Exploring Taoism philosophy: A Visual interactive interpretation

Abstract

Thesis URL: http://www.yangdan.info/thesis

Exploring Taoism Philosophy: A Visual Interactive Interpretation is an interactive graphic design project which introduces the Taoism philosophy to college students, it's also a personal graphic interpretation of Taoism. This project is a flash website that runs on any computer that has access to the Internet.

My goal for this project is to explore the history, principles, and rules of Taoism philosophy, its applications in modern society and to interpret Taoism through creative interactive graphic solutions based on personal understanding. My targeted audience is college students from 18 to 25 who have interests in Taoism, philosophy, or Chinese culture; I wish that by introducing Taoism to a young western audience, they can benefit from this ancient eastern philosophy by learning Taoist theories and also try some of its relaxing practices.

There are four parts: "about," "learn," "watch," and "practice". "About" is the reason I created the project; "Learn" is the introduction of Taoism philosophy; "Watch" introduces the principles of Taoism by motion graphics; And, in "practice" users can follow instructions and practice Taoist applications like meditation. I started the project by user investigation and have been doing user testing through the process, which includes the initial brainstorming and sketching, test mockups in Adobe Flash, storyboards in Adobe Illustrator, and production in Flash and After Effect.

Through this project I achieved my personal goal of exploring more theories and applications of Taoism and have developed a deeper understanding of effective marketing to a Western audience. Most Taoist websites are text-heavy and lack interactivity; by creating a graphical, interactive, and user-centered site, I hope young people can really benefit from learning and practicing the Taoism philosophy in their own lives.