Emotional Design, Part II

Engineers and designers explain that, being people themselves, they understand people, but this argument is flawed. Engineers and designers simultaneously know too much and too little. They know too much about the technology and too little about how other people live their lives and do their activities. In addition, anyone involved with a product is so close to the technical details, to the design difficulties, and to the project issues that they are unable to view the product the way an unattached person can.

I found this passage very interesting because it explains that it is very difficult for engineers and designers to experience the same problems as the consumer. This is because the engineers and designers know a wide range of problems that can occur accompanied by a wide range of solutions. However, the consumer may not know what to do when a certain problem arises. Also, the engineers and designers include many unnecessary features that they think may be useful to the consumer but in reality they only complicate the product. As Norman said, the engineers and designers know too much about the product itself and not enough about the people who use the product.

The categories defined by Norman - visceral design, behavioral design, and reflective design - seem very useful to me. During the design process, it helps a substantial amount to know what type of product you want to make and how you want to design it. These categories help the engineers and designers make these decisions. I believe that these categories are well named and in a way they all define themselves in the name.

A designer can decide which level of design he would like to use by choosing what type of impact he would like to make on the market. If the designer is looking to make a quality product that satisfies the needs of the people who use the product, he would use behavioral design. If the designer wants to make a product that can be sold for a high price and used as a display of prestige, he would use reflective design. Finally, if the designer wanted to make a product that attracts the general public by the look and/or feel of the product, he would use visceral design. Many types of products are more of one design than the other. This all depends on what the main focus of the product is, and what the designer is going for.

Emotional Design

The key points highlighted in the third chapter of Emotional Design were the three levels of design and how they can be used individually or collaboratively. The author emphasized the role of emotion in all three levels of design: visceral, behavioral, and reflective. He goes on to describe that visceral design focuses on the natural aspect of design and that the physical features dominate. The author states that behavioral design is all about the use and appearance doesn't matter too much. The four components of good behavioral design are function, understandability, usability, and physical feel. He points out that most designers don't pay attention to the products currently in the market but instead they continue to make new features and test them among other designers. The author says that to be effective, feedback must enhance the conceptual model. He also describes the two kinds of product development: enhancement (to make a product better) and innovation (to create a revolutionary product). Reflective design is about the message, culture, and meaning or use of a product. The essence of reflective design is that it is all in the mind of the beholder. The author also explains certain strategies that companies use to sell their product(s) and how they take advantage of the consumers. At the end of the reading, the author states that if you want a successful product, you should test and revise that product through a committee; however, if you wish to create a great product, you should leave the design up to someone with a clear vision.

The earlier writing can relate to the majority of the points established in this chapter. Many of the points made in both readings are related and can be used to explain each other. However, at the end of this chapter, the author describes a different approach to design, one that involves a single designer and little or no testing. The author condones the use of both strategies but he stresses that each approach is better for a specific level of design. In this chapter, he recalls a lot of points that were made in his earlier writing; therefore relating them as much as possible to show that his earlier work is still very relevant.

I believe something that succeeds as visceral design would be Ed Hardy, a high end clothing company that focuses heavily on the appearance of their product along with comfort which comes with the material used. A product that succeeds as behavioral design would be the Playstation 3 because it has a very simple interface and it is very easy to use. It can also perform a wide ranger of functions, all of which are very useable and understandable. A reflective design that has had success is a very expensive bottle of liquor, which is often very prestigeous and the bottle is usually kept as a display typically because it is made out of very expensive material such as crystal. All of these items are successful because they follow the guidelines mentioned in this chapter to succeed in their specific market.

The Design of Everyday Things, Part II

"A simple example of good design is the 3 1/2-inch magnetic diskette for computers, a small circle of 'floppy' magnetic material encased in hard plastic. Earlier types of floppy disks did not have this plastic case, which protects the magnetic material from abuse and damage. A sliding metal cover protects the delicate magnetic surface when the diskette is not in use and automatically opens when the diskette is inserted into the computer. The diskette has a square shape: there are apparently eight possible ways to insert it into the machine, only one of which is correct. What happens if I do it wrong? I try inserting the disk sideways. Ah, the designer thought of that. A little study shows that the case really isn't square: it's rectangular, so you can't insert a longer side. I try backwards. The diskette goes in only part of the way. Small protrusions, indentations, and cutouts prevent the diskette from being inserted backward or upside down: of the eight ways one might try to insert the diskette, only one is correct, and only that one will fit. an excellent design."

I thought that this passage was interesting because it describes the excellent design of the floppy disk, a very simple item. The passage describes that only two sides can fit, and that of those two sides, the indentations and grooves along the surface of the floppy disk only allow it to go in one way. It shows that even when designs are simple and may seem confusing, after simple trial and error some objects can easily be figured out as long as they have the right constraints and affordances.

I think that Norman's book continues to be influential to designers even today because it is very well written and the concepts of the book are very concrete. Many of the points made in his book are still valid today, and many of the ideas that he presents will always hold some relevance to the world of design.

If I were to evaluate the design of a product based on this chapter my checklist would include visibility, constraints, simplicity, ease of use, affordances, and mapping (preferably natural mapping).

The Design of Everyday Things

The author, Donald Norman, highlighted a few key points in this introductory chapter to his book, The Design of Everyday Things. The first point he made was that well designed objects are easy to use and contain visible clues to their operation. Throughout the first chapter, the author emphasizes visibility which includes affordances, constraints, and mappings. He also states that the fundamental principles of designing for people are providing a good conceptual model and making things visible. The author stresses the principle of natural mappings: the relationship between controls and actions should be apparent to the user. Norman sugguests that feedback is a very important concept to consider when designing so that the user knows whether or not they have completed the correct operation. I believe that the most stressed point in this chapter was that added functionality comes along with the price of added complexity. This is because as items become more sophisticated and can do more they also become more complicated and therefore harder to use.

One object that I have had dificulty using is my graphing calculator. There are so many functions that it can perform and many of them are very hard to use and require mulitple steps. Almost every button has multiple functions making it very confusing and sometimes hard to perform the correction function. Also, there are many functions that I don't even know how to use or what they do. The majority of these problems arise from Norman's principle of visibility and complexity. There instructions are hard to follow and it almost seems like the calculator does too much.

When the iPod was designed, many of the principles addressed by Norman were taken into consideration. The iPod can perform many tasks; however, the interface is very simple and easy to use. The buttons are labeled so the user can easily idenfity them with their function. Also, the iPod is a very visual product and you can see everything that is going on in the LCD display screen. This also allows for a large amount feedback as the user of the iPod knows exactly what they are doing and exactly what will happen if they perform a certain task. The iPod is a very well designed product.

The Perfect Thing

In order to design, you must conceptualize. This is the first and most important step in the design process. Without a general concept you have nothing. In this article, Steve Jobs conceptualizes a new, easy to use MP3 player that can hold up to a thousand songs and fit in your pocket. Only after the concept of the iPod was established was it ready to be designed. Jobs then brought in Anthony Fadell to create a prototype which would bring this concept to life. After extensive research and experimentation, Fadell developed three prototype designs which were presented to Apple early April. Combining the ideas of Fadell and others, the iPod was on its way to the actual design process. During this process they put the ideas from the prototype together along with innovations to the original idea to create the ideal model.

If I were to evaluate a "perfect thing" a few things that I would take into consideration would be the ease of use, the design, and the functionality. Ease of use is very important because if something is very hard to use it will tend to scare away a large customer base, people like simplicity. The design is also important because no one is going to want to own a product that is not stylish or trendy. However, the functionality is probably the most important aspect of the product because it's all about what the product does and how well it does it. If a product is lacking functionality it can not be "perfect."

I feel that the iPod is a very powerful and useful device. It is a very popular product because it is very easy to use, stylish and trendy, and it does what it is supposed to and it does it well. The iPod has many strengths; however, it does have a few weeknesses as well. The iPod is not very durable and there can be problems with certain iPods.

First Blog

Hey,

This is Ronnie and this is my first blog for the Design Intelligence class. I hope that this will be a fun class and that I will learn a lot about the design of a little bit of everything.