Kanba’s user interface design model for ART

This past week, we transitioned from Needs Assessment to the Solution Phase! This was met with a lot of excitement from the technically oriented team members as it indicates the chance for us to really use our best skills. In the commotion to outline the database and web interface that will record resource usage on campus, I found the need to name it, and came up with “Ashesi Resource Tracker.” I’ve started labeling my own related documents this way, unsure if the name will stick or be replaced with something more apt. However, when I abbreviated my title to just ART, I had to smile a little bit. This incidental label may be misleading, but it’s my instinct to say it’s fitting.

When I talked with Julie, our resident anthropologist and artist, she said art is “a cultural producer that works to address the time and uses creative means to express thoughts, feelings, and ideas.” Our final database and interface, whatever it may be titled, will be a mixture of form and functionality with a design oriented for ease of use and visual appeal. It will hopefully be an internationally generated, creatively implemented, and sustainability driven system. And in my opinion, that would be a beautiful work of ART.