The area of Design that interests me most

The area of design that I'm most interested in is reflective design. I feel like this is a very complicated subject that is hard to grasp. I would love to talk about this topic more in class, because I know that it will lead to some very interesting conversations and a lot different explanations for reflective design.

Organization and Preparation Tips

1. I think the author's most important points were content, keeping it simple, and can you pass the elevator test. I feel that these were very important points mentioned by the author. Content is very important during a presentation, but it shouldn't be you're main focus. I feel to be a good presenter you have to keep it simple, listeners don't want to have to try to understand something you just said. Keeping presentations simple makes the audience more willing to listen. The elevator test in my opinion is a very unique idea, that can show how well a speaker knows their material.
2. I could apply his advice to my own presentation by referring to his article whenever i feel myself losing focus for my presentation. This article can be a very useful tool if you get stuck in part of you're presentation and don't know what to do next. This article can help you fix all of your presentation problems.
3. Presentation preparation and product design are both well though out plans. They also both devote a vast amount of time to the viewers or consumers.
   

For Wednesday September 30, 2009 Emotional Design (cont)

1. In Norman's "Emotional Design" there was one passage that stood out to me and it was "Enhancements to a product come primarily by watching how people use what exists today, discovering difficulties and then overcoming them. Even here, however, it can be more difficult to determine the real needs that might seem obvious. People find it difficult to articulate their real problems".(72) In this passage Norman tries to explain the vast amount of difficulty that people have saying the things that they truly want and need, and that the only way to find out is to watch them while they're handling a product. The only thing that can be done to find out some one's true wants and needs is to watch them. and their every move.
2. These categories are very useful to me after I learned the meaning behind, but at first they didn't give me the over all concept of what they meant until I read the chapter. I think there are a couple words for each categories that would give future readers a clear understanding of what each category means. Visceral designs basically is a design that is meant to be visually appealing to consumers. Behavioral designs are meant to react fairly well to human reaction, this design is based on performance. Reflective designs are built off the status qou of an item. This is the type of product that you want because of the name brand.
3. A designer could easily decide if a design should be more visceral, behavioral, or reflective by examining the target market of the product and the uses of the productive. Although, It would be very difficult when deciding to make a reflective design. There are definitely products that are more visceral, behavioral, or reflective. Some products are made just to look nice, while other are meant to perform well. There are also products that people buy just to represent their "image".
   

Emotional Design- How do you feel about it?

1. I feel the author key points were Visceral, Behavioral and reflective design. I feel that the author was trying to discuss the consumers reaction to design and the emotions that came along with it. Visceral design is basically the look, feel, sound, shape, and form of a design. A good visceral design has to look good and feel good. Behavioral design is all about how a design performs. Reflective design is all about the message, culture, and meaning of a product. It's basically the reflection of how the consumer receives the total design.
2. This chapter discusses more of all the aspects that are taken into consideration when evaluating a good design, as to the previous chapter that discussed just one major point of design which was behavioral design. This chapter went into great detail when explaining all of the different types of design.
3. A Rolex watch is a product that has succeeded in visceral design, because it has an extremely high price tag but it doesn't have anything inside of it that should make it cost that much. this watch is just extremely appealing to the the human eye. The water bottle is a great functioning design and it's an excellent example of behavioral design. The squeeze water bottle is very simple and easy to use. Marble tables are great examples of reflective design, because they have the total package. Marble tables look and feel good and they are also very strong and sturdy tables.
   

For Friday Sept 25, 2009 " The Design of Everyday Things" (cont.)

1. In Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things", there was one passage that stuck out to me which was "The paradox of technology should be never be used as an excuse for poor design. It is true that as the number of options and capabilities of any device increases, so too must the number and complexity of the controls." In this passage the author discussed how the wave of new technology shouldn't allow poor design. Some manufacturers feel the need to incorporate all types of new technology in the items that they are producing, which can be a door way for poor design. When manufacturers incorporate this new technology they also have to make the control more complex, thus for making the product harder for people to understand, leading to poor design.
2. This book still continues to be influential today, because it goes into detail explanation between the difference of a good design and a bad design. A manufacturers can use this book to help them make their designs more efficient for the consumer. The basic concepts in this book never change.
3. Factors for evaluating the design of a product: visibility, feedback, mapping, simplicity, appropriate clues, and the usefulness of all the features.

The Psychopathology of Everyday Things

1. The author's key points in this article were visibility, simplicity, appropriate clues and feedback. The author thought that these were important aspects as to why people get so frustrated with poorly designed everyday objects. Visibility is one aspect that Norman feels strongly about, he believes that if someone is to use something properly then the correct parts have to be visible. He also believes that some objects are to elaborate and need to be dumbed down so that it can become easier for everyone to use. Feedback is the main cause of confusion when dealing with new objects, because it's very hard to know if you're pressing the right buttons if you're not getting any feedback from the object.
2. I have a very difficult time using the locks on the mail boxes here at Kalamazoo College. I feel like the basic opening system for a standard lock is great, but somebody here at Kalamazoo College felt the need to change that. The design makes it difficult to use, because it's not standard. This item does suffer from one of Norman principles which are simplicity and appropriate clues. This item gives no clues that it's not the same as a normal combination lock, so there is no way to tell that it has some type of new strange combination system.
3. The makers of the ipod think that their product is perfect, which means they feel that it has no problems. They addressed the problems of visibility. The consumers think that the ipod should have a visible power button, but the creators responded by saying it doesn't need one. They also addressed the problem of appropriate clues, the creators felt that the scroll wheel covered all the appropriate clues needed to for somebody to operate the ipod.
   

The Creation of The Ipod

1. This article illustrated the form of the Ipod. The article constantly talked about how the Ipod was designed and what it looked like. Near the end of the article they mentioned why the incorporated a scroll wheel on the Ipod, instead of plus and minus buttons. The designers thought that it would be better for scrolling through the songs faster. The article repeatedly talks about the form of the Ipod.
2. The factors that I would have to use to evaluate a "perfect thing" would have to be: simplicity, attractiveness, size, risk of damage, and how easily it can fixed. The "perfect thing" has to be simple and easy to use. If anybody can pick it up in use it, then it's perfect. For something to be truly perfect it has to be attractive in everyone's eyes. The perfect size varies depending on the purpose, thus for the perfect thing should be available in various sizes. The "perfect thing" should have a very low risk of damage and when it does get damaged it should be easily fixed.
   
3. The strengths of Ipod are it's simplicity and size. The ipod is very ease to use for the most part. Almost anyone can pick up an Ipod and listen to music or play video games on it. The Ipod also comes in various sizes, so people can choose what every size they want. The Ipod also has it's weakness's. It can be very hard to upload music onto an Ipod sometimes. The Ipod is virtually un-fixable. Once the Ipod is broken you only have two options; pay Apple large sums of money to fix it, unless you have the warranty and free repair plan, or buy a whole new Ipod.
   

It's Time To Introduce Myself

I'm Robert Relief III, some people like to call me Big Rob or just Rob. I'm currently a student athlete at Kalamazoo College, member of the football team, and from the looks of it i should enjoy my time here. I'm from Detroit, but after I went away to college my dad moved into a town house in Southfield. I'm a cool and relaxed person. I was told to make this blog for my Design Intelligence. So let me know what you think so I can improve it.