Design and virtual environment: digital landscapes in the aspect of hybrid media
Virtual space is a dynamic part of modern life. Designers engaged in creation of digital landscapes form the visual representation of the virtual environment. Relevance of the research is determined by the necessity of analysis and generalisation of the current situation in the field of design in virtual worlds. What constitutes the digital visual landscapes in the aspect of hybrids media? What is the structure and specifics of design in interactive environment? The scientific novelty of the research consists in the unique analysis of digital landscapes from the standpoint of design in the aspect of new media, in which the influence of the virtual environment is shown on the formation of a new way of modern realities. Digital landscapes grow out of the digital environment, from new media, where there is convergence, hybridization of different data types, where there is an opportunity to interact with people or information. The most striking manifestations of designers' activities in the interactive environment are the development of user interfaces, web design and game design. Design in the interactive environment is, first of all, the solution of the following problem: willingness to meet the business, to meet the manager, to meet the client. Designers are communicators, people who find the points of conflict, the points of contact between the users and the interactive project. The designer, on the one hand, is able to demand the highest professional level from him/herself and from colleagues, on the other hand, she is able to bring the project to those points of effectiveness that are necessary for the customer, the company, for him/herself, for the successful implementation of the project. In order to realise the project in a digital form, the designer must be able to see the situation through the eyes of the artist, the user and the client in different sequences. Design in the interactive environment is an open creative thinking, working with visual material, with tools, simulation of interaction processes; rational critical analysis and selection of strategies that are effective; running the project and its continued support. The structure of the design process in the interactive environment varies from project to project and is determined by the objectives of the project, by the boundaries of the concept, time, budget, available tools and technologies. The specificity of the professional activity shifts towards designing the user interaction with digital landscapes. Hybrid media as a new communicative environment are relevant today in various areas of the socio-cultural, political and economic life: in production of goods and services, science, arts, entertainment. Every area of human endeavour consists of many elements, and in each case it is required to solve different problems with respect to inclusion of the project in the virtual life and its further development. Wide influence of the virtual environment on contemporary sociocultural ontology leads to the processes of design branching in the virtual environment into a set of directions, to the emergence of new design practices.