Biker Personas

Steve Robinson

The Weekend Rider

AGE: 39

Dallas, Texas

Construction Supervisor

"Lotta chome, a lotta chrome is all I can say."

Steve likes to ride and drink beer when he is not working. He isn't part of any particular group but he does ride with 3 different groups of guys depending on how much riding he wants to do. Whether its a 200 mile ride to just bar hopping all night. He just likes to have fun and doesn't like the aggressiveness of motorcycle clubs in his area. His Harley-Davidson Road King is his baby. 

Jack Dickinson

Can't Get Enough

AGE: 46

Louisville, Kentucky

Mechanic

"My mom took me to buy a bike. I always thought my dad would be cool with it but never my mom."

Jack loves nothing more than riding his Motto Guzzi, one of his many bikes, for hours on end. He takes his kid to school on his bike, and drives in all forms of weather including snow, storms, and ice. He has a group of friends that he rides with regularly. Rather than being brand loyalists they appreciate all types of bikes and value the experience of riding above all else. He would love if more people knew the history of motorcycles. 

News Wireframe Concepts

Note Taking Concept: Moving from print to digital the user loses the ability to take notes next to points that spark their interest and they also lose the ability to highlight. My first concept is to bring this function back by including an area where the user can type in notes, and an area where they can see other users notes.

Flip Foldin' Fun: My second concept takes the physical motions of reading a paper, folding and flipping, and mixes these with the idea of a bias change. The user would be able to switch the bias, which would cause the paper on the screen would flip over to reveal articles with a different political agenda to appear.

No Place like Homepage: This concept allows the user to pick the sections that they want to see and only shows these on the homepage as collection of article headers, which when clicked drops down to reveal the rest of the article. These are color coded on this page to match their section. The user would also have the ability to go to entire section where the only articles shown are those that fit the subject.

What I learned from the what I learned article

"In 2011, I fell in love with complexity in mobile interfaces. A small screen doesn’t signal a desire to do less. Removing mobile features because “it’s just a phone” is like an author removing chapters because “it’s just a paperback.” It confuses context with intent. Mobile apps and websites have to be more than lite version of their desktop counterparts; they should have the conceptually same content and features as other platforms. Our job isn’t to remove complexity but to make complex information accessible—a challenge for the small screen, but an important one."

From this part it becomes apparent that simplifying a design for mobile is merely a cop out for not wanting to spend the time on a complete design. 

"The most important thing I’ve (re)learned this year is that the greatest experiences in life aren’t designed at all. I’ve spent less time on blogs and Twitter and more time watching sunrises in beautiful places. I’ve obsessed less over gadgets and tools and more over finding the right wine to go with a great meal. I’ve remembered that I love my work more when it isn’t also my life. All of these things make me more patient, more optimistic, and more inspired…which can only make me better at what I do."

This part of the article hit home with me as I believe it is our experience with the world that allows us as designers to connect with our viewers and audience. How can you design for somebody if you have never lived?

Information Architecture Reading Notes

Use of design for social/political problems. Stop making stupid applications

Become the person who next generations will steal from

Admit your mistakes

Stay curious

By 2pm we should be looking at double-digit version numbers

Good design comes from empathy, not stereotyping.

Get comfortable arguing

Control over typography is not just a basic design necessity, knowing how to treat text as a user interface is the key factor for successful Web design. Successful websites manage to create a simple interface AND a strong identity at the same time.

Content is the center of attention, content deserves the most love from the designer

Master typographers don’t get tired of repeating that the main rule of the typographer is to make the text as easy to read as possible.

Clients with random Internet experience often have the misconception that a website is like a cheap TV-ad that leads their customers directly into the store. All I have to say here: Explain to them what the medium is about. It’s about information. It’s not about shopping, it’s not about advertisement, it’s not linear. It’s about communication in one of its most competitive forms.

Motorcycle Club Research

Definition of cruiser motorcycle

Contemporary models are modeled after Harley-davidsons and Indians. Cruisers are designed with a laid back riding positions.  Cruiser rider generally is set into a position with feet forward and hands in a neutral or high position. This makes cruisers a popular choice for casual riding. Many cruising motorcycles have limited performance and turning ability due to a low-slung design.

60 percent of motorcycle sales are cruiser models.

MC Terminology

Colors, or patches, are each individual clubs logo. These can be sewn onto their leather gear, painted on, or tattooed onto the person.

Cuts are the leather or jean vests that are typically seen on participants of motorcycle culture.

The AMA is the American Motorcyclist Association that organizes many activities and fights for motorcyclist rights. There are over 300,000 members of this club.

The RICO act was designed to allow Federal Prosecutors to go outside the normal rules of conduct and evidence to gain convictions.

Types of clubs

Registered Motorcycle groups, which operate within the law, were described as making up 99% of motorcycle riders in 1950 by the AMA. Usually these groups form because they share common interests along with their love of motorcycles. Other groups are so diverse that the only thing common between members is the fact that they ride motorcycles.

Outlaw Motorcycle groups also known as 1%ers is biker talk for the 1% of motorcycle riders who operate “outside the law”. Common biker gangs, like the Hells Angels, can use this patch as a symbol of rebellion.

KC clubs

The Iron Order Motorcycle Club formed in a garage in January 2009. Their website lists their common values as brotherhood, friendship, community, contribution, and an overarching sense of national patriotism and pride.  Membership is described as a privilege and they are against druggies, pushers, and pimps. 

People to contact:

Gunner (president)

CUZnIT (vice)

El Forasteros (Spanish for the outsiders)

The EFMC was founded in 1962 by a proud 1%er named Tiny. Only about a dozen other true 1%er clubs still remain today. It was brotherhood founded on a love custom motorcycles soon to be known as choppers.

People to contact:

John Monk

Galloping Gooses

GGMC started around a motorcycle racing team out of LA in 1942. This MC is an ally to the El Forasteros and have a charter in KCMO. The Gooses are also well known 1%ers.

From Sow to Supper

From Sow to Supper

What did we learn from this project?

We learned how to capitalize on each others strengths to maximize productivity. An example would be Erika's fantastic photoshop abilities, while my copy and way with words made it easier to write about what we were doing in this project.  

Poverty is a complex issue and their are many small nuances that must be taken into account to be sensitive to the subject and those who are involved in it. The connotation and interpretation of words played an important role in this kind of project.

We also learned about the power of design to cause social change with the implications of what we are doing. Design is an important tool for changing the lives of many.

What would we do if we had more time to work on this project?

If we had more time with this project we would like to expand the elements that were included in the packet to also have a neighborhood watch form and a neighborhood daycare information sheet.

During our critique, it was brought up that in a project like this one it would be important to have a follow up packet that would be sent out later to reinforce the message and to also give more information that could be pertinent to community garden care and harvesting. 

Lastly if we had more time we would continue to work on the imagery of the supplemental elements to gain further contiguity between them. This would involve the continued mixing of vectors and photographs.

Project 5 Objectives

My objective for my final project is to fix and improve my Occupy KC logo build, by altering the timeline so that the elements appear to be dispersed and then regroup without the looping being needed. I also plan on working on the craft of the motion of the elements till I can make it fully natural feeling.

What is Motion Graphics?

The video begins its definition of motion graphics with a simple explanation as type or graphic forms moving. It then precedes to contrast this to animation, which tells the most about the application of motion graphics. The only difference between the two fields is wether or not the character expresses itself directly. Motion graphics lack the self-expression of characters, which in the present world makes it useful in the applications of short time-slots or as supplemental implied information. The short time-slots are the home of logo builds, t.v. interstitials, and advertisements, which can rely on the quick delivery of information that can be quickly read by the viewer. As supplemental implied information they can appear in the opening credits of movies where the motion and appearance can imply qualities that can be filtered through experience as empirical deductions. These implied qualities are chosen by whether or not they lead to common understandable deductions by the masses.

Occupy-KC Logo Build

This build for the Kansas City Occupy Movement was designed to operate on a display that would continuously loop it. The constant hum of people talking and the action of continually regrouping emphasizes the fact that this group like all occupiers will not give up and will keep coming back together.


I learned that five seconds is more than ample time for creating a small narrative and that through manipulation of repetition you can take something that is apparently negative in meaning the first time around and show it to have a positive meaning.

Design Intervention Worksheets