Final Post

1) Looking back on the entire class, I feel that the combination of the two papers we wrote were the most challenging and rewarding assignments we did. First, the Wikipedia paper challenged us to take a neutral stance on an issue and forced us to be objective. This was a difficult task, to understand the argument and have a want to take one side, but instead remain neutral. The final paper was a nice step up from the Wikipedia paper, it allowed us to take a side of a certain issue and present a logical and substantiated argument. It was helpful to remain objective in the first paper, and finally take a stand on the argument in the final paper.

2,3) The most important thing I learned in class were discussion skills. We spent a lot of time analyzing not only the roles of people in a discussion, but we practiced them and even found people who fit the roles well. Discussion skills will always be useful, especially if I have a job that involves a lot of meetings. Being able to communicate with people and understand what they’re conveying is an important skill that will come in handy in many different facets in life. Outside of class, the most important thing I learned was the ability to critically read and analyze many different types of literature. As a class, we read a variety of different articles, ranging from shopping to the design of the iPod, but the common denominator in all of this was the ability to understand, discuss and defend our points of view. All of the aforementioned skills will be useful throughout our entire lives.

Wikipedia page

Here's the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike_Sweatshops

Architectural Design

1) An example of architectural design that I consider to be an epic failure is the Sonic that currently opened near my house. The Sonic could not be designed worse, especially when dealing with a lot of automobile traffic. The Sonic has a row of parking spaces for people who want to be served while sitting in their car. The idea is a well thought out, and actually would work well if it weren’t for the drive through. The drive through line directly conflicts with the path to be served in your car, and if you want to go through the drive through, you have to maneuver through the entire parking lot one and a half times. Also, most fast food restaurants have cars exit through the drive through, but in this case the exit is in the back, and if you mistakenly enter the drive through, there is room enough for only one car, so you have to wait in the drive through line to exit. Cars are likely to enter the drive through line accidently because there are no signs depicting which way to drive. The behavior design of this Sonic is terrible, however from the street, the Sonic is lit up and looks very nice. It has the eye-catching persona and probably gets many customers just from the way its looks, and the name of the company.

2) The building on the Kalamazoo campus that I chose to analyze was Dewing Hall. There are many entrances to Dewing, four to be specific. If you enter either of the side doors, you will find just a set of stairs, pretty plain and uninformative. If you were a non-student this might be misleading and confusing. Also the registrar’s office is not well labeled and quite frankly hard to find. This is not good because many students need the assistance of the registrar and the office is hard to find it may frustrate or discourage kids from seeing the registrar. The building is also a relatively tall one, and if entering the building from a side entrance, one may have to walk up four flights of stairs. This is quite tedious, and the design of the elevator is quite poor behaviorally. For starters the elevator is ridiculously slow, and incredibly small. There are a lot of students who are either late/lazy and this hike up four flights of stairs is both time and energy consuming. I also noticed that if a handicapped person were to use the elevator, it would be an extremely tight fit, if the wheelchair fit at all. Most of the doors in Dewing have strangely tight hinges, and are easy to open at first, but once the door is opened past the half way point it is very hard to hold open. It is almost as if the door is pushing against the person who has it open. There have been numerous occasions where I have either ran into the door or the door has hit me in the butt as I walked through. Finally Dewing hall is not the most viscerally attractive building. The building has many neutral colors, which are bland and almost annoying to look at. However from the outside, the building looks nice, historic looking and gives off the impression of an Ivy League school.

3) The major flaw in the current architectural design process is that the user is not consulted in the design of the building. Heimsath states that, “Behavioral data are not currently developed and quantified for a building or planning project, nor is feedback a part of the process.” Feedback is an important step in the design process, something we have studied in class, and without it most designs are not as good as they could be. The user should be consulted at an earlier than they are now, which is after the building is built. The designers need to actually use the design themselves, and make sure everything works out, not according to the rules of thumb.

Advertisement

1) “If we believe what advertising agencies (and the companies they make advertisements and commercials for) tell us, we have to conclude that advertising works in strange and mysterious ways and that although nobody is sure precisely how it works, it does have an impact - though its power to shape any given individual’s behavior is (or seems to be) really quite minimal.

This passage speaks of people who believe most everything they are told. There are people who will believe anything they hear, see or read online, which is unfortunate because in the end, these specific people usually end up with false facts. Arthur Asa Berger is saying that if we as the consumers believe everything advertisers convey, then they will have a large influence over us.

2) One key point of this chapter is advertising through television commercials. Berger gives data of how much a thirty-second commercial can cost, and the cost is usually between $300,000 and $400,000. These costs show that advertising agencies and companies will go to extreme lengths to get their product out there and it also shows how effective commercial advertising is. Berger also discusses how television has actually shaped our culture, and how “television is the most powerful socializing and enculturating force in society.”

3) Psychological understanding is very important in the field of advertising. It is important because the designers of the advertisement need to understand how the human psyche operates to be able to manipulate customers. If the designers have no understand of what will influence people subconsciously the advertisements will be ineffective.

Fashion Design

1) There are many reasons as to why fashion is reflective. One reasons discussed by Jones is immodesty or sexual attraction. People often use clothes to attract others and to flaunt their availability. People also dress in order with their social standing or the social group to which they belong. People feel the need to express themselves through their clothing, some people use it as an outlet for their creativity and personality. Clothing is something that people have control over, they can choose to express themselves however they wish through clothes.

2) Fashion is constantly changing. The reason behind this change is because it is certain peoples job to be ahead of the curve and trendsetting. In order to be ahead of the curve, new designs and new trends need to be developed and set. I also believe that geographic location influences time. America is often said to be years behind Europe in a fashion sense, and styles that are popular currently in Europe will most likely be popular here in America in a few years time. Even more specifically within United States boarders, New York fashion will obviously be more advanced than the fashion styles in Montana or North Dakota.

3) Some principles that should be followed when designing clothes that Jones outlines in her writing are price, quality, fit and comfort. She also outlines more reflective principles such as brand name and current trends.

Simplicity

1) The thesis of this essay about simplicity by Donald Norman is:

“Because the people want the features. Because simplicity is a myth whose time has past, if it ever existed.”

2) Support of the thesis:

2a) “Make it simple and people won’t buy. Given a choice, they will take the item that does more. Features win over simplicity, even when people realize that it is accompanied by more complexity.”

2b) “Marketing rules – as it should, for a company that ignores marketing is a company soon out of business. Marketing experts know that purchase decisions are influenced by feature lists, even if the buyers realize they will probably never use most of the features. Even if the features confuse more than they help.”

2c)“Would you pay more money for a washing machine with less controls? In the abstract, maybe. At the store? Probably not.”

3) In a world driven by technological advancement, people will choose simplicity over complexity.

Downtown Kalamazoo

1) Downtown Kalamazoo’s business area is designed in a functional way for shoppers. The streets can be easily navigated on foot, the sidewalks are wide, and the stores appropriately labeled. Along Burdick Street, the main shopping portion, the buildings are fairly new and have a modern look. Once the shopper walks away from Burdick Street, they will notice that the buildings look much older and more run down; also the safe atmosphere is eliminated once off Burdick Street. The streets are also one-way streets, which can create confusion for drivers who do not know the city.

2) The city of Kalamazoo should improve the trash system of its downtown area. The trash containers are very poorly designed, they are not open enough at the top and this can lead to littering and also people attempting to throw away trash but missing the container or the item falling out. Another suggestion is the city should improve is traffic flow. The streets are mainly one way, and traffic on Burdick Street could make people who are walking on the street feel uncomfortable. I noticed that the road seemed closer to the sidewalk on Burdick Street than anywhere else in the city. The city could make Burdick Street pedestrian only traffic, and create more two-way streets elsewhere throughout the city. A third improvement that the city of Kalamazoo could make to its downtown area is to renovate some of the older, run-down buildings that exist on the streets that surround Burdick Street. Revamping the buildings would have many desirable side effects such as an improved safety atmosphere, the attraction of more business to the particular buildings, and they could be potential generators for other businesses in the proximity.

3) “It was a very bad trash container. The opening at the top was so small that much of the trash aimed at it fell on the lid, from which it would soon be redistributed to the street by the slightest breeze. Because of the small opening, furthermore, the trash that did get inside was not compacted the way it usually is, and a relatively small volume of trash would be enough to clog the opening. All subsequent trash people would place on the lid, now functioning as a little dispenser.”

I found the waste system in Downtown Kalamazoo to be very interesting. First of all, there were not enough trash containers that were visible to the people. This is frustrating people who do not want to litter, but are forced to carry their trash inordinate distances to dispose of it properly. Secondly, the trash containers that were visible, were poorly designed. The opening to put trash in was not nearly large enough, and rather than being on top, the openings were on the side of the lid. Lastly, I did not see one recycling container. Recycling containers have a positive reflective design, and Kalamazoo can represent to its citizens and other people who are there to shop, that they care about the environment and are doing what they can to protect it.

Egg packaging

The process of developing a package to secure an egg from a four-story drop is quite an interesting one. It involved first a lot of independent “blue-print” drawing from both Dane and myself. After much personal research and concept drawings, Dane and I discussed which of the designs would be most suitable. Neither of us are physics guys, so we took a lot of guesses on what might work. We shoved our egg down in a roll of paper towel, attached a parachute and a roll of duct tape for weight at the bottom (I know it’s super scientific).

The dropping of the egg off of the building was an experience filled with hopefulness. As I mentioned earlier, neither Dane nor myself have a background in physics, so we really guessed during the process of designing our container, however, we had the utmost confidence. Our package was undoubtedly the loudest when it dropped. It sounded horrendous for the egg, there was no way it survived. The egg did survive, it actually survived the first, second and third drops. This may have come as a surprise, but the design experience was filled with many ideas, some construction and some fun too.

Dane's Blog

http://danedesignintelligence.blogspot.com/

Whyte v. Gibbs

1) Whyte and Gibbs both have different approaches to designing the city. Gibbs believes the city should be more designed, much like a mall; whereas Whyte believes the less design put into a city the better it will turn out. Whyte makes a more convincing argument because he is less extreme, he realizes that the city is not a shopping machine like the mall and believes the city should stay true to this. Gibbs however makes the argument that cities should be designed, his stance gives me the feeling that he is trying to over-design the city, and this takes away from his argument in my opinion.

2) The elements of urban design that appeal to me most are the design of buildings; how these buildings look, their style and even their height and width. Other things that appeal to me are the design of the roads and sidewalks. An aspect of urban design that repels me is over-design. When I feel coerced into buying something, I am bothered and annoyed. Other than this, I like the design of most urban areas.

Whyte's City

1) Whyte’s key point in this chapter is that the beauty of the street is that it does not feel designed. The less design you incorporate to get the desired outcome, the better the street will function. Also, the more things there to distract the customers and throw them off their guided course, the more they are likely to purchase. Whyte gives examples of window shoppers and the correlation between the number of “lookers” and “buyers.” Also Whyte discusses that if people are stopped, distracted or forced to walk around something, sales will increase. Basically the chapter says that the less design put into the street to coerce people into buying things, the more things they will actually purchase.

2) The principles that Whyte introduces in this chapter are similar in some aspects to the principles that Norman used. From this chapter, I noticed a lot of behavioral issues with the streets, something that Norman discussed often. The flow of the street was crammed, it was loud and noisy but for some reason, people like the street and like to shop there. Whyte also discusses the design of the entranceway of the stores while Norman explained the design of the door itself, and at first I drew a natural comparison between the two, but as I read further the differences become evident. Norman speaks of the door and the design of the door, and I’m sure Whyte would agree with this, however, Whyte went a step further and discussed the appeal of the entranceway. Whyte explained that the entrance needs to be able to control the flow of traffic, keep it moving and by doing this, people will stop to chat and “pause, as if to get their bearings, look about, and then move on.” The entrance needs to be viscerally attractive; it needs to literally pull people into the store, which is a principle common between both Norman and Whyte.

3) Some aspects that could be included in a checklist for Whyte may be the flow of the pedestrian traffic on the street, the height of the buildings, the design of the entranceways and even the design of the trash containers. The design of the trash containers are a big part of the flow of the street, if they are too hidden then people will be likely to litter, but if they in the middle of the walk way then people will become aggravated and frustrated. Also if the design of the container itself is poor, then trash may begin to fall out of not go in the first place.

Main Street

1) Basically Robert Gibbs believes that Main Street is almost a watered down version of the average mall. For a while, the thing that has attracted customers to Main Street is its randomness, which Gibbs agrees should be kept, but Main Street can improve by implementing strategies proven effective in malls. Some of these strategies include improvements of lighting and advertisement. Gibbs complained that if he were an average customer, he wouldn’t know what types of products were in most of the stores.

2) Gibbs makes a pretty convincing argument that Main Street should be made more similar to malls. His argument is strong because he acknowledges that Main Street should not be exactly a mall, but it should incorporate strategies that have proven themselves in malls. Gibbs explains that Main Street and malls are two very different venues to shop, and they both have characteristics that make them unique, and those traits should be left alone. However Gibbs lists improvements that could be made that, although some minor, could greatly improve the shopping scene of Main Street.

3) Things that I believe are important to Main Street are substance and accessibility. Just like any other store, if the product is not one desired by the customers then the store will not prosper. If the store is not accessible, inviting and makes shoppers feel secure, then they will not attract as much business as they should be. I know personally that if a store does not contain an item that I desire, or advertise an item that I desire, then I have no need to enter the store. Also if it looks too difficult to get into the store, or to maneuver around, I will be less likely to shop at the particular store.

Iconic Packaging

1) Packaging is an extremely important aspect in the marketing of a product. The packaging of a product can make or break a sale, for example if the product is intended to be classy and sophisticated yet comes in a plain and dated box, buyers will be hesitant. The packaging of iconic items, like Coca-Cola, is difficult because it needs to retain the original image while having new modern twists integrated into it. Packaging that has influenced my purchase is the bottle design of Fiji water. Most water bottles are round or cylindrical in some way, but Fiji water comes in a rectangular shaped container, which peaked my interest. After drinking the water I realized that it is shockingly, just water, and the packaging of the item had driven me to purchase it.

2) A product that has iconic packaging is the Big Mac from McDonald’s. Another product that has iconic packaging is Ramen Noodles, the color and design of their package gives buyers a sense or comfort and reliability on the product.

3) When I think about the usability issues of packaging, one prominent example comes to mind, the packaging of scissors. I had purchased a pair of siscorrs because mine could no longer be found, and when I went to open the scissors, they were heat wrapped. The only way to get into this package of scissors was to use another pair of scissors, or a knife, I had neither. This seems to me to be a major design flaw and should have been caught before the product went to market. When I think of good packaging design, I think of individual bottles of soda. Bottles are more usable than cans because bottles can travel with less likelihood of spilling. This seems to be good design because if a customer is looking to travel with the soda, the bottle is the answer.

Target Observations

1) I observed the Target in Novi, Michigan. Target markets to basically all customers; they have everything from toys for young children to adult things such as housekeeping supplies, graphic novels and innovative electronics.

2a)This Target was very large, almost a little daunting. The store has a vinyl finish outside, with bricks around the lower potion and resembles a warehouse. There were 8 total doors for customers to enter the store. The doors to enter are left of the doors to exit, which is unorthodox for many Americans.

b) There were a lot of different sounds once one enters the store. There is the sound of people talking and talking, the sound of parents scolding children, and low elevator-type background music. There are many conversations between customers, other customers and employees that it is somewhat difficult to focus. The sound of employees trying to sell products and interest customers in things they may not have originally come to Target for.

c) The merchandise is displayed like most big retail stores. The goods were on shelves, racks, and the more expensive items, in cases. There is usually one product chosen to be displayed in front of the others, a medium priced product that still looks nice and represents the rest of the products well.

d) The floors were all tile. They had stains, gashes and portions missing. The floor is very unattractive and dated. The floor had so many things spilled on it that some parts are sticky, which was a very big deterrent for me.

e) Target had many large displays signs. Most of the signs I noticed were in the clothing area, they had images of happy families wearing clothes purchased at Target. The store also had large hanging signs to indicate the contents of each isle. Target also had fairly large signs displaying the items on sale, the original price and the sale price.

f) The cashier area resembled that of a grocery store. There were many different checkout lanes, which were indicated by a light with a number on it. If the light was on it means that the lane was open to customers. Target also had an express lane checkout for customers with 15 items or less. There were coolers with assorted beverages in the front of each lane, and in the middle of each lane there were packs of gum, mints and magazines for customers to look and hopefully buy impulsively.

3) Target tries to project the “classy” image while maintaining a relatively inexpensive price. The outside of the building has a professional look with the vinyl finish and has an appealing and attractive look with brick around the lower portion of the outer walls. Upon entering the store, customers are hit with signs representing items that are on sale, large posters of excited people modeling Target products and cheap children’s toys.

4) As I observed customers the design of the store aided customers greatly. Without large hanging signs above each isle, customers could wonder aimlessly for hours attempting to find what they were searching for. The large signs really helped customers narrow down their search. Also on the end of each isle there were various items that could be found in each isle, this also aided customers because instead of just seeing a sign listing the items, they could physically touch each item without having to go down the isle. I saw many shoppers physically feeling and touching the items before purchasing them. I saw employees and experts interacting with customers and given them their best advice.

5) The thing that I found most interesting about the design this particular Target was they designed it to get customers in and out as quick as possible. Usually stores will attempt to keep customers in the store as long as possible, but it seemed as if this store attempted to aid customers in getting in the store and leaving quickly. The design of the store did not entice customers to walk a certain way around the store. Usually stores will funnel customers one way, getting them to walk around the entire store but this Target was very open and customers were not persuaded to walk any direction around the store.

Shopping Smart

1) Gladwell makes not only many interesting but many important points throughout this piece. The different theories that he explains such as the Butt-Brush Theory and the Decompression Zone are interesting to the reader, but to a designer or to an engineer would be very useful towards increasing sales for the store. Another important point is the subconscious efforts of the customer. He explains that if your store is next to a boring and bland building like a bank, customers will not notice it because they have already deterred their vision from the plain looking bank. He also talks about how items on the right hand side are more examined than items on the left. The reasoning behind this is the left side of the brain is where the processing of this object takes place, he also offers the reasoning that it’s because most customers are right handed. Also a very important point reiterated that the designers should tailor their stores to the customers, and the customer should not have to deal with a poorly designed store. There are also large differences between sexes and demographics that should be addressed by each designer, without sacrificing sales from another demographic.

2) After reading this article, I realized how much I fall for the design of the store. I am a shopper who wants to get in and out and like most males, and as explained in the article, I don’t try on half of the clothes I buy. However when shopping with females, they take much longer than me, trying on and basically modeling every item they pick up. Also I have bought many clothes, displayed on tables, for the way they feel, how soft they are and how their potential comfort level. Gladwell explains that this is a natural tendency of many shoppers and thus, they put the comfortable sweaters out on the tables. However, advertisements and the placement of merchandise does not effect me as much as it may other customers. I usually go into the store with not only a set price but also a set list in mind, so it’s exceptionally hard to convince me to buy something I didn’t want to buy before I entered the store.

3) My checklist would consist of:

1) Is the merchandise approximately placed in the store?

2) Do the surrounding stores “turn off” potential customers attention due to their own blandness?

3) What things will drive customers away? Will they be intimidated like Norman spoke of when he discussed Diesel stores?

4) How can we get customers to purchase more items? Not how can we draw more customers to the store, but the ones that do come in need to buy more.

Biggest mistakes in web design

1) One of the largest, if not the largest point of the article was to focus not on your own design preferences, but the user’s preferences. Flanders says that the website should be geared totally towards the user and any difficulties or dislikes the user has of the website will only result in them leaving the page you have designed. If the website is not usable and functional, then it has absolutely no purpose to the user, according to Flanders.

2) The article has many significant points. One of those points was the functionality and usability of the site. If the site does not function quickly and without problems, then it is useless to the users and they will find a new, better and more efficient site. Another major point was the importance of text on the website. If the text is too small the user may leave the site, if the color of the text does not contrast well with the background of the page the use may leave the site, and if graphics are used in place of text, users will most likely get confused and leave the site. The next major point pertains to the content of the site. The site needs great content or “Heroin content” in Flander’s words. Sites such as google.com and youtube.com have great content. Users enjoy using the sites because they are important and useful to them primarily due to the content.

3) My list of important webpage design factors:

1) Content

2) Functionality

3) Conciseness

4) Solves my problems

The content of a website is very important, if the content is useless to everyone and has no meaning, then people have no need to visit the website. If the website does not function well, has slow loading large images, and the links don’t travel to the appropriate place, then the website will become frustrating and another site can do the job better. The site also needs to be concise, taken three pages to explain each little task or product is unnecessary and will only lead users to other, less verbose pages. Finally a website needs to solve problems. When I want to look up a somewhat obscure topic, Wikipedia helps me out. If it did a poor job of this then the user would not use the page and it would not be as popular as it is.

Know it All

1) One of the author’s main points is that Wikipedia goes to strenuous lengths to protect its legitimacy. Not only are there rules for publishing such as the entry must be written from a neutral point of view and all content must be verifiable and previous published. There are specific members like Essjay, who spend their time editing content and structure of the entries. There are also five robots that patrol the entries; they search for obscenities and mass deletions of text. Another main point made by the author is that like other encyclopedias, Wikipedia is not perfect. In a study comparing Wikipedia to Britannica, for every four errors Wikipedia had Britannica had only three. Even though Wikipedia is not perfect, it’s still the most accessible and efficient encyclopedia.

“The encyclopedic impulse dates back more than two thousand years and has rarely balked at national borders. Among the first general reference works was Emperor’s Mirror, commissioned in 220 A.D. by a Chinese emperor, for use by civil servants. The quest to catalogue all human knowledge accelerated in the eighteenth century. In the seventeen-seventies, the Germans, champions of thoroughness, began assembling a two-hundred-and-forty-two-volume masterwork. A few decades earlier, Johann Heinrich Zedler, a Leipzig bookseller, had alarmed local competitors when he solicited articles for his Universal-Lexicon. His rivals, fearing that the work would put them out of business by rendering all other books obsolete, tried unsuccessfully to sabotage the project.

It took a devious Frenchman, Pierre Bayle, to conceive of an encyclopedia composed solely of errors. After the idea failed to generate much enthusiasm among potential readers, he instead compiled a “Dictionnaire Historique et Critique,” which consisted almost entirely of footnotes, many highlighting flaws of earlier scholarship. Bayle taught readers to doubt, a lesson in subversion that Diderot and d’Alembert, the authors of the Encyclopédie (1751-80), learned well. Their thirty-five-volume work preached rationalism at the expense of church and state. The more stolid Britannica was born of cross-channel rivalry and an Anglo-Saxon passion for utility.”

2) The supporting detail of this passage is effective because Schiff starts the passage by talking about the evolution of the encyclopedia, and how it never belonged to just one country. She gave many examples such as the Chinese encyclopedia and a German attempt too. She then concluded it with Pierre Bayle, who constructed the first encyclopedia, even though it was “composed solely of errors.”

3) Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Britannica have both similar and contrasting designs. For starters they are both encyclopedias. However the large difference is one is based solely on paper, the other purely Internet based. Wikipedia is based solely on the Internet and is designed to be all-inclusive. Wikipedia is updated numerous times each day whereas the Encyclopedia Britannica is updated physically every year. Wikipedia was designed to be accessable and efficient and the Encylopedia Britannica was designed to be reference based and to have no questions of legitimacy arise.

Wikipedia Topic

I would like to do my wikipedia paper on Nike's sweatshops.

Preparation and Organization

1) The three main points of Reynolds piece are that the presentation has to be clear and understandable to the audience, good presentations are planned out thoughtfully on paper before they are put into PowerPoint or other similar programs, this helps with organization and flow. Finally, good presentations need to be practiced many times before it will given, this will almost eliminate nervousness.

2) This advice is very applicable to the presentation we have been assigned to give. Before I jump right into putting my ideas into PowerPoint, I’m going to write them down and outline them on paper. I also will practice the presentation over and over, and formulate possible questions so that I am not caught off guard. It will also force me to think about the audience that I’m presenting too and how my partner and I can best capture and maintain their attention throughout the presentation.

3) Presentation preparation and product design have a lot of similar aspects. Reynolds explains that if one opens PowerPoint and starts making a presentation, it will be confusing and unclear because it needs to be planned on paper first. This tip holds true to design teams too because they cannot just sit down and build the finished product. The designers need to plan for months the best and most efficient way to manufacture their product and that helps by planning it out on paper and making models prior to the final product. Just like presenters and speakers, design teams need to make usability of the product simple. If a complex product is too difficult to use, it won’t be as efficient, usable or economically beneficial to the company as if it were simple to use. If a presentation is too jumbled and confusing, the audience will divert their attention minimizing the effect the presentation will have.

An area of design that I would like to cover in class is the advertising and marketing aspect and also I would like to explore the reflective level of design more.

Emotional Design...Round 2

“There are two kinds of product development: enhancement and innovation. Enhancement means to take some existing product or service and make it better. Innovation provides a completely new way of doing something, or a completely new thing to do, something that was not possible before.

Innovations are particularly difficult to assess. Before they were introduced, who would have though we needed typewriters, personal computers, copying machines, or cell phones? Answer: Nobody. Today it is hard to imagine life without these items, but before they existed almost no one but an inventor could imagine what purpose they would serve, and quite often the inventors were wrong. Thomas Edison thought that the phonograph would eliminate the need for letters written on paper: business people would dictate their thoughts through the recordings.” (page 71)

1) I found this passage from Norman’s book to be particularly interesting because it talks about innovation, the actual invention part of the design. Norman captures the complexity and difficulty of dreaming up, researching and creating a truly original product. People would have never considered that they could benefit from a personal computer. Prior invention of the personal computer, no one (excluding the inventors) could fathom the idea. It took the imagination and creativity of a few inventors to introduce this “life changing” product to the public.

2) The categories that Norman presents in this chapter are very useful. The categories hit all three levels of design, the subconscious level, the physical level and the external level. When a product is effective on all three of these levels, it is not only marketable and desired, but it also functional and useful, thus making it a good product. These categories could not have been issued better names. Visceral, by definition, means to deal with instinctive and elemental emotions. The category that retains this name describes designs that attract the eye and begs consumers to buy them on impulse. The category that includes the physical feel of design, and the way the product behaves is entitled behavior design. Finally, the category that reflects your image and status is called reflective design. The name of each level includes the features the level tries to cover.

3) A well-designed product includes all three levels of design mentioned in this chapter. However, for certain products, one of the levels must stand out more, or out weigh the others. For example, a car must use all three levels, but if the car fails the behavior level then it is useless. So behavioral design is most important to a car because even if the car is not flashy and does not catch your eye, it can still be operated and can still get from point A to point B. This being said, a car that is flashy and has good visceral and reflective design, is more likely to sell than a car that is worn down and rusted, which proves that all three levels of design should be focused on. Some products focus more specifically on one level of design. For instance within the category of clothes, dresses focus on the visceral and reflective designs more than they focus on the behavioral aspect, meaning they’re more for looks than for comfort. On the flip side, sweatpants are designed mainly for behavioral purposes, to keep you warm and comfortable as opposed to looking extravagant or high class.

Emotional Design

1) In this chapter, Norman again hits on many key points of design. The key points he discusses are the differences between visceral design, behavioral design and reflective design. Norman explains that visceral design is “what nature does.” He explains that the purpose of visceral design is to catch the eye of the consumer. Visceral design also includes the texture, shape and overall feel of the a product. Norman also discusses the concept of behavioral design. He explains that behavioral design is almost the opposite of visceral design in the sense that it is all about performance and not appearance. The final key concept that Norman hits on in this chapter is reflective design. Norman explains that reflective design “is all about message, about culture, and about the meaning of a product or its use. “ Reflective design is very complex and encompasses many things such as self-image and personal remembrances.

2) The two pieces of literature that we have read from Norman differ quite greatly. The first piece of work we read by Norman, The Design of Everyday Things, focused more on what aspects of design will make a product flourish. Emotional Design, the later piece of work we read by Norman focuses more on the reaction of the customer to the product. He discusses visceral design and reflective design, which deal more with the emotions of the consumer and how they feel about and react to the product.

3) a)An example of Visceral Design that I have come across in my life is sunglasses. When aviators first re-entered the scene a few years back, I decided that since they looked so cool, I should immediately go out and purchase a pair. I walked into the store, picked up the first pair of aviator sunglasses I found, decided that I liked them and purchased them. I did not know if this particular pair of sunglasses even screened my eyes from the sun, but they looked awesome so I purchased them. They actually turned out to work great, and I still own them today.

b) The example I used for my experience with visceral design also doubles as my example for my personal encounter with behavioral design. As I mentioned above, I purchased this certain pair of aviator style sunglasses solely because they looked cool. However, the reason I needed sunglasses in the first place was to shield my eyes from the sun. When I walked out of the store, I realized immediately that these were awesome sunglasses not only because they looked spectacular, but they also did a great job of shading my eyes from the sun. If these sunglasses did not do a good job protecting my eyes, I would hardly ever wear them, no matter how cool they looked. The sunglasses looked cool and worked great giving them high ranks in both visceral design and behavioral design.

c) An example of reflective design in my life is when I went furniture shopping with my aunt. I was younger and didn’t understand why, but she always looked for the most expensive, designer type furniture. I saw many similar models of furniture that were much cheaper and looked almost exactly the same. There were also models that were ten times as comfortable as the designer models she bought. This is an example of reflective design because she thought that the type of furniture you bought dictated what type of person you were, or how much wealth you had. I personally don’t agree with this because if the couch is not comfortable, why buy it?

The design of Everyday Things part 2

1) “The human mind is exquisitely tailored to make sense of the world. Give it the slightest clue and off it goes, providing explanation, rationalization, understanding. Consider the objects-books, radios, kitchen appliances, office machines and light switches-that make up our everyday lives well-designed objects are easy to interpret and understand. They contain visible clues to their operation. Poorly designed objects can e difficult and frustrating to use. They provide no clues-or sometimes false clues. They trap the user and thwart the normal process of interpretation and understanding. Alas, poor design predominates. The result is a world filled with frustration, with objects that cannot be understood, with devices that lead to error. “

This passage is interesting to me because without the abilities of the mind mentioned above, intelligence in design would be meaningless. What would it matter if the designer took months to provide visible clues that persuaded the user to perform a certain act, if the brain could not recognize these clues? Without the brain’s ability to understand these clues, and the designer’s ability to use them properly, we would be stuck in a world unable to advance technologically.

2) This book can still be used today because the functions of the brain do not change over time. The function of sight and the ability to pick up on small clues included by the designer are still the same now as they were 20 years ago. People still need to be given a good visual and conceptual map of the object they are about to use, no matter how simple or complicated it may be, and while the objects may have been different 20 years ago, the principles are still applicable today.

3) The factors that should be included on a checklist for evaluating the design of a product are visibility, mapping and feedback. If the designer includes good visible clues about the product and how it should be used then the product will have a successful design. The only way a designer can include good visible clues is by having a good conceptual map. With a good conceptual map, the user can effectively put together the clues and perform the actions that are best fit for the product. Finally, the abovementioned criteria are useless if the user is not provided with quick, quality feedback. The user needs to know immediately how the action they are performing affects the product.

The Design of Everyday Things

1) Donald A. Norman hit on many key points throughout this chapter. One key point is the importance of visibility; the correct parts need to be visible. Norman gives the example of scissors, it’s easy to see that one would insert their fingers into the holes, and even if they do not insert the correct fingers, the scissors are still usable and efficient. Another key point is having a good conceptual model. Reverting back to the scissors example, they also have a good conceptual model. A conceptual model is the relationship between the operating controls and the function. It’s easy for anyone to understand that when you open your fingers the scissors will open and vice versa.

2) A product that I have had a history of not understanding and have had trouble using are copying machines. Some copy machines have touch screen interfaces and some have the standard button interfaces. The copy machine should be simple to use, you insert a piece of paper, press a button and it makes a copy. However the number of features far exceeds the number of buttons they have choose to include on the interface. Many of the buttons have multiple features assigned to them, such as the start button is also teamed up with the menu button. I find that my copies always come out incorrect and I waste resources such as ink, paper and not to mention my time because of it. The usability, actually the un-usability of copy machines definitely arises from the principles that Norman discussed in the chapter. The problem with the machine is that the buttons you need are not clearly visible. To go along with these issues, there is no correlation between the buttons you press and what the machine will do. This would be referred to as a poor conceptual model.

3) The designers of the iPod addressed the issues that Norman discussed in a couple of different ways. Norman discusses at great lengths that visibility of important buttons. When the iPod was first being designed, they were devoted to keeping it simple. Steve Jobs did not want to include even a power switch because he wanted the least amount of buttons possible, while still being usable. On the note of conceptual models, the original iPod used the thumb wheel. When you slid your thumb to the right you scrolled down through your songs, and when you slid your finger to the left you scrolled upwards. The movement of your thumb directly relates to the direction you scroll through the songs, which promotes a good conceptual model. The iPod design team also addressed the principle Norman’s discussed of constraint. Constraints provide a visual map that limit the way you can use a certain thing. So for the iPod’s thumb wheel, people would understand that it would be operated using only a single finger as opposed to a full hand or all the fingers. The designers have used the discussed psychological principles to cut down on the learning curve but to still maximize the amount of tasks you can perform.

The Perfect Thing

1) This article illustrated many different parts of the design process. First and foremost it started with an idea, a simple idea to make a “home digital entertainment device with a hard drive-based jukebox to store thousands of songs.” The man who dreamed up this idea, Anthony Fadell, had bounced around companies who argued over the first stages of this handheld jukebox, but finally he was recruited by Jon Rubenstein to present his product in front of Apple. After he signed a contract with apple, Fadell started the very first stages of design. He took his ideas, which were in his head and on paper at this point, and made a rough design of the product by cutting out pieces of foam-boards and gluing them together, not unlike the activity we did in class on Friday. Then, as the expiration date of his contract loomed, Fadell and the rest of his team presented their conclusions to the Apple board of executives. The team had a clever idea to present two “less desirable” versions of the product, before unveiling their polished model. The idea worked magnificently and Steve Jobs, an Apple executive, along with the rest of the board, loved the idea. However, some of the executives offered ideas such as the infamous thumb wheel that the team asked Fadell to include in the device. The team then named the device the iPod, and by team, I mean Steve Jobs. By the end of the initial advertisement they had customers almost salivating over the realize of the iPod. When in the marketing stage, Apple started building the prototype of this device, perfected the thumb wheel, and spent a few agonizing weeks deciding how to configure the menu for best consumer efficiency and ease. They also performed durability tests on the device and the hard drive in the iPod, since one of the biggest marketing techniques was the ability to pocket the device at any moment. The team actually dropped specially designed devices off of a roof to evaluate how much abuse they could handle.

2) There are many factors that can be used to describe the “perfect thing.” The perfect thing is comprised by affordability, durability, efficiency and overall appearance. The iPod has been so successful because it meets all of the aforementioned criteria. For such advanced technology, the iPod is extremely affordable; the leading competitive device was nearly $2500. The iPod is a very durable device, Apple went to extreme measures to not only test the resiliency, but to also improve it. I can’t even begin to explain what I have put my iPod through and it works perfectly. The iPod is one of the most efficient handheld jukeboxes as well, I have owned many different kinds and using buttons to scroll through songs is extremely time consuming and frustrating. The thumb wheel is a brilliant idea that really sets the iPod apart from its competitors. If the consumer cares about none of the previously mentioned characteristics then they may be apt to buy the iPod purely for its sleek and attractive design. There are other devices that look good, but the iPod blows them out of the proverbial water. Design satisfaction is so important that Apple offers a variety of shapes, sizes and colors for the iPod. An example is the iPod shuffle, consumers can tuck the device away from the rest of the world, including themselves and have the iPod play random songs that they previously selected. Another design is the iPod touch for the more tech savvy customers who want to have more capabilities at the touch of their finger. As if that were not enough, Apple has partnered with other companies to design cases and outerwear for all iPods.

3) The iPod is arguably the most known of all handheld jukeboxes. It has its strengths but it also has its weaknesses. One of the iPod’s biggest strengths is its name alone. The iPod is so well known, that people refer to other non-iPod mp3 players as iPods. This reminds me of people referring to tissue paper as Kleenex. I have heard many people call a piece of tissue paper a Kleenex. Not all tissue paper is made by Kleenex, which is just a common misconception. Similarly, bandages are often referred to as Band-Aids. Concurrent with Kleenex, Band-Aid is just another popular brand name. Some more strengths about the iPod are that it is aesthetically pleasing and has amazing capabilities such as wi-fi, games, maps, weather, and even a personal planner. Unfortunately, the iPod suffers from certain weaknesses such as the price. The iPod is affordable, however there are other devices that are less expensive which provide some of the same main features, such as playing music or games. Customers who realize that they can buy an “off-brand” mp3 player usually end up equally satisfied with their purchase. Also, the iPod has so many functions that it cannot sustain battery life for extended periods of time like other handheld jukeboxes. The iPod’s weaknesses, albeit existent, do not detract many customers or decrease consumer satisfaction.

2)

Opening Post

Well for starters, my name is Dave Menoian. I'm a recent graduate of Walled Lake Western High School in Walled Lake, Michigan. I'm really looking forward to this seminar, it looks and seems to be the most interesting of all seminars so far. I hope we can cover a wide range of topics with things like the dynamics of design behind all the useful gadgets of the 21st century along with classic things such as homes and televisions. The class has seemed really cool, even in the limited amount of actual class time we have had so far.

Dave