[Response] Thoughtful Interaction Design By Jonas Lowgren

Lowgren brought up about how digital technology is a material that has no qualities, designers are not restricted by anything. He also brought up a good point about how designs should be reflected on again and again to make it more thoughtful. And I would link that to why operating systems such as iOS and Android has multiple multiple updates within a year. It can be troublesome but definitely good.

One of the update in iOS for iPhone actually changed drastically the whole look and feel of the operating system, moving on from the previous blockish-blue-steel look to now, sleek look. Also re-arranging a lot of essential functions and making more convenient and intuitive for users. For eg, the notification chart comes in 2 pages, with one about the To-Do list etc. Also the Control center has the alarm, calculator, torch light all in there.

Talking about thoughtfully designed user experience, one of the top product that people will think of will be smart phones. The convenience of a smartphone can be largely attributed to the wide range of applications that they have. Some of these applications are really designed thoughtfully for their users.

One of the application that I would like to highlight will be Grab. Personally, I use Grab quite often for short trips. I like it when I open the application and they will straight away notify me on the promotions that I can enjoy and they will input the promotional code for me straightaway, without me having to remember the codes and type it in the box. Another feature of Grab is that they will automatically input your destination for you based on your routine for the past few weeks and it really saved my time and hassle of trying to pin a correct location for pick-up. It’s all these little details that made the process of Grab-ing more convenient and enjoyable.

Another product that I would say it’s a thoughtfully designed product will be the Swiss Knife. It has all the essential tools/cutters arranged and packed nicely into this pocket size product. Every cutter has a sleek indent intended for users to pull it out easily. It is amazing how the knife can be super useful when you are out camping/hiking or basically just not at home. The look of it might be confusing but it can be easily understood by the users.

[Reflection] Future World @ Art Science Museum

This exhibition is one that caters to audience of different age groups and especially interesting due to the interactive element to the whole exhibition.

The exhibition is divided into 4 parts: Nature, Town, Park & Space. Each part has its uniqueness. Personally, i really love the immersiveness of the installations at Nature and Space.

NATURE
The use of visualization to let audience immerse in the environment was really successful. The light show that we went for was really amazing and mind-blowing. I really enjoyed the shift of mood from the light show to the soothing calm water visualisation. Just when we exit the light show and we were thrown into a view of serenity.

TOWN & PARK
Both sections are focusing a lot more on interaction with audience. Also more of, play and fun. I really enjoyed the part that we get to colour and make our work appear on the screen by scanning. Also, the act of interacting with the screen to create certain change was captivating too!

SPACE 
This is one of the most memorable section due to the visual impact that it brings to audience. TeamLab had really captivated the whole essence of “Crystal Universe” with this installation. The combination of sound effect together with the light changes was seamless and made the installation even more impactful. The inclusion of a method for audience to add “planets” to the universe was quite interesting. Audience on the outside add planets to the universe and create a different experience for the audience who are still in the universe.

From this exhibition, i realized that with so many similar lights installation around, the only way to leave a deep impression on the audience will be to create a strong visual impact on the audience. The inclusion of interactive element is value-adding but it might not capture all the audience as some of them might not know that it’s interactive. Hence, for ILight proposal, focusing on visual impact will be a great way to leave an impression on audience and adding on interactive elements will be just nice to let the audience experience installation in another way.

Personal Favourite from Past Ilight Installations

Sustainability to me can be applicable to many different topics, culture, environment or even economy. I actually feel that there are a greater concern over sustainable environment especially with all the “global warming alert” and “rising sea level” claims bombarding the people in recent decade.

Many of the environment-related campaigns spreads the idea of each of us playing our part but truthfully, even myself, thinks that our effort is negligible and the unseen results does not justify the extra effort we take. Hence, i feel that it will be interesting to make people realise that this mindset is wrong and everyone, every effort made, are counted and will eventually equate to a bigger impact.

I’ve attended Ilight 2017 and I would say that experiencing the installation at the venue is really different from just seeing from pictures. Many of the details of the installation can’t be captured in the picture and also, the bigger picture cannot be captured too. How each installation stands against the urban jungle of Marina Bay area is definitely worth immersing in too.

HYBYCOZO –  Yelena Filipchuk (USA) and Serge Beaulieu (Canada)

This artwork was located near the start of the Ilight route that I’ve taken. The intricacy of these forms attracted me from far. It exude a tinge of grace from its polyhedral form. The interplay between the light and shadow is really beautiful and definitely stands out from the backdrop of urban jungle. Moreover, they were located beside the water body so it also added another sense of calmness together with the night breeze. These shapes are not only beautiful at night, they are also as beautiful in the day time as the details of it is very intriguing to viewers.

Kaleidoscopic Monolith – SUTD & OSRAM Lighting Solutions

This installation had a sense of dynamism to it as the reflection on the sculpture is everchanging, according to the surrounding. When it’s lit up at night, reflection of the people around it can be seen very clearing too. Each facet plays an important role in this sculpture. I’ve tried to touch the bulb and i can see many reflections of my hand coming together which is pretty interesting. I like how this sculpture looks dynamic even though it’s static.

 

[Response] Chapter 4 – You Are What You Carry – Jan Chipchase

Last week Jan Chipchase had given us an idea of a relationship between the top 3 items people carried out against the significance of it. This week, Chapter 4 of Jan Chipchase book had given me another insight into behaviors of people according to how they deal with their belongings.

It is common to see people front-packing in certain countries but not in Singapore. Personally, when my family went to China for holiday, our parents will insist that we wear our slingbags before putting on our jacket so that the bags will not be seen easily. Apparently, the reason for this was that there are many cases of robbery in China, basically robbers will snatch your bag while you are walking on the street. I did realized that this way of carrying bag is very common in China too.

On top of that, sometimes girls tend to touch up etc in the toilet where they will put their bags on the basin counter. However, in China, the girls will still carry their bag while doing so. Hence, this is quite similar with the example of Meili in Chapter 4.

It is very common in Singapore to have a wide range of distribution. Even myself, when I am going to the canteen, I am perfectly fine with leaving all my stuffs (including laptop) in classroom too. However, my range of distribution differs according to the setting that I am in.

Jan Chipchase also discussed about the great unburdening. The digitalized society is definitely convenient but also something like “putting all the eggs in one basket”, which can be really risky. This topic is definitely the current hot topic in Singapore due to recent PM Lee’s speech about driving towards a Smart Nation. One of my greatest concern about this will be the widening gap between certain groups of the society (For eg, non-tech savvy elderly VS tech-savvy population). It is difficult for them to catch up with the current state of technology and it will be very difficult to educate them about it too.

Jan Chipchase also discussed about delegation of tasks. One of the closest possible full delegation of task that I could imagine will be having Artificial Intelligence (AI) taking over certain part of our life. For instance, having an AI as a personal assistant to help us in our life. This aspect of technology had been greatly explored on recently too, by Facebook and Google. However, this is definitely a risk-taking exploration as none of us can accurately predict how will it turn out.

All in all, personally I am supportive of small changes to user experiences but definitely not strongly supportive of having large scale development on technology such as AI. Digitalized society will definitely bring about great convenience to users, but how do we actually make sure that it is the right amount of digitalization that it benefits all and not at a cost of certain group of people.

[Response] Anthropology of Mobile Phones by Jan Chipchase.

Jan Chipchase gave this talk around 10 years ago. It’s really amazing how many things had changed within 10 years. Most importantly, the change of lifestyle and doing of things.

He mentioned about 3 most essential items to bring out – money, phone and keys. However, in today’s time, seemingly all these items are amalgamating into 1 – Smart phone.

Ibanking, E-wallets, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay: readily available on our smart phone, just a tap and a scan, there you go, you can make your purchase.
Even keys, many homeowners are switching to digital lock simply because they find it convenient and efficient. For eg, coming home with bags of groceries, one no longer needs to put down all the bags and rummage through your pockets/bag for key to open the door. Just stick out your finger for a scan or simply punch in some number and you’re home.

Due to the immediacy of smartphone, the support for this leap in technology rose rapidly over the time, impacting not only those with financial capabilities but also children and even elderly.

The time now had made life so convenient and efficient and smartphones are delegated with this important task of SURVIVAL.

A few things that we do have to think about will be, how are we going to include or assist those people who are forgotten by the continua advancements in technology? Also, how to keep ourselves safe in this technological-time?

[Response] Week 2 – Hidden In Plain Sight: How To Create Extraordinary Products For Tomorrow’s Customers – Jan Chipchase

Korean Street Food Culture

Jan Chipchase had provided an interesting guideline on calibrating culture of a place quickly, which is essential during user studies research. What he had covered in this chapter are subconsciously within all of us, but he gave an identity to all them and that will make us take notice of them in future. This chapter also conclude to a main point of “be meticulous”.

One thing he mentioned was to put ourselves in local mindset during Rapid Culture Calibration. I would like to point out that it will be hard for us, as a foreigner there, to fully immerse ourselves into a totally different culture. Simply because, we will feel some sort of anxiousness or cautiousness during our stay there as we have uncertainty of the place too. However, he also brought up the idea of partnering with a local team. Partnering with a local team is a good idea as they know what and where will be “truly local” to visit etc. Also, it will be especially beneficial in places that are not as safe or places with language barrier (Especially for places that speaks dialects)

I am very surprised that Jan Chipchase included visiting salon as one of his method too. This is one of the way that are not as common but effective. Hairdressers are constantly meeting new people and having conversations with different people.

On top of these, I would like to add in another method will be having conversations with taxi drivers (or Grab and Uber drivers now). They are usually the ones who really meet people from all walk of life. From tourists to students to working adult and so on.

From personal experience, I always have good talks with taxi/grab/uber drivers, they will talk about their day, their worries, their uncommon encounters. Most of the drivers will also talk about their worries about their future, after knowing that I am a student. Very often, they will talk about they are losing out to the society etc due to their limitation in skillset. Some of the drivers will also talk about what the other customers told them, from gossips to culture of different people too. Especially those older drivers, they often talk about how Singapore had improved/changed over the years too. I guess from here we can also figure out insights of the country too.

I would say that conversing with taxi drivers will be a better option as they are constantly moving around and meeting new people. They are also part of the country’s transportation.

All in all, this chapter gave a definite idea on how to research on users which is very important in a design process. Getting to know the culture of the users will highlight the needs and difficulties of different user groups. This will identify the bigger image of why we design. From there on, by bringing in the knowledge from what Don Norman mentioned in “The Design of Everyday Things”, we can design something that will surely bring about a great experience for users.

Questions:

  1. Is there a possibility of having a product that will be so universal that everybody can use it?
  2. How do we gauge how much of culture of one place should we inject into our design to make sure that it’s not overdoing?

[Response] Week 1 – The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

Chapter 1 of “The Design of Everyday Things” was informative as it pointed out many things that do not stand out to me in everyday life. Don Norman gave a term to classify certain conditions or situations that we experienced daily. He put together numerous everyday examples to illustrate his points to readers and it was easy to relate and understand too.

It was highlighted that the characteristics of good design is discoverability and understanding. I do agree with this as for a product to be useful for intended user, they should know how to fully utilize the product.

He introduced affordance, signifier, constraint, mapping, feedback and conceptual models in this chapter and it really gives a clearer image of the more abstract term of “user experience”.

I did some app interfaces before and I really struggled with informing users of all the available functions without cluttering the whole screen. Also, the selection of icons to be used and certain work flow had to be mindful too, especially when common users are now more accustomed to either Android or Apple. After reading this chapter, I can explain some of my design decisions clearly to people.

This is an applicable chapter, especially when we start to take note of the products or situations in our daily life. For instance, when we tap in at the MRT gantry. It is not uncommon for commuters to mistake the screen that displays the status of that gantry as the tap card zone. I would say that user’s attention often lands on the screen before the tap card zone as it’s brightly lit and the icon is more familiar. The signifier will be the image on the tap card. However, the shape of the screen is identical to the Ezlink card so users can mistake that as the tapping zone, according to natural mapping that was mentioned in the chapter.

I am still slightly confused about constraint as he only gave the scissors example. At some point, I did confuse constraint with affordance. Affordance is a relationship whereas constraint is somewhat like a parameter set by the designer I would say. This is what I understand right now, please do correct me if I’m wrong.

Trip to Harvey Norman

Comparison of 2 similar products – kettles 

During my trip to Harvey Norman, I was very attracted by the different shapes and colours of different products. Especially the range of products that were in pastel colours, definitely an eye-catcher.

For this post, i will be comparing 2 kettles from 2 brands – Morphy Richards and Kitchen Aid

Kettle – KitchenAid

Kettle – Morphy Richards

Both kettles has the same function of boiling water.

However, the differences in forms and certain details gave both products a different personality.

  • Shape

Both products have a very different shape (form). The one from KitchenAid is more bulbous whereas the one from Morphy Richards adopted a more trapezoidal shape with triangular indentations on the body of the kettle.

Both forms are very inviting for people to touch it due to its shape or the indentations. The one from KitchenAid gives people a more casual and everyday life kind of kettle feel. But for the one from Morphy Richards, it gives people a sense of distance, feels like something more high end, more elaborated due to its height and indentations.

  • Colour 

Both brands carries more than 1 colour for respective kettles mentioned above.

As shown in the pictures, the one from KitchenAid carries black and sky blue colour whereas the one from Morphy Richards carries black and white. There are more colours that were not shown on display too. The available of different colours will be able to appeal to a wider group of consumers if they have different taste and preferences. One of the similarity for both products will be the choice of colours available. The colours available are all towards the more vibrant side, for instance, lime green or orange.

  • Details

Looking at both products, it will be easy to realise that one of the difference on detailing will be the thumb-press spout on the kettle from KitchenAid.

This additional detail promises a sense of security towards the consumers. This could also be the deciding factor of consumers.

Both products from both brands have simple functions and detailing. Making it easy for consumers to understand and use.

 

Conclusion

From this trip, i was exposed to a wide varieties of products that comes in various forms, colours and even functions. It can be noticeable that the trend now seems to be bringing consumers down the memory lane – the revival of pastel colours, leathery textures and also simplicity. On the other side, there are also a group of products that are taking on a more rustic feel, with the use of olive green with brown etc.

Lastly, I would like to share one of the product that interests me the most.

Fan – Cornell

This fan caught my attention from a distance, it just looked like a pin-point on the map. The whole shape of it looks really unique, it really stood out from the numerous fans around it. However, it’s a little top heavy so a little nudge will cause it to sway. And… I still don’t understand why the wind comes out from one side and not the front 😮 Overall, still an interesting design!