Wednesday, September 29, 2010

"Organization and Preparation Tips"

               1. I Think the author's key points were about content, simplicity, and structure. He had two sections devoted to content. Content is very important when doing a presentation because it is what makes you succeed in your presentation. You do have to limit content so that your audience is not  having tons of data dumped on them in a presentation.Simplicity helps you connect more with the audience. The structure is paramount. Structure brings the ideas together to keep them flowing.

              2. I will take a lot of the author's points into consideration when doing my presentation. I can keep the audience attention by telling a story, making the presentation simple and structuring the presentation in sequencial order.Also, I can help myself by gaining confidence in the material I"m going to do a presentation on by going over it constantly to gain comfort.

              3. Both presentation preparation and product design have to be carefully thought over and processed so that they are good for the directed audience.


2. The areas of design I'm most interested in are the design process from the designers point of view, the elements of design as decided by the designer, and the effects of  trial and error on the designer. I would like to know how they go about trying to design for a targeted audience, what they have to go through to finalize a design, how much work it actually takes to create the design. I baasically want to know everything from a designer's aspect.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Emotional Design -Sept.29

1. The following passage is from Donald Norman's Emotional Design.
            Human responses to the everyday things of the world are complex, determined by a wide variety of factors. Some of these are outside the person, controlled by designer and manufacturer, or by advertising such things as brand image. And some come form within, from your own, privates experiences. Each of the three levels of design- viseral, behavioral, and reflective-plays its part in shaping your experienc. Each is as important as the others, but requires a different approach by the designer.
  I found this passage to be very interesting. Like most of his writing he explains topics with words that we can only related to by instincts.This is what makes this reading interesting. Norman mentions that each design gives off a response, but because it is a response we dont realize that those factors contribute to why we have the products we have and why we dont have other products.

2.Viseral design , behavioral design and reflective design seem to be useful categories but the categories could be a little more clearer by renaming the categories.For viseral design, I would rephrase it as  "Natural Reaction to a Design" because this level has to do with your instinctual reaction to a design. I would rename behavioral design to be the "Performance of a Design" because this level has to deal with a design's function, usability, understandablilty, and physical feel. Reflective design should be called the " Message/ Meaning of a Design" because this level has to do with the image your trying to portray as the person buying the design or it could be the meaning the design portrays.

3. I think that a designer will have some trouble deciding which level of design is more important because eventually their product will have to adhere to all three levels of design.Since each level of design is as imporatant as the other they cant be underweighed or overweighed.In my opinion, most porducts are reflective because its what the product means to you as in individual. Everyone has different items they own that bring back memories or has special meaning.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Emotional Design

1.I felt the authors key points were based on the three levels of design. He used viseral design(the natural reaction to a design), behavioral design( the performance of the design) and reflective design(the meaning of the product based on values and culture) to explain why we love or hate everyday things.He uses real life experiences to show how these play a big role in your emotions toward a product. Every level of design is important and no level is greater than the other.

2.This chapter is similiar to the chapter in the earlier reading "The Design of Everyday Things" except Norman takes a different approach on the topic of design. In the earlier reading , he focused on what made the design work but in this reading he takes his focus to a different level when he brings in the emotional side of a design. This reading answered what aspects of a design makes consumers buy the products even if they are not good concetual models, while the earlier reading answered what makes a design a good product.

3. There are some products I feel succeed viseral deisgn, behavioral design and reflective design. The iPhone 4 is a design I feel succeeds viseral design, perhaps Apple products in general, because I'm always astonished when seeing those futuristic designs.It is successful because at first glance it gives me this "wow" factor.Screw drivers are tools I feel succeeds in behavorial design because I use them just for its purpose. The design doesn't matter with this tool,as long as it a screwdriver I'm going to use it to unscrew a screw.It is successful because it does what it is suppose to do, perform. Jewelry and accessories succeed as a reflective design because the items are used to show meaning. For example, I might wear a a pink bracelet not just to match but to associate it with  my grandmother who is a breast cancer survivor.It is successful because it provokes personal images and rememberances.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The Use of Everyday Things- September 24

1.    A device is easy to use when there is visibility to the set of possible actions, where the controls and displays exploit natural mappings.The principles are simple but rarely incorporated into design.Good design takes care, planning, though. It takes conscious attention to the needs of the use. And sometimes the designer gets it right.

I found this passage above in Donald Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things" to be very interesting.It really makes you thinnk about designs and how a majority of these designs fail to satisfy the poeple. After reading the passage, as an opinion, I felt like designers go about designing things by themselves to make their ideas come to life and to be unique. As if  they are building things to suite an audience that is more compatiable with them and while doing so they lose sight of the general public who, in most cases, like the simplicity, visibility and  affordances of a good conceptual model.

2.  Norman's book still continues to be influential 20 years later because he shows the importance of design in our everyday lives. He uses real life examples to convey the consequences and effects of a bad design. The actual topic of his book also has an influential impact on the books long term success mainly because products are designed everyday and consumers will always have to deal with having a bad conceptual model that rarley gets feedback ,doesn't show visibile sign, or has more controls than it has buttons.All the criticism on designs makes the designers take time to really test a design to make sure its right.

3. Based on this chapter, the factors that I would include on a checklist for evaluating the design of a product is its visibility, natural mapping, affordances of materials used,simplicity, and whether or not its a good conceptual model.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The Use of Everyday Things

1. I feel like the author focused on the Principles of Design(visibility, mappings,and affordances) and how if used right or wrong can make or break a product.He used the Principles of design to help emphasize the problems the arise when trying to understand the use of everyday things. Visibility, the most important aspect, means the correct parts must be visible and the design must convey the correct message. He illustrates problems with visibility when using the example of a friend who had gotten confused between a set of glass doors because the door design didn't provide signals that naturally indicate where to push the door. Other problems were from natural mappings, what you want to do and what appears to be possible. Visiblity indicates the mapping between intended actions and actual operations. The principle affordance, which refers to the perceived and actual properties of the product, provide how something operates. However, the problem with the affordance of objects is when a simple object needs intructions to mke the design work. The author also focused on conceptual model  then diagnosed that if the design provides a good conceptual model it helps us predict the effects and make things visible.

2. I have had difficulty using my printer. Printers are usually simple but the DellV313w 3in1 scanner, printer, and copier gave me a run just the other day. The printer has a wireless network connnection so that I am able to print without connnecting a USB to a USB port Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to setup the wireless connection so I will have to use the USB port.The Printer has a USB cord and port, a setup button, and 9 other buttons.Just yesterday, I decided to use the scanner to upload papers to my computer.I manually connected the computer to the USB port.Then, I turned on the computer, put the document inside scanner. Next, I am asked to select an option and then press ok button , but NOTHING HAPPENS. First thing I do is check to see if its connected and press scan to see if it begins, but still nothing.The design had a lot to do with much of my confusion. The 14 buttons are arranged in an unusual order.I didn't know that there was a start button located on the far left side that would begin the print. The designers of the printer setup the buttons in a way to only be appealing to the eye, not to help with controls and processes. The usuability problems arose from mapping. They made what I wanted to do and what appeared to be possible a problem. Nothing is there to indicate that I needed to push this button or scroll this button this way.

3.The designers of the iPod addressed the principles one step at a time. With visibility and mapping , the designer went for a simple look with few buttons each displaying its function. However, they didn't have a power button so they designated the power functions to the play and center buttons when pushed together(an easy combination).They addressed the principle of affordances by making each component perceivable as the actual properties of the product so they were easy to determine its use.One example is the circle scroll. At a glance, the circle scroll makes the mind perceive that a circular movement of the finger could make the scroll on the screen go left when rotated counter clockwise and right when rotated clockwise.Overall, the process of constructing the iPod was thoughtfully and carefully planned, making the iPod a good simple conceptual model.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

"The Perfect Thing"

1. The article "The Perfect Thing" illustrates the process Jobs used to produce what he believed to be the "Perfect Thing." He started the process with an idea, "an mp3 player that would work with Apple's iTunes and would not suck". Fadell, the expertise behind the desigining and constructing of the perfect thing, decided what was needed to exceed the popular Toshiba and outdo the tasks of the Toshiba. He and Stan Ng came up with a solution to design a "in your pocket" size mp3 with a greater song cpapcity. Next, they began to make model of an Apple mp3 player. They went through trials of error trying to get the design to an ideal size and shape.Eventually they found the right design solution with  help of Shiller"s idea and Jobs approval. The team started developing the mechanics of the device, producing large numbers, and marketing the iPods.

2. The factors I would used to evaluate "The Perfect Thing" would be the audio performance, physical apperance, battery life, durablility, and storage capacity.

3. As an owner of an iPod, I feel like this product was a huge impact on the industry. Not just because of its physical apperance, but for its portable nature(being able to listen to it practically everywhere), the reasonable battery life, its versatility( you can upload pictures. play games, listen to music, watch movies and etc.), and the numerous accessories available for the iPod. However, the iPod is expensive ( starting at $100) and the size makes them easily acceptable to damage.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Hey Everyone!

Hi my name is Nicole Antoine.I was born in Brooklyn, New York but raised in Lithonia, Georgia. My favorite thing to do is play sports (mainly volleyball and basketball) but I also like cosmetology , making arts and crafts, playing video games, and baking! I recently had acl reconstructive surgery and had to undergo 7 months of physical therapy. That meant in the 7 months I couldn't do anything that was strenuous. In my case  that was very depressing since a big part of  my "life" has to do with sport activities. (You can bet im ready to get back to sports!) Also, I am ready to start the year off at K College. I just hope I can get used to the cold and snowy winters!!!