Author: alwst291

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Extra Credit Post_AWolfe

Write a 500 word review of an app or widget you use regularly. Reviews must be written in the 3rd person using professional language and discuss the usability, functionality, interface, design and aesthetics. Further, create a process flow diagram for that app or widget and persona for three users that would also interact with it regularly. (p.44-54 and p.66-71).

A popular application that is used by many smart phone users is Facebook with 86.1 million users (http://mashable.com/2014/04/03/popular-apps-chart/).  Facebook allows users to connect with friends and family seamlessly through their smartphone and other electronic devices.  Users of this application are able to private message an individual or a group of people, post statuses that include and are not limited to photographs, updates, locations and more.  Users can use this application to play games, share events, and customize the information that is scene on their profile pages.  The overall design of the Facebook application changes slightly each two to four weeks to help improve the website and application for the users to have a pleasant experience.  The design of the application and website gives the users easy access and a continuous flow between various parts of the application and website.  As far as the aesthetics for Facebook, it follows a simple color scheme that uses only blue and white with black text for the design of the website.  Users are not able to customize the profile pages with different backgrounds and color schemes like that of MySpace and Twitter do.

Users who use this varies between ages 12 and over.  Facebook is meant to be used by anyone and everyone in order to connect them to those they are friends with and to the world around them.  User A is a 16 year old high school student who uses Facebook to connect with her friends and family.  She uses the application to post pictures of her with her friends and statuses about her day-to-day life.  User B is a 32 year old who works for a top accounting firm in Pittsburgh and uses the application to see what his friends are doing during the day when he works.  He doesn’t post many statuses and pictures but had some photographs of his three kids and wife.  User C is a 57 year old female who is about to see her oldest child get married.  She posts statues and photographs of her daughter and son-in-law in engagement photos and photographs of family events.  She also uses the application to snoop on friends and family and see what they are up too, private messaging her friends often to keep up with them.  Each user uses the application in similar ways but some only use certain parts of the application because they feel it is to much information.  The younger user use the application on smart phones and other electronics because they can understand the concept of those devices while the older uses only use it through computers and not to the fullest potential of the application.

Most users use the application differently, teenagers tend to put to much information out there and parents with younger children.  This becomes interesting to see how different people and generations use the application whether it is because of understanding it or lack of understanding it.

 

 

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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.

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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.

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Reading Response #2_AWolfe

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

Interaction design is a process of creating and defining what the issues of design are through tests and getting user reviews. There are many steps that go along with this; define, discover, synthesize, construct, refine, and reflect.  Some challenges that the industry faces is that many people do not understand what interaction design is and therefor put a lot of strain and difficulties on those who work with it daily.  A lot of problems that occur are also a direct result of communication and resources, some might lack one or both of these.

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

Interaction design is a user-oriented field of study that focuses on meaningful communication of media through cyclical and collaborative processes between people and technology.  In order to have a successful interactive designs, setting clearly defined goals, a strong purpose and intuitive screen interface.  It is evolving through the sociological and psychological field. These people study consumers use with certain products. How the encounter with it went, whether negative or positive.  It draws in knowledge mainly from sociology and psychology.

 

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Strategy and Scope Homework_Wolfe

What do you as the creator of your product hope to achieve through the creation of web site? As the creator of Fuel-Pass we hope to achieve giving our customers the most pleasant experience possible through our website. We want to give them technology for usability and tracking, this will allow them to be able to find near by gas stations and the prices they are selling their gas for. We hope to develop an app that will allow the user to receive notifications through the app, e-mail or text message on their left over balance and their electronic receipt. We will achieve getting money from this product by recording their habits, where they get gas and the price of gas, along with may other things to sell to gas companies and other related companies. Through this product we hope to give a reward to the drivers using our product, like the drivers who use EZ-Pass, and give them a percentage off on gas or money back. We will be selling our product for $5, which is a one-time fee, but we will make a percentage off of what they spend on gas, through an additional fee that is rather small. And what will your site’s users hope to get from visiting? Through our site, our customers will be able to gain knowledge of out product and company; find out what is does and how it can save them time and money. We want to provide them with a how to order the device, along with a shopping cart to save the device in as they continue to browse. We will be able to provide them with a login account to add money to their device, add a credit/debit card, check and cash in rewards, and check out their e-receipts. The reward system will equal up to dollar amounts that they can let accumulate and cash in for money of gas. We want to offer many other services within this product. We want to be able to allow the customer to see locations of gas stations and the prices. When they are on their account page or ordering page we want to have them know their information is safe, by having it encrypted.

The scope of our product is to allow the customer a safe, fast and convenient way to purchase our product. When they purchase the product, they will be able to save it into their shopping cart and when they want to check out it will be encrypted. We want to offer our customers the ability to safely pay for their device and to store their debit/credit card to pay for gas or be able to use their cards to put money onto their device. We want to have the customer be able to click through our website and view our company, how we started and how we came up with our products. We want to have them be able to go to a contact us page to call, e-mail and live chat with someone to take care of any questions or problems they might run into. We want our customers to have a well educated and stress free experience. Our customers are our main concern so we want to allow them to be able to use this product online and on the go, and a login that offers the same experience on the go as the same as being at home is what we are trying to gain with a seamless integration between our website and app.

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Post #1_AWolfe

  • 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)

The goals of Apple’s website, in my opinion, are to get the costumer the best experience possible by making shopping for whatever they might need easy. If you are buying a macbook pro, 2-4 options on how you would like to upgrade it within each category. After customizing your laptop, it will then have items that pair up with that product easily, from wireless mouses to printers and more.  It makes buying easy because you know the items will work with your product.  Apple, on top of the normal manufactures warranty, gives you the option for applecare, which is an extended warranty that offers a lot more.  You are given the option when you visit their website to use some helpful, free, services such as genius bar and apple support.  The genius bar will show you how to use your new product and get you used to the shortcuts, while apple support gives you one on one support on anything that maybe wrong with your device.

  • What are the functional specifications of Facebook’s wall? If you are not on Facebook what are the specs for the signup page? (pp. 72-75)

Facebook allows users to post pictures, statuses, events and more to their wall, as well as others.  All the information is ordered by newer posts to older posts. There are subcategories that you can click on to see interests in movies, books, tv shows and more. And ones you can see information about their job and social life.

  • What are four architectural approaches to information structure? Find one example of each. (pp. 94-106)

Organic: an example is an educational or entertainment based site.

Sequential: an example is articles, forums, books, etc.

Hierarchical: an example is software or navigational bars

Matrix: an example is if you wanted to buy a certain color and size shirt from an online store, you are able to sort it out.

  • What percentage of The Huffington Post index page is navigation, and what percentage is content? What about Google, Wikipedia, and Etsy? (pp. 116-134)

I would say that about 20-40% of The Huffington Post’s website is navigation, and 60-80 percent is content. I think that Google is about 3% navigation, before you start a search. Wikipedia is about 5% navigation, 95% content. And Etsy, is about 15% navigation, 85% content.

  • How does http://www.landor.com guide the readers’ eyes and focus their attention on what is important? (pp. 144-155 )

Their website uses images in color and in black and white to guide viewers to certain things.  My eyes are attracted to the colored images first because they are more eye catching and then to the navigational bar and bolded words and sentences.