Building on my Milky Way natural scene creator from Design Challenge 6, my final project is an interactive postcard generator with the National Solar Observatory’s Inouye Solar Telescope as the main attraction. The telescope is nearing completion in Hawaii. I wanted a way to inspire and educate the public about the telescope and the Sun while creating something.
Built in HTML, raw JavaScript, p5.js and CSS, users choose their sky and Sun and a telescope. Ultimately, I will add a factoid and the ability to choose either poster or postcard. I opted for a “build your own” approach and scratched the random creation feature. I think it works pretty well.
A lot of combinations exist in this app but overall the interface is simple. And performance is snappy. The sky background drives the overall color palette for the poster. To that end, the identifier placard is placed once the sky is selected. I experimented with randomizing sky gradients but in the end settled on locking in more natural looking gradients. I think the remaining sky backgrounds, especially the night and eclipse skies, create a solid base to make some interesting art.
Because this project continues as a possible feature with the National Solar Observatory, I’ve fixed some things, such as the positioning of the telescope. It was not responsive. I’ve anchored the telescope to the poster div and adjusted position to accomodate.
I’ve created the ability to add some sun facts and position if desired. It’s hard to foresee all possibilities with the positioning of the Sun and telescope. Allowing users to move this blurb into better positions seems a great way to add some creativity to the project.