Six Thinking Hats

The Six Thinking Hats is an exploration method in which allows us to examine all sides of an issue through organized thinking. Through the Six Thinking Hats structure, the process is broken down into six key categories: information, emotion, judgment, optimism, creativty, and management. Together, it brings all kinds of ideas to the table rather than a singular thought in which could either overlap each other or lead to an unexplored, stagnant conclusion.

I believe that I follow the Black Hat the most, because while I tend to be supportive of most ideas, I am realistic and critical when needed.

Applying the Methods

Review of Semester Project Ideas Ft. Ellie

White Hat

So far, the information we have is how other custom brush websites operate, with the common "tags" or "filters" consisting of whether or not it is a brush or a stamp, whether it is free or needs to be bought, and what digital art programs it is available for. Ellie brings up that we need to know if there is any other popular drawing program outside of the five I settled on, and whether or not it is compatible with other programs to reduce clutter. To get this information, I will browse charts of top downloaded digital art programs.

Red Hat

Both Ellie and I share the same neutral feeling. While it would be nice to have everything in one place, that is all there is to it: how nice it would be. It is not a passionate neccessity, but rather a pleasing convenience. Ellie, however, also feels a level of uncertainty because I would need to gather a collection of brushes to be available for download for the website to feel "full".

Black Hat

Potential problems include the ability to establish an efficient filter system and actively producing new content to encourage website traffic. Additionally, if I allow user-based uploads, I have to create a form of file-filter that allows only certain files to be uploaded so no malicious malware or non-brush file is uploaded and later downloaded.

Yellow

Ellie suggests that because of its simplistic idea of just providing different custom brushes from different programs in one website rather through separate websites, it will succeed in providing a place for artists to browse for all kinds of brushes without the stress of having multiple tabs or apps open. To attract more users, I could incorporate a "save for later" and a "view uploader profile" buttons so that users are able to save brushes to download later, or view other brushes that users have made and view their socials.

Green Hat

After reviewing different files of custom brushes that you can download, each program has their own distinct custom brush file. Thus, to solve the issue of limiting types of upload files, I only need to restrict files to these distinctive files. IbisPaint, however, functions off of a QR-Code system and will require further evaluation. The only way we can think about regulating QR-Code image uploads is through human approval.

Blue Hat

The ultimate goal is to create an efficient, easy-to-navigate website that offers free custom brushes that can be reviewed, saved, and downloaded easily for a wide range of programs. To keep our discussion on track, we must evaluate if our ideas and experiences can be related to the project at hand.

Overall Effect

Based on this discussion, I will now carefully consider how I will create my filtering system, and how I will overall organize the files on the site. I will add additional webpages that features user profile and a save page for future use.