Architecture

1. Henry Ford Community College is horribly designed. Upon visiting the college, you would most definitely notice this...IF and you are able to enter the campus at all. The entryway, road-wise, is not concealed at all, yet no clear way is marked within the twisting and intersecting roads, making you feel like you're driving the wrong way down a one way street.
Assuming, however, that you've made it onto campus, good luck finding the building that you want to. Most of the buildings look the same on the outer edge of campus, and none are clearly marked. Within the campus are many confusing pathways that even go through some buildings. The buildings themselves have confusing layouts. Many of the stairways are impossible to find. Some buildings do not even have restrooms...or if they do, a patron unfamiliar with the college will not be able to find them. It may be too costly and too late to solve these problems architecturally. I would suggest signs, and tons of them, to help visitors get where they need to be.
2. There are two buildings on campus that I consider to have architectural flaws. One is the Fine Arts Building, and one is Hicks Center. Both are easy to use...once you get used to them.
For the most part, the Fine Arts Building seems well-designed. However, if you don't know exactly where you're going, the individual practice rooms would be extremely difficult to find. Taking the side entrance into the FAB, you must walk down a staircase and head right. You are then faced with two identical hallways. If you go down the first one, you won't find any practice rooms. Since the other hallway looks the same, you might then reasonably assume that the practice rooms aren't located there either.
When I was first touring Kalamazoo College, I remember being extremely confused by the layout of Hicks Center. The staircases in particular confused me. It was difficult to remember which side of which level contained the staircases. It appeared that the main concern was fitting in all the different rooms with different purposes, without regard to how easy it would be to navigate between them.
3. The flaw in the current design process is the lack of a feedback phase, and a lack of the presence of the building user. The lack of a feedback phase is shown not only in awards processes but also in AIA building contracts. Data on building use is often nonexistent or not utilized. Architecture today is too focused on zoning and building codes, and not enough on their social impact and use. This leads to buildings contradicting the very purpose for which they were created, as in the example of the rehabilitation center that was not wheelchair friendly.
The codes and "rules of thumb" that architects design around do not have behavioral considerations, even though they will inevitably affect the behavior of the building's users. This leads to buildings dictating how they are used, when it should be the other way around. The fact that users are not part of the design process plays a large part in today's architectural flaws.

Advertising in American Society

1. "Messaris offers as an example of these "response tendencies' the use in magazine ads, and other kinds of advertising, of having someone-spokespersons in television commercials and models in magazine advertisements-look directly at the viewer or reader. In real life, we have a natural tendency to look back at someone when they look at us, and advertising agencies can exploit this in attracting our attention to their advertisements and generating emotional responses to them."

This passage interested me because it relates closely to some of the basics of design we discussed earlier in the quarter. It reminded me of how well-designed products work with people's natural approaches to that product. For example, if you look at a bottle of water, your natural instinct is to twist the cap counter-clockwise. A cap designed to twist the other way might be considered poorly designed. As far as advertising is concerned, research into these "response tendencies" would prove extremely useful. Information on what prompts (or manipulates) people to go out and buy the products advertised (or at least pay better attention to the ad) can only lead to more profit.

2. -Advertising is a multi-billion dollar industry and major part of our social and cultural lives
-It is difficult to tell what advertisements are effective and which aren't.
-Commercials can be works of art.
-Commercials often utilize the following concepts: heroes and heroines, sexuality, humor, success, and reward.
-Culture is shaped by television.

3. Without some level of psychological understanding, an advertisement will not work. It has to be in tune with the culture and norms of current society and how people respond to them. It must understand the psychology of the viewer in order to prompt the viewer to respond to the advertisement as the agency wants them to.

Thesis Statement

So here's my thesis-in-progress:

A well-designed product performs its job well with no extraneous features to confuse or distract the consumer from that job.

Bang, Bang, You're Dead! Wikipedia Entry

Well, it's looking like my Wikipedia entry is there to stay... it's been up for a while and no one's messed with it too much. So here's the new wikipedia entry for one of the greatest one act plays you'll ever read: Bang, Bang, You're Dead! by William Mastrosimone

Fashion Design

1. The immense variety in the fashion world has made fashion the reflective outlet that it is today. What you wear can express one or many different things about you: your religion, the climate in which you live, your occupation, your age, your sexual orientation, your socio-economic status, etc. What you wear can send endless messages about your personality or your lifestyle. By wearing sportswear or activewear, you may communicate (intentionally or unintentionally) that exercise and healthy living is a main priority for you. If you constantly wear sweats and hoodies, you may communicate that comfort and casualness is most important in what you wear. On the other hand, if you wear nice tailored pants and a blazer, you may be wishing to send out the more professional vibe. What you wear is going to communicate something about you. Therefore, it makes sense to customize your style to reflect something about yourself. After all, your options are limitless.

2. Fashion is heavily dependent on time and events pertaining to that time. Economic shifts are definite influences on fashions. Jones states that during an economic downturn, bright colors and expensive trimmings may temporarily disappear for the market. Designers and producers may look for cheaper materials during tough times, and therefore may have to accommodate their limited means in their designs. In addition to economic shifts, political shifts can also reach the fashion world. Jones uses the example of World War II on fashion. Since most communication to Paris was suspended, designers had to rely more on their own ideas and creativity, and therefore, new, independent, unique styles were forged during this time.

3. The most important thing when designing a garment is to know your audience and the timeyou are designing for:

-Gender

-Age

-Purpose (comfortable casual or professional)

-Season (are you designing for hot or cool temperatures?)

-Trends (do your research - what is in vogue at the moment? or are you trying to make a new statement?)

-Personality (what type of personalities are you trying to reach? this will influence the fit, color, material, etc. of your garment.)

To Find A Thesis...

1. Thesis: Yes, we want simplicity, but we don't want to give up any of those cool features. Simplicity is highly overrated.

2. 3 supporting points:

-"...this washer had even more controls and buttons than the non-automatic one. ''Why even more controls, when you could make this machines with only one or two?''

"Are you one of those people who wants to give up control, who thinks less is better? ... Don't you want to be in control?"

(Here, Norman asserts that more controls there are, the more control the consumer has over a product. And since Norman argues that people naturally want as much control as possible, they are more 'comfortable' with a product that has more controls, even if it is more complex. )

-"Make it simple and people won't buy. Given a choice, they will take the item that does more. Features win over simplicity, even when people realize that it is accompanied by more complexity.

-"So, what do people mean when they ask for simplicity? One-button operation, of course, but with all their favorite features.

3. An opposing thesis: A perfectly designed product does its job well with no extraneous features to confuse or distract the consumer from that job.

Whyte/Gibbs/EGG

1. While Whyte and Gibbs both aim to provide suggestions to improve urban areas, cities, or towns, I found Whyte's approach much more convincing. Gibbs seemed to want to make everything perfect and have cities and towns be basically made into malls. In Gibbs' ideal world, imperfection seemed discouraged. However, Whyte looked at an existing, successful, thriving urban area, Lexington Avenue, and showed how its imperfect features made it that way.

2. Uniqueness and imperfection in a city or downtown area is attractive to me. This may be why I liked Whyte's approach better than Gibbs'. I have personally been to Lexington Avenue, and the atmosphere created by all the clashing sights, sounds, and smells is a sort of upbeat mood that says "New York" to me. The world Gibbs' wants to promote reminds me of an outlet mall my family visits in Florida whenever we go:

The area is clean, and perfect, and over designed, and not appealing. Everything looks the same, to the point where it is easy to become lost if you do not know which specific outlet store is where.

EGG.

Ben and I spent around an hour to an hour and a half designing and building the egg. We used a small to medium sized cardboard box as the basic package. We put a sort of air packaging inside as the egg's main protection. We had a couple problems to fix. We needed to slow the package down as it fell, keep it falling straight, and make sure the egg would not slip and move around inside the package. We used another cardboard box top for air resistance, a plastic bag to slow it down and keep it falling straight, and a dixie cup taped to the air packaging to make sure the egg didn't slide.

Our package successfully protected the egg from the two and three story drops :D.

Here is Ben's blog.

City

1. Whyte's main point is that much of what makes an urban street popular and successful in terms of patrons and customers is its accidental designs - trash cans, doorways, and distractions from neighboring shops and businesses.

Whyte also uses Lexington Avenue as a prime example to illustrate the point that a little bit of nonconformity can work well for encouraging commerce in an urban area. To illustrate this point, Whyte uses the example of the trash can. The huge, heavy, concrete trash cans did not do a superb job at making it easy to get rid of trash due to the small opening at the top. However, they were able to function as tables for food and rearranging packages or even as impromptu conference tables. Another example Whyte uses is the indented ledges of the Chase bank. These ledges doubled as seating areas until the bank equipped them with spikes, and even then were vendors able to lean wares and signs against them.

2. As far as levels of design go, Whyte's ideas have much in common with Norman's ideas of behavioral design and visceral design. Whyte dealt the most with the behavioral aspect of the design, intentional or accidental, of urban areas. For example, the many different types of window shopping techniques were intentional. They were designed to draw people in with human behavior in mind.

At first, the idea of distractions provided by other shops may not appeal to a neighboring storeowner, but on Lexington Avenue, just the opposite proves true. From music played at obnoxiously high levels, to extreme light displays, to signs and products placed so far out on the sidewalk as to obstruct traffic, these stoppages slow down potential customers, giving them more time to notice the next store. Both concepts of intentional and accidental design manipulate the behavioral aspect of human nature.

As far as the visceral level of design goes, Whyte emphasizes that an urban area doesn't have to be viscerally appealing to be beautiful. The somewhat dirty, cramped, and sensory overloaded aspects of Lexington Avenue are what gives the street its unique charm.

3. -What stoppages are there? Are there enough distractions to slow down pedestrians and attract businesses?

-Are the doorways large enough and inviting enough? Do they provide not only entrances to stores and businesses but also places to hold discussions and assign meeting places?

-Are the windows effective? Will they pique the interest of passersby?

-Are there places for pedestrians to sit?

What Main Street Can Learn from the Mall

1. Gibbs' criteria for evaluating Main Street:

1. Do people feel comfortable?

-Is everything well-lighted?

-Is everything clean and free of graffiti?

-Is there enough space to comfortably move around?

2. Do the buildings give clear signs as to what is offered inside?

3. Do the buildings comply with right-turn tendencies?

2. To a certain extent, I disagree with Gibbs' idea of a successful town or city. I think the prospect of towns turning into malls in disguise is unattractive. However, following Gibbs' suggestion might lead to a town doing better business at the loss of some quaintness or uniqueness. I think the downtown area of Ann Arbor is an example of a perfect town. It has commercial draw, but it also has a great amount of unique shops and restaurants.

3. For the most part, my criteria for evaluating a Main Street is very familiar to that of Gibbs. However, I do think that a Main Street should have a sense of imperfectness to it. The downtown areas that attract me are downtown areas that aren't laid out on a grid with all straight roads and perfect intersections. They also don't appear so clean that they seem sterile. Imperfections make downtown areas unique, and this in itself is a draw.

Isn't it Iconic?

1. Packaging is critical to marketing a product. If your product is relatively unknown (in other words, a product that isn't quite tried and true yet), then packaging could be the key to success. Shoddy packaging will indicate shoddy products in a consumer's mind, and the product will probably not make it off the shelves. Your product's packaging may not end up as iconic as Coca-Cola's, but you should aim to create packaging that customers will scan the shelves for while shopping.
When I think of how a product's packaging may have influenced me, I immediately think of Market Pantry products. I'm always tempted to grab those products off of the shelves because something about the packaging is appealing (perhaps the red and white color scheme adds to the appeal). However, I never buy Market Pantry products, because I remind myself that even though the box and the price tags look appealing, the product inside is definitely second rate.

(I did a Google images search for this picture, and it brought me to a website announcing that this particular product had been pulled due to unlabeled peanut allergens. Good thing the packaging didn't fool me.)


2. Perfumes tend to have iconic packaging. In order for me to buy a perfume, it has to look as good as it smells. In fact, the packaging has to pass the test before I even consider the scent. The past couple perfumes I have purchased have been Armani Code and Burberry Brit (which is probably the more recognizable of the two).

Another product that I consider to have iconic packaging is Starbucks. You can recognize the logo and the green lettering anywhere.

Marlboro cigarettes also have very iconic packaging. I'm definitely a non-smoker, but I'd recognize the Marlboro packages anywhere. (Notice how Marlboro takes advantage of the red and white color scheme that Gordon mentions.)










3. As far as usability goes, gum packages stand out as regular usability failures. Although iconic, the packaging of Orbit gum is just annoying. The package always opens in my purse, and I'll end up many times with individual pieces of gum in random places in my purse. Orbit packages are an example of an improper balance between attractiveness and functionality.
While Orbit gum may be too easily opened, most electronic and technological devices are difficult and sometimes impossible to open without scissors or something of the sort. I recently bought a USB flash drive, intending to use it right away, but according to the impossible-to-open packaging, that just wasn't going to happen.

Channeling Paco Underhill

1. I observed the Target store in Dearborn Heights. Target's demographics indicate that the majority of their customers are middle-class to upper middle-class people who are looking to meet the basic needs and luxuries of everyday life.

2. Store Entrance. The main colors of Target's entrance were beige concrete, brick red, and the unmistakable lettering and target symbol in a very saturated red color. Along the edge of the walkway in front of the store, near the street, were several large, waist-high spheres in the same color of red as the lettering and target symbol. The doors were automatic sliding doors.

Sounds. The most prominent sounds heard in the front half of the store were the sounds of the check out lanes. These included people talking, cash registers opening, items being scanned, and occasionally kids begging frustrated parents for the impulse-buys in the checkout lanes.

Merchandise Displays. Most of the small to medium sized merchandise were displayed on beige-painted metal racks. Other items, such as groceries that must be refrigerated, were displayed predictably in large refrigerators with clear doors. Clothes were mostly on hangars in the common circular displays rather than on shelves. The shelved clothing was on the outside of the clothing section, near the main walkway.

Floors. The floors of the main walkway and most of the sections were a sort of ivory-gray color with a vinyl finish if I'm not mistaken. There was evidence of high traffic, such as skid marks from kids' shoes and the shopping carts, but for the most part, the floor was clean. The clothing sections were carpeted in a neutral, grayish, steel blue color.

Signs. The signs that "labeled" the different sections of the store were curved rectangular signs. They were dominantly red with very legible white lettering. The smaller signs, such as the signs that clarified which grocery isle was which or what specific items were found in that section were either rectangular or circular. They were either red with white lettering or white with red lettering.

Cashier Area. The cashier lanes were all red. At the entrance of each lane were displays of either movies, magazines, or snack foods like chocolate or cookies. There were also some coolers with bottled beverages. Above the conveyer belts was the typical impulse-buy assortment of gum and mints. Also displayed there were various gift cards, to iTunes, Target, etc.

3. I feel that Target is trying to send out 'classy, yet affordable' vibes to their audience. They are trying to (and in my opinion, they have) tied this image to their name, and therefore, even tied the image to their well-known color scheme. As described above, this 'target red' was everywhere.

4. Customers in the main walkways tended to walk at a moderately slow pace while looking predominantly to one side as they pushed their carts. In the clothing sections, they moved throughout slowly, touching pieces of clothing now and then. In the grocery section, the customers acted predictably. They moved to the general area they were looking for, and after a few sections of looking, reached for the product, looked at it, and usually put it into their cart or basket. The biggest thing I noticed was that all of the customers touched many of the products, whether it seemed that they were really considering buying them or not.

5. One thing I found interesting about the store was the layout of the different sections. The first big section after the entrance was clothing for young and teenaged girls. I would think that this section would usually be more in the back. Instead, the section farthest away from the entrance was the sports and camping sections. The grocery section is also very visible from just outside the "decompression zone" of the store. This leads to the conclusion that Target is confident in its customers' loyalty and doesn't use the typical tricks, such as putting dairy products in the back of stores, to manipulate customers.

The Science of Shopping

1. The main focus of this article was to communicate that store layouts must cater to the whims of the customers, not try to control them. In order to do this, those designing store layouts must pay close attention to analyses of customer habits. Paco Underhill was able to describe many of these habits. The Decompression Zone, as Paco describes, is an area in which layout designers should not put products, as this is the area where customers are readjusting to the environment of the store, and therefore not likely to pay attention to merchandise. Paco also makes observations such as the invariant right and the butt-brush theory.

Paco Underhill does not explain why people behave the way they do, and as far as designing layouts go, it does not matter why people act the way they do. The important thing is understanding the trends, and designing accordingly.

2. The layout of a store can either have very little influence on me or a great influence on me. It all depends on my mission for that particular shopping day. On a "let's go shopping day," in which I'm just there to browse, I suppose that a store's design would have a huge influence on me. However, if I know exactly what I want, and I'm on a mission, a store layout is likely to sway me or deter me from my path.

3.

1. Is my store located in a place that is more or less likely to be passed unnoticed?

2. Is the decompression zone clear of any merchandise I really want to sell?

3. Does the atmosphere comfort the demographic I am trying to appeal to?

4. Is there an adequate amount of space? Will my customers feel comfortable or claustrophobic?

Web Design

1. Many parallels can be drawn between web design and user-focused product design that we have discussed in class. In product design, the designer must be sure to create a product that is easily used by someone who is approaching the design for the first time. The designer will (hopefully) be able to use every function of his or her product without a challenge, but will a user who is not intimate with the product's design be able to do the same? The same idea can be applied to web design. The designer of a website that sells a certain product may know that there is a link to items a customer has recently looked at at the bottom right corner or every page, but will a first-time visitor to that website find it easily? A good product designer and a good website designer must put himself or herself in the shoes of the user.

2. Flanders' most important ideas were explained in the beginning of his article. He lays out the possible purposes visitors have when visiting a website, and explains that the web designer must have these purposes in mind, not his or her own needs. He then describes important factors that either help or hinder a visitor. Most of these points were about the visual aspect of a website. Readable text, layouts that make sense, and clear navigation options (mapping) are all vital to a well designed website.

3.

1. Content. Does my website even deserve to exist? Am I catering to my own needs, or do I have my visitors in mind? Is the website's main focus clear to first time visitors?

2. Appearance. Is my home page visually appealing or not? It is too easy for a visitor to be immediately turned off by the appearance of the home page and leave within seconds. Is the font easy to read? Is the color scheme pleasing to the eye? Is there too much information on a single page?

3. Navigation. Can a first time visitor easily and quickly access what they are visiting the website for? How easy is it to jump from page to page without getting lost? Is the home page accessible from any page?

Know It All

1. In her extensive article, Stacy Schiff brings up a few key points. The first is an introduction and sweeping description of the Wikipedia phenomenon. Schiff brings attention to the sheer size of Wikipedia, or rather, the lack of limitations thereon. This opens up a running comparison of Wikipedia to Encyclopædia Britannica. For example, Encyclopædia Britannica, considered the "gold standard for reference work", has only 120,000 entries in its largest edition, while Wikipedia has well over 8.7 million. However, Schiff writes, one of Wikipedia's biggest criticisms is accuracy. With so many articles being edited by millions of contributors, most of whom are not experts, how can the information be trusted? This is not to say that Encyclopædia Britannica is flawless. In fact, there is even a list on Wikipedia of the errors in Encyclopædia Britannica that Wikipedia has corrected. Schiff goes on to describe the birth of Wikipedia, its staffing and operation, and the Wikipedia community - the community of contributors to the site.

2. "Is Wikipedia accurate? Last year, Nature published a survey comparing forty-two entries on scientific topics on Wikipedia with their counterparts in Encyclopædia Britannica. According to the survey, Wikipedia had four errors for every three of Britannica’s, a result that, oddly, was hailed as a triumph for the upstart. Such exercises in nitpicking are relatively meaningless, as no reference work is infallible. Britannica issued a public statement refuting the survey’s findings, and took out a half-page advertisement in the Times, which said, in part, “Britannica has never claimed to be error-free. We have a reputation not for unattainable perfection but for strong scholarship, sound judgment, and disciplined editorial review.” Later, Jorge Cauz, Britannica’s president, told me in an e-mail that if Wikipedia continued without some kind of editorial oversight it would “decline into a hulking mediocre mass of uneven, unreliable, and, many times, unreadable articles.” Wales has said that he would consider Britannica a competitor, “except that I think they will be crushed out of existence within five years.”

This paragraph opens with a very simple question. The question "Is Wikipedia accurate?" is the main idea of the paragraph as well as one of the main ideas for the entire article. Schiff's supporting detail in the paragraph makes the answer somewhat tangible with the fact that Wikipedia has four errors for every three of Encyclopædia Britannica's. Schiff then brings up the important point that no reference work is infallible. This paragraph both answers this question and supports the author's opinion.

3. Putting the question of accuracy aside, I favor Wikipedia's design to Encyclopædia Britannica's website and physical volumes in my day-to-day life. To me, the function of Wikipedia is to provide me with general knowledge about a subject, and the website carries out that function without fail. I don't use Wikipedia for scientific research - that need is better fulfilled by text books and research articles. The main page is simple, and once you reach it you automatically are prompted to type in the subject of your curiosity, and once you hit enter, there it is, instantly. Quick, efficient, and simple. All qualities of a good design.

Wikipedia Topic

I'd really like to write a Wikipedia entry on the play Bang, Bang, You're Dead!

There is only a small paragraph devoted to it on the already short article on Wikipedia.

Bang, Bang, You're Dead!

Organization and Preparation

1. I feel that Reynold's most important point is to give heavy thought to the purpose of your presentation. Doing this forces you to consider vital parts of your presentation, such as how to tailor your presentation to your audience.

Another important point is balance of content. A good presentation will not succeed with too little content, but it also will fail if there is too much content. The presenter must figure out the correct amount of information to give and remember to keep simplicity, clarity, and relevance in mind. Brevity, in this case, is the soul of a good presentation.

Presence, Reynolds asserts, is key to a good presentation. The presenter needs to keep the audience in mind at all times, and needs to be aware of what will retain their attention, as well as figure out ways for them to retain as much information as possible.

2. Reynolds provides many significant questions to ask yourself when putting together a presentation. I will be sure to ask myself questions like "Is this really relevant?", "Can I explain my main point in less than one minute?", "Am I using clear language?", and "Is my presentation structured clearly?

3. A few parallels can be drawn between presentation preparation and product design. For instance, both a designer and a presenter can ask themselves "Is this really relevant?" when considering what to include. For the presenter, answering this question would help to weed out unnecessary information. For the designer, this question may help them decide to leave out certain extraneous features in his or her product.

Simplicity is important in both product design and presentation preparation. A device that is too complex will frustrate consumers, and a presentation that is too complex will frustrate an audience.

Placing yourself in the shoes of an audience member or of a consumer is vital to success. If you can see a consumer easily operating your design without your expertise and mastery of the product, then you have succeeded. Likewise, if you can imagine an audience member walking away from a presentation with an adequate understanding of your topic without your background knowledge, then your presentation is a success.

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I'd be very interested in discussing fashion during Week 9. Apologies to the boys.

(But not really...)

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WATCH THIS

This is a hilarious example of bad design.

Warning: Extreme profanity. Watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyVh1_vWYQ

Emotional Design - Revisited

"How did the packaging of water become an art form?"

1. The selling of premium bottled water in major cities of the world, where the tap water is perfectly healthful, has become a big business. Water sold in this way is more expensive than gasoline. Indeed, the cost is part of the attraction where the reflective side of the mind says, "If it is this expensive, it must be special.

This passage prompts several questions about the psychology of a consumer as he or she contemplates the cost of a product. Experience tells us that generally, cost and value are directly proportional. The more valuable a product is, the more it costs. But when considering bottled water as a product, it is difficult to make sense of the wide price range. When I walk into a gas station or the local spirits store for a bottle of water, I could always just buy the cheapest brand offered. Be that as it may, I always look for Dasani. The design of the water bottle appeals to me viscerally; it looks the best and feels the best. The plastic used is stronger than the cheaper brands, whose plastic almost crinkles under touch. Also, it may or may not be all in my head, but Dasani water even tastes better than the cheaper brand. However, even if the cheaper brand tasted better to me, the visceral design of the actual Dasani water bottle trumps any difference in taste, as I usually end up refilling the Dasani bottle a few times with tap water anyway.

Prices range from 99 cent store brand water bottles to the world-famous Perrier brand to a $75 bottle of "Bling H2O", a brand created by a Hollywood producer and featured at the MTV Video Music Awards as well as the Emmys. The fact that brands like "Bling H2O" actually sell proves that "the entire success of the product lies in its package, not its contents." The package has become the product, a product that is almost completely visceral. The cost of the bottled water certainly contributes to the "wow" factor, an important factor for boosting sales.

2. The categories visceral, behavioral, and reflective are definitely useful when evaluating a product. Once explained, the names of the categories were easy enough to remember and understand. However, if I were to rename them, I would probably use the names aesthetic and functional rather than visceral and behavioral. I believe the term reflective works quite well.

3. A designer should, for the most part, aim for his or her product to succeed on all three levels of design. However, if he or she had to focus on one level only, it would very much depend on what kind of product is to be designed.

Doors, for the most part, are purely behavioral, aside from the exceptions like the doors to the European post office described by Norman in The Design of Everyday Things. Those doors were designed on a mostly visceral level, while the majority of doors are designed to be completely behavioral.

Designers of the packaging of food should aim for good visceral design. This is vital to the success of a particular brand of food. It is what immediately distinguishes different brands of similar products on store shelves, and the customer is most likely to go for the most visually pleasing of the selection in front of them.

Clothing, while visceral and behavioral to a point, can be extremely reflective. From the different patterns, materials, colors, and styles, there are endless possibilities to make a statement about who you are. Clothing in itself can have personality, and this is something I believe the designer should always have in mind.

Emotional Design

1. The main purpose of Norman's Emotional Design is to explain the three main levels of design: visceral, behavioral, and reflective.

The visceral level of design is the most basic and the most immediate of the three levels of design. As Norman writes, "Visceral design is what nature does." Norman touches on co-evolution to give a brief description of how we react to certain things and why. For example, "the human love of sweet tastes and smells and of bright, highly saturated colors probably derives from this co-evolution of mutual dependence between people and plants." Much of what draws us viscerally to things has been genetically present for thousands of years.

Norman's description of the behavioral level of design most closely resembles his earlier work, The Design of Everyday Things. In this section, he touches on a design's performance. He stresses usability and iterates that good behavioral designs fulfill a need, and fulfill that need easily and completely. He brings back the topics of feedback and mappings to illustrate what a good behavioral design looks like.

The last level of design, and the most complex, is the reflective level. The reflective level is the most personal. Reflective design "is all about message, about culture, and about the meaning of a product or its use." Our possessions are the vehicles for displaying an image of ourselves. In short, they reflect certain aspects of our lives or personalities.

2. Although the topics of both pieces of writing differ, the fundamentals of The Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design are the same. Both focus on how humans interact with designs, and how to bring a design to life in a way that complements a human's approach and reaction to that design. Both works are also structured similarly. He combines case studies and examples with clear, interesting prose to create a work that is interesting and attention retaining.

3. When I think of something in my life that is there because of my visceral reaction, I think of my car. Of course, behavioral design was a big part of the selection. MPG and overall cost were the main factors I used to narrow the field, but when it came down to it, the car in my driveway (2.3 miles away in Dearborn) is the car that was most viscerally appealing.

Looking around my dorm, one of the most behavior-oriented things that I can see is my microwave. I acquired it from a high school giveaway for free, and, aesthetically, I got what I paid for. It's a simple, boxy design, but if I were losing sleep over how it looks in my room, I could go out and spend more money to get a sleeker looking machine. However, the boxy device does what it's supposed to do. You put in something cold, you get out something hot, and in the end, that is all that matters.

For me, my class ring is one of the most reflective possessions I own. I went to the same school for twelve years, growing up with the people I met there. I knew that my ring would always remind me of that major portion of my life, and I wanted the ring to reflect my sentiments. I ended up paying a lot of money. I knew I could have spent much less on fake diamonds and a cheaper metal, but I felt that that would not have genuinely reflected my feelings. However, I do not regret the price at all, and in the two years that I've owned the ring, not a day has gone by in which I haven't worn it.

The Design of Everyday Things - Revisited

"Alas, poor design predominates."

1.I asked him to explain. "You mean," I said, "that it takes five or six tries to get an idea right?"

"Yes," he said, "at least that."

"But," I replied, "you also said that if a newly introduced product doesn't catch on in the

first two or three times, then is it dead?"

"Yup," he said.

"Then new products are almost guaranteed to fail, no matter how good the idea."

"Now you understand," said the designer.

I found this passage particularly thought-provoking because of the logical conflict it presents.

If what the designer stated is true, then the process of a good idea materializing into a product

we see on shelves can be compared to a hurdle race... with five or six hurdles. However, in this race,

most of the good athletes are only able to clear one or two hurdles at the most, while the bad athletes

are managing to clear them all. At the end of the race, we see many more bad desig...I mean,

athletes... at the finish line. This makes no logical sense, and neither does the designer's

statement, at first.

So why does poor design predominate? It can boil down for a couple different factors. Perhaps

some bad designs have succeeded because they were backed by a famous brand name or company.

Perhaps they succeeded just because of their novelty. This passage from Norman's article certainly

raises questions worth discussing.

2. Norman's book can still be used today because it is, at risk of sounding cliche, almost as timeless

as human nature. Again, the main idea of this chapter is that a good design works with, not against

a human's natural approach towards that design. If in twenty years humankind forgets how to decide

to open doors, then Norman's book might be facing a bit of a problem.

3. My basic design checklist would include:

1. Visibility (Does my product have visual cues indicating how it can be used?)
2. Feedback (Will consumers be able to see when their actions have been completed?)
3. Simplicity (Have I only included the essential features?)

The Design of Everyday Things

1. The main focus of Norman's article is the relationship between a person's approach to an object and the design of that object. He discusses various points such as visibility, feedback, simplicity and clear relationships between controls and their outcomes. His main conclusion is that a good design works with a human's natural approach, not against it.

Good designs, according to Norman, have visual cues as to how they are to be used. Norman uses the example of a door. When you approach a door, you immediately judge, consciously or not, how the door should be opened. Should it be pushed, pulled, or slid to one side or the other? Usually, you do not need to put much thought into the decision. When the door has a vertical handle, you assume that you need to pull to open it. If the door has a horizontal handle or no handle at all, you assume you need to push, and, as Norman explains, you push on the unsupported side. However, when the designer decides that he or she wants to trump clarity of use with beauty, some of these visual clues may disappear, as in the case of the doors in the European post office mentioned in the article.

Proper feedback is essential to a good design; types of feedback can be as simple as a door swinging open or technologically sophisticated as an audio confirmation to convey that a task has been successfully performed. Lack of feedback is one of the main reasons why the telephone systems discussed in Norman's article were poorly designed. You could push almost any button (and chances are that that button is unmarked) in an attempt to use one of the phone's many nonessential features, but you would be given no confirmation on whether or not the job was carried out.

Simplicity must be taken into account when attempting to create the "perfect" design, especially the simplicity of visual cues. This aspect of a design presents a challenge: where do you draw the lines between too simple and not simple enough? The doors to the European post office were too simple; there were not enough visual cues for Norman's friend to easily determine whether to push or pull. On the other hand, the example of the washing machine demonstrates how a design can be far from simple enough. The excessive amount of settings and functions overwhelmed the couple who bought the machine, and they resorted to memorizing one setting and ignoring the rest.

Norman used the example of a Mercedes Benz to illustrate a good relationship between controls and their outcomes in a good design. For instance, consider the controls used to adjust the position of the seat. The control itself was shaped like the seat; if you wanted to raise the front of the seat, you would tilt the front of the control up. The relationship is clear and obvious, requiring no instructions.

All of these examples illustrate Norman's main point: a good design cooperates with a person's natural approach to the object; it does not hinder it.

2. At home back in Dearborn, the oven my family owns is one of the most irritating appliances in the house. I have many complaints about it, such as the fact that despite the oven having two shelves, you can only use one if you want something cooked correctly. Another flaw is the combination of the timer and the temperature control of the oven itself. There is only one button labeled off/clear. Somehow this is supposed to apply to both the temperature and the timer. Ninety percent of the times I (attempt to) use it, I have discovered too late that I turned the entire oven off when I meant to only turn the timer off, and left the food uncooked or only halfway cooked, resulting in the pizza delivery guy knocking on the door half an hour later.

3. As far as the design of the iPod is concerned, Fadell and the designing team could have gone exactly by the principles discussed in Norman's article. The iPod has just the right amount of visual cues to hint to the user how to operate the device. The iPod obviously has effective feedback. If you don't hear music, you know you must have missed something. But with such effective mappings and such clear relationships between the controls and their outcomes, chances are that you'll get the feedback you are looking for every time.

The Perfect Thing

1. The first element of the design process is knowing what you are about to design. In Anthony Fadell's case, "the job was to put together an MP3 music player that would work with Apple's existing iTunes application and would not suck." The next element of any design process is the trials involved in bringing a product as close to perfection as possible. The article goes on to describe such trials in designing a Macintosh computer. Beginning with an extremely large, expensive machine with no hard drive in 1984, Apple went through trial after trial to come up with a computer "half the size of a shoebox. Fadell's trials for the iPod, were, of course, different. His first trial was a device that did not come with a hard drive; instead, it had a "big slot" for one, and the consumer would have had to supply their own. His next trial device had its own memory, but the memory would be wiped clean every time the battery died, and this clearly would not work, seeing as the purpose of this product was to be a portable music player, and no one wants to carry around a portable power source. Through all the trials, however, one feature stood out: the scroll wheel. The idea of the scroll wheel solved the time-consuming "plus and minus buttons" on the already-existing MP3 players.

Then came the process of perfection. Details such as whether or not to have a power button were worked out, and then came ideas such as making the revolutionary product multi-lingual.

Thus, with the brilliance of Steve Jobs and his team, the first wave of the world-famous iPod hit the shelves.

2. In order to evaluate a "perfect thing," some different factors need to be taken into consideration:

• Appearance. Appearance of a product is the first thing a consumer will notice. Look and style are important. If a consumer can easily see the product in their great grandmother's house, it is probably not visually up to date.
• Convenience. How would the product fit into and work with the demands of everyday life? The convenient iPod we know would probably not be nearly as successful if it were the size of a laptop.
• Efficiency and Durability. The product has to do its job, and do its job well. Constant breakdowns are an obvious consumer turn-off.
• Cost. The price of the product is essential. No one is going to pay $1000 dollars for an mp3 player.

3. I currently own an iPod Touch. I can definitely say that it has more strengths than weaknesses. In my opinion, the most apparent strength is the design of the touch screen. The iPod Touch is the first iPod in which the screen dominates the device, and this sleek touch screen boasts a visually pleasing, modern look and organization that grants the user easy access to any of the useful functions such as music, iTunes, contacts, photos, and so much more.

One nagging weakness, however, is the battery life. Over the time I have owned my iPod touch, the battery life seems to weaken after every re-charge, and this obviously is not too convenient for someone who is usually on the go. Despite this flaw, however, the many features and strengths of the iPod have won Apple my loyalty for good.

The Essentially Awkward Introduction Post that we all love.

Do you ever draw a complete blank when asked to talk about yourself? Nice to meet you. Here are some really random things I can think of:

I consider myself an extremely open-minded, tolerant person.

I used to say my political beliefs were moderate, but the hell with that, I'm pretty liberal.

I clash with closed-minded people, definitely. Nothing drives me up a wall more than ignorance.

I love love LOVE the red wings. I also like playing/watching soccer.

I'm naturally introverted but I've been trying really hard to change that. Kzoo is my first real fresh start after 12 years, so I'm handling the drastic change as best as I can.

My hobbies are music, theater, language, literature, politics, coffee/tea, rpg's, hockey, EUCHRE. I will drop most anything to play euchre.

I'm double majoring in German and whatever will get me a job with the UN.

I'm really into movies. A few of my friends were film aficionados, and I do my best to keep up. Much love for Edward Norton.

My favorite books are Catch-22 and Catcher in the Rye...and the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.

I'm in Trow 215 this year, stop by whenever!