"Organization and Preparation Tips" by Garr Reynolds

1. Garr Reynolds explains ten aspects of making a good speech in his article. While they are all important to keep in mind, three points in particular stand out. His first point, “Start with the end in mind,” his third point, “Content, content, content,” and his sixth point, “Have a sound, clear structure.” His first point is a very holistic, overall approach to a presentation, and one’s goal for the end truly dictates how the rest of Reynolds’s points are handled. One can more easily determine what information is pertinent and how much time must be spent on certain topics if he or she knows what exactly is to be conveyed and emphasized. His second point about content is also very important. If a person does not have detailed, accurate information to present, then the presentation is simply a waste of time for everyone involved. The content should be provided in a clear manner so that it is easily understandable to everyone. This ties into Reynolds’s sixth point about having a sound, clear structure. The audience needs to be able to follow the presentation easily. There should not be too much extra fluff in a presentation because anything that digresses from the main topic could confuse the audience.

2. All of Reynolds’s advice is useful when thinking about how to prepare a presentation. Naturally one should prepare for a presentation, but Reynolds’s ideas of drawing everything out on a big board so that one can actually see the flow seems like a good idea. Also, it helps to be hard on oneself while preparing a speech. Thinking and answering questions that the audience might ask beforehand allows the presenter to be more prepared when the questions do actually arise. Reynolds’s tenth point about building confidence by practicing is greatly helpful because what he says is simply true. The best way to have a presentation flow smoothly is to practice and know the ‘ins and outs’ of everything. That way, even if something were to come up such as time being more limited than expected, the presenter knows the key points and what to cut out.

3. It is interesting to compare Norman’s thoughts on product design and Reynolds’s thoughts on presentations because there are in fact similarities. The biggest similarity is reflective design. In both product design and speech presentation, either the designer or the presenter wants to leave the audience reflecting about how good the product/speech was. Both Norman and Reynolds agree that it is important to know the audience because whether one is selling a product or selling an idea, so much depends on the type of people that are listening. The clarity of a presentation is also akin to the clarity of a product. Both a presentation and a product need to be easily understood by the user/listener. Thus, behavioral design as a whole contains many tenets that help with delivering an effective speech.

4. One aspect of design that I find quite interesting is what companies look for when designing their logos or mascots. How, for example, did Ronald McDonald come about? So many of these logos and mascots are iconic in culture, and it would be interesting to know a designers approach to creating these things.

"Emotional Design" Part 2

1. Passage

“Prestige, perceived rarity, and exclusiveness work at the reflective level. Raise the price of Scotch, and increase the sales. Make it difficult to get reservations to a restaurant or entrance to a club, and increase their desirability. These are reflective-level ploys.”

This brief passage focuses on techniques of improving reflective design. This passage really connects design to the psychology of the mind and how humans think about what they purchase. It is somewhat saddening even how humanity is so focused on buying expensive products to show off to their peers. The discussion held on Monday definitely touched on this point, and it was interesting that the entire discussion was dominated by the idea of reflective design. Everyone was simply more interested in the psychological aspect of product design, and visceral and behavioral design simply does not offer such an intriguing topic. This passage gives many relatable examples as to how people act when buying things.

2. The terms Norman uses to describe the types of design in this chapter – visceral, behavioral, and reflective – are all pretty accurate and understandable. Visceral by definition relates to an instinctual reaction of the body. As Norman said in the opening pages, there is a certain “wow” factor to products that attracts people to them. This is a gut instinct feeling, and Norman coining this ‘visceral design’ is very appropriate. Behavioral design is also a pertinent term because this relates to primarily the function or behavior of a product. The design has to function correctly for it to even be considered for purchasing. The other factors of behavioral design that Norman discusses are understandability, usability, and physical feel. All of these aspects relate to the behavior of an object. Lastly, reflective design, perhaps the most ambiguous term, is still appropriate. The only reason for ambiguity is that readers might not first think of ‘reflective’ in the psychological sense of people thinking about how products relate to them as a person. A better term for ‘reflective design’ may be ‘personal design.’ Much of what Norman discusses as reflective design truly depends on the character of the buyer, and certain things that may have sentimental value to one person could have no meaning at all to another. Thus, ‘personal design’ may be a clearer term to use.

3. Depending on the product, a designer may need to make one of the three types of design that Norman mentions stand out more than the others. For example, there are some products that simply have such a good visceral design – the object just looks so cool and fun to play with – that a person will buy the device no matter what. Somebody may see a watch that is incredibly creative, and despite problems in its behavioral design, the visceral reaction will overcome this and lead to a purchase. Products such as household appliances generally have to have a good behavioral design. Many people do not care what a microwave looks like so long as it heats up food. A washing machine that cleans clothes is as good as it will get, so other details of visceral and reflective design do not matter as much. A consumer will not buy a household appliance that does not work, so thus the designer must focus on the behavioral design. Reflective design is a little more difficult for designers to cater to because it is on a much more personal level. However, designers could tailor products to different regions of the world. For example, the youth in China all adore American pop culture. If a designer wants to sell products in China, it would greatly help if they put pictures of Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, or any written English on all types of things such as clothing, watches, backpacks, etc. Chinese people love to show off their American pop culture paraphernalia, so reflective design is extremely important here. Most Chinese people are used to cheap quality too, so they do not expect a great behavioral design. All of the examples provided above are examples of products that emphasize one of the types of design. Designers that pay attention to how products will be use can better assess which type of design they should highlight.

"Emotional Design" by Donald Norman

1. In this chapter, Norman discusses three types of design that are meant to make products more appealing to consumers. These three types of design are visceral, behavioral, and reflective. While all three of these design types are important, they must be addressed in different ways. Visceral design deals with a much more subconscious, emotional response of the consumer. It is meant to elicit a positive initial response. Consumers may see an object and just the appearance of the object will lead them to want to make the purchase. There are many different ways that designers can create a better visceral design. This includes making things symmetrical, choosing appropriate colors, creating good odors, etc. The interesting thing about visceral design is that it is meant to take advantage of the biological predispositions of humans, so this type of design is meant to hold true for everybody. Behavioral design relates to four components listed by Norman: function, understandability, usability, and physical feel. Unlike visceral design, behavioral design is primarily interested in the actual function of the product. The product is useless if it does not perform its intended function. Designers can either enhance products or innovate them in order to improve function. Innovation is easier than enhancement because it implies creating something new to address undeclared needs of users. The understandability of a product has to do with the conceptual model, an idea previously discussed by Norman in another book. In short, products should be taught once and then the user should be able to use it forever without questions. Norman also says that products must be comfortably usable for a variety of audiences. Instructions should be provided in different languages, products should be comfortable for people of different body sizes, etc. Norman presents the idea of a “universal design.” Though difficult, he says that there is no reason it cannot be done. The last aspect of behavioral design is physical feel, and most of the characteristics of physical feel such as weight and texture fall under the broader term of “tangibility.” Products should feel nice to the hand whether it be nicely polished metal or ergonomically designed keyboards. The last type of design that Norman talks about is reflective design. This is very much intertwined with cultural norms. People want to buy products that they will look back on and be happy about the purchase. People want to show off what they have bought, so they pay attention to things like prestige, rarity of the product, etc. Norman says that designers can take advantage for this by simply increasing the price of certain things such as alcoholic beverages because people think that the more expensive something is, the nicer quality it is. Reflective design is very culturally connected because different people from different cultures value products for different reasons.

2. Norman’s writing style is very similar in both excerpts that we read. He uses a very conversational tone, which makes it easier to understand. One major difference between the two passages read is that, in the most recent passage, he provides far fewer anecdotes to illustrate his ideas. However, he still does provide examples of all the different types of design.

3. The Macbook Air definitely succeeded in having a good visceral design. The computer is extremely thin and has a nice silver color. It has a smooth, somewhat rounded casing and a lovely Apple in the middle of the back of the screen. A product with good behavioral design would be certain types of winter coats. There are many winter coats for kids that are extremely puffy, and they do not honestly look very good. However, that is irrelevant so long as it functions well and the kid does not get hypothermia. It is very easy to understand what to do with a coat and how to use it too. The coats generally feel nice and cozy too. A good example of a car with good reflective design is a Rolls Royce. An incredible amount of prestige is attached to the ownership of this car, and most people would like to tell other people that they have one.

"The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald A. Norman Part 2

1. Passage

“There are no easy answers. Whenever the number of functions and required operations exceeds the number of controls, the design becomes arbitrary, unnatural, and complicated. The same technology that simplifies life by providing more functions in each device also complicates life by making the device harder to learn, harder to use. This is the paradox of technology.

The paradox of technology should never be used as an excuse for poor design. It is true that as the number of options and capabilities of any device increases, so too must the number and complexity of the controls. But the principles of good design can make complexity manageable.”

Response

I found this passage to be interesting for several reasons. First, the opening part seems to offer a little insight into what the consumer of today has become. As technology has vastly improved in such a short amount of time, the consumer has become increasingly impatient and intolerant. As a public, we demand so much from the products we buy. Several people in the discussion touched on this point. Keaton for example said that he would sometimes get angry when the wifi at his friends house would go too slowly. “Slow” for Internet connections has come to have such a skewed meaning now. Mike was saying how he sometimes even feels bad because of how technology has made us all so impatient. Everyone is a bit guilty when it comes to this, and all of us could do well to stop complaining so much, but we just want so much out of our technological gadgets. It’s no wonder that the designers have such difficulty trying to satisfy consumers. Despite this difficulty, it is interesting that Norman says this paradox of technology cannot be used as an excuse for poor design. Even though technology that is meant to simplify life is actually complicating life because consumers want so much out of the devices, designers need to find a way to fix this. It is respectable that Norman encourages designers to not accept this understandable excuse as a reason for poor design. Instead he says, they should aim to try and make the complexity manageable, which is possible if enough time and research is spent on the design process.

2. This book has remained an influential book for a little over two decades now. This is completely understandable given that the elements of good design have neither changed nor been mastered since the publication of this book. The myriad of devices that we all listed in our discussion as examples of everyday objects that frustrate us is testament to this. The objects listed ranged from microwaves to wireless printers to calculators. Designers continue to make mistakes in the design of products, and thus there is still a need for the book. The points that Norman raises such as natural design, the importance of visibility, natural mapping, affordances, conceptual models, et cetera will always remain fundamental to good design. These are not elements that change. Even though product markets may evolve and consumer interest can change, buttons on devices still need to be visible and operating devices still need to be as intuitive as possible. Designers can always look back to this book to make sure that all the points are addressed.

3. The points that Norman makes surely help with evaluating products. There are many features that I would look for now. For example, I would look to see how visible everything is. I do not want there to be too many buttons that I have to spend five minutes looking for the right one, but I also do not want too few buttons that I cannot operate the device. It is preferable if each button has one function as opposed to five, and that each button is clearly marked. When a button is pushed, I want to have some sort of feedback that indicates the button has in fact been pressed. Overall, using the device should seem natural. On and off buttons should be placed as a corner button, and colors to the buttons are also helpful. Red is generally associated with the off button. There shouldn’t be anything that makes me think “why is this here?” If there is to be a button, it should have some use at all times. There should be nothing like the “R” button in the example provided by Norman. Despite having a checklist though, I would try to be understanding of the designer and the difficult task that he or she has in creating efficient, logical devices.

"The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald A. Norman

1. The author discusses important features of design and highlights several of the major flaws that are present in many everyday objects. He provides many, sometimes comical examples that illustrate his more conceptual points. One feature of design that he spends time discussing is visibility. All pertinent parts for operation of any given device need to be clearly marked so that the user can intuitively know what to do. The designer should use natural signals, or those that one need not even think about because they just know. For example, people always push on doors where a metal plate has been placed. The on/off button has become so standard that people always know what to look for when turning electronic devices on and off. These types of natural signals help to create a natural design, which is very easy for the consumer to use. Along with visibility is a need for visible feedback. If buttons are being pushed, the consumer needs to be able to tell what is happening and whether or not the action is even being registered. This is a major problem with many landline phones that have no electronic display. One cannot tell if he or she has dialed the correct number until somebody answers the phone saying they have the wrong number, or that annoying beeping sound turns on. Another point the author addresses is the need for a good conceptual model. There are nearly infinite amounts of ways things can be designed, but the best way for people to limit the possibilities is by being able to simulate the device in the mind. People can tell whether a design is going to fail just by thinking about the structure of the product and how it will be used. These conceptual models are key to the idea of mental models, which are formed from experience, instruction, and training. Another concept the author talks about is mapping. Mapping is the relationship between two things such as controls or buttons and their effect. The author provides the example of a steering wheel, which works by turning the wheel left to make the car go left. Mapping should make sense in order to make products easier to use. Natural mapping, as in natural design, helps consumers understand products much faster.

2. In math classes, calculators can sometimes be extremely frustrating and difficult to use. As TI has continued upgrading the calculators, they cram more and more features and functions into the same amount of space. They essentially put three keyboards on the calculator because one can toggle the 2^nd and alpha buttons to use more buttons. It is very difficult to navigate through all the menus, and things are not always clearly labeled. All of the difficulties of usability are highlighted in Norman’s article. Many functions are not clearly visible and are hiding in menus that one would not think of because there are so many menus. Norman talked about how there is a fine line between showing too little and showing too much. Showing too little tends to make it more difficult to use whereas showing too much can be overwhelming for the user. The calculator surely is overwhelming, and it is hard to understand what certain buttons and commands do. While visibility is too difficult though, mapping is quite good as every button pushed is clearly indicated in some way on the screen.

3. After reading this article, it becomes much more apparent how much thinking the Apple designers put into the iPod. They seem to have addressed all the major points Norman presents in the article. Everything on the iPod is simple to use. Just the right amount of things are visible, and it is very simple to change settings if one so desires. He or she must simply touch the “Settings” button. Along with the good mapping comes good mapping and feedback. One can easily see what happens when he or she pushes a button. Navigating the iPod makes sense too. To scroll up and down, one must move his or her finger up and down. Most young people are able to use iPod touches without difficulty because of the simple yet elegant design of the device.

"The Perfect Thing" Article Response

1. 1) In this article, a brief history is given as to the development of the iPod. Apple wanted to create a product that would allow consumers to store mass amounts of music on a small device that was easy to navigate and use. In order to design such a product, Apple had to evaluate many different prototypes. As in the article, Fadell presented three models to Steve Jobs. While he intended for the first two models to be rejected, this shows that he had to design different models to find the correct solution. The designers also had to ensure that the product would be easy to use for the consumer. For example, Apple looked at past MP3 players and noticed that there were only plus and minus buttons to go through playlists. This would be incredibly inconvenient and frustrating for the consumer if he or she were trying to scroll through thousands of songs, so Apple made sure to add the simple but logical feature of being able to go from song one to one thousand. All of these considerations that Apple took into account highlight the design process. Eventually Apple reached a solution that has been extremely successful.

2. 2) While it is difficult to ever deem something “the perfect thing,” there are many factors that ought to be taken into consideration when evaluating a product. These factors include durability, price, necessity, size, ease of use, purpose, battery life for electronics, health risks associated with the product, etc. All of these factors are important to take into consideration, but the purpose of the product seems to have the greatest impact on the rest of the factors as they revolve around why the product is needed in the first place.

3. 3) The iPod was certainly a revolutionary product when it first came out. It has just recently had a new generation released, and new features have been added yet again. The original strength of the iPod was that such a small device was able to hold so much music. People were amazed by the ability to organize and search through thousands of songs at the touch of a button in an object about the size of a deck of cards. Since the first release, it has only gotten more and more impressive with the release of the iPod touch, which added applications for everything. The myriad of applications surely is a strength of the iPod touch as few other competing products offer so many. The iPod can also do more than just music. One can store pictures, watch videos, and even access the Internet making it almost like a handheld computer. Many settings on the iPod are customizable, which is nice for the consumers. While there are many strengths to the iPod, there are also several weaknesses. For example, they are not always very durable. Many iPods cannot survive falls on tile, or at the least they start to wither away and the screen may have a faulty display then. The battery life is not always the best if one wishes to use applications, watch videos, or pretty much anything besides just listen to music. Internet connections can also be somewhat difficult to connect to, and typing is also rather difficult for beginners. In the end though, the iPod is an extremely useful product that appeals to practically all consumers.

Opening Post

My name is Sanjay Sharma, and I am from the Kalamazoo area. I spent the last semester of my senior year studying in China. It was an extremely interesting place to study as the cultures between the two countries are vastly different. In terms of my interest in the class, I would like to learn a few of the fundamentals of business. I have never really considered how the design of products affect the likelihood of the purchase. Being in China was also interesting because the Chinese look for very different things in their purchases. When they want to buy clothing, they are enthralled by anything that has English on it. The English may make no sense whatsoever, but they still buy the clothing for the sole reason that it has English. For this reason, there are people in China walking around with shirts on that say "Green, picnic, hamburger, white" and some random, artistic design. Overall, I am excited to take this class.