Ethnographic tools can help in improving interactivity by helping to understand the not just how the language is said (some languages state the name of the person first and foremost before saying the rest of the sentence or question), but also about the symbolic nature and context clues of that culture. Symbols are especially important because the way a design is presented and organized may offend that culture and may become a stigma to individuals who want to do their banking, or make the individuals uncomfortable or give that individual mixed feelings, and make them not want to come back or use a certain service. Positive symbols from that culture can also encourage and help the average individual, assuming that the symbols are placed appropriately.
A design becomes finished when all the necessary (or wanted) functions exist within the design, when it is designed in a way to make it easier to use, and when the design looks attractive and reflects the values and characteristics of the product itself. The design itself becomes a success when people agree that the design meets these criteria, as these are also the design’s purpose.
I like to use Windows’ operating system with my personal computers. Using the Windows system regularly has influenced me to use it more regularly, to the point were I am attached to Windows, even over Mac’s operating system. Because of that, I tend to use Windows when I can, and it has also made me to prefer HP brands of computers over Apple (considering costs, as well).
Reading Response to Interaction Design Ch. 6
Dane Moore
Response to Chapter 6
I agree with most of what the chapter had to say on how interaction designers must be careful that they put the usability design aspect and all of the attributes concerned with such, and with how the average person (who is not oneself) commonly interacts/would interact with an object first before artistic design. While a product can be aesthetically pleasing and should be, it is of no use if the user does not find the design to be usable, is awkward, or is too complicated to understand. All initial efforts should be to making the product to be easily usable so that the user will want to hold on to the product and become attached to it for technical reasons, which will last longer than mere emotions, which are temporary.
This is not to say that the product can also be aesthetically pleasing, as a product can also have the desirable attribute of looking good along with usability. Still, however, in interaction design, artistic design is subject to usability. This is true with the smart phones; smart phones are compact, light-weight, and has wireless capabilities. With the usability and easy access attributes meet, the artistic look of the smart phone can now be explored. Since the smart phone is slim, it can have a flowing metallic look, even with the appearance of a texture.
Thoughts on Interaction Design Ch.s 1&2 Response_DaneMoore
Interaction design is concerned with the observation of human behavior in every day life. Specifically, it is concerned in how people use the objects around them, and analyzing how people respond to what an object does. Using these observations, the interaction designer is to analyze how that object can be improved upon so that the user can easily understand how to use that object, and how that object can be more easily used in a higher degree.
Interaction design itself is the constant improvement of how an object can be used and better understood to users. This has led interaction design to make use of psycho-analysis in order to improve existing concepts and even add new attributes to that object to make it more user-friendly. Because of this, interaction designers also become information architects and psycho-social researchers, in that they have to order the information gathered from observing both individuals and society at large.
DaneMoore_Objectified Response
I agree with the designers in that design can be improved upon, and that it must possess certain attributes. Certain attributes that one of the designer’s specificed that I agree with is that good design must be utilitarian, unobstructive, honest, and easy to understand. Some other statements that I agreed with is that graphic design is not fine arts. I myself wasn’t able to discern that until after one of the designers made that distinguishment on camera. Other statements that I agreed with is that design must be created in an appropriate environment where everything works well, is organized well, that elicits us to want to interact with the design, and should also elicit nostalgia in the user/viewer (one of the examples used in the film was “That’s the chair that dad always sat in”).
One other thing that I did not discern too well about design that I learned on the film is that design is something that will be mass-produced, and that new design doesn’t last. Even though I did have a basic understanding of such, I did not think about it as deeply as the film went into both subjects.
Because of this film, my definition of design has actually changed. Originally, I was still thinking about design as in the fine arts sense; design is a composition of harmonizing or disharmonizing elements that represent an idea. Though it does technically hold true even in the graphic design sense, it was still only a sliver of the definition as a whole, and my understanding of design has expanded greatly because of Objectify and the designer’s interviewed. After seeing the film, my new definition for design is the harmonization of elements that allow the user to easy access of the product functions and the ability to have the user learn about the product in a thoughtless manner.
DaneMoore_ReadingResponse_ElementsoftheUserExperience
1. The goals of Apple’s website is to sell the most high-tech technology to those consumers who visit the sight, keep consumers up to date on the newest Apple technology and help consumers solve any problems they are having with their bought products. Apple’s website also addresses user needs for a MacBook by providing the specifications of MacBooks and include “Design films,” or a video on the MacBook’s “home page” to explain the various purposes of each specification that are unique to MacBooks. And, to answer user needs when something goes wrong with the MacBook, consumers can look up solutions to their problems on Apple’s site.
2. The functional specifications of Facebook’s wall are:Setup a website that allows users to see posts by their friends and by the groups, people, and other pages that the user has liked.The system will allow the user to close certain ads thatThe system will allow the user to check their notifications about what their friends are doing, or , messages sent to the user, and pending friend requests, both that the user has made to another user, or another user to the former user.
3. Hierarchical – YoutubeMatrix – WikipediaOrganic – FacebookSequintial – Surveys
4. The Huffington Post is approximately 70% navigation not just because it has a search bar, but because it is also littered with links, and about 30% content.Google, being a search engine, is 90% navigation and only 10% content (as the search results are not its own content).Wikipedia is approximately split between navigation and content, 40%-60%, respectively. Wikipedia is mostly an online encyclopedia site with a large amount of content, and the content can have links that will take the user to another page.Etsy is much like the Huffington Post, approximately 60% navigation and 40% content. Etsy’s sites is trying to sell its merchandise to visitors, so it would make sense to try to to get the visitors to look around before they focus on specific content.
5. Landor tries to get the user to focus on Landor’s objective, building “the worlds most agile brands…” by including a stunning picture, in this case, an image of some sort of circular object made up of irregular, quadrilateral fans, with a yellow hue over them, to cause contrast with the white text that states Landor’s objective.