Beth Farwell

Final Post

2009-11-24T10:33:00.000-08:00

1. - Challenging = One of the most challenging things that I had to do in Design Intelligence was working in a group on the fashion design presentation. Usually group work goes well because I am an agreeable person who likes to contribute to the group's efforts, however this group did not function well. Certain people did not want to do their share of work, while others were manipulative (which I just cannot understand because they were only hurting the group as a whole).

- Rewarding = One of the most rewarding things that I did this quarter was mentioning 'pipes' on my blog. At the time I wrote this it seemed like nothing to me, just an example, something simple. This however led to a few different class discussions, including the first discussion about pipes where I was able to argue my point that some people go to Home Depot just to browse. Was this point relevant? No, but many of the points that the other person involved in this debate makes daily are not relevant either. It was just nice to get a chance to refute a certain person and prove my point even though what was being said did not matter.

- Interesting = The most interesting reading this semester was the one about Paco Underhill and his observations of retail shopping. I think that it is amazing how strong the patterns of human behavior really are. This reading helped me to fully understand how manipulative the shopping experience can really be.

2. In Design Intelligence I learned a ton about group discussions; including how they should work, and how they actually progress. The only classes in high school where we would ever have discussions similar to the ones we always had in seminar were in AP English senior year, and in some art classes (although the art discussions weren't really that similar). I think seminar was a good class because I learned a lot about design in regards to things that I deal with almost everyday, and along the way I got to know a certain group of people quite well.

3. In the future I will definitely take a more through look at a product's design and function before purchasing it.

For the people aspect, I think I have now gotten a feel for they mix of students who go to K College and what types of personalities they have. This hopefully will help me in the future when I need to decide who I want to work with for a group project.

Behavioral Architecture

2009-11-18T20:57:00.000-08:00

1. One architectural flaw (I wouldn't call it an 'epic failure') is the fireplace in my house. Instead of being located along an outside wall the fireplace is in the middle of the house. This is nice because there is extra window space along the outside walls. However the fireplace being in the middle of the house completely ruins the basement. There is a huge cement support in the middle of my basement so you can literally only walk around the perimeter of the basement. Along with the giant support block someone decided to also group the furnace and hot water heater in the middle. Because of this only small sections of my basement can be used, and no one area can function well as a room or normal living space.

2. Hoben Hall (where I live) functions much better than most of the other residence halls. The design of the floor levels that don't totally match up seems weird however they are this way because of the cathedral ceiling in the lounge. I like that Hoben is basically laid out in a straight line (this way it is not confusing). This is the main architectural reason that makes it better than most other residence halls on campus.

From a visual standpoint, Hoben's red brick and white window exterior looks wonderful. The big windows that face the outside porches on either side add a lot of appeal to the building itself (at least for me).

3. The biggest flaw currently in the design process is the architects lack of feedback. What I found most interesting about the reading was the statement about a review board going into a building to see if they like it and want to commission the architect to work for them. Instead of analyzing the functionality of the building itself or looking at how often space becomes available, the people on the review board look for cracks in the ceiling that they then blame the architect for. It wouldn't matter how great a job the architect did designing the building, if one of the construction workers shingling the roof did a poor job, the architect will not be used.

Ads Fads & Consumer Culture

2009-11-17T11:46:00.000-08:00

1. "Others are brainwashed by ads and commercials, but not us, we think- as we find ourselves purchasing products we feel, somehow, we must have. Thus, we play into the hands of advertisers who use our illusion that we are not affected by advertising against us."

I find this passage interesting because it is based on manipulation of the everyday consumer. I like to think that I am not extremely influenced by commercials but I have come to terms with the fact that I am in fact influenced. I think that most educated people, such as myself, like to think that they are not influenced by ads, however realistic people know deep down that they really are influenced.

2. The author's key points were that advertising plays a large role in the socialization of people young and old, advertising is used because it is effective in multiple ways, and that TV plays a large role in our teaching/learning experience as Americans.

The author mentioned a lot about TV commercials and how when he was analyzing commercials he felt the opposite of how he did when he was watching a program. Instead of there being too many commercials that took up way to much time, there were extremely long gaps of time between commercial breaks and it was frustrating. This was almost hard to believe but it makes sense that if a person is to change the way they watch TV that they would in fact feel impatient waiting for the commercials.

3. Having a psychological understanding is important when making an advertisement. If the person making the ad knows how to influence people they will most likely have a higher success rate. I found what the author wrote about people responding positively to commercials that avoid logical decision making to be interesting. After thinking about this for a moment I could easily agree with the statement. I thought about commercials run during the Superbowl (some of the most expensive air time throughout the year). Many of the commercials involve everyday people taking part in superhuman activities, or going on extraordinary spy missions. These anti-rational commercials always seem to be the most popular in water-cooler discussions and the products advertised also tend to be quite popular ones.

*The link to my Wikipedia paper page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_for_Environment

Fashion Design

2009-11-15T15:29:00.000-08:00

1. Fashion design is reflective because people are constantly judging and being judged based on their clothing choices. Having 'cool' or 'different' taste in clothing is the same as having indie cred. And since fashion is visceral, an individual will not have to convince others that they in fact knew of a band first, the just have to walk around in their 'cool' clothes and people will see that they are not main stream.

2. Fashion trends change because people change. A new generation does not want to wear anything that looks remotely similar to what the generation before (their parents) wore. However this is not always the case because fashion cycles and things that were once in style come back in again. The trend of vintage clothing is something that seems to frequently be popular.

Another way that time relates to fashion is in regards to what is going on in the world. During WWII when women started seeing images of Rosie the Riveter and participating in the war efforts pants started becoming much more popular for women. Women's fashion changing so dramatically in this time period was strictly functional.

3. Things to consider when designing a garment:

a) The consumer

b) The fabric used

c) Pricing

d) Aesthetics

e) Timing

Atlanta: Does Edge City Have a Future

2009-11-11T19:07:00.000-08:00

1. I feel that the thesis of this article is not as clear as it should be. The thesis is something along the lines of Atlanta being not only economically reckless, but just reckless in general.

2. All the information states that Atlanta is not economically sound, and that its residents are not doing anything to help the matters at hand.

Examples:

a) Kunstler mentions that Atlanta was "out of compliance with the 1990 Clean Air Act," and because of this the city itself was going to lose out on over 1.5 billion dollars that going to be provided to fix roadways that were in need of some severe help. Did the people of Atlanta decide they needed to stop polluting in order to improve the quality of life and also make it possible to keep the funding that was being provided to fix the road system? No, the people of Atlanta sat back and did nothing. The driving/transportation system was just as bad as ever and the people of Atlanta were waiting around (most likely stuck in traffic and polluting the environment) for 'someone' to come up with a plan.

b) The government of the state of Georgia implemented a new plan (because they no longer had transportation funding) with the establishment of the Georgia Regional Transportation Agency. This sounds like it may be a good plan, but it in fact ends with the Georgia legislation giving total control to their Governor and basically deciding to cut off areas that don't want to pay for their own method of public transportation in and out of the city.

c) Fed up with all of the traffic and roadway problems in Atlanta, a local man who got tired of waiting at a red light simply took out his gun and "shot out" the signal.

3. If I were writing an opposing argument I would most definitely include something that argues that the people of Atlanta should not have to think of an idea to reduce their pollution while the government has now taken away all of its money that could have potentially helped said problem. I would also include facts about people from other states that are in much better shape and the crazy things that these people are doing, and how they are far worse than shooting out a traffic light.

Downtown Field Trip Analysis

2009-11-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

1. The downtown Kalamazoo business area is planned out in a typical yet functional manner. Burdick Street, the main shopping avenue, is ascetically pleasing to shoppers who stroll down the street. The sidewalks are paved with red brick in a nice pattern, and there are just the right amount of trees, trash cans, and places to sit.

Having limited traffic on Burdick Street as well as a few parallel parking spots is a good idea, however since downtown Kalamazoo is filled with one way streets it is extremely hard to navigate even if you kind of know where you are going; meaning a lot of people have probably never driven down Burdick street.

2. a) Burdick Street should have two lanes of traffic, one in each direction, as well as some parallel parking along the street. This is probably no possible or at least logical because the sides walks would be pretty narrow if this was to happen. By having a larger amount of traffic flow down the street the shops would get more publicity and attention from potential customers.

b) All buildings that are in use should have signs. There was one store that I saw on Burdick Street that had no signs. When our class was downtown the store was also closed. From looking in the windows I could tell that the store was in fact a nice restaurant that was still in business, it just didn't open until dinner time. I figured that when 4 o'clock rolls around the restaurant probably puts one of those folding signs in the middle of the sidewalk outside of their business, but that is not as beneficial as having a sign visible at all times.

c) If something looks like a door yet a person can not exit through it they should somehow know this. When inside a building on Burdick Street, that has alot of store inside of one building, I went into a market type store. I don't remember the name of this store but I remember that it had a deli and cafe where people could get lunch, as well as a smaller upscale looking grocery store attached. Since this building was old and the current store was larger than the original store in the building, many of the original doors that would have been to separate stores were visible along the length of the wall. There was only one functional entrance to the store, however it looked like there were about 5 other places to enter and exit. Obviously the store isn't going to have doors in the back where there are no registers and where no one is; this would encourage theft. My idea is that where the original doors are along the length of one wall there should be some type of display that is somewhat in front of each door. There was always a clear path leading up to the doors and a shopper could not tell that they could not use them until pushing against the locked door.

3. In Whyte's chapter about the design of the street he writes about "pedestrian flow itself coming in bunches. "The traffic light at the corner is a key factor..." In downtown Kalamazoo, especially walking down Michigan, I have noticed that the traffic lights seem to be in time with a normal walking pace. Once I stop at the first light I will not have to stop again because just as I am reaching the next corner to cross the street the light turns green in the direction that I am walking and I do not have to pause. This along with pedestrians stopping or slowing down in front of window displays does create bunching of people as they walk down the street.

The Egg Container Process

2009-11-05T21:33:00.000-08:00

1. When designing our egg container Caleb and I wanted to make something that was compact and looked visually appealing. Apparently our container was a little too small because it did not have enough padding inside to throughly protect our egg. I think if we had put a plastic bag parachute on our container (like many other groups did) that our egg's chances of survival would have improved tremendously.

2. Building our container was simple enough, we grabbed a box out of the recycling, the fake spiderwebs that were going to be thrown away in the bookstore, and were given some play-dou by my RA. Once we compiled these materials into one, with the help of some tape of course, we printed out a funny and appealing label to put on our container. Our most creative aspect was the coloring and design of the lettering on our package. We made the words "Egg-Saver" into and arc and colored in the letters of the word "saver" in the order red, yellow, green, magenta, red. This is the same as the coloring of the font on the Life-Saver candy packaging. I liked this idea, but i guess we should have spent more time thinking of a better way to keep our egg safe. =(

Here is the link to Caleb's blog:

http://designintelligencecalebcordes.blogspot.com/

Gibbs & Whyte Comparison

2009-11-05T21:20:00.000-08:00

1. Gibbs focuses on stores and shopping when he considers the idea of how to make a downtown shopping area popular, while Whyte discusses what is happening outside of the stores on the street. Working together they would make a super team because they would cover every aspect (as far as I know) of this type of design.

2. I could relate more to Whytes chapter I think because I am an extremely visual person who notices a lot of little details. The idea of having a small notch about a foot up in the side of a garbage can so that people can easily tie their shoes is such a great idea. Also I love to look at graffiti. Hopefully I am safe enough in the neighborhood when I am viewing graffiti, but this is not always the case. In the United States it seems like graffiti is cleaned off a lot more often than in other places. When I went to Spain the sides of the freeway walls were covered with this amazing graffiti for at least a mile outside of Madrid.

Maybe because I am a female shopping (especially in a downtown area like this) is not done for behavioral purposes. I like shopping in these types of places because of the atmosphere that a well put together street produces. Benches are a necessity. They are a great place to sit an talk while taking a break from shopping and sipping on a coffee. Doesn't that just sound like a good afternoon? To me it does.

On the other hand, something that will repel me is trash. I am a neat freak even when it comes to public areas with thousands of people that I can't control. The messy-ness and disorganization will send me packing.

City: The Sensory Street

2009-11-03T20:50:00.000-08:00

1. The author's key points were explaining to the reader how the typical downtown street functions. It was interesting to read about Whyte's idea about trash cans, and how they should have small grooves in the side so that people will have a ledge to use when tying their shoe. This is a great idea, especially in the winter when people want to just quickly tie their shoe and continue on. I like all the comparison between the United States and Japan. The only other countries I have been downtown in are Spain and Canada (And I'm not sure that Canada counts). When I was in Spain I was with my Aunt who apparently can not walk properly next to someone on a sidewalk. Some of the sidewalks in Spain were kind of narrow and some were congested, but I don't think it should be that hard.

2. I liked all of Whyte's statistical analysis of the happenings on the street. Norman didn't seem to have as many actual numbers however he did often talk about the patterns of people. I liked that these two articles were about different topics (the store on the inside, and the street on the outside). It is interesting to be able to compare the types of manipulation that are apparent in both places.

3. a) Trash cans* (If the street is dirty people are inclined to be messy)
b) Benches
c) Walking space
d) Trees
e) The use of window space/displays
f) Drinking fountains
g) Street vendor positioning

What Main Street Can Learn From The Mall

2009-11-02T04:25:00.000-08:00

1. If there was a "generator" business, the benches and their placement, how clean the sidewalks looked, what the sidewalks were made out of, which way did customers have to turn when driving to enter the shopping area, how bright the lighting was, and how safe shoppers will feel.

2. Main street should not be exactly like a mall but it should have mall like qualities. I can definatly relate to Gibbs theory about having plain yet clean sidewalks. There is an outdoor mall near my house that has all these uniqe cement pavers with recycled objects pressed into the them. They most definately distract shoppers from looking at storefront windows and cause them to look at the ground as they walk.
A downtown shopping area should create a lot of foot traffic if it is similar to a mall. The shopping area, just like a mall, should have some kind of business that people are going to stop at no matter what.

3. If I were judging a main street I would first look at how clean everything looks. If there is trash blowing on the streets, or the buildings look old from the outside (which most likely means it is outdated on the inside) this street is probably not somewhere that I want to shop.
Secondly, the street should look visually appealing without being distracting. If there is too much going on the shopper's attention will be ditracted from the storefronts. However there should be benches, trash cans (that are not overflowing and don't allow passerbyers to see the trash inside), trees, and maybe even hanging flower baskets from the lamp posts. These things are all suttle yet add alot to the street itself.
Lastly, there needs to be avaible parking. Many prosperous downtown shopping areas have mininal parking near by. This is good if the area is super popular because then customers will stay longer if they have to travel farther on foot to reach their shopping destination. Other than in that case, not having parking redily avaible is a bad thing. If a possible shopper has to drive around for ten minutes looking for a parking space the chances that they will simply drive away increase dramatically.

Isn't It Iconic

2009-10-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

1. Packaging is extremely important, it is detrimental to how well a product does on the market. The packaging of a product can easily influence if a customer buys that product or keeps on searching for something else.
When I buy a simple bottle of water I am influenced by what the top of the water bottle looks like. What I am referring to is whether or not the bottle has a squirt-nozzle top. The nozzle has to be something easy to open and it can not leak when it is closed. As long as these requirements are met the brand of water does not matter (as long as its not Aquifina).

2. Other products that have iconic packaging are Big Mac's, Starbucks coffee, Quaker Oatmeal, and M&M's. I personally am really surprised that I haven't seen t-shirts that have the Quaker oatmeal guy on them.

3. If a product is not functional it will not stand the test of time. Something that has a good design is the liquid laundry detergent containers. The caps of the containers have extra edges on them so that they are spill proof.

*Over the summer I went to this place that helps company's come up with new packaging ideas for their products. They have a whole 'museum' of all different types of products and their packaging. The people who work for this company have helped orange juice makers come up with the idea for caps that can be unscrewed on orange juice cartons. They came up with this idea from looking at a Japanese shampoo carton.
This is the website: http://www.arborstrategy.com/asg/newproductworks/about-newproductworks.html

Retail Analysis

2009-10-20T15:41:00.000-07:00

1. When it was my turn to be Paco Underhill for the day I went to Petco (Where the pets go). Petco is a store that caters to all your pet's needs, and many other totally unnecessary wants that people may have for their pets. Petco is marketed toward middle to upper middle class people, (people who have extra money to spend pampering their pets).

2. a) Appearance of the entrance- from outside, the building is a plain beige color with a bright red 'Petco' sign. Along with the sign is the blue and red Petco logo (it's a blue cat and a red dog). The door is a big automatic sliding door so that people can easily walk into the store with their dogs or other animals.

b) Sound- Once inside the store I don't remember being able to hear any music but I do remember being able to hear the faint chirps of pet birds, ready to be taken home.

c) Display- The displays of products were like that of a grocery store, items were lined up along painted red metal shelves a few rows deep. The back wall of the store is lined with about thirty glass fish tanks to display all the different pet choices.

d) Floors- The floors are just a plain 1x1 ft tile layout (just like in the dorms; at least Hoben). I think that the floors are this simple so that when someone brings their new puppy to the store and the puppy pees on the floor it is easy to clean up.

e) Signs- There are not too many signs in the store, however areas specific certain animals are easy to find because there are things such as giant hamster tubes (ect.) hanging from the ceiling (in place of signs) that delegate what products can be found in which section of the store.

f) Cashier Area- The cash registers are located in the front corner of the store that is opposite from the door. The counter top for items to be placed on is not super high, so that if a customer has a giant bag of dog food, they can actually pick it up and set it on the counter to be scanned. Near the check out there are impulse items such as dog and cat toys, and there is also a personalized dog tag making machine (The user first picks out what shape of tag they want; the traditional circle, a heart, dog bone, or something else. Then the customer types in what they want the inscription to read).

3. Petco is trying to project the image that they are simple, even though they carry the most extravagant items that someone would want to pamper their pet (example: instead of having a bowl of water for your dog to drink out of, buy a waterfall that recirculates the water in it so that your dog can drink its water as it is cascading down into the bowl).

4. When looking at certain items such as cat or dog beds or toys, the customers often pet/stroke the item or simply give it a squeeze. Having a pet is a hands on thing, so shopping at a pet store should be a hands on experience.

5. I thought that the design of the store was well thought out. Everything is sectioned off according to what type of animal the customer is shopping for. Your most basic (and probably most popular) cat and dog items can be found in the far back corner of the store; therefore making the customer walk past other unnecessary items that they might be tempted to purchase. The other back corner of the store is lined with bright blue fish tanks that can be seen high over the shelves. This is to entice people to go back and look at all the fish and maybe even buy one because they are so inexpensive (what does add up is the tank, and filter, and rocks, and food, and even the energy needed to power the fish tank probably cost more than the fish itself).

The Science of Shopping

2009-10-13T11:02:00.000-07:00

1. The most important part of this article is that humans are predictable. Because of this we can study patterns and more easily develop good ways to design things based on these studies. It was really interesting to read what Paco said about the different zones of a store, the time it takes a shopper to slow down, and the placement of different items throughout a store.

2. I think that we are all strongly influenced by a store's design, even if we don't know it. When I think of a typical Meijer the layout is always the same; health/cosmetics in one corner, entertainment in another, milk and eggs in the far back, and fresh colorful produce in a front corner. Even if I'm just grabbing a few things I almost always visit at lease two of the four corners if not more.

Also I find it strange that different store who carry both men's and women's apparel do not always have the men's on the left and women's on the right (or vica versa). I just feel as if there should be a standard way of doing this. If I normally visit a store where the women's clothing is always on the right, and then I venture into a store I am not familiar with and the women's clothing is not on the side I am used to I tend to not like the store. Apparently there is just something about this that makes me feel uncomfortable in a store.

3. Does the store look clean and organized?

Is the store well lit so that I can see what I am looking at?

Does the store have a neutral or appealing look and aroma? (Stores that smell nice but only from 30 yards away or more are not okay!)

What kind of sound is heard in the store?

How do the employees attend to the customers?

Is the store easy to navigate, but at the same time keeps people in the store and looking at merchandise?

Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015

2009-10-11T19:24:00.000-07:00

1. This reading is extremely related to user friendliness. In order to have a successfully designed web page one must first make the page user friendly. I liked the part about heroine content, it is so true. If a user is compelled to come back to a site after one visit (and not because they were too confused and quit the first time) the site is successful. If a site is like heroine i'm sure that it must be a well designed and user friendly page.

2. I really liked the part about having an intro page and making sure there is a "skip intro" button on the page. That is really dumb; putting something on the part of your site that people see first and then allow them to skip over it. Another thing that I easily related to was poor menu design. Either the menu doesn't make sense, pops up and then goes away quickly, or is just hard to navigate. These are common mistakes that seem to be on a huge number of websites; this needs to be changed.

3. I- The design/layout and colors of the page must go along with/reflect what the site is about.

II- Easy to navigate with all needed menu buttons. (my email sucks for this)

III- The menu choices should be something that the user can actually understand. (no weird pictures or words that don't make sense as options).

IV- If you have to log on to a website it should have a "remember me" option where the user name is typed.

Know It All

2009-10-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

1. The main point of this article is to inform people about what wikipedia is and how it operates/works. I thought it was really interesting that the president of Harvard (or whoever he was) said that he would rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Boston area phone book, rather than 2000 Harvard faculty members. Wikipedia is a peoples encyclopedia; it (in a strange way) embodies democracy.

2. The following paragraph illustrates good use of supporting detail. "Wikipedia, which was launched in 2001, is now the seventeenth-most-popular site on the internet, generating more traffic daily than MSNBC.com and the online versions of the TIMES and the WALL STREE JOURNAL combined. The number of visitors has been doubling every four months; the site receives as many as fourteen thousand hits per second."

-This excerpt is effective because it uses multiple, yet different types of examples to help the reader understand how big and how fast Wikipedia is growing.

3. Wikipedia is the people's encyclopedia, while Britannica is a scholars encyclopedia. As far as I know both are computer related; Britannica comes on a CD and Wikipedia is a website. Wikipedia is a much more modern system, and although it has its flaws its rate of incorrectness is 4:3 in comparison to Britannica. Not too bad. I agree with whoever said it, that the Encyclopedia Britannica is quickly becoming outdated and most likely soon go out of business.

Organization and Preparation Tips

2009-09-30T18:33:00.001-07:00

1. I think that the author's three most important points were, a) to have a plan/agenda for your

presentation; b) To be confident, but to be confident because you really know your stuff; and c)

To some how make your presentation memorable, either by telling an interesting story or by

presenting first or last.

2. Knowing my audience should be one of the easiest of these ten tip to a great presentation, since

I already know everyone in our class. I personally like to be very concise, but if my presentation

was shortened on a moments notice to 30 seconds I'm not sure how well I would handle it. I guess

this may be one of the tips that I further explore. Telling a story to help bond with the audience

almost always works; this is something I may try. Hopefully I can make a presentation where all

of these principals are taking place.

3. No matter how great a product truly is it will never get off the ground without a good

presentation backing it. If a presentation is not sound the product will not sell/become accepted

by the public, and this means everything. Commercials are just later stage product presentations

geared towards consumers. Some commercials just work. We may not have any idea why we are

so moved but we know that we are seeing something and we are totally engaged in it. A

presentation should appeal on a visceral level. If someone presents a new design and people want

to work on it, or purchase it immediately the presentation did its job.

*I would like to further explore housing layout and design, furniture design, and fashion design.

Emotional Design; Part 2

2009-09-29T17:01:00.000-07:00

1. "People find it difficult to articulate their real problems. Even if they are aware of a problem, they don't often think of it as a design issue. Ever struggle with a key, to discover that you are inserting it upside down? Or ever lock your keys inside the automobile? Or lock the car, only to realize that you left the windows open, so you have to unlock the car and lean inside to close them? In any of these cases, would you think these were design flaws? Probably not, probably you just blame yourself. Well, they all could be corrected by appropriate designs."

-I really connected to this passage because I often do blame myself when something does not work. I am a semi-intelligent person, I should be able to figure out how to work a simple object, however this is not always the case. Somethings are just poorly designed, so now hopefully in the future I will take a step back when I am having difficulty and examine the design of a product.

2. Having these three category distinctions is helpful especially since most products overlap categories, this makes it easier to break down the true meaning of a specific design.

The name 'behavioral design' makes sense but I think that if it were called functional design it would be easier for everyone to understand. Reflective design is a wonderfully descriptive name for what it entails. And visceral is a half way name for me, on one hand it works but on the other it doesn't say much about impulse or look.

3. When designing a specific product it should be quite simple, i would imagine, for a designer to know which of these three types of designs it should be. When a pipe is made for plumbing it is not made to have visual appeal. Sure maybe it is smooth and shiny, but the main reason it was made is to serve a purpose; getting water from point A to point B.

-Pipes Revisited-

I don't have a ton to say about pipes; I like and want to have the ones that heat water as it travels through them so a hot water heater/tank is not needed. I could discuss the design aspects of pipes in much greater detail, however I don't really want to after what happen during class.

I didn't really enjoy this discussion in class because I felt kinda like I was being attacked. I literally wrote 2 sentences in my original post about pipes, didn't bring up the topic in class, and was still "blamed" for the discussion by a certain student who kept looking at me and saying, in and unpleasant tone, "why are we still talking about this?" This was repeated several times, with each one directed at me even if six people had spoken and kept the conversation alive since my last comment. I thought this behavior was ridiculous and out of hand, and this definitely doesn't motivate me to participate more often in our class discussions.

Emotional Design

2009-09-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

1. Norman's key point in this chapter was discussing the multiple types of design and how each influences how we as consumers view certain products. The three types of design described were visceral - how a product is received based on look, feel and sound; behavioral - a type of design that deals with functionality and performance of a product, looks do not matter; and reflective - the way a product makes the user feel or what kind of message the product sends to others.

2. This chapter builds upon the aspects of design that were covered in the earlier chapter. Now that we have established what makes a good or bad design, Norman includes three new principals that a designer must take into consideration while figuring out their product. It is extremely important to know which one of these three functions a product is supposed to convey.

3. 1) A nice bouquet of flowers succeeds as a visceral design. The flowers look attractive, the bright colors immediately grab my attention. I am compelled to stick my face right up next to the plastic wrapping and take a whiff. A bouquet of flowers is exceptionally appealing.

2) A good example of a behavioral design is my clip lamp. One end consists of a normal reading lamp with a small knob that obviously turns it on and off. At the other end of the slinky and maneuverable shaft is a metal clip. The reason for the clip; so that a user can clip the small reading lamp onto a headboard of a bead instead of taking up space on a small bedside table. This lamp is simple, it looks plain, and it is easy to use and understand all of its functions.

3) Just like Norman I and the owner of a "cool" watch. Instead of having a round watch face the face is rectangle. And instead of having the four numerals 12, 3, 6, & 9 in their respective places, my watch has the numbers 2, 5, 7, & 10 in its corners. This would be cool except for the fact that the four numbers don't exactly match up with where they should in relation to what time it actually is. My watch is a funky piece of jewelry more so than a functional watch. My watch is interesting so it draws attention, however thankfully not enough attention that onlookers notice the design flaw.

The Design of Everyday Things: Part 2

2009-09-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

1. "How do people cope? Part of the answer lies in the ways the mind works- in the psychology of human thought and cognition. Part lies in the information available from the appearance of the objects- the psychology of everyday things. And part comes from the ability of the designer to make the operation clear, to project a good image of the operation, and to take advantage of the other things people might be expected to know. Here is where the designer's knowledge of the psychology of people coupled with knowledge of how things work becomes crucial."

-This passage was interesting to me because I am extremely interested in both psychology and design. This passage relates directly to a key part of marketability; knowing your audience. In order to design a product that will sell, the designer must first know something about their potential consumer.

2. I think this book is still influential today because it breaks down product design in to the simplest of terms; what will make a product user friendly and what will not. The book does not tell one in-depth what is needed to make the best product, it simply exposes the flaws in many things that we all come across everyday. The book is useful because it gets the reader thinking about improvement. Humans will never actually read the 137 page manual that comes with a product, and this is why this book will stay influential.

3. Is the product user friendly?

What do potential consumers already know about similar product use?

Are there subconscious clues to cue the user in to how the product is to function?

Has this product been tested my ordinary people who knew nothing about it?

The Design of Everyday Things

2009-09-22T09:21:00.001-07:00

1. The author's key points in this chapter were that poor design predominates, things we use in everyday life that should be simple to understand are not, and the product designer's knowledge of psychology is extremely important.

2. As I began to read this article (even before I got to the part about the refrigerator) I immediately thought of the mini fridge in my dorm room. Shouldn't it be easy to control the temperature on a refrigerator. The answer to that question is very simply "yes", however this was not the case. The mini fridge in my room has a regular fridge compartment as well as a small freezer. There is only one temperature dial even though there are two different compartments. I thought that this was dumb but my main focus was on changing the fridge temperature so that it would not be so cold (my roommate had a now frozen sandwich). We looked at the temperature dial, was it in degrees... NO. The temperature dial goes from zero to seven. Since the refrigerator was currently on seven and way too cold we figured that seven must be the coldest setting. If the dial had been in the middle we would have had no idea which direction to rotate the knob to get the results we wanted. My second complaint is that the numbers on the dial have nothing to do with actual temperature. I thought for a second that they could be in celsius, since then the temperature control would ranging from 0-7 degrees celsius would convert to 32-44.6 degrees F. However that conversion would make setting number seven the warmest one, which we earlier found out was the coldest. How am I supposed to figure out what the impossible to understand ratio between 0-7 and actual temperature is?

3. One of the most important things in this chapter was about people being able to figure out how a new everyday product works just from the products visual look and from the users previous knowledge. The creators of Apple's iPod did a wonderful job in regards to this. Did everyone immediately figure out that to scroll down one must twirl their finger around the click-wheel clockwise, I know that I did. The iPod is easy to use because it is simple and concise, this is because the makers of the iPod took human psychology into consideration while designing their product.

The Perfect Thing

2009-09-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

1. Many of the elements of the design process are presented in this article; One is the brainstorming and making of a schematic model. Fadell was recruited to design a handheld mp3 player that was actually cool. He first learned about what Apple was thinking of and then he began to think up ideas about how he could make a product like this possible. Once Fadell did all of this he and his partner came up with a workable design that would fit the small computer that they had planned to use. Then a meeting was called to present their product idea. The idea of a click-wheel that would make it possible to quickly scroll through lists of songs was well received by Steve Jobs and other higher-ups at Apple. There was currently nothing so innovative on the market, so construction was set to commence.

After constructing a prototype the executives at Apple decided they needed to test the endurance of their newly named iPod. The ipod proved itself to be human compatible; meaning that the iPod would not break it it was dropped from hand level. After testing was completed the iPod's release date was set.

2. If I was in charge of evaluating product designs the most important thing would be making the product user friendly. User friendliness is a must for all products, and is especially important when it comes to new technology. If a new device that is too hard to use is put on the market people will be scared away and the product will quickly flop. To sum it up; easy to understand = a good design.

Secondly the visual appeal of a product is important. How many times have you seen someone at school get a new phone? Isn't there always a small crowd of people around looking at the phone, "wow that looks really cool, or sleek" will be the first thing someone will always mention. We are humans therefore we are judgmental even if we don't mean to be; this is why looks are important.

3. The invention of the click-wheel is an amazing thing. It made mp3 players a thousand times more user friendly. I have recently gotten an iPod touch which I think is even better. Now I can not only easily scroll with the stroke of my finger, but I can also tap a letter located along the right side of the screen which will instantly take me to that portion of the alphabet. My iPod touch is most definitely the greatest form of technology that I have ever owned.

One thing that I do not like about the iPod product line is the latest version of the iPod shuffle. Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know there are only a few buttons located on the cable connecting the earphone jack to the actual headphones. This is a terrible idea because headphones can easily be lost, chewed up by a dog, or the feature of some other form of destruction. It is expensive enough to buy a pair of Apple's iPod headphone and I'm sure it is even more costly to purchase a pair that have the built in iPod shuffle controls.

Getting to know me!

2009-09-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

I'm Beth Farwell, and I'm from a little town called Berkley(not California). Its in Michigan and about twenty minutes north of Detroit. I am the youngest person in my group of friends back home, however at school I am one of the oldest people in the grade. (It's kinda weird not to be the baby of the group anymore.) I'm not sure what I want to major in at K, but I am extremely interested in art. I don't know what else to say, and I feel as if I'm using the work "I" far too frequently.

Seminar should be great!

-Beth