Ardak's Bicycle
Description
Ardak describes her bike to me: "In the childhood I had my first bicycle I learned to ride. It was two-wheeled, red colored with a basket. I usually rode the bicycle in our summer cottage. And one day I left it on the yard, but on the other day I couldn't find it. Probably it was stolen, but I have no idea."
Design Process
Following Jon and Elena's advice, I broke down the more complex shape I had been given into 2D primitives to clarify what I would be building. I first roughly sketched out the description I had been given of the bicycle, then redrew it with pencil using simpler shapes, such as circles and lines, seen below:
Then, we built! It took a lot of trial and error to get the positioning and layout order correct in p5, but the initial sketch and mental model helped a lot during this test and learn process.
Reflection
The language my partner used to describe the image was clear and concise. Because most of us already have mental models of what a bicycle looks like, she merely had to use simple descriptors, such as its color, etc. to continue guiding the pre-existing model, instead of starting from scratch. The depiction of the image using code contains:
- 1. Two arcs to represent the steel wheel frames
- 2. Various rotated and translated lines to represent the spokes
- 3. A triangle, circle, and two lines to represent the pedal system
- 4. A long and short line to depict the handlebars
- 5. Another long and short line to represent the seat
- 6. A curved line to represent the skirt bar, which connects the bike
- 7. A quadrilateral basket
- 8. Small circles at the intersection of the bike spokes
The differences in interpretation at different stages of the assignment came down to one's assumption of how a bicycle looks. The term "bicycle" gives us a rough wireframe structure, but there were still clarifying questions:
- Were there training wheels?
- Was there a bell or horn on the bike?
- What color and size was the basket?
These questions were left up to my interpretation. The visual representation you see came down to a balance of sticking to the original guidance Ardak had given me, and taking some creative liberties and challenging myself with code.