Reading: Thoughtful Interaction Design by Jonas Lowgren & Erik Stolterman
In the reading, Lowgren and Stolterman mentioned ‘An extremely fast and efficient digital artifact is hardly good design if it is not understood by its users. Outstanding user interface intelligibility is pointless if the basic functions of the artifact fail to satisfy the users’ needs. An intelligent and adaptive artifact with exceptional problem-solving capabilities is worthless if it is too slow.’ In this modern digital age, most products are designed to improve efficiency to meet the demands of the fast pace lifestyle of modern mankind. We develop outstanding user interface to attract users to buy. Products progressively become more intelligent and adaptive to meet the users’ constant demands due to advanced technology. Designers have failed to address the importance of simple functionality and designing for the layman. We tend to assume the product we design would be easily understood by the users and therefore user friendly.
When the authors asked the question “what is a good design?”, I was thinking if they were asking something rhetorical. Isn’t a good design something that is aesthetically pleasing and beneficial for the users? There are so many ways to define ‘good’ in this era, hence it is quite complex to define what is a good design. The sentence that made an impact on me was “Working with design means that you continuously need to define and redefine what you think of as good design.”
It made me ponder about the work I design, is it only for aesthetics or is it designing for the users’ experience and easy functionalities? How do I go about creating a good design? It brings me down to the core concepts of designing: design process, design situation and digital artifact. With limited resources, I need to make use of the digital technology to create products that are functional, aesthetic and ethical. The process in design is the most important factor because it is where I have inspiration and come up with ideas and follow through to complete my final work. It helps me to filter out which design is more feasible and where I could further improve along the way. Design process is an ongoing process that I need to go through. The design situation allows the designer to know what processes are needed to change, evolve and fine-tune to arrive at the final product. Digital artifacts refer to the structure and functionality of the product which has direct impact on users. Every choice, action and decision I make can either make or break my design.
Through the reading, I tried to see if any of those works that I was interested in used the core concepts discussed by Lowgren and Stolterman.
Beacon technology applied to modern art museum in Krakow
Beacon to Phone App
QR Code
Beacon to Information of artwork
The aim of the project was to help visitors navigate around the museum without much difficulties and the assistance of tour guides explaining the art pieces displayed. The process was to integrate a phone app, QR codes and HG Beacon devices on museum artworks. When the user approaches an artwork, the HG Beacon device will notify the phone app and provides the necessary information for the user to learn more about the art pieces. The user will be able to see and hear the explanations of the artworks or other information they wanted. The situation was the art museum in Krakow where the designer had to know how to execute the proposed idea and make it interactive for the user as they move along the artworks. The digital artifacts was how the devices: HG Beacon, QR codes and phone app would help the visitors to move around easily.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0QfpfGOrp8
Volkswagen: The Human Crossing
Volkswagen: Human Crossing
Child crossing cross with RFID tag
Large billboard with child
The aim of the project was to prevent children from road accidents when using the zebra crossings by alerting the drivers in UAE. The process was how to alert the drivers and attract their attention when children are using the zebra crossings. Each child gets 1 Radio-frequency identification (RIFD) tag and from there it goes through a large billboard which alerts the driver via their eye level. This will result in decrease of children involved in zebra crossing accidents. The situation was the increase in accidents happened to children which the designer had to think of creative ways to alert drivers and yet allow the children to cross without fear of being knocked down. The digital artifacts were the RIFD tags and large digital billboards which activates when children uses the zebra crossings.
http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/volkswagen-the-human-crossing/
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