, three important concepts were realized

during the process.

The first one concerns in the narrative and how technology can provide new interactions

with content. Using different options of access the information inside the same virtual

environment provides an increasing in the navigation and makes easier the interaction

with content.

The second concerns in the engagement of the users with the system allowing them to

gain knowledge about a subject by exploring the environment following their intent. The

more engaging is a system, the more efficient it is. The navigation process and its

results depend directly on its capacity to engage the users.

The third concerns about how an interactive system can be helpful in a learning process

providing to the students a way to make their own connections. By an interactive system,

navigators can develop their knowledge in a more instigating process.

12

References

Bruner, Jerome. On knowing: essays for the left hand. Belknap Press: London, 1997.

Clark, Paul & Freeman, Julian. Design. Watson-Guptill Publications: New York, 2000.

Kennedy, Andrew. Bauhaus. Flame Tree Publishing: London, 2006.

Lupton, Ellen & Miller, Abbott. The abc’s of the Bauhaus and design theory. Thames and Hudson: London, 1993.

Meadows, Mark Stephen. Pause & Effect: the art of interactive narrative. New Riders: USA, 2002.

Schank, Roger C. Tell me a Story: narrative and intelligence. Northwestern University Press: Evanston, 2000.

Tufte, Edward R. Envisioning Information. Graphics Press: USA, 1991.