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Response on: The Design Of Everyday Things - Don Norman

Chapter 1
From the first chapter of the book, I could understand a few of the key points the author is trying to bring across. Firstly, would be the experience of handling a door, having the typical “push/pull” problem. We all have encountered this problem in our lives, pushing a pull door, vice versa. Even though design itself have advanced a Read more →
[Response] Calibrating Your Cultural Compass

Just like the title of the book, Hidden in Plain Sight: How to Create Extraordinary Products for Tomorrow’s Customers, the contents that Chipchase touched upon in this reading is indeed knowledge that I feel, is subconsciously within all of us, and only requires a bit of probing to get people to start thinking about them. In fact, I feel that Read more →
RESPONSE: Chapter 5 Jan Chipchase, Hidden In Plain Sight: How To Create Extraordinary Products For Tomorrow’s Customers.


Calibrating Your Cultural Compass
This week readings discuss about the importance of understanding people from their daily life using the technique called rapid cultural calibration that would aid in the design research. The technique range from observing the city to travelling by their public transport to the airports, community hubs and signs in that place. All those would give us clues Read more →

Week 2 Response: Calibrating Your Cultural Compass


An extract from the chapter:
“When you want to know how and why people do the things they do, the best people to learn from are the doers themselves, and the best place to learn is where the doing gets done. This is the simple premise of design research.”
It is common for people/designers who are doing research to find the information Read more →


- Waste collection
- Seoul’s grocery shopping
Calibrating your Cultural Compass


Jan Chipchase draws attention to how important it is for designers to understand not only the local mindset but how it is from a global perspective, she calls it the ‘rapid cultural calibration’. As an exchange student in Singapore, I agree that it is important to be part of the action to understand the city and its people. I have Read more →

RESPONSE: Chapter 1 of The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norm


The reading was interesting where Donald touch on the simple things and elaborate on the process of how we interact with it through discoverability and understanding. Taking one example of the ADM glass door that located beside the office on level one, it is one of the Norman doors. I was nodding internally while reading the Read more →
Response to Chipchase's calibrating your cultural compass


Chipchase shared the importance of understanding the background of one’s target audience. Often, we neglect the basis and intent of designing. Products are usually designed for people yet some designers fail to incorporate thoughtfulness to their work. A good design naturally arises from observations and research of the target group. Customising a design that is convenient and suits the need Read more →

Calibrating your cultural compass - Week 2


I like the way Jan Chipchase studies people behaviour, from different cultures all over the world by observing their daily activities, especially the morning commute. I agree that societal behaviour is best observed in the morning, as people usually follow certain daily habits. In Singapore, I observe people usually wake up early in the morning, board the MRT Read more →

Response to "Calibrating your Cultural Compass"


Of all the methods of rapid cultural calibration that is mentioned, what I found the most interesting was the idea of observing people in their morning routines and in their transportation modes. Having lived in Ohio, New York, and now Singapore, how people travel to work and how they prepare for their day is very different. In Ohio, a Read more →

PPT 1: ADM Observation

Dhea Mariesta Chanjaya
Jolene Tan
Laura Young
Pearlyn Seah