I liked Spencer's blog on the Leopard. I know when I used to have windows, and when I would update internet explorer, or AIM, half the time things wouldn't even look any different, and the other half of the timeeverything would be completely different and confusing. Leopard sounds like it makes things better while keeping the macs setup relatively the same.
Spencer's Blog
Kelsey's blog was another one I liked. I took marketing back in high school, and she brings up the fact that marketing is important in selling any good. Bad products can easily be sold if the marketing is tweeked, and good products without marketing will never be recgonized. Without marketing, products wouldn't sell the way they do today.
Kelsey's Blog
Ezra's blog was also interesting. Bike helmets are things that most kids try to out-grow at some point in their life. Kids feel that they are un-cool. As Ezra said though, there are some cool helmets out there like "aggressive skating" helmets. Why not design more helmets like that? Bike helemts really aren't that great half the time unless they are designed well. My current helmet at home, doesn't really fit my head correctly. It slides around and if it were to get a hard impact, would probably slide off my head and be of no help to my skull. I got it though because I liked the color. It was a peral color that reflects rainbow, which I thought was awesome. The things that look cool are only good if they still do their job. You would think designers making a helmet would be more concerned with safety than asthetics, but in reality, they still want to sell a product, so they do put a good chunk of their time into design rather than safety.
Ezra's Blog
Oct 30, 2007
Oct 29, 2007
"hidden" features
This weekend my parents were here, and I went with them when they went to check into their hotel. As soon as we walked in, there was confusion on where the light switch should be. It's an unframiliar room, so when the switch is not in the first place you think it should be, you don't know where to look next. The light switch was found in a relatively short period of time, but there were more problems to come. When my dad turned all the lamps on, they all were very dim, and there's no overhead lights above the bed. The room did seem fairly dark, but there didn't appear to be anything else we could turn on. When we were going to leave though, he went to turn off the light and the light got brighter. It is apparently one of those lights where the more times you hit the switch, the brighter it gets (through three settings). When I went to try it on the other lamp though, the light ust turned off. I told him it was only tht lamp that did it. He came over and tried the lamp again though, and it apparently did do the three setting thing. It was all in the touch of how you hit the button apparently. That is very poor design, as I could not make the lamp cycle through it's settings but my dad could. If you hadn't been able to first see that the lamp could cycle, you may have never known. If I was alone in the room, the lights all would have permanately stayed at the first setting or off because I don't have the proper touch.
Now, being unframiliar with the original switches is expected. They should be in a place that you can see (visability) though. They were, but just not where expected. The more visible you make things, the more pleased consumers will be. The same goes for the buttons on the lamps. They should have some sort of instructions on them to let you know that they have multiple settings. Consumers can be "left in the dark" literally without proper visability cues.
Why do designers even make functions of their products invisible? It's only giving them a bad reputation and confusing their consumers. Sure they may have to change the button on their product and it may look a bit less pleasing to the eye, but if you spent the time, you could find an asthetically pleasing switch that visually shows all the possible functions.
If all designers spent a bit more time on a good majority of their products, confusion would be greatly reduced, and companies would gain more loyal customers because of the good experiences with their products
Now, being unframiliar with the original switches is expected. They should be in a place that you can see (visability) though. They were, but just not where expected. The more visible you make things, the more pleased consumers will be. The same goes for the buttons on the lamps. They should have some sort of instructions on them to let you know that they have multiple settings. Consumers can be "left in the dark" literally without proper visability cues.
Why do designers even make functions of their products invisible? It's only giving them a bad reputation and confusing their consumers. Sure they may have to change the button on their product and it may look a bit less pleasing to the eye, but if you spent the time, you could find an asthetically pleasing switch that visually shows all the possible functions.
If all designers spent a bit more time on a good majority of their products, confusion would be greatly reduced, and companies would gain more loyal customers because of the good experiences with their products
Oct 25, 2007
blogs galore
After looking at a good portion of the class' blogs, I liked Trey's and Alex's the best.
Trey's
1. I wanted to see how improved a stapler could be. The stapeler was ended up not being the interesting part on the website though.
2. I really liked the badly designed doors that caused the robbers not to be able to rob a restaurant. I also thought that the child seat on the luggage was a bad idea. A lot of people pull their suitcases, thus putting the child behind the parent meaning they aren't being watched and could be kidnapped.
3. This website was all about improving designs or creating things that are needed in the world. It focused on both good and bad features.
Trey's Blog
Trey's Blog
Alex's
1. I was interested to read more about the invisibility of design and what that entailed.
2. I liked that it showed that now we take a lot of things for granted on good designs because the good designs have been around for so long. We no longer consider the intricate design process of basic things because we never knew a time before the good designs.
3. This website talks about the really good designs. We usually talked about bad designs, but this shows the polar opposite of some of the best things out there that we take for granted.
Alex's Blog
Trey's
1. I wanted to see how improved a stapler could be. The stapeler was ended up not being the interesting part on the website though.
2. I really liked the badly designed doors that caused the robbers not to be able to rob a restaurant. I also thought that the child seat on the luggage was a bad idea. A lot of people pull their suitcases, thus putting the child behind the parent meaning they aren't being watched and could be kidnapped.
3. This website was all about improving designs or creating things that are needed in the world. It focused on both good and bad features.
Trey's Blog
Trey's Blog
Alex's
1. I was interested to read more about the invisibility of design and what that entailed.
2. I liked that it showed that now we take a lot of things for granted on good designs because the good designs have been around for so long. We no longer consider the intricate design process of basic things because we never knew a time before the good designs.
3. This website talks about the really good designs. We usually talked about bad designs, but this shows the polar opposite of some of the best things out there that we take for granted.
Alex's Blog
Oct 23, 2007
award winning design
A passage about design I found interesting (taken from a business week article titled The Best Product Design Of 2007) was...
"The evolution of design from a narrow focus on aesthetics into a richer discipline that embraces branding, services, sustainability, medicine--even the comfort and safety of pilots and passengers--is on clear display in the 2007 International Design Excellence Awards."
link
This article was about products that won awards in 2007 for their design. It breifly mentioned the top winners and the types of goods that were able to take the most awards. These mainly were enviromentally friendly objects and reinvented things.
When reading this article, it made me think "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman. He mentions how a lot of products that win awards for their design are not user friendly.
I wonder how these products were judged for this contest? From reading the article you can tell that asthetics were a part of it, and the potential capabilities of the product, but they don't mention ease of use really.
"The evolution of design from a narrow focus on aesthetics into a richer discipline that embraces branding, services, sustainability, medicine--even the comfort and safety of pilots and passengers--is on clear display in the 2007 International Design Excellence Awards."
link
This article was about products that won awards in 2007 for their design. It breifly mentioned the top winners and the types of goods that were able to take the most awards. These mainly were enviromentally friendly objects and reinvented things.
When reading this article, it made me think "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman. He mentions how a lot of products that win awards for their design are not user friendly.
I wonder how these products were judged for this contest? From reading the article you can tell that asthetics were a part of it, and the potential capabilities of the product, but they don't mention ease of use really.
Oct 21, 2007
fun fun
A passage I thought was interesting from the article titled "How to get users to RTFM" by Kathy Sierra was...
"Change the "F" in RTFM to "Fun"
Not funny, just fun. Fun as in chess. Fun as in writing elegant code. Fun as in doing something you're good at... something that lets you have a high-resolution experience. What would it mean if you asked, "How can we make the manual a fun experience?" Don't jump to the "nobody wants humour in a manual" argument--you don't need "humour" to have fun."1
link
I think it's relevant to design because you have to make something that is going to appeal to the user. Even the boring part like the manual should be made entertaining and fun. The directions for the game Outburst, have things included like "most people learn games from other people, not from the rules. But at some point somebody has to read the rules in order to figure out what's going on. Besides, the people you learn from rarely know what they're talking about!" and "Teams should sit together (unless you're being served chili!)" or "Team members are encouraged to yell out answers at the same time (which can really annoy your opponent who is trying to keep score)."2 These simple little blurbs that are added on, make reading the instructions so much more entertaining. The user is actually turned on to the game from the instructions rather just being confused because they read the directions as fast as possible. Outburst knew what they were doing when they created their instructions.
1. Sierra, Kathy. "How to get users to RTFM." Creating Passionate Users. Available from http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/09/how_to_get_user.html. Internet; accessed 21 October 2007.
2. Hersch and Company. Outburst Instructions (Los Angeles: Hersch and Company, 2002)
"Change the "F" in RTFM to "Fun"
Not funny, just fun. Fun as in chess. Fun as in writing elegant code. Fun as in doing something you're good at... something that lets you have a high-resolution experience. What would it mean if you asked, "How can we make the manual a fun experience?" Don't jump to the "nobody wants humour in a manual" argument--you don't need "humour" to have fun."1
link
I think it's relevant to design because you have to make something that is going to appeal to the user. Even the boring part like the manual should be made entertaining and fun. The directions for the game Outburst, have things included like "most people learn games from other people, not from the rules. But at some point somebody has to read the rules in order to figure out what's going on. Besides, the people you learn from rarely know what they're talking about!" and "Teams should sit together (unless you're being served chili!)" or "Team members are encouraged to yell out answers at the same time (which can really annoy your opponent who is trying to keep score)."2 These simple little blurbs that are added on, make reading the instructions so much more entertaining. The user is actually turned on to the game from the instructions rather just being confused because they read the directions as fast as possible. Outburst knew what they were doing when they created their instructions.
1. Sierra, Kathy. "How to get users to RTFM." Creating Passionate Users. Available from http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/09/how_to_get_user.html. Internet; accessed 21 October 2007.
2. Hersch and Company. Outburst Instructions (Los Angeles: Hersch and Company, 2002)
Oct 9, 2007
my shelf
I think a well designed product was the shelf I have in my dorm room.
I bought it at target and it is a smallish 4 level shelf. The box said it had minimal no tool assembly. When I actually went to set it up, it was quite easy. The poles all easily twisted into the wood shelves, the bottom rubber things easily screwed into the bottom, and the top metal things for the top shelf also screwed in. I had the whole shelf up in under five minutes and I didn't even have to look at the instructions. I knew how most shelves look and the pieces were pretty self explanatory as where they went.
I love the easy assmebly and that it was self explanatory. It also is a pretty cool looking shelf.
I bought it at target and it is a smallish 4 level shelf. The box said it had minimal no tool assembly. When I actually went to set it up, it was quite easy. The poles all easily twisted into the wood shelves, the bottom rubber things easily screwed into the bottom, and the top metal things for the top shelf also screwed in. I had the whole shelf up in under five minutes and I didn't even have to look at the instructions. I knew how most shelves look and the pieces were pretty self explanatory as where they went.
I love the easy assmebly and that it was self explanatory. It also is a pretty cool looking shelf.
Oct 7, 2007
flaws!
A product I think that has design flaws is the oven on the second floor of trowbridge. My friend Leslie and I have made cookies in it twice now, and I always seem to mess up the settings everytime i touch it.
The big thing is that it has a timer and everytime I go to turn the timer off, I end up turning the entire oven off because I hit the switch that says off when the alarm is ringing. I still don't actually know what button makes the alarm stop ringing. You would think it wouldn't be too hard to figure out.
The second problem with it is that when you set the timer, there's no indication that it's actually timing. I can set it for 11 minutes, but apparently you don't have to hit a set button or start button, it just starts counting, but the timer is in minutes only, so you would have to wait by the oven for a whole minute to make sure the timer is actually on, as I have done multiple times as to not burn cookies.
The other problem is when I turn the whole oven off, accidently from the timer issue, the entire oven resets itself, and I usually forget to reset the temperature. It's all digital, so it goes back to the default settings instead of the last used settings.
Last time while baking cookies, when I messed up the timer and turned the whole oven off for probably the third time I actually stated that it was not my fault and the oven was designed poorly.
The big thing is that it has a timer and everytime I go to turn the timer off, I end up turning the entire oven off because I hit the switch that says off when the alarm is ringing. I still don't actually know what button makes the alarm stop ringing. You would think it wouldn't be too hard to figure out.
The second problem with it is that when you set the timer, there's no indication that it's actually timing. I can set it for 11 minutes, but apparently you don't have to hit a set button or start button, it just starts counting, but the timer is in minutes only, so you would have to wait by the oven for a whole minute to make sure the timer is actually on, as I have done multiple times as to not burn cookies.
The other problem is when I turn the whole oven off, accidently from the timer issue, the entire oven resets itself, and I usually forget to reset the temperature. It's all digital, so it goes back to the default settings instead of the last used settings.
Last time while baking cookies, when I messed up the timer and turned the whole oven off for probably the third time I actually stated that it was not my fault and the oven was designed poorly.
Oct 5, 2007
egg drop
I worked with Taylor on the egg drop. As soon as we partnered up, we voted on doing a very simple design. We didn't want to take the time to build something elaborate, especially if it didn't work. Our original plans were to go to target, get some soft things like cotton balls, put it all in a box, and be good to go.
We decided to build on Sunday, and I had come up with the idea of pillows because we had two sitting around in my room in the closet. That seemed like a good idea, but just to be sure we also wrapped the egg in a liquid ice pack, and a dish towel and the surrounded that with the two pillows. We then threw it out of my 2nd story window to test it, and it was perfectly fine.
In class, our design also worked, both on the concrete and the dirt surfaces. When trying to minimize our design, we went to only the ice pack surrounding the egg. There was not enough give in the ice pack, which burst upon impact, which caused the egg to break. I think if the ice pack had more give, and a more sturdy outer casing, it may have worked.
We decided to build on Sunday, and I had come up with the idea of pillows because we had two sitting around in my room in the closet. That seemed like a good idea, but just to be sure we also wrapped the egg in a liquid ice pack, and a dish towel and the surrounded that with the two pillows. We then threw it out of my 2nd story window to test it, and it was perfectly fine.
In class, our design also worked, both on the concrete and the dirt surfaces. When trying to minimize our design, we went to only the ice pack surrounding the egg. There was not enough give in the ice pack, which burst upon impact, which caused the egg to break. I think if the ice pack had more give, and a more sturdy outer casing, it may have worked.
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