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Blog Post 8

Design of Everyday Things Chapter 7

This chapter was mostly a re-cap of the first 6 chapters. I think throughout reading this book Don Norman has taught us that a good product design requires little thinking for the user to be able to figure out what to do and tell what is going on. If the design is confusing and requires too much thought, it probably needs to go back to the drawing board. I think we have all learned that something you design isn’t going to react the way you think when you put it out in the world and have people test it. This is why testing is so important. 

I think people are constantly changing, especially with the rapid growth of technology in the world today. In the future, the world very well could be run by robots which will make the design of products like this very prevalent. The design of everyday things will probably even change when we get to that moment in time. But I think in designing the future the lessons from this book are very important. I think the Seven Principles for Transforming Difficult Tasks into Simple Ones sums it all up. Use both knowledge in the world and knowledge in the head, Simplify the structure of tasks. Make things visible: bridge the gulfs of Execution and Evaluation, Get the mappings right, Exploit the power of constraints, both natural and artificial, Design for error, When all else fails, standardise. These seven things should be printed out and pinned to our foreheads these next couple weeks while we design our final products. If we all use the knowledge we have learned in these past 8 weeks, I think we will have some pretty successful outcomes. I am excited to get started on our designs and to see what everyone has come up with in a few weeks.

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Blog Post 7

Art of Innovation chapters 9&11

The part in chapter 9 where Kelley mentions watching the border by examining different cultures and how they use products reminded me of my summer abroad in Italy. Italy was the first place I have ever traveled out of the United States so seeing how different the Italians lived their lives was very interesting to me. There were no big cars. All the cars were tiny, lots of fiats or people got around on scooters. They were also all manual cars and not automatic. Very different from America where you can see every make/model of a car if you stare at a highway for 10 minutes. I never looked into why Italians drive such little cars, but maybe it is the same as the cup holder example and they don’t think it’s necessary to have a bigger car. A barrier that we could look into for the hair health app would be to examine other cultures and how often people shower/wash their hair and what products are popular.  

I thought deal killers were interesting. I think it can be easy to let fear take over and never execute an idea because you are afraid of failing. I know this has happened to me many times. I often times will start a project and have the overwhelming fear that it will never be good enough so I never finish it. That’s definitely something I need to work on. With something like product design it can be challenging to take the risk and giving it your all to design a new product. This reminds me of the show shark tank and how almost every contestant says they quit their job and have put all their time and money into their business. However, Kelley had good advice when he said, “don't let fear that you don't have certain skills prevent you from trying them.” I think this project of designing a product is not something we are all used to, so we all need to have confidence in creating something great. 

Chapter 11 focuses on the benefits of speedy design development, something that scares me because I often think that I take a very long time to design. However, Kelley is right when he says that sometimes the pressure of speed can result in high success. Having a time limit can help to not dwell on making decisions, you have to just go with something and make it work. I can be very indecisive and change my mind a million times which takes up a lot of time. This semester, I have started timing myself when I start working on projects. I’ll set my timer for an hour to get an assignment done which helps me to make quick decisions and develop things faster than going around in circles because I can’t make up my mind. One of my best projects I made in school was done on a time crunch. The day before, I rushed to get an animation project done so I could have the night off for my birthday. When I showed it in class, it was a success and still remains one of my favorite projects I’ve ever made.

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Blog Post 5

Art of Innovation Chapters 12 & 13

In chapter 12, I think the lesson of failing often to succeed sooner is some great advice. I actually just listened to a podcast on my drive home yesterday from Lauren Hom and Stefan Kuntz (famous freelance lettering artists) called “The Striving Artist” where Lauren and Stefan both explained their path to success. They emphasized some of the same points that Kelley does in this chapter. The road to becoming a successful freelance artist takes hard work and dedication. Lauren said she did 8 passion projects just to get her name out there and become noticed but only 5 of them took off and even got recognized. So, the moral of the story is you really can’t be afraid to put yourself out there and try. Creativity takes effort and dedication. Their podcast is brand new but Lauren also described that before she agreed to the podcast, she originally thought about everything that could go wrong and how she wouldn’t be able to keep up with it. She soon realized that she needed to be confident and go outside of her comfort zone and ended up talking herself into doing it. Her lesson was that you can’t think of all the things that can go wrong and freak yourself out. You have to be willing to put yourself out there, try things that are out of your comfort zone and don’t let the fear of failure stop you. I listen to a lot of creative podcasts and the advice from all of them seems to be the same. With every type of creativity I think this advice is very relevant. If we do not fail, then we can not learn to succeed. 

I relate to coloring outside the lines example where one brother is coloring delicately inside each line, making sure that colors do not mix, meanwhile the other brother is mixing all the colors without care. This reminds me of me and my sister. Maybe it is because I am older, but ever since I was young I have been very much a meticulous perfectionist kind of person that always has to color inside the lines. Meanwhile, my sister can be the polar opposite and has no problem mixing all of her colors together. Growing up, we didn’t always get along because of our differences. But, as we got older she began to adapt meticulous traits about her sports and I remain to have meticulous traits about my art. We realized that our differences balanced out and that we do relate to each other but in our own ways. We “color outside the lines” and have our differences but we still relate and can remain on the same page with each other. 

In chapter 13, Kelley talks a lot about the importance of simplicity with products. He explains that you shouldn’t add extra unnecessary features and make things more complicated than they need to be. He also says that the simpler the directions, the better. He even gives an example of how simple the design of a frisbee is, “No moving parts, no directions, and fun with very little practice”. Apple products are very much like this. All of their products have a fairly simple design that doesn’t require much thought or direction. Most of the things they sell don’t even come with manuals because the setup process can be easily figured out yourself. 

Kelly talks about making things “goof proof” and helping users avoid mistakes. He uses the example of the the foldable side-view mirrors on cars that spring back after you hit the side of your garage. I have personal experience with a car that didn’t have these foldable mirrors. When I was learning to drive, I drove my mom’s 2015 Kia Sportage. Our garage door is very narrow at home and you have to position the car perfectly to get it out of the garage in one piece. First learning how to drive, this was not an easy concept for me. I not only once, but twice back out of the garage and heard the awful crunch noise of the mirror snapping off the side of the car. My mom was not very happy and had to drive around with the mirror duct taped to the car for about 6 months. Then, when I got my 1999 Honda CRV at the gas station down the street it had the amazing technology of foldable mirrors! I never fully learned to back the car out of the gage perfectly, but at least with the car I had my mirror would fold right back and it wasn’t an issue. I never understood why my old car had that technology applied and my mom’s newer car didn’t have the same thing. I guess this was just bad design on Kia’s part and they should’ve looked more into other cars and how they goof-proofed to make their car more mistake friendly. Products that take our dumb mistakes into consideration usually have higher value to me becuase I respect the thought and consideration put in to the product. Goof-proof products have a higher rate of not being broken and will last longer if they’re not broken easily.

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Blog Post 4

Art of Innovation- chapters 8 &10

Chapter 8 begins with talking about things that can not be anticipated and inventions that happened by accident like ivory soap and velcro. It also explains how sometimes things are invented for one purpose, but the item evolves into uses for other things that it wasn’t originally intended for. This reminds me of tennis balls and how many things they are used for. Tennis balls were invented to play the game tennis. They are designed with a special rubber material that allows them to bounce off the ground and be hit with a racket. The fuzzy material that the outside of the ball is covered in is to ensure no-slip when the ball is hit. However, tennis balls have many different uses. In schools, tennis balls are attached to the legs of the chairs. The material of the tennis balls protects the floor from scratches and scrapes. I also use a tennis ball to roll out sore muscles in my body. The rubber material makes the ball mold to the shape of the muscle and helps roll out the knot. 

From the 7 tips for increasing cross-pollination borrowing of ideas I understood that keeping an open mind, reading and researching as much as possible, and engaging in conversation with people that have different perspectives than you can help to inspire you. This might spark a new idea or help to improve an already existing idea. Cross training is the idea that you borrow the habits and techniques of one setting and apply them to another. This reminds me of these reading responses we do in this class. Kofi also does the same reading and response technique in his visual communications and web design classes. It is interesting to see how the same technique is applied in each class. 

The environmental design section of the chapter keeps reminding me of the rainforest cafe that I loved to go to growing up. The restaurant is designed to make you feel like you are eating your meal in the middle of a rainforest. There is always a huge fish tank right when you walk in, the ceiling is covered in trees, leaves, and animals that make their own noises. Every once in awhile a big crack of thunder happens and lighting flashes of light go off. Then pouring rain noise starts to play. This is to resemble the environment a rainforest has to make the customer have a vivid experience. All of these design elements tell a story and makes the experience entertaining that ultimately makes people want to visit the restaurant again.

I think it is really impactful when companies take the time to show you that they care. Little experiences really do count. For example, the book company chegg offers text books at very reasonable prices and they also send you goodies with your textbook purchase. This year, I got red bull, tide pods, and lip gloss. Chegg knows that buying textbooks is not a very delightful experience. Adding the free samples makes for a better experience and made continue to use chegg every time I need to purchase text books.

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Blog Post 3

The Art of Innovation- 5&7 Design of Everyday Things- 5

Chapter 5 focuses on the importance of having a team that is passionate, diverse and encouraging. As creative people, we understand the importance of being passionate about the work you are doing. Kelly focuses a lot on the importance of passion and motivating a team in order to have a successful outcome with teamwork. What motivates us to get out of bed in the morning should be the kind of passion a team should have towards a project. The whole beginning of this chapter reminded me of when I used to competitive dance. Our studio was placed in to 3 seperate competition teams that all performed a lyrical, jazz, and tap number. However, it seemed that the three groups were also ranked with favoritism. You could be the most passionate and hard working dancer ever but if another dancer paid more money to the studio than you did (or were able to) then you were never going to move up to the top group. In this instance, I am talking about myself. I was so passionate about dance and worked so hard to become better and felt like my passion and dedication was constantly overlooked. Once a person puts their heart and soul into something and no one seems to care then it is easy to give up and stop trying. This was an example in my life of how teams are not supposed to work. I agree with everything Kelley says that teams should be passionate and inspired and that everyone on the team should be accepting and receptive of those traits. If my dance leaders respected my hard work and dedication to my team then I probably would’ve continued on to be a successful dancer that still pursued danced today. Instead, I gave up on the team and my passion for dance and quit my senior year. 

It is also important to respect the diversity of the group. Again, as creatives we all come from different strengths and weaknesses. Some of us are great at drawing, others are better at concept and idea development. However, the right mix of different strengths can make for an amazing team. Kelley explains the benefit of team members having different personalities and those personalities working together to create. It is important for everyone to feel confident on a team and enjoy working together. Tension can kill the passion and make working on a team a bit miserable. As long as everyone has a positive mindset and good attitude towards the project I think the teamwork will be a valuable experience for us all. 

I have always been a believer that the space you live in should be decorated with the things that you love. Living in a box with white walls and no personality would make me very sad. In chapter 7, Kelley explains that this is also important for teamwork too. He says that great teams need great space, space that inspires and reflects their work. If you trap a creative person in a grey cubicle you limit the ability of their creativity. This summer, I visited Highmark in Pittsburgh to shadow a designer with my internship at the Daily Athenaeum. We took a tour of their creative advertising agency Tonic. The Tonic floor was decorated in a way that encouraged lots of creativity. All of the walls were painted with whiteboard paint so that when an idea came to mind the workers can write it down and share with others. All of the conference rooms were designed this way too. So in a meeting when they are developing an idea it was easy to write things out to share with everyone. The walls were decorated with inspiring quotes and bright colors and the rooms were named after super heroes and fantasies like Hogwarts and The Hall of Justice. The dress code was also very free because sometimes business professional attire isn’t very comfortable and uncomfort can limit creativity. The company being on a high floor of a gigantic skyscraper with an incredible view of Pittsburgh through the big glass windows was also very inspiring in itself. After my tour for the day I left very inspired and would love to work at a company that values the importance of a well designed space. I often think that the CAC is lacking an inspiring space and could use some updates. A lot of the classrooms I’ve had class in are dull and white. Updating the CAC would benefit all of our creative minds. 

Chapter 5 of The Design of Everyday Things focused on human error and how it is important to understand that everyone makes mistakes. I liked the reference in description errors to someone throwing their clothes in the toilet instead of the laundry basket, I do things like that all the time and wonder why I make silly mistakes like that on the daily. However the overall point was that design should allow for human error and like Norman mentioned in the first chapter, feedback is the best way to determine what human errors are typically made. In general, people can be unforgiving when mistakes are made. Being a waitress, it can be very hard to keep up with all of your customers. I make mistakes often and it is rare that customers are forgiving when you forget their extra side of fries. I try to be as forgiving as possible when it comes to error because nobody is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. Design needs to allow for human error and compensate for when we accidentally hit the “delete” button instead of “accept”.

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Blog Post 2

The Art of Innovation- Chapter 4

I really enjoyed the content in this chapter. It had a lot of great advice on how to improve brainstorming skills. I appreciated reading this because lately, I feel like I have been in a bit of a creativity block and the skills mentioned in this made me realize that I don’t spend enough time on brainstorming before I move to the execution of a product. I like the strategy of numbering your ideas. Kofi and Eve have always given us a number of ideas to come up with and although this can be hard, it does work to get your brain working and more ideas flowing. A lot of the brainstorming mentioned in this chapter talked about working and brainstorming with a team. This is something I always think about when I am trying to come up with ideas. I feel like the idea generation is not always my strong suite, so I like the idea of working in a team with other people. The “ripple effect” that was mentioned in this chapter is a great way to explain how brainstorming in a group can feel. One person has a good idea that gets the group talking and then more and more ideas blossom from here. Working in a team also helps with good feedback on whether other people think your ideas will be successful or not. In Eve’s design for social change class we have split into 2 teams to work on separate projects. I am in the Morgantown Pride group where we are helping Morgantown Pride with any kind of graphics they need for their events. So far, I have really enjoyed working with other people and hearing their ideas. This, along with the group projects we are about to begin will only be successful if we practice good brainstorming. Nothing is more rewarding when a good idea is executed and turns into a successful product but in these past 3 years almost all of the design work I’ve done has been all on my own.  I am excited to start working with people to see how we can work together to come up with and execute some awesome designs. 

The Design of Everyday Things- Chapter 3&4

Chapter 3

In the very beginning of this chapter, the first thing that stood out to me was the idea that, “when in confusing situations where we don’t know what is expected of us, we arrange things” For example, Norman mentioned that people can organize their environment to support their behavior and that this is a way that non-readers can hide their inability even in situations where their job requires reading skills. I related to this because I am someone that has always struggled with reading. I like to read, it just takes me a longer time to comprehend what I am reading than the usual person. I have figured out that I need pure silence to read. So, when I am assigned to read something I find a quiet place that I won’t be bothered to do so. Trying to read in a noisy place is a waste of my time because I know that I won’t be able to retain any of the information that I read. Therefore, I arrange my situation whenever I know I need to read. 

Close to the end of the chapter Norman explains that constraints simplify memory. He talks about rhyming and how it is easier to remember a set of rhymes than to come up with them. He goes on to explain The Classic Study of Memory for Epic Poetry by Albert Bates Lord. Albert Bates Lord explains the power of multiple constraints which allows a singer to listen to another singer tell a lengthy tale once and then hours later recite the song back. Maybe not in a the same exact message but in their own way. This reminded me of Marc Retting’s presentation in Eve’s class. We had to listen to someone tell a story and then try to recite it back to them word for word. This wasn’t as easy as it seems and it was a test to see how good of a listener you could be. It made me realize that I need to pay more attention when someone is speaking to me and lock what they are saying into my short term memory. Being a good listener can really mean a lot to someone. This also reminds me of a lot of people my age that can listen to a song a few times and memorize every word. I am not one of those people but I always get jealous of them. I am the loser that never knows all of the words and just makes up my own. I guess this is just an example of how people’s memories retain information differently. This chapter had a lot of information on how short-term and long-term memory work. I thought it was interesting that everyone’s capability of retrieving information from their short and long term memory is different.

In the section about natural mapping it was funny to me when he kept mentioning turning on the wrong burner on the stove because I literally do this once a day. I always think that I am an idiot when I am waiting for the water to boil for 10 mins before I realize the wrong burner is on... but now I know this is not my fault! My stove is poorly designed / the buttons are poorly mapped. At least that's what I am going to tell myself from now on! If manufacturers argue on what the mapping of a stove should be then I know it’s not my fault and that this is a common issue. I need to tell my sister this because she makes fun of me for it all the time. Mapping is definitely something important that we will all need to keep in mind when designing our products. 

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 focused mainly on the constraints in the world that are all around us. There are physical restraints, cultural restraints, semantic restraints, and logical restraints. All of these categories offer obstacles in doing things the wrong way which help us figure out the correct way to do things once we figure out these incorrect ways. He goes on to explain how batteries can be inserted the wrong way and goes back to the example of the problems with doors and problems with light switches. These, like many other things cause constraints in our everyday lives. The common problems with these items got me thinking about how many constraints I face on a daily basis like the problem with the stove burners that I mentioned earlier. I also always have issues with microwaves. Every microwave is different and it always takes a bit to figure out how each one operates, why isn’t there a standard microwave design so they all just work the same? Using sound as signifiers was interesting to me too. I liked his example of hybrid cars and how it is an issue that they are too quiet because pedestrians don’t notice them as easily. Too much sound on a product can be irritating, but I think sound signifiers can help in alerting the user that they are using a product the right way, or that the product is working correctly. My old speaker used to  talk to me when it turned on and said, “powering on, you are now paird, enjoy” to let me know that the device is on and my bluetooth connected. It also starts beeping at me when the battery is low. I got a new speaker that doesn’t have the sound signifiers and I don’t like it nearly as much. The sound was a way for me to not think about the product so much and alert me when I needed to do something. 

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Blog post 1

Design of Everyday Things- Chapters 1-2

The art of Innovation- Chapters 1-3

Both of these books focus on how important observation is regarding design. Without testing of trial and error, the design will never be effective. For example, chapter one of, “The Design of Everyday Things” Norman mentions that if a door is designed correctly, it should hint at how it’s supposed to work without any obvious signs. With doors that push, the designer should design something in the aesthetics that tells you to push. However, the simple design of everyday objects like a door has a process it has to go through in order to complete an effective design. Designing is all about the interaction of technology and people and understandability and usability between the two. A product’s design should never make people frustrated or irritated. If it is designed effectively, then the user won’t have to think at all while using the product. It is the duty of the machine and its design to understand the people, not our duty to understand the machines.

There is a science that goes behind this idea of “don’t have to think about it” design. Everyone thinks differently, so designing a product that can be understood by all can be tricky. Norman explains that designs of products are usually done by engineers that are experts in technology, but have a limited understanding of people. They are very logical thinkers and have to accept human behavior the way it is, not the way they wish it would be. Engineer or not, every designer needs to think this way in the creative process. Norman then begins to explain Human Centered Design or HCD. HCD revolves around the understanding of people and starts with human overvation and physically observing the way people interact with things. The main focus of HCD is focusing on when things go wrong so that the design can then be taken back to the drawing board, tested, modified and improved. 

A main point that Norman focuses on for a large part of the chapter is affordances and signifiers. We need both affordances and signifiers. Affordances determine what actions are possible. Signifiers communicate where the action should take place. Affordances help people figure out what actions are possible without the need for labels or instructions.Signifiers signal things, in particular what actions are possible and how they should be done. Controls of a product also must be mapped before they are laid out. 

Both Norman and Kelley focus a lot on the importance of feedback. Questions to ask when providing feedback are  (Gulf of Evaluation): How do I work this? -what can I do? -Is this what I wanted? -What happened? These questions are a basis for receiving useful feedback on the functionality of a design. Without good feedback, the design can never be properly improved. Our perception on the use of designed has a lot to do with our conscious and subconscious actions. Subconscious are the actions we don’t think about and naturally happen. Conscious is our controlled actions that are thought about before we act. Important things we need to keep in mind when designing a product: don't blame people when they fail to use your products correctly, assume that what people have done is partially correct, so if it is inappropriate, provide the guidance that allows them to correct the problem and be on their way. Think positively, for yourself and for the people you interact with.

Tom Kelley’s IDEO method in “The Art of Innovation” accentuated the points that Norman made about the importance of the observation process. He explains that successful designers need to understand the market, client, technology, and constraints, observe real people in real-life situations, visualize new-to-the-world concepts and the customers who will use them, evaluate and refine the prototypes through quick iteration and implement the new concept for commercialization. Through these first 3 chapters, Kelley tells a lot of real life examples with his IDEO group. The most useful information I understood from this was how important observation is in order to understand the various ways that people’s brains work. Every observation is more information that can be used in improving the overall design of a product. Taking note of good design, poor design, and things that “bug” us, will help our overall achievement in the future.