Final Blog Post

1.       The argument paper we had to write was the toughest assignment for me. When it comes to writing papers, it is easy to write once I find a topic I am familiar with and have a lot of resources to use. For this assignment, it was a topic I wasn’t too familiar with and the research was very limited. It was an assignment that I made to hard for myself. My most rewarding assignment was the Wikipedia Article assignment. The topic, Chechen Insurgency, was very fun to research due to my interests in foreign policy and militia organizations. When I wrote the article, I learned a lot about Chechen rebels. The articles by Donald Norman were very interesting and compelling. As I read the articles, I finally understood how much work companies have to do in order to design and sell products effectively

2.       There were two very important things I learned from the seminar. First, I learned how a product needs to be designed properly to meet the customers’ demand. It is important to look into the three aspects of design: visceral, behavioral, and reflective. Second, I learned what kind of products can change the way people live, such as the internet, digital information, and etc. An example of a design that changed people’s lives is the rise of suburban residency.

3.       I have some interest about going into business after college and what I have learned from this seminar will be very helpful for my future career in the business.  My main interest is becoming an economic analyst for the government or private sector and I can use my knowledge from this seminar to analyze more effectively.

Speciality Clothing Retailers Q&A's

1.       “Now, it is all about their name being a brand name and needing to think like branded products.” This quote from the article explains that most of the success from advertisement is making sure the customers know what brand they are looking at. Throughout the article, the author stated multiple times that advertising the brand itself helps advertisement be more effective.

2.       The athletic clothing company, Under Armor, has some of the most memorable advertisements I have seen. Under Armor has a unique and distinct logo that is very easy to notice from a long distance. The commercials and magazine advertisements of Under Armor usually contain a professional athlete working out or playing his/her sport. It makes the brand have a special touch to it. It also makes the customers feel like they are working hard and achieving a goal while wearing Under Armor.

3.       When it comes to buying clothing, it depends on what kind of clothing that determines whether the brand influences on whether I buy it or not. For example, if I am looking for clothing that fits my style, I would not care what brand it is. When it comes to sports gear, the brand has a major influence on what I buy. High quality is important in sports gear and Under Armor tends to have the highest quality out of all brands. If I had to choose between a Under Armor shirt and a different-branded shirt, I would most likely go for the Under Armor because it the brand itself.

"Cookie Cutter Housing: Wrong Mix for Subdivisions" Q&A's

1.       The main point of the article, by Rick Harrison, is his argument against cookie-cutter development. He states clearly throughout the article that the blame for bland subdivision designs should be rested on the commissioners, developers and engineers. Harrison goes on to state that there are many miscommunications between the commission, developers, and engineers. The developers should not fear the commission, while the commission needs to state more clearly what they want from the developers. Engineers should focus the quality of the development instead of the government regulations. Another main point he states in the article is a reward-based system should take over the obsolete system that occurs within the operation.

2.       After reading this article, I still believe subdivisions are a great thing. They are a positive addition to the city layout because they allow residents to live in bigger space. If subdivision didn’t exist, people could be living in apartments downtown or elsewhere. There are many positive factors in subdivision, including enhanced social life and family life. There is one negative factor I foresee in subdivision which is creating boring environment.

3.       I have lived in subdivisions my entire life and never felt it being a bland environment the way Harrison describes. I rarely see bland subdivision the author describes. The author writes this article like he is saying this problem occurs everywhere. I believe the author is exaggerating a problem that occurs in very few cities. Besides the exaggerations, I agree with the author’s philosophy especially his take on the fear of confrontation. Criticism and open-minded discussion are required for things to improve.

Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015 Q&A's

1.       The usage of websites has been crucial for businesses during the digital age. As explained in a previous article, it has been said that if there is one mistake on a web design, it could cost many customers.  In other words, if an electronic retail website won’t cooperate with a customer, he/she can go to another website with ease. In this situation, website design has to be focused entirely on what the viewers want.

2.       I feel the most important points in this article are ones that support customer-friendly designs such as #1, #4, #7, #8,and #9. In point #1, viewers only care about their needs, not the web designer’s needs. In point #4, you have to limit the amount of contents there are on the website and make sure the contents don’t delay the viewers’ time. In points #7 and #8, it is important for viewers to navigate the website with ease or they will not return to it. Point #9, the most important, states clearly that websites must have contents that will influence customers to return to it.

3.       My List of Design Factors for a website

a.       Easy to Navigate?

b.      Fair number of contents?

c.       Does it have a purpose?

d.      Does it contain contents that will influence consumers to return?

e.      Attractive? Appealing?

f.        Does it feel updated?

The Future of Retail Shopping Q&A's

1.       Negroponte does not explicitly state his thesis anywhere in his article. This would be the thesis statement I would write for this article: The future of retail is at risk with the rise of the digital age.

2.       Nicholas Negroponte’s article focuses on what consumers will be demanding in the future, similar to Norman’s three aspects of design. Negroponte goes into details about why consumers prefer to shop online, such as getting the guarantee that the product will be available online instead of driving to the store.

3.       Negroponte has the overall picture correct but I was surprised he went into detail about food service instead of services such as retail-store online shopping, news publishing service, and etc.

4.       I do not believe there will be no retail in the future. If everyone started relying on shipping products, the streets would be packed with package trucks and it would cost more money (fuel, for example) then just going to the store yourself. I do believe that online shopping will become very popular. For example, movie-renting services such as Netflix and on Demand have caused companies such as Blockbuster and Hollywood Video to declare bankruptcy.  Overall, people like to get out of the house every day, and for many people, that is by going shopping. Going shopping allows you to explore instead of just going online, clicking the mouse a couple times, and sit back down on the couch.

Downtown Kalamazoo Observations

1.       The two major business areas of downtown Kalamazoo are Burdick Street and Haymarket District. Burdick Street is customer-friendly environment with a nicely-decorated and well-maintained landscape. Burdick Street is a one-to-two lane street with wide sidewalks, encouraging more customers to walk down the street. Along the sidewalks, there were many benches and tables, which can be good and bad for businesses, according to Robert Gibbs article, “What Main Street can Learn from The Mall.” It was mostly two-story buildings along the street, but it was mostly offices on the second floor due to very few advertisement signs on the second floor. This indicates that most of the business takes place on the first floor. There were a few generators along the street including a theater and many high-tech, modern-looking buildings. The street was made mostly of incubators retail stores. It was mostly clothing and beauty stores along Burdick Street, which can be unappealing to the male population.  The Haymarket district is very different. Haymarket district is a traffic-friendly environment with less sidewalk space. This part of downtown is not customer-friendly since it was dirty and poorly maintained. This district can be unappealing to the general population because there were no benches and tables and the building were older compared to the ones on Burdick Street.  It was mostly restaurants, clothing, and banks, which attracts to the general population. An effective generator in the Haymarket district is the Rave Movie Theater.

2.       The three recommendations I propose to help improve the downtown is to reduce the number of benches and tables on Burdick Street, clean up Haymarket District, and promote business between East Michigan Street and the Rave Movie Theater. I recommend reducing the number of benches and tables is to encourage shoppers to explore Burdick Street. Cleaning up Haymarket District is crucial because it is a great way to attract customers to the businesses in Haymarket District. Last, I strongly advice businesses to open up along Portage Street, where the Rave Movie Theater is, in order to make the movie theater’s ‘generator status’ more effective.

3.       “This is not the kind of question that planners and architects often ask themselves. They tend to see streets and sidewalks strictly as a civic realm, a social environment where people meet and interact, and they tend to favor the sorts of attractive sidewalks and streetscapes that seem to promote sociability.” (What Main Street can Learn from The Mall). Burdick Street strongly supports this statement, because Burdick Street is very appealing (tables, benches, decorations, etc) and discourages customer from exploring.

Gibbs vs. Whyte

1.  Gibbs and Whyte have different approaches on urban design. Gibbs concentrates on how the area itself attracts customers, while Whyte concentrates on how each retail store attracts customers. When analyzing a specific area, Gibbs would go around pointing flaws with the layout of roads, how many ‘generators’ there are, etc. If Whyte was put in the same place, he would go to each retail store and point out the advantages and disadvantages of the retail store. I find Gibbs’s approach more convincing because he goes into details about aspects of urban design such as generators, incubators, public safety, street layout and etc. Whyte’s approach, from reading his chapter “City,” I was left with more questions than answers on Whyte’s opinion on urban design. Throughout the chapter, he just kept pointing out flaws. Every time he pointed out one, I would always wonder what the solution would be to and he would never lay out one.
2. An urban area with few view-obstructing structures and wide-spread is an urban design that attracts me. When I am shopping outside, I like to see everything clearly (retail stores, vehicles, sky, etc). I also do not like shopping in a crowded area. This allows me to focus more on what stores I am looking at instead of trying to avoid bumping into other people. The fear of crime has a big influence one whether I would go shopping or not. When I go shopping, I would want to enjoy the time instead of keeping my eyes open and watching my back

Thesis Statement for Design Argument Essay

Thesis Statement: A market economy allows customers to have many products to choose from and make the choice based on its design, while a command economy eliminates that ability due to little or no business competition.

"City" Q&A's

1.       How to design an urban shopping area effectively was William H. Whyte’s key point in his writing, “City.” He went on to talk about how to design sidewalks, where to locate important accessories (trash bins, benches, advertisement signs, etc), how to use every space effectively, and how to attract customers.

2.       Whyte’s ideas are very similar to Norman’s three types of design concepts (visceral, behavioral, and reflective) but both have different smaller ideas. Norman talks more about how to influence customers into buying certain products while Whyte talks more about how to attract customers to certain products.

3.       Checklist:

a.       How does the urban design (sidewalks, building structures, etc) help the flow of customers?

b.      Where are all the accessories (trash bins, benches, signs, etc) located?

c.       Is every space used effectively?

d.      Are customers easily attracted to stores?

"What Main Street Can Learn from the Mall" Q&A's

1.       Instead of answering the questions about the criteria Robert Gibbs uses to evaluate a Main Street in a paragraph, I am going to give a list:

a.       Does a “generator” exist? Is there a big store that will attract customers and businesses to the location?

b.      Is/are the retail store(s) are to adjust to the demand of customers quickly and effectively?

c.       Are the stores easy to see? Are there any objects (trees, benches, etc) obstructing the sight of stores?

d.      Do the sidewalks/streets encourage customers to explore or socialize more?

e.      Does the scene give the customers a positive feeling? (Security, landscape, etc)

f.        Which side of the street is the store located on?

g.       Does the store follow the cardinal rule: keep shoppers’ eyes on the merchandise at all times?

h.      Do the stores located next to a specific store attract or repel customers (ex: restaurants repel customers from clothing stores)?

i.         Does the store advertise effectively?

2.       Main Street should not be a mall for one crucial reason. Malls are effective in areas that have high population density. Since the 1960s, people having been moving to suburbs, which lowers the density of the population. Since the population has lower density, malls are not very effective. A more effective method is the stores have their own location instead of many at one location. This method would be more effective because the customers would have to do less traveling.

3.       My checklist to judge a Main Street:

a.       Is it easy to access?

b.      Are the stores visible enough for customers to know what they sell and what is on sale?

c.       Is it a friendly environment? Do customers have a sense of safe haven?

Chechen Insurgency - Wikipedia Article Posted

Here is the link to the Wikipedia article I created:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chechen_Insurgency

Retail Analysis Q&A's

1.       For the Retail Analysis Project, I decided to observe and analyze Meijer, a supermarket store that is based in Grand Rapids. Meijer markets every-day products such as groceries, electronics, home appliances, beauty products and etc.

2.       When I entered the parking lot of the store, I thought it looked like a train station with the windows that you see when you go to a train station. That style gives the store a unique appearance. When I entered the store, it was not as loud as most stores are like. Most stores, I would hear mostly carts making noises and people talking on speakers communicating with its employees. When I walked around the store, I never heard a speaker or excessive noise of carts. I thought it was very impressive. The way the merchandise is displayed has a few flaws. For example, I went around looking for Gatorade and I expected it to be in the same section as sodas and beers. I was short on time and wanted to make a quick run to the soda section, but didn’t find any Gatorade, so I wasn’t able to get some. It is either a flaw the layout or a strategy to force customers to explore the store. The floors are mostly white or plain. It was nothing appealing or repelling. I thought the signs were a major issue. When I entered the store, I was only able to find 3 signs for each section when there are 8 plus sections throughout the store. The cashier area was excellent. There were 38 check-out stations with 12 of them self-checkout stations.

3.       Meijer seems to project the image it describes with its motto “Higher Standards, Lower Prices.” The style of the store was bland and not a stand-out from the inside while maintaining a good layout and attractiveness from the outside. The company simply tries to attract customers using its unique outdoor style.

4.       As I was walking through the store, I saw many customers testing out the products by performing the functions of them. From this observation, it seems the store concentrates on convincing customers their products function properly.

5.       The most interesting design I saw in the store was the way the layout forced customers to explore the store more than just look through one section. People would have to get pasta in one section, pasta sauce in another section.

Egg-Drop Experiment

When my partner, Kyle, and I were given the assignment to design a product that would protect an egg from a drop, we first decided to make it cheap and easy to use. Due to limited supply, we had to think of what we could find around campus to avoid going shopping. Kyle has Styrofoam and bubble wrap with him and we decided to use the two materials to protect the egg.

Afterwards, we discussed what we were going to use to store the egg. Kyle has a small cardboard black box about the size of a small tissue box and I had a wide Ziploc container. We tested the Ziploc container first. After stuffing the Styrofoam and bubble wrap into the container, we realized there wasn’t enough room and figured the container wouldn’t prevent the egg from breaking from impact. We tried to black box and since it was lightweight and lightly-dense, we figured it would reduce the force of the impact. We decided to use the black box.

When we tested the design on Wednesday, it failed and we were disappointed. I thought the visceral design was excellent. When customers would look at the product, they would assume it is a compact, lightweight device that can effectively protect an egg from a drop. As it succeeds in the visceral aspects, it suffers from the function aspect.

After experiment, I thought of two ways that could improve the function of the product.  First, the product needs to fall slower. In order to do that, we need to create air resistance. Another way to improve the product is to enlarge it in order to reduce the amount of force applied to the egg.

Overall, I thought it was a fun project to do and learned a lot from it.

Here is the link to Kyle’s blog:

http://kylecasadei.blogspot.com/

The Science of Shopping Q&A's

1.       The main point in this article is retail stores must adapt to how people shop in order to get the most of their customers. Examples of how customers interact in a store is female customers tend to walk through men’s and women’s section of a clothing store, while male customers only tend to walk through the men’s section. This study should indicate that clothing stores should put the men’s section in the front and the women’s section in the back. Another example of customer interaction is customers tend to spot items on the right of their 45 degree angle vision. Paco Underhill gives many examples of how customers interact throughout a retail store.

2.       I am not influence by the store’s design as much as an average customer because I usually go shopping for a specific item. Sometimes, when I find my item(s), I will look throughout the store to let time pass by. Majority of the time, I don’t buy another item when I walk through the store. I am a person who relies on his visual skills and enjoys looking at everything I see in my daily life. When I am in a store, I look at every single item in a specific section, but only buy a few depending on how much cash I have or what I intend to buy.

3.        My checklist:

a.       Is the store’s layout easy to follow? Can I find a specific item easily?

b.      Are customers forced to look at many items in order to find a specific item?

c.       Location of the store

d.      What are the customers’ initial reaction when seeing the store/store layout

e.      Are customers able to figure out which items are better quality/cheaper?

f.        Can customers see a specific product/service performing its function?

g.       Is the store in the right environment? Do customers feel comfortable around the store?

Isn't it Iconic? Q&A's

1.       Packaging is very important in marketing a product because it is what catches the customers’ attention.  “The concept of designing an iconic package-a package that, in its essence, becomes a signature part of the overall brand-has become something of a holy grail for brand mangers and package designers these days.” (Gordon 1). The package itself has to stand out from its similar products in order to successfully attract customers. An example of me buying a product based on its package is video games. I have noticed that very good games have a great box art design while other games that are considered bad, usually have a bland package design. This is how I bought Halo 3, not because of its popularity, but because I thought it would be cool to have its box art be a part of my video game collection.

2.       A well designed package is the peanut butter brand, Jif. It stands out more on the shelves due to its large letters and its red, blue, and green rainbow.

3.       Overall, a poor package design is one that is too complicated because complicated designs tend to blend with other products, preventing it from standing out more. To be honest, I cannot think of a product that has a poor package design because I usually don’t buy those or its hard to remember them.  

"Know it All" Q&A's

1.       From the way I see it, there is only one main point and a few minor points in Stacy Schiff’s “Know it All.” The main point is the article is how Jimmy Wales, Larry Sander and their partners saw the problems with Encyclopedia Britannica, went through trial of errors to create a website that is more effective and has more articles than Britannica. Wales wanted to create a website that has “free knowledge for everyone.” Sanger first created the website, Nupedia, which did not work out well. Sanger saw the flaws in Nupedia and decided to create another website that has “a simple software tool that allows for collaborative writing and editing.” This entire process started Wikipedia in 2001. Throughout the next several months, the website encountered many problems, but the administrators were able to fix the problems while maintaining the popularity and credibility of the website. The article gives many stories about the problems the administrators encountered.

2.       “At the beginning, there were no formal rules, though Sanger eventually posted a set of guidelines on the site. The first was “Ignore all the rules.” Two of the others have become central tenets: articles must reflect a neutral point of view, and their content must be both verifiable and previously published. Among other things, the prohibition against original research heads off a great deal of material about people’s pets.” (Schiff 4). This policy has prevented many editors and writers from posting false information. Being required to cite the source allows the article to have good credibility and forces writers to use only credible sources.

3.       Wikipedia’s design seems to be a more simple design. The home page allows you to see more information without getting confused while Britannica is a more complex page with fewer information. Many people like to go on these website to just search a topic. Britannica has tabs of different topic and I’m pretty sure the viewers just go the search function to find an article instead of using the tabs. Wikipedia doesn’t use tabs. It gives only the functions (search, edit, etc) its viewers will use all the time.

Areas of Design I am Interested for Week 9

A topic I am very interested in is real-life stories about designing products. The story of designing the iPod was a great story to read. I am also interested in stories about failures in product designs and well designed products that failed in the market. For example, the story of Preston Tucker and his well-designed 1948 Tucker Sedan that failed to sell in the market.

Another topic I am interested in is how companies react to flaws in their products after being released to the market. I am interested in what was happening inside Microsoft when the Xbox 360 was having a high-failure rate.

Organization and Preparation Tips Q&A's

1.       I believe the author’s three most important points out of the ten points he pointed out are “ #4 Keep it simple,” “#5 Outlining your content,” and “#10 Confidence – How to get it.” These three points alone can make a great presentation for many reasons. Keeping it simple will help make your presentation interesting and easy to understand. Putting too much information in a presentation will only take away the audience’s patience and interest. Outlining your content allows the presentation to flow smoothly. You can’t have a good presentation without a plan or outline. Maintaining your confidence during presentation helps make a great impact on the audience. It is important to practice, because the more you practice, the better the outcome of the presentation.

2.       The two points that caught my attention were “#2 Know your audience as well as possible” and “#8 Can you pass the “elevator test”?” Every time I have made presentations, I have never thought about who I was presenting it to or whether I would have to explain it walking down the hallway or presenting it on a PowerPoint. The next time I make a presentation, I will think about my audience, whether they are students, parents, business officials, or the general public. For examples, I would have to choose whether I would need to give a background story or not. I will make a backup plan in case I have to face the elevator test.

3.       A presentation is similar to a product design in many ways. Both require an outline/plan in order to create it. A presentation and product’s goal is to attract customers/audiences in order to succeed. Both must create a design that will meet the public’s expectations by making it understandable and usable.

Wikipedia Topic Proposal

The article topic I propose to write about is “Chechen Terrorism.” My special interests in current events are conflicts and terrorism. I intend to learn about a terrorist organization that has no direct opposition to the United States and its allies. This topic is similar, not to my academic interests, but to my interests in extra-curricular activities.

Chechen terrorists and insurgents are made up of multiple jihadist terrorist groups seeking independence from Russia. They are located in Chechnya and other countries in the North Caucasus region. They have very similar methods to other jihadist organizations such as Al-Qaeda, Taliban, and Al-Shabaab.

I believe this topic is very important because there are many reports that the Chechen groups are connected and funded by terrorist organizations in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

Emotional Design Q&A's Part 2

1.      “Human responses to the everyday things of the world are complex, determined by a wide variety of factors.” (Norman 65). This passage in the beginning of the chapter got me interested because I originally thought it was only a few factors that determined whether a customer was going to buy a product or not.  Another passage I thought was very interesting was as stated from page 83, “As a result, the best products today, from a behavioral point of view, are often those that come from the athletic, sports, and craft industries, because these products do get designed, purchased and use by people who put behavior above everything else.” (Norman 82). This passage caught my attention because it wasn’t obvious that this statement is true at first, but then when I thought about it, it made sense.

2.      Visceral is characterized by or proceeding from instinct rather than intellect, which is very similar to how the author is describing visceral design. Reflective design is another term the author used correctly as “it is all about message, about culture, and about the meaning of a product or its use.” (Norman 83). On the other hand, I believe the author could have used a better term for the behavioral design. I believe the term “function design” would have been a better phrase to use for his term, because behavioral design is all about the use. Function, in other words, is how the product is being used.

3.      To determine whether visceral, behavioral, or reflective design is more important for a particular product depends on what the product is. Products such as a vase, posters, book covers, etc should lean towards visceral design because that is the best way they will sell. Vase is used for decorations and visual is a very important aspect of decoration. Posters are very similar to vase, because they are all about the look and what the element on the poster is. Book covers is a little different situation. Although the function is reading the book, people are attracted to books that have attractive covers. Products that commonly rely on behavioral designs are construction equipments, sports equipments, etc. Construction workers are not going to care how their equipment looks. They only care about how it works and whether it will help them do their job. Similar to athletes who care whether the product will help them succeed. Reflective designed products such as the iPod, the Halo video game franchise, and cell phones. All of these products are a part of many people’s daily lives. Many people have these products due to peer pressure and how it will influence their lives.

Emotional Design Q&A's

1.       Donald A. Norman’s main focus this chapter was about how people are attracted to everyday things. According to Norman, the three most important factors to attracting customers are the visceral design, behavioral design, and reflective design. Visceral design is all about the appearance. Businesses use customers’ initial reactions in order to attract the product. “Effective visceral design required the skills of the visual and graphic artist and the industrial engineer. Shape and form matter. The physical feel and texture of the materials matter. Heft matters. Visceral design is all about immediate emotional impact. It has to feel good, look good. Sensuality and sexuality play roles. This is a major role of “point of presence” displays in stores, in brochures, in advertisements, and in other enticements that emphasize appearance.” (Norman 69). A second factor that helps attract customers is the behavioral design. Behavioral design is all about the performance. “Appearance doesn’t really matter. Rationale doesn’t matter.” (Norman 69). “Good behavioral design should be human-centered, focusing upon understanding and satisfying the needs of the people who actually use the product.” (Norman 81). Norman also points out that companies need to test the products to see if they are easy to use. The last important factor is the reflective design. Reflective design is “about message, about culture, and about the meaning of a product or its use.” (Norman 83). Towards the end of the article, the author used examples of good designs such as the NFL Headset of coaches and how clothing stores sell their products.

2.       Chapter 1, “The Design of Everyday Things” focuses on how products are designed and expresses the strengths and weaknesses of specific designs. Chapter 3, “Emotional Design” focuses on how products are attracted to customers through designs and advertisements. Overall, both chapters focus on designing products from different perspectives.

3.       A product that has succeeded through visceral design is the 2005 Ford Mustang. The 1960s Mustang was a very popular vehicle, but lost its touch in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. When it was released, it had a resemblance of the 1960s style and attracted many customers. A product that succeeded through behavioral design is the Crocs foot-wears. Although people thought it looked ugly, many owners say it is very comfortable. A product that succeeded through reflective design is Microsoft’s Xbox 360. The original Xbox created a massive and loyal fan-base. Xbox 360 was very popular because of people buying it due to peer pressure and the popularity of its online component, Xbox Live.

The Design of Everday Things Part 2 (9/24/10)

1. My favorite quote from the article is, "When things are visible, they tend to be easier than when they are not. In addition, there must be a close, natural relationship between the control and its function: a natural mapping" (p16-17). It is a passage that had a big impact on what the author was trying to say. It was a great sentence because throughout the article, you are reading and asking yourself, "Why this? Why that? Why?' This 2-sentence passage answered my question, not a 4-page article.

2. Norman's book is about a topic that will be a debate within companies for many generations to come because the topic is a key to the successes/failures of businesseses.

3. On my checklist, the most important factor for evaluating a product is whether it can be understandable. I don't want a product that is complicated and no manual is included. If it is hard to use, I would not mind if there is a manual for it.

The Design of Everyday Things Q&A

1.      The author of this article, Donald A. Norman, illustrated many key points in this article. Norman uses many examples throughout the article of why people get frustrated with technology every day. Norman’s explanation to this is the poor design of the technology and the designers’ ambitions to combine newer technologies to attract customers. When designers create products, they tend to focus on adding technologies instead of improving the mapping and design of the product to make it easier to use. This is called paradox of technology. Another key point the author pointed out was how products are very difficult to use without instructions or pictures. “When things are visible, they tend to be easier than when they are not.” The author’s overall message in this article is for the designers to create technology to meet the people’s needs, not advance them so rapidly that it causes a paradox of technology.

2.      This past weekend, I had a lot of trouble setting up my printer. There are only 4 buttons on the printer and over 20 functions it can perform. It had an instruction manual but it didn’t show all the functions the printer could perform. I had to go online to figure out how to perform a specific function. This example follows Norman’s explanation of how good design is where one button performs one function, not multiple functions.

3.      The designers addressed the issue of design by making the iPod simple by giving one or two functions for every button or touchpad it had. The buttons and touchpad were labeled and easy to use.  They also made it easy to use by giving the donut-shaped touchpad the function to navigate through thousands of songs and menus instead of a button requiring to be pressed multiple times to navigate through the device.

"The Perfect Thing" Q's & A's

1. In the second page of the article, Apple's goal was to build an MP3 player "that would work with Apple's existing iTunes application and would not suck." The article also illustrates how the company set its goals to make the best MP3 player in the market, such as finding the strengths and weakness of the existing MP3 players. They realized they needed to build a MP3 player that could store thousands of songs and be able to fit in your pocket. After the "blueprint phase," the company went on to build models with trial of errors. After building the models, they went on to decide which model was the best. After approving a model, the company went on to build a prototype and find a name for it. The company also went into the issue of music piracy. Afterwards, it initiated the digital crash test to determine the durability of the product and improve if necessary. Afterwards, they started mass-production.

2. The three most important factors I use to evaluate a "perfect thing" is durability, usefullness, and style. I believe a "perfect thing" is a product that is perfectly balanced on factors(durability, price, appearance, etc) that determine the effectiveness of the product.

3. I believe the iPod is overrated because of Apple's reputation. I still think it is an excellent product, but there are other products, such as the Zune, that deserve the reputation of the iPod. Though, I do not have an iPod, one weakness I see is its durability. I have heard stories people breaking their iPods from shallow falls. The greatest strength I see in the product is the ability to use the device with ease, such as navigating throughout the device.

Introduction

My name is Tyler and I come from Westlake, OH, which is west of Cleveland. I plan to swim for the KZOO swimming and diving team and looking forward to it. I am original from Tennessee and still have a little southern accent. I am looking forward to being a part of the Design Intelligience seminar and meeting everyone.