Not totally sure how to upload PDFs here.
So here's my Final Project PDF.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Service Design
Normally when I hear the word "design", I think of the creative process, and I normally think of it in the context of art and design. I realize that the process of design involves creating something in a way that is easy to use and/or understand, but I would have never associated design with services. This reading has made me observe my everyday world a lot closer. In example, the way I pay my bills. Of course the old fashioned process of writing a check and mailing it to PECO, or AT&T, or whatever company you may be paying is still used, but AT&T has expedited the process by enabling the option to pay your cell phone bill online, where you are presented with multiple options for payment method, your credit card information is saved for easy access, and you even have the option to pay your bill in increments (this works well if you are sharing a plan with somebody). Another example of a service that has greatly expedited their process of bill-pay is PECO, I have my gas and electric service automatically paid every month after I gave PECO my debit card and banking information. This reading went on to describe, in great detail, the characteristics and elements of services and service design. This made me think about how much thought and design goes into everyday things that I had been taking for granted like the layout of my local Target or grocery store self-checkout. I feel like maybe the part of this reading that discussed the characteristics of service design was a bit too analytical, but I feel like the part of the reading that really helped me grasped the concept of service design was the part that discussed the elements of service: environment, objects, processes, and people.
Leia Mais…An Interface Built for Multitasking
On a regular basis, I use my car's radio and climate control interface, and it has always been easy for me to use efficiently even when I first bought my car, and while performing the sometimes stressful task of driving. I thought about how impressive this interface really is while I was driving with a friend in my car the other day, and they got all nervous every time I went to do something to control my heat or radio. Come to think of it, it probably isn't very safe to browse for music, defog your windshield, or adjust the heater or heating/cooling vents in the midst of driving, but my car's interface design makes it simpler and more of a possibility. The radio is very simple, and set up like almost all car radios are, there is a "scan" button that navigates through the stations, and 6 buttons with with stations assigned to each one by the user. Then there are the tape controls (because I'm broke so I drive a car from 1998); all you need to do to start the tape is hit the rather large button that reads "Tape" right next to the screen that tells users the time as well as the radio station or if the radio is in tape mode or not, and once this button is hit or a tape is inserted, the tape will automatically begin to play. The fast-forward and rewind buttons reside next to where you insert the cassette, and thats basically all you need as far as playing tapes goes. As a member of modern society, I don't own any cassettes, so the only thing I use the tape-deck for is my the cassette that allows me to plug my iPod into it and play through the car speakers. There are a few other buttons to control the radio/sound system in my car, but I honestly find them to be extraneous, and I don't think I've ever used them. The volume control, a function of the radio I feel myself using constantly, is placed very close to the driver, and it is a simple nob that can be turned to increase or decrease the volume. The heating and cooling system in my car is also very simple to use, even while driving and without looking. The nob closest to the driver controls how strong the air or heat blows, the center nob controls how warm or cool the air coming out of the vents is, and is marked by a blue side for cool air, and a red side for heat, which is easy to see out of the driver's peripherals, and the dial has a mechanism that clicks when you turn it, so it is easy to gauge how cool or hot you've set the dial to. The dial furthest from the driver selects where the air comes out, it starts off in a diagonal position for "OFF", and has different places for air to come out of on the left and right sides which I have pretty much memorized since purchasing the car in June.
Leia Mais…Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Show and Tell
Design Firm Shows Gadgets From the Near Future
The interface I'm focusing on from this article is the device that is strapped to one's head to read brain signals in order to control an interface.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Project 1 - miauk.com gets a facelift
Original, poor design of MIA's page:
LA artist, Kristen Ferrell's page :
My design:
I wanted to keep the site's "loud" personality and African motif, because I feel like that was definitely done on purpose. However, while I didn't want to lose the "zany" personality of the site, I wanted to try and drop the obnoxious personality of the site. I also didn't like the side-bar navigation that opened up new pages in the same window, with only one link at the bottom that read "MIA Home" to take you back to the home. In order to allow for better navigation of the site, I decided to make the pages display in a frame, with a navigation bar at the top. To cut the size of the navigation bar down, I put photos, videos, and art under the drop-down menu, "Media", signified by the arrow pointing down.
On the original MIA site, there was a section called "News/Tour", however, it was just a generic Wordpress blog that hadn't been updated since April, and that did not have a list of tour dates like most band's pages would. So I added a "Tour" tab, and put the "News and Updates" on the home page.
One of the worst aspects of MIA's page is the "Photos" section. When you click "Photos" on MIA's original page, it brings you to a set of albums, then when you select the album, it brings you to a page of thumbnails on a very busy background. Then, once you find the photos in spite of the mess going on in the background, when you click on them, they open up in the same window, and a huge size that takes forever to load. To solve this, I incorporated a lightbox in which smaller images may load on the page, and allows easy navigation. Her "Videos" page is similar, and would work the same way as the Photos, except the lightbox would show a video, not a photo.
Instead of having "Art" as it's own section, I decided to put it under "Media", and just cleaned it up a little.
The "Store" section on the original page was not at all consistent with the rest of her page, it opened up the same image I have above, but on a plain black background. I solved this issue by having the store open up in the frame.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Reflection on To Err is Human
I connected with this chapter the best because I found it the most interesting. Sometimes I am a very clumsy person, and I'm glad that the developers who worked on OS X kept human error in mind when designing their OS. The chapter talks about how some people need feedback to prevent errors, such as "Are you sure you want to close without saving?" and "Are you sure you want to empty the trash? This cannot be undone". This kind of feedback helps to not only prevent slips, but also helps protect the people who might not be as "tech-savy" as the average person. Another piece of good design advice this chapter discusses is to have an option for users to undo actions. I could not agree with this more, I find that my fingers instinctively know to go right to "apple/command+z" anytime I screw something up. I've even found myself doing it while doing homework in a completely analog environment! Another piece of good interface design discussed is the idea of preventing users from putting themselves in a dangerous situation that could potentially severely damage the interface. For example, OS X hides important folders, and Windows warns you when you are about to tamper with sensitive files, and won't even let you access some of the more sensitive areas.
Leia Mais…At Least MTA is Doing SOMETHING Right...
I think we can all agree that New York City's Metro Transit Authority could definitely use some reform, but whoever they hired to do their station and subway car design did (for the most part) a fine job. I was born 20 minutes outside of New York, and spent most of my life in northern New Jersey, so it's inevitable that I've spent a lot of time in the nation's largest city, and using it's infrastructure. Many may find the NYC subway system a little bit intimidating because of how large and complex it is, but because of it's smart design, I find that it is actually quite easy to find your way around. You'll begin your journey by spotting a Subway station, marked by a green and white (or sometimes solid green) ball-shaped light. Then, all you have to do is check if the entrance you're about to go in is for service uptown, downtown, or can be used for either. Assuming you don't already have a Metrocard, you'll then have to use the extremely easy to use Metrocard vending machine. After purchasing a Metrocard, you'll have to deal with one of the lower points of the subway system, the turnstyles, but thats a whole other topic for discussion, and most people end up surviving and getting through to make their train. Once you've crossed over to the other side, you'll be bombarded with signs directing you where to go, marked by your trains own personal logo, number or letter inside of a colored circle. These marks are another very smart innovation, the train number/letter marks specific route, and the color of the circle represents what "family" that set of trains is (i.e. - the 4, 5, and 6 trains are all marked by a blue circle, and follow a similar route, but their routes are all slightly different). When you get on the train, the newer models have a large sign in each car that has the route posted, with lights that turn off after each stop (example below), and under each stop, it has which trains can be transfered to
Some of the newer subway cars have signs similar to this one, that are even more advanced, that use an LED display to show you what stops are coming up, and how many stops there are until you arrive at any particular one. Then, at each stop, there is a specific sound, and an automated voice announces the stop, and the trains that are available for transfer. Finally, once you exit the train, and arrive at a stop, there are signs to direct you to either the train you are transferring to, or the exit to the street.
Leia Mais…
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Knowledge in the Head and in the World
I go about completing my daily tasks without really thinking about them too much. Thats because of the four reasons precise behavior is possible discussed in this chapter; information is in the world, great precision is not required, natural constraints are present, and cultural constraints are present. These factors reduce possible alternatives, and lead us to completing our actions properly. These four ideas are something I am going to keep in mind when it comes to interface design, as to expedite the user's experience as much as possible. However, the parts about memory seemed much longer than they had to be, I took away a few main points from that section. First off, memory is made up of knowledge in the head, and knowledge in the world. Knowledge in the head is personal memory, whereas knowledge in the head is interpersonal memory that we are reminded of in our everyday world (i.e. - mappings such as the stove controls shown in the book). The thing in this chapter I found most helpful was the table at the end. The table made me realize that when designing, it is important to keep both types of memory in mind, and design the interface as well as possible to cater to them, but working with "Knowledge in the World" is the most difficult.
Leia Mais…Monday, September 21, 2009
MIA Hates Epileptics
A few months ago, I heard a rumor that after a long maternity leave, MIA was ready to play some shows again, and that she would be playing a concert in Brooklyn at a spot called Jelly Space as part of a series of summer concerts. Upon hearing this information, I went searching for MIA's website to confirm whether or not this information was true. Seeing as MIA has become huge since the release of her latest album Kala, and her single Paper Planes (the song from the Pineapple Express trailer), I located her site within seconds of typing it into Google, and I came upon what I think may be the worst designed page on the Internet. Aesthetically, the site looks like every terrible site from the nineties got together and swallowed large quantities of MDMA. Part of me thinks this seizure-inducing design is done on purpose because MIA likes to put on a "wacky/zany" image, and she can easily access the resources to have a very well designed page. Even ignoring the optical assault MIA's site unleashes, there is little-to-no navigation. The only way you can navigate the separate branches of the site is from the home page, after that, you have to rely on your browser's "back" button, and none of the pages even open in separate windows. This is especially annoying when you visit her "Photos" or "Videos" section, and you close the window thinking it is going to end up bringing you back to the page on MIA's site you were just browsing, but WOOPS, its gone, and knowing the patience and attention span of our generation, unless you were absolutely enthralled by whatever you were just doing, you're not going to open up a new window in your browser and return to her page.
You can check this eyesore out at: MIA
Leia Mais…
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Reflection on The Psychology of Everyday Actions
This week's reading once again seemed to be primarily common sense, however, it points out that many important things designers should consider. One important thing to keep in mind when designing something is that nobody is perfect and "the designer must assume that all possible errors will occur and design so as to minimize the chance of the error in the first place, or its effects once it gets made." This principle makes a lot of sense, and I am noticing it a lot in digital interface design, take the "undo" action for example, as soon as I make an error, my fingers almost instinctively drawn to "command+z". I also look back and analyze decisions I've made according to the flow of the psychology of how people do things. There are seven steps, but I understand it best when thinking about it flowing in this pattern: evaluate the situation, make a goal for what we want to happen, take action. I'm realizing that some problems do not come from a lack of understanding or knowledge, rather, it may come from a lack of understanding the relationship between the function of the interface and the mechanisms of the interface. The part of this chapter I found most helpful to my skills as a designer was towards the end, when it discussed the keys for good design: visibility, a good conceptual model, good mappings, and feedback.
Leia Mais…Sunday, September 13, 2009
iPhone Interface
Terribly Designed Pot
Alright, so this may not look like the typical thing you think of when you hear the word "interface". No, it's not an OS, it's not a high-end copy machine or cash register, but a simple pot to cook and boil water in. Either Satan himself thought up this twisted design, or it was just thought up by somebody with absolutely no common sense. Generally, a set of handles on a pot afford the action of easy lifting. In the case of this pot, these handles are most likely just going to afford pain. The idiot who designed this pot gave it thin metal handles that are perfect for conducting heat. The first time I used it earlier last week, I didn't think before trying to drain my pasta, and I ended up hurting myself. Then when I tried to pick it up with two dish towels, I nearly set them on fire. This pot is plain stupid, and should probably be recalled.
Leia Mais…Reflecting on Affordances: Clarifying and Evolving a Concept
After reading Affordances: Clarifying and Evolving a Concept, I feel a slightly heightened sense of design and visual communication in regards to affordances and functionality. I am not claiming to have become an expert in the field of interface design after this reading, but I have noticed myself looking more closely at interfaces I encounter on a daily basis, and question whether the affordance is a successful design in that it achieves the fundamental properties of an affordance. However, I will admit that this article seemed a little confusing at first, as I've never had any experience with interface design; then I came across the sentence in this article that caught my attention most that stated "Although complex things may require supporting information, simple things should not. If they do, then design has failed." This may just sound like common sense, it really helped me put the reading into perspective. While I found the entire passage very helpful, I have to say that I agree with Norman's views on affordances over Gibson's, as Gibson's do not consider the grey areas that sometimes need to be considered.
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