Organization and Preparation Tips

1)  I think that the author's most important points are knowing your audience as well as possible, the content and getting ur poit across, and having confidece. 

2)  In my presentation i will defiently focus most on getting my point across to the audience.  I don't want to be talking just to be talking and not making a point to the whole presentation.  Reynolds talks about using criticizing questions when deveolping your presentation, so I will definitly try to use that skill.  Another point that Reynolds made that I wil try to use is the idea of getting rid of anxiety before you present by knowing your material front and back.

3)  When designers go into the design process for a product, they have to think about exactly what type of people they are going to sell to so it affects how that design the product.  This is kind of like preparing a presentation because befoer you start working on your project you have to take in to account who the group of people you are presenting to in order to have a sucessful performance.

Emotional Design cont.

1)  The passage i chose was "In the best of cirumstances, the visceral reaction to appearance works so well that people take one look and say 'I wasnt it." (pg 69)  I found this passage interesting because i always find myself doing this when i see something very cool. 

2)  I think that visceral and behavioral are very useful categories, whereas not so much reflective because I am still not sure as to what it fully means.  Visceral should be changed to visual because this type of design focuses mainly on how good the product looks.  Another name for behavioral should be functional becasue this design mainly focuses on how weel the product actually does its job.  I don't know another name to use for reflective because I am still confused on what it means.

3)  A designer can decide what type of design to use by thinking about what group of people they are going to try and sell to.  Younger children may just care about how colorful a toy is, so the designer would focuses on using more of the visceral design concept.  Adults would rather have things that work efficiently, so the designer uses behavioral when creating an object.  Products definatly have more of a type of design than others because different products are intended for different purposes and people.

Emotional Design

1)  The author's main points in this chapter were basically the description of the different design strategies.  The author provides the reader with an understanding of how different objects are created for different reasons.  The strategies he talks about are visceral, behavioral, and reflective design.  Visceral design focuses mainly on the style of the object and how it looks.  Behavioral design mainly focuses on how well the object works.  Reflective design deals with the actually meaning of the product. 

2)  In both of Norman's articles, he basically talks about the design of the many everyday objects in the world.  However, each article takes a different path on the idea of desgining objects.  In The Design of Everyday Things Norman talks about how many objects have problems with their design and how they need to fix the problem.  In Emotional Design, he talks about the different stategies of how to design an object in order to appeal to different cultures.

3)  I went to a very nice resteraunt one time and ordered their specilty steak.  When they brought it out to me i was so surprised at how good it looked, but when I ate it, it did not taste as good as I thought it would.  The creative presentation of the food demonstrates an example of visceral design because it was very appealing to the eye but didn't quite get the job done.  An example of behavioral could be a calculator because even though they are not the best stylish thing it still does its job very well.  An example of reflective design could be an iPod because of how high the reputaion that apple has.  No other company can really compare with apple and thus factors into the consumer's mind. 

the design of everyday cont.

1)"There are an amazing number o everyday things, perhaps twenty thousand of them." (pg 11)  This passage really stuck out to me because it is amazing to think about how there are so many objects in the world.  I dont think i have used anywhere close to a quarter of that number. 

2)  Even though Norman's book was published about 20 years ago, it still has contiued to be influential because designers have still contiued their habits of designing objects with many errors that limit the useability of the object.  After all these years it would seem that the designers would do something to fix this problem, but no they continue to make objects more difficult than they should be.

3)  On my checklist i would include factors such as durability, style, price, and easy use.  Most important is price because i would not even consider looking at an object if it is too overpriced.  Next is the object better be able to last for a long period of time so i am able to use it often.  An object should also need to be easily used or else the object is a waste since it can not be used properly without confusion.  The least important but still a good quality is style.  I think that an object should be pleasing to look at.

the design of everyday things

1)  I feel the main point that Norman touched on in the article was about how simple objects are designed too complex or just too poorly to be operated properly.  The author stresses that simple everyday objects don't need to be made complicated but simple enough so everyone can use it without confusion.  Another point the author makes is that sometimes objects are given with complicated directions that are almost impossible to read.

2)  An object that i have had trouble using before was a microwave that my mom had purchased one time.  The main problem i had with it, was i couldn't figure out how to open it.  The way the microwave was designed, made it look like there was no button or handle to use to actually open it.  The designers should have just labeled the open button or handle so it was much easier to figure out.

3)  It seems as though the designers of the iPod read Norman's article before actually designing their product because it adresses all the problems he talked about.  The designers were able to create an object that was both stylish and simple to use.   This was exactly what Norman wanted because he was tired of not being able to use products because of designer flaws.

the perfict thing

1)  The article clearly demonstartes the trial and error part of the design process, becasue the designers of the new iPod had to try any different ideas before they could find the perfect design.  This process resulted in numerous failures, in which they had to evaluate and evetually come up with a better solution.

2)  To evaluate a "perfect thing", i would use the factor of how efficient it is and how helpful it will be to the comunity.  Also, i would look at the style and see if it is appealing to all cultures.

3)  I feel that the strengths of the product are that it has the ability to hold a numerous amount of songs and gives the user the ability to scroll through all these songs with ease.  The only weakness i have is that you are not able to transfer music from your ipod onto the computer.

hey

Hey guys im cam lafayette, im in the design intelligence seminar at k college.  I am from troy, mi and went to troy high school but grew up in st. louis, mo for a majority of my life.  At kzoo i am planning to major in computer science and also i am playing football at kzoo.  From the class i hope to gain a new perspective on how various things are designed, as well as improve my writing skills.