Category Archives: Assignment Week 7 + 8

Research —

Find 3 examples of a product/project that you think are good examples of thoughtfully designed user experience. Be prepared to support your choices.

  1. MEMO — Medication Memory

 

MEMO is a simple approach to turn daily medication into a more pleasant experience, using light, motion and sound as guidance. It finds a good balance between having proper medication on time, maintaining an independent life and also de-stigmatise as a medical device with thoughtful user experience, integrating into daily life.

MEMO also notifies relatives in case the person did not take his/her medication through an app; allowing them to keep track and intervene in cases of emergency.

2. Paper Planes World

https://paperplanes.world/

 

an experiment that seeks to bring people together by sending digital paper plane(s) around the world, strangely giving users some sense of connectivity in this digital world.

One of the best multi-platforms and mobile-compatible project; the developers and designers looked into many aspects and enhanced user experience with its tilt sensor function, fullscreen, multi-touch, vibration, sound. The experience is quite calming and doesn’t drown one in an overflow of information. It also gets strangely addictive after a while of folding planes, catching others’, feeling connected and throwing it out again.

3.

 

 

Week 7/8 Response— Future World Exhibition

Write a response to the exhibition “Future World”.

Future World exhibition opened up our perception and the tremendous possibilities of responsive environments from concept design, production methods and beautiful and quality execution. On top of having 360-degree and multi-dimensional experience in the exhibit spaces, TeamLab also integrated interactive and sensory experiences in each work. They are visually stimulating, used beautiful sound design, tactile, playful, thoughtful, engaging and may even stimulate sense of smell.

Main takeaway from the exhibition, TeamLab looked into:  (and executed well using cutting edge technology and close collaboration with their engineers)

—exploring the delicate balance between humans and nature; and also reflect on our own position relative to the natural world, other people and the universe

—bridging the digital and physical realms

—interactive, ubiquitous technology

—immersive experience

—ever-changing canvas

It is worth noting that the works are being rendered in real time by computer program; they continuously change their appearance in line with the influence of external data such as the viewers’ behavior among other factors and parameters.

On a side note, I enjoyed how the exhibit was planned in such a way that we intuitively would move along the space, although mesmerized by and would interact with almost everything that was projected/happening, and finding little trouble in the way-finding.

Experience design are optimally designed by the design team and engineers, and would require input from the users’ attitudes, behaviors and perceptions into design situations. We would have to constantly think about how people interact with their environments and continue to refine the production as technology evolves and thereafter optimally execute design concept. I look forward to going back to Future World exhibit again.

Week 7+8 Reading

Chapter 1 from Kim Goodwin, Designing for Digital Age

This chapter gave an insightful viewpoint of the role(s) of design. I especially appreciate the point on how ‘no designer can determine exactly what experience someone has’. While we do design to achieve certain user experience as a projected outcome, we have to note that each person interprets designed experience and artifacts differently and may experience something different from what we, as designers, had set out to achieve. This was explained by Kim that each person brings her own attitudes, behaviors and perceptions to any situation; I feel that this is rather important concept that we have to be aware of, while designing.

The author mentioned a point that ‘some organisations may believe getting a best-guess product out the door is more important than taking the time to understand their users and customers in any depth, so there are ways to jump to design with little or no time spent on research’. I wonder about the extent of trade offs in such cases and how good research would value-add to the outcome, and how much the before-mentioned organisations would gain in the long run. If the long-term benefits outweigh the immediate returns, how and what can we as designers propose to these clients/ management?

Are there examples of optimal design teams that are small but has frequent contact with members of a larger design team? The way they work and collaborate with one another might give us a more concrete understanding on how these teams deliver effectively and efficiently.