Week 5 Readings

GESTALT-IDEAS AT THE INTERFACE BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE

Something early in this reading really stuck out to me. It was one of the disadvantages of the progression of technology. It was referring to the fact that in today’s society we have access to any information we want basically through a click of a button. But what really stuck with me is when he said that because of this we are reducing knowledge to mere information.

This is really interesting to me. It points out the difference between someone having information because they own an iPhone and are able to look anything up and actually knowing the information and possibly having your own opinion or feelings about it. This is a huge difference.

Not only is one able to form their own opinion about a given topic rather than stating facts, but they are able to expand upon their knowledge and relate it to other things or ideas, new and old. If someone has no knowledge on a certain topic but look it up and read the facts really quick, it is much more difficult to immediately have an opinion and almost impossible to expand upon that topic.

Thoughtful Interaction Design: A Design Perspective on Information Technology

Chapter 5 is about the ambiguity when it comes to the measurement of qualities of a product. For instance, how do you measure joy, social appropriateness, viability, etc.? Although a lot of designers have tried to find ways to measure it non are globally accepted. But this does not mean that designers do not have to keep these quality in mind when designing a product.

Just because there is a not a set-in-stone way to calculate these qualities and follow a set design path to meet the requirements doesn’t mean that they can be ignored. Designers are forced to account for all of these qualities in their design process. Because designing is a mind-set, that mind-set has to involve these qualities.

This is a very important part of design. Obviously, a designer would want their product to excel and have high marks in these immeasurable qualities. It is what sets the best designers apart from the rest, the ones that have the ability to measure these qualities in abstract ways.

30 personas 

This reading was about a new method to account for any aspects of a design that you might have missed. It is called the persona method. Although this method has been used since the 90’s there is no cookie-cutter way of doing it.

Basically you create the persona of the person you are trying to target with your design. Then you walk through their day-to-day life, actions, aspirations, and so on keeping in mind ways of improving your design. It is like a imaginary test run of your product.

This method allows you to get a sense of how your product would perform in the real world, in real world scenarios. I believe this is an effective method to improve design. It is a process that a designer should go through after having a vision of a product, to improve upon that vision and inevitably the final product.