Objectified

One of the main statements that stood out to  me was “Every object tells a story if you know how to read it.”  This really stuck with me because designers go through so many variations of their objects until they get it correct.  If you look at an object and think about what possible variations there could have been its like you’re reading the history of the object.  Take a desk. How big? How tall? Curved or square edges? How thick? Is it adjustable? Whats it made out of?  All of these plus so many other questions should go through the designers head when trying to design a product.

“That’s what we’re really always looking for whenever we design, ways we can improve the way people do things without them even knowing or thinking about it.” This has made me think about how subtle some changes in design are, since the film I have already been noticing improvements in the products I use everyday.  The changes would make my day to day life better. 

I would define design as “anything created to visually, physically, or emotionally enhance your day to day experience through life.”  After watching this documentary I feel that my eyes have opened to see so much more physical objects that are designed to change my experience every day.  A desk isn’t just a desk anymore, it could be a table, a bed, a shelf, a bench, the possibilities are unlimited.  I never thought about repurposing these everyday objects for anything but what they are already used for.

Adapt. Conform. Co-Opt. Exploit. React. Respond. Signal.

Reading Response 2

What makes up interaction design and what are some of the industry’s challenges?

Interaction design is made up of 6 main components:User control, Responsiveness, Real-Time Interactions, Connectedness, Personalization, and Playfulness.  A human interacting with a phone, a dog interacting with a water fountain, etc.  Some industry challenges are: What hasn’t been done successfully already, that can make a users day to day life better?  What can be done to enhance the users experience?

What is interaction design, how its evolving. What fields does it draw knowledge from?

Interaction design is the enabling of communication through media using technology.  With enhancements in technology interaction design is evolving.  With the use of sensors, switches, and much more designers are able to create unique objects that could change lives.  Interaction design can be involved in any field, anywhere in the world.  Interaction design has  such a broad spectrum of applicable use.  In a way an electric toothbrush is interactive design.

Elements of the User Experience

  • What are the goals of Apple’s website? How does Apple’s website address the needs of a user who has just purchased their first MacBook? (pp. 41-56)
    • Apples website is designed to let the user learn about their products and purchase them.  It also creates a brand for the company.  They’ve had the same nav bar set up for years.  The content of the buttons and design aspect may have changed but the actual bar has been the same.
    • It addresses the needs by offering informational help, how to’s and video tutorials.
  • What are the functional specifications of Facebook’s wall?
    • Facebooks wall
  • What are four architectural approaches to information structure? Find one example of each. (pp. 94-106)
    • Hierarchical-Facebook
    • Matrix-Amazon
    • Organic-Wikipedia
    • Sequential-Amazon Checkout
  • What percentage of The Huffington Post index page is navigation, and what percentage is content? What about Google, Wikipedia, and Etsy? (pp. 116-134)
    • The Huffington Post index page is mainly content. I would say that approximately 80% of the page consists of content, while only 20% is navigation.  The main content includes posted articles.  

    • Google consists of primarily navigation, I would say approximately 98% navigation.  The only content I would say is the logo or the google doodle that swaps out when they have something special.

    • Wikipedia I would say is about 65% content and 35% navigation.  They have thousands of pages linking to different sites that explain more and more about the individual words you click.
    • Etsy is similiar to Wikipedia.  I think that Etsy has about 75% content and 25% navigation.
  • How does http://www.landor.com guide the readers’ eyes and focus their attention on what is important? (pp. 144-155 )
    • It fades out the lesser important stuff and keeps the more prominent promoted stuff in full color towards the center of the page.

ecarrington.week6Reading.web

I am reviewing the ste http://jpg.codes. It makes use of changing the user’s appearance through selectable background colors based on hex. To access these colors, the user must select the hamburger icon in the top left corner. One can find an easier color on the eye, however, there is no texture associated with this site.

The site could operate nicely as a single page with scrolling, but chooses to provide a new page to look at work, and even redirect to pages that have been created by the author. Scrolling is the preferred navigation; the user can scroll up and down. Big buttons, icons, circular portfolio images as buttons, and humor make the site easy to use, understand and ultimately enjoy.

The site could use work because there is little content on the homepage, which could be expanded to accompany portfolio information. The button to change background colors is interesting, but ultimately unnecessary. There should be more than one way to contact the author than a button that says “Holla atcha bwoy.”

 

Review 2- Hartzfeld- Knock Knock

For my review of  a single page website, I chose to look at Knock Knock, a company that is looking into the gas, water and electricity usage in the Netherlands. When the page is first loaded, the screen opens to a circle with orange and teal surrounding the circle, and the phrases “knock knock” and “Focus on the fun things in life” in front of a transparent blue background covering an iPad being used. Upon first sight, the site is clean, but it is a little bit distracting with the moving video behind the text. The color scheme is crisp, and the text is easy to read.

Upon scrolling down the page a bit, the web page appears to work on somewhat of a grid system, having all of the images and other elements in line with each other and spaced apart to effectively use the page. All of the scrolling is down, and new information is added the farther the page is scrolled. The website is crisp, and avoids a lot of clutter. Knock knock follows a lot of the elements such as the grid and negative space that is talked about in The Principles of Beautiful Web Design.

Knock knock sticks to the main colors of orange and blue through the whole page. Any important information is shown through the use of these colors. From The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, They talk about colors that work for websites, and give the emotional reactions to colors. Orange creates a sense of creativity and enthusiasm, which is exactly what knock knock is trying to achieve. Blue is a calming color, and promotes intelligence. When these colors are looked at together, a viewer can get a sense of contrast from warm to cold, which could be the intention of the site, since it talks about electricity and gas. Web designers for this page also use line to their advantage as they use literal lines to connect points together. The main idea of the next point is shown under this line, and scrolls into the next section. The designers also use a lot of other images to convey the ideas, but they are not distracting in the way that the video is at the very top of the page.

Overall, knock knock is an effective website, and the design works well. There are some flaws such as the opening video and some cluttered spots, but overall the web page is crisp, clear, and interesting to read through. Knock knock is designed to create a sense of imagination into the viewers, and it is effective that the viewers will think, but not have to think about how to navigate the page, but to be able to think about the material presented.

Parabellum Studio Review – Alec Balenciaga

My review of a one page Parabellum Studio http://www.inparabellum.com/ . It is a website for a fashion company that uses multimedia to show there work. The site starts off really crisp and clean and the black text on a white background makes it really easy for me to see what I need to see. The hierarchy of text makes everything very easy to understand and that continues throughout the page. What I thought was really cool when I first opened up the page was that there are randomized lines that go everywhere your mouse goes.  I thought it was a really neat idea and different.  The lines did not distract or take away from the text but I did wish it continued in the white parts of the rest of the site.

As I continues to scroll down on the page I notice that the site begins to bring red and grey into the color scheme. The red and grey bring great contrast to the site and continues the crisp look. I don’t really understand the crumpled paper but the image looks well made and brings my attention to the two pictures off to the side. The text takes a back seat due to the red image standing out but is still not hard to find or read. Three more lines show up that spread apart as you continue to scroll down the page. It is not really the random patterns I still want but they add a nice look to a simplistic page.

Scrolling down more I notice the site will be alternating between image on the left, text on the right and image on the right and text on the left. This makes the site a little less repetitive. Along with switching the side of the text and image, it also rotates the red and grey between the image and background. The site continues the idea of the lines that spread when you scroll down more.

After scrolling two more images and getting a quick summery off all the aspects of Parabellum Studios, I come across text on the right that says people. On the left next to the text is nine pictures of people in an angled style. When you put your mouse over a picture it tells you who they are and what they do but it doesn’t tell you anything else about the people that work for Parabellum Studios. You can click the two arrows below the text to navigate through the 20 employees they have listed.

As you scroll down further you have your good old contact us then on the very last part on the bottom left they have their location on a google maps. My only problem with the map is that it will not take me to the google maps of there business.  It has the little red dropper like google maps but it takes you nowhere which was disappointing.

As a whole the site is really crisp and clean with color contrast. It is very easy to read and understand what the Studio does because it does not clutter the page at all, everything is very simple and your eyes just flow down the page as you scroll. The site very successful and I truly enjoyed the look and flow of it the first time I looked through it. The second time I started to nit pick and wanted things like more randomized lines and more info about the people working for the studio and also the map. The design works because of how simple the creator made it, they kept the colors simple and have high contrast, the images aren’t busy and let your eye flow from image to text. I the only thing the site is missing is a little more interaction with its graphic images, other than that it is a very strong and successful one page website.

Review #2

The single page website I chose to do a review for is the Look Book, for Melinda F. This web site utilizes design elements such a color and geometric shapes to create and identify multiply pages on a single page site. Although most design elements on this page work a few were a bit distracting, over all I found this web site to be very functional and easy to navigate.

As you enter the site, you are welcomed with a large header that is emphasized with a large rectangular, cool blue/aqua gradient with large crisp black font to display the title. The viewer instantly knows where they are; this is a “Look Book” and the month and year so you know it is current. Located underneath what the page is you are now informed for who is page is made. As your eyes fall under the title you see the logo and then the company name. This site can be easily recognized what it is and who is for. The cool colors used in the gradient are set on top of a white background with small thin geometric shape out lines. These shapes are colored with the same saturation as the gradient, the use of the same saturation helps unify the patterned background with the large solid geometric shapes on top. The shapes in the background pattern are small enough is size as to not battle with the fore ground allowing this combination to function together.

After taking in where you are and who the company is, you have now checked out the clean layout and want to continue on. With out a thought you know to scroll. Right under the company logo and name in small italic text, are the words scroll with a thin horizontal line leading you down the page. The combination of the text and the horizontal line effortlessly help you navigate through the page. You are directed to the next section of the layout with out any noise in between.

As you scroll, the company name disappears but to logo remains; this helps work as an identifier to let you know you are on the same page. The patterned background, color scheme and font hierarchy also remain the same to help add to the unity of the page. You are now looking at the products featured in this months look book. The title of the item is in large colorful text and then small sans serif font, in an unsaturated grey color for the description. This combination of a warm and cool color helps the eye to differentiate between the two elements, where as two warm colors may cause the eye to struggle to figure out what to look at first. After the gray text for the description there is navigation button that is out line in another geometric shape to distinguish the link from the other text that will take you to the full site in order to purchase this item, you know this because it is label “shop”. The use of repetition of the same layout makes this page easy to read. As you scroll down the page the placement of the text and images remain consistent allowing the eye to do less work.

After viewing all the products there is now a new section on the layout, this si labeled Deign, using the same font color and font family as the header. The design section future descripts the products as a whole; the main elements are in a large front size and also displayed in color. Even if the viewer is scrolling quickly down the page they still will catch the main words of description and will perhaps stop to read more. If not, the main descriptive words are large enough that it takes a second to read and you scroll through.

Now the viewer has reached the footer of the page, we know this because it is a flipped design of the top header. Same cool blue/aqua gradient and same crisp black text, only now the text reads, Shop. Incase you missed the smaller link button to take you to the full site after each product description; here is the viewers second chance to be navigated to the full site. The use of repetition ensures easy navigation to the full site, and hopefully entices the consumer to shop there.

Review #2

For my review two of a one page website I chose the site Alyoop of the week “http://alyoopoftheweek.com”. This website caught my eye with its simplicity and kept me interest by its ease of use. It is a scroll up and down website with a page wide illustration of their choice for the best NBA alyoop of the week. As I commented earlier this is a very simple but eye pleasing site.

First aspect I noticed is the colors, none of the colors they use are very dual colors. Even the blacks and the browns they use have a sense of glow to them. They also use a lot of warm captivating colors such as red, orange, and yellows. The last thing I noticed about the colors are they are integrated into each illustration carefully and represent each teams main colors. Using small accent colors help to bring out the players and relevant designs on the page.

Another aberrance that I noticed on this site is how the content is set up. There is a very apparent vertical grid system that seems to be used with most of the content being center justified. Each illustrations text is looks to be some kind of slab serif font that guides you eye down to the players cartoon like illustration. The cartoon like illustration is very simplistic but each player is still very recognizable.

Lastly aspect I noticed was the navigation. While there is not much to say about it other than it is very easy to use. This is so because there are very few choices you have to make. You look at the player and ask do I want to see is alyoop and if so there is a distinct watch button under the player. If press watch it brings up a video screen and plays the video. With an “X” so you can exit the playing video when your done or keep it up and school to other players.

Over all I think this is a very successful site due to its ease of use and the visually pleasing content. At no point was I board or put off by any of the navigations. Lastly it left me with the feeling that I wouldn’t mind coming back to the site to see future content. Which in my opinion is what making a good site is all about.

 

Mindmapping tool

Hey all, I wanted to share a useful mind-mapping tool I’ve used in the past.

coggle.it

It uses a simple google login, and provides a solid but simple feature set for mind-mapping.

-David S.

Chapter 3/4/5_AWolfe

  1. What information can ethnographic tools give you to improve the interactivity of an online banking website? (pp. 48-54)

Ethnographic tools allows the designer to collect information about their designs.  Ethnographic studies allow the designers to get an idea of how people look through their website.  This study can tell you how long or little someone spends on a page.  This can help the designer add more or less information to get people to stay on their page longer.  It is good for designers to have this tool, because designers never want to see the flaws in their work and this allows them to see the problem areas and address them appropriately.

For an online banking website, by using this study it allows the bank to see flaws in the design that the designer might not have noticed.  Some designers may look at a feature as something no one would use, like mobile depositing, and decide to hide it within a sub-menu and when the study is conducted it is observed that the feature is more popular then it is thought to be.  This allows the designer to go back and change the layout and put it somewhere that more people would be able to access it easier.

  1. At what point is a design finished? What makes it a success? What is its purpose? (pp. 54-62)

Everyone has a different opinion on something being finished.  In my opinion a design is finished when the designer has met his/her objective.  If the objective was to build a website that taught viewers how to edit film, if you can look at the website and learn how to edit film by going through the website.  Also, if you can look at the website and not see anything that needs improvement then the design is finished.

All things that are designed should make people think of the design as useful and persuade users to believe in what you are trying to convey.  If the designer built a website to convey the seriousness of animal suffrage in shelters the viewer to take a stand against animal shelters and to get people to start adopting shelter dogs to end animal suffrage.  Making the viewer seem as if they are important to the cause is crucial to having a successful design.

Things to take into account when designing something is form and function.   Form and function do not have to go together, where previously they went hand-in-hand with design.  Designers can convey form with emotional and social qualities.

  1. Identify a product family you use regularly (can be anything from technology to consumables except for coffee).  How has its branding effected your use, relations and experience with the product? (pp. 78-84)

The one product my family uses on a regular basis is our cars.  They get us from point a to point b and everywhere in between as safely as possible.  My dad drives a 1994 Chevy Suburban and my mom used to drive a 1997 Chevy Lumina, which both my sisters and I have learned to drive on and now is the vehicle that my little sister drives.  I didn’t realize that in a way, the way the cars have always been in my life have shaped my opinion on the brand.  My moms car had been in many car accidents, my older sister got in an accident in it, I got in two accidents in it and my little sister was involved in two accidents in it.  It had kept everyone of our passengers and us safe.  My dad’s truck had been taken care of making it last over twenty years.  Deep down, my trust with Chevy and the experience my family has had with it in the past had shaped me to becoming a loyal customer to Chevy.   When something is branded in such a positive way it makes your impression of it so much greater.  I think if my family had negative experiences with that brand of car and others did too, then I might not have been so likely to buy that brand.

Thoughts on Objectified

Do you agree with statements?

Good design is a mark of progress.

There is a story in every object. Product designs grow over time based on it’s cultural context and use.

The microchip broke the natural tendency for form to follow function.

Design is about what’s going to happen, not what has happened.

Cars have both front and back faces. Personified elements of objects can help the user relate to the object.

Enjoy things you already own. The best things are the things that have personal significance to the user.

Do you disagree?

Designing for edge cases may not always be the best way to take care of the middle. A product doesn’t need to be fail-proof. In some cases, it would be preferable to fail gracefully than try to account for everything. (however, those OXO peelers are the best peelers anywhere by far.)

Design is about mass production. I would contend that many of the best designs are for a single use case. People often solve their unique problems in a way unique to their situation.

Karim Rashid questions the design of cameras still being based on film cameras, even after it’s unnecessary. I think the design of the camera doesn’t stem from the film, but from the image itself. Our eyes are arranged horizontally. A camera, which is a device made to “see” things, is also arranged horizontally. Visually, people like horizontal photos and videos. It would have been possible to design film cameras vertically too.

Has anything the designers said changed how you thought about design?

It’s easy to look at something and say that it has good design, but good design isn’t necessarily a universal attribute a thing can have. It can have good design for a given use in a given context, which is an important thing to keep in mind.

Each designer interviewed for “Objectified” defined how they see Design, how would you define design and how has that definition changed?

After watching Objectified, I would say design is the iterative process of optimizing every attribute of an object to maximize the desired attributes given the needs of the user, the image of the object, and the context of the use.

ecarrington.week6.Objectified

Elijah Carrington
2/18/15
Designing for New Media

Interaction design is creating products, relative to their baseline, that solve problems. Through standardization and conceptualization, everything is designed for a reason. Whether that reason is to fulfill a promise, solve a problem, or change behavior, design is here to stay. Anything that we touch, see, use, and ultimately understand is interactive design.

I agree that there is a story for every object, especially those that have many revisions and information passed down. Find the products that no one cares about, where extremes will influence revision, and can be changed for the better. Design a better experience through iterative ergonomic processes. At Smart Design, rapid prototyping is implemented to quickly figure out ergonomics and ensure CAD aligns.

Making products usable, understandable, unobtrusive, truthful, aesthetic, is what good design is about. Design is how you look at the world, and asking why? Materials, physical-form, connection are focused on getting design out of the way. Enable the product, do not distract from it. Ensure hierarchy, and show that choices are calm and considered solutions. Form follows function as a manifestation. Designers interpret and understand what people need, better than they do. Good design distinguishes from relativistically ill-thought solutions.

The most important question regarding interaction design is: What form should this object take and why? Derived questions include: What feelings do the sensorimotor actions invoke? Will this product last and how much will it cost?

Designers will be the culture generators and translators for the rest of the world that needs to be taught what things are and how to use them. We translate using icons, colors, feelings, pictures, text, and so on, to achieve a transferable message. This message will have a lasting impact on the audience, only if it survives the true tests of design and makes its way into the consumer’s mind.

Chapter 3/4/5 Response

  1. Ethnographic tools allow designers to get in the head of their target audience and appeal to them. By studying potential users, we can rank the importance of features based on actual data instead of our own assumptions.
  2. I think design is finished when anything you can think to add to it takes away from what it accomplishes.
  3. I think the branding of the Apple products I use affects how I use them. I’m generally more focused on minimalism and getting the most out of the least stuff when I’m using those products.

Objectified Response

The video we watched called “Objectified” was about the views of design in the minds of professional designers.  Each person had a different kind of approach and idea of what design is.  I honestly agreed with almost everything the people said.  Design is just like art in the way that it is personal.  I may feel this way about design that cant be proven wrong, but another person could feel completely opposite sometimes and still not be wrong.  Design depends on the designer, environment, and circumstance.

There is only one thing said I remember that I didn’t like and it was that designers will be the intellectuals in the future.  It is a very bold statement and I disagree.  There will not be one intellectual.  Designers work with others more than most careers so its always  a group situation.  the future is going to be more about survival rather than entertainment and easier ways of doing simple things.  I do not believe designers are going to be the intellectuals of the future.  If there is a designer whom is a genius, its because he is a genius, not that he is a designer.  The first guy who was cutting Japanese trees, German, and wearing all white was my favorite person to listen to.  I agree with his ideas and beliefs on design.

The video has definitely caused me to think different about design, but my definition is still the same.  I believe design and art are based off of personal intentions and experiences.  Simply put, design is creating things.  It gets personal when you think of why and for who.  I guess design is an adaptive kind of idea because it can solve many diverse things in any diverse ways.

 

Woody

Objectified Questions_AWolfe

Do you agree or disagree with any of the designers’ statements, why?

I agree with the statement made by Tim Brown. He said, “If one’s really honest with oneself, most of what we design ends up in a landfill somewhere.“ I think it is true because a lot of what is designed is not thought to be valuable or worth keeping when it loses its use or becomes old. When it comes to the average consumer, they buy a product and use it and when it is done it becomes trash. I think designers find more respect to these products verses just an ordinary consumer and that is why he was able to understand that someone views his things, along with others, as useless.

Has anything the designers said changed how you thought about design?

I think the statement made by Alice Rawsthorn really stands out to me because she made the comment that “designers spend most of their time designing products and services for the 10% of the world’s population that already owns too much when the 90% don’t even have basic products and services to lead a subsistent life.” I think this really sunk in with me because as a student who wants to get into filmmaking, I can’t make a movie that only 10% of people will want to see but making a movie that 90% of people will want to see.

Each designer interviewed for “Objectified” defined how they see Design, how would you define design and how has that definition changed?

Before seeing this film, I would have thought that design was something to do with things you see in museums that designers create or clothing you see in stores and on the runway. After seeing this film, I now know that design is anything that someone uses on a regular basis. Clothing, toothbrushes, chairs, beds, homes, furniture and much more.