Ragnhild Nordgård
Photo and text: Tor Christian Meling
Student chat: Ragnhild Nordgård
We talked to Ragnhild Nordgård, currently a fourth year design student.
What are you doing at AHO for the time being?
I attend the “screens” course where we learn about interaction design on screens. There are many short modules with a lot of different content. In the first module we’ve made a mobile game where we worked on how one uses touch screens to achieve desired outcomes and how to engage the user. The assignment only lasted for two weeks so most of the coding was done by an external developer. We worked on the concept and spent a lot of time tweaking the interactions. The submission was a functioning prototype.
One group made a game where the user “light” a match to throw on a fire to keep it burning, one game was about jumping around on ice flakes without falling in the water, others is about exploring worlds. It was a fun and different task with many different answers.
What are you working on in the near future?
The next assignment is also about user experience on screen, but it focuses a lot more on process, prototyping, sketching and testing. The result will be an application for a “set of images”. It’s a quite open task so there will probably be a lot of different designs. My “image set” is photos of tapestry, and I’m excited about what I’ll end up making. Regardless of the end result, I expect it to be fun and challenging.
What elective course do you attend?
Aesthetics in a physical context. The course consist of some theory in addition to spending a lot of time in the workshop. We work with physical models which is very deliberating and fun to do beside the screens course. Last week the subject was “haptic” — how we perceive something through physical touch. We made models in sand and plaster before discussing with the teachers and students. The course concludes in an exhibition.
What do you want to work with when you’ve graduated from AHO?
I find the meeting between humans and technology very exciting, so probably something that has to do with that. I don’t know where yet, but something is bound to show up eventually.
I attend the “screens” course where we learn about interaction design on screens. There are many short modules with a lot of different content. In the first module we’ve made a mobile game where we worked on how one uses touch screens to achieve desired outcomes and how to engage the user. The assignment only lasted for two weeks so most of the coding was done by an external developer. We worked on the concept and spent a lot of time tweaking the interactions. The submission was a functioning prototype.
One group made a game where the user “light” a match to throw on a fire to keep it burning, one game was about jumping around on ice flakes without falling in the water, others is about exploring worlds. It was a fun and different task with many different answers.
What are you working on in the near future?
The next assignment is also about user experience on screen, but it focuses a lot more on process, prototyping, sketching and testing. The result will be an application for a “set of images”. It’s a quite open task so there will probably be a lot of different designs. My “image set” is photos of tapestry, and I’m excited about what I’ll end up making. Regardless of the end result, I expect it to be fun and challenging.
What elective course do you attend?
Aesthetics in a physical context. The course consist of some theory in addition to spending a lot of time in the workshop. We work with physical models which is very deliberating and fun to do beside the screens course. Last week the subject was “haptic” — how we perceive something through physical touch. We made models in sand and plaster before discussing with the teachers and students. The course concludes in an exhibition.
What do you want to work with when you’ve graduated from AHO?
I find the meeting between humans and technology very exciting, so probably something that has to do with that. I don’t know where yet, but something is bound to show up eventually.
Read more about: Interaction design
