Tweedledee, Tweedledum
by Stefan Sagmeister

This article was pretty interesting. It showed me how a diary can really be something that someone would treasure a lot as time passes. Keeping track of the things that have been done, good or bad. This is my take on the article, apart from the normal reviews i give relating to design and such. alrights, and there’s gonna be class tmr..great..i can start trying to write the report.=)

Here is my weekly reading reviews:

Don’t Make Me Think!
A Common Sense Approach To Web Usability.
by STEVE KRUG

This article is about how we use the web and how we pick up information, really. I guess I totally agree on Chapter 2, where we as human beings do really scan things around us, especially when we surf the net and are in a hurry to finding our intended information. And once we found it I am sure some of us still scan through it, or for those who really need the information, we read them thoroughly. =)

It is an informative article on designing a webpage or website. However, at this point of time this reading is just an informative piece of article for me to read and absorb it (Who knows I might need it one day!). Unless, my group wants to do some website thingy that encompasses my whole group progress and stuff. Yes, it would be great and we are thinking of it.

Understanding Design
by KEES DORST

I find this reading very useful as it is relevant to every design project that I do. With the explanation of the first steps of designing, the complications, the ups and downs of designing, the nightmares and the reflections. I guess it helped me understand more about the design work and lectures that I have went to over this pass one and a half years.

alrights im off to continue nursing my flu..see ya guys on wed.

Thought:
Well, it’s been almost the end of week5 and my group have kicked off the brainstorming part for our video. We’re gonna have a blast doing it as well as editing it. But everyone knows that it’s gonna be a tedious process trying to do it perfectly. =) Anyways, I tried calling coles and the people there arent exactly as friendly as I thought they would be! I even called the headquaters but they rejected the idea of filming/taking photos in the supermarket. I later made a trip personally down to IGA(my favourite supermarket), I remember shopping at IGA for everything last yr! owells, those were the good old days. Ok, I shall stop side tracking..haha!! Well, IGA allowed me to take photos, however they do not have trolleys!! why why? cos it was IGA EXPRESS!! owells, I guess we need a group meeting to sort this out so that we can complete the vid fast. ONE WEEK LEFT people!! hurryhurryhurry!

Group Discussion:
Over the week, we’ve been msging and msning each other by means of advanced technology, and yes everyone did their part in our group..Writing personas, drawing the scenes, sketching stuff, calling supermarkets, doing the group photo, editing the mission statement, editing the wiki page, etc. GJ! See you guys tmr..

Readings:
Alrights, so here are my week 5 readings..There seems to be a few readings which I’ve read it before in week3 and week 4. And I’ve already posted my reviews on it.(go check under readings)

Lidwell_UniversalPrinciples:

I like the fact that this article speaks about the accessibility of objects/products around us. I agree that everything around us needs to speak with meaning and purpose, so that the users/audiences can perceive, use and understand the whole design.

Also, I believe that aesthetic designs are more user friendly than those products with less aesthetic purposes. This is probably due to the fact that a more interactive design would allow the users to enjoy the product more and also have the inclination to use it with the thought that it is a fun and interesting product to use.

Overall, this article is informative in the sense that it tells me the guidelines and factors that contributes to a designed product, or anything dealing with designing.

SafferPersonasScenarios_fixed:
This article helped me in writing up my group’s personas and scenarios, because initially I did not know how to create a persona, thus with the help of this reading it allowed me to understand the requirements needed in a persona. Indeed this is really helpful.

Scenarios:
This short piece of reading helped me to comprehend what a Scenario is all about. In short, I understand that in order to write a scenario, one must identify the problem and interaction needed to take place. Also, avoiding references to technology, while including all aspects of the interaction. After writing it, one must review and edit the written scenario. We must also bear in mind to not indclude any form of technology related things, while writing the scenario.

Alrights, that’s all folks!

DeBono_6ThinkingHats:
This article is really interesting as it tells us about our 6 thinking hats! (esp when it involves 6 different colours: white, red, black, yellow, green and blue.) It was fun reading this as it made me aware of how to pair my thinking hats together next time. the white & red, black & yellow, and green & blue. I am definitely going to try to use this thinking hats system. You guys should try it for yourselves too! I think it would be helpful to everyone in their form of developing their creativity and innovation ideas when doing our Studio I project.

Gosh, these few days have been pretty much intense for me. I feel sick and all..I really need to discuss with the group on where we need to head (fast). Right now it’s all ideas, ideass, and more ideas..I somehow think we need to have a direction and get things done..rather than just having heaps of ideas. I mean ideas are good way to start, but my group seriously need to move on into more important things, like categorizing the ideas, starting out with a purpose to drive us to the end.

I hope tmr’s group meeting would be fruitful.

These week 3 readings are loooooong overdue!! I know!! I know!! It was because I could not access it and download it to my mac from the commserver. But now I can! haha I’ve been doing my week 3 readings during the weekends. Anyways, there are some interest readings that I really enjoyed though some of them are really long (over 100pages!!). Nevertheless, it’s good to read more ya? you get more knowledgeable=)

Saffer Design Research:
This is an extremely good reading! I like how it guides one from the start of doing an interactive project, and pin points the important parts of kicking start a project. I also found the four approaches to interactive design (1.User-Centred Design, 2.Activity-Centred Design, 3.System Design, and 4.Genius Design) really useful to my group’s progress, as it teaches one to always keep in check with these approaches so that my group would not go out of point.

Moreover, the reading on research was very helpful as it taught me how to do my research properly   and that doing research and brainstorming are the secret key to interactive design.

I absolutely love this reading as it taught me a lot more about the starting key ingredients to an interactive design project.

Design Interactions:
Woah, this was an extremely long reading! But I managed to finished it with of course extracting the important parts and absorbing them into my brain!! This reading gave me a structured way to assist my group in doing our project. The structure of designing an interactive projects, with an evaluation criteria (1. Creativity/innovation, 2.Aesthetics/quality, 3.Human factors/values, 4.Performance/technology, and 5.Completeness/presentation) to follow and all.

I like the in depth of how this reading goes, as it is very explicit and easy to understand when read. The part which has this quality was the part on the Design Discipline.

In addition, it also provide useful tips and guidelines which I would share with my group on progressing with our interactive design project.

jonKolko_thoughtsOnInteractionDesign:
Firstly, I need to say that I liked the whole design spread/layout and of course colour of this reading. It was a nice and appealing sight.

Anyways, I felt that this reading brought me to see how interaction design really works and connects with everything around us, and of course us! I think that interaction design is everywhere around us, the things we do, the things we see and so on. It’s just whether we make a conscious effort to see and interact with it. We could all really see the beauty in interaction design.

Though this article was a long read, it helped me to understand why certain products are designed the way they are now! Take for example the LEGO bricks. it’s really amazing to see how mindful and now visually it allows us to interact with the product too.

This article exposed me to see how interaction designers think and how they realy bring in every factor of our lives into their creations.

Alrighty, there I’m finally done for my week 3 readings=)

In week 2, I did a few readings got to know more about some amazing things that certain companies in the world are doing today, particularly on the documentation of any project(s). It was indeed an eye opener to read about such stuff. However, I wrote only 2 reflections/response to the following essential readings.

The first reading was on The Perfect T-shirt which showed a excellent example of documenting a project. Are you an avid go-greener, who wants to protect our poor planet that is slowly being ruin by our forefathers and increasingly rapid rate by us? Fear not, for there’s another way to safe our world!! This is by wearing the perfect t-shirt. The perfect t-shirt is so environmentally friendly as it made from the most minimal pollution methods and such. It is also surprisingly affordable! this website is so informative as it shows the developmental ideas of creating the perfect t-shirt.
http://www.betterthinking.co.uk/perfect/blog.htm

The second was about this website/company called About Instructables. It’s quite amazing to know that makers of Instructables found a perfect and convenient way to document the projects in a fast-forward way so that we as viewers are able to see it in a brief time. It’s a fantastic site to go to if one is in doubt of doing or find out an answer for something. It teaches the best way on various ranges of How-tos. Moreover, the navigation system on the site is very precise and easy. Also, I was looking through the instructions of “The 10 Minute Laptop Stand”, it was really useful and simple to follow it. The instructions were very straight to the point and understandable. I recommend this website for all, when you want to do some DIY projects, or clueless about something, etc. It is a must go to site!
http://www.instructables.com/about/fullstory.jsp

Alrights, I’m out! Gonna explore our wiki=)