Another tuesday comes and goes…

TED TALKS TUESDAYS!

Tuesday’s always bring a fresh TED talk featuring interesting “ideas worth spreading”. This week’s TED talk, featuring Seth Godin, was especially applicable. Godin spent a large majority of his “talk” being our tour guide to “broken things” and making them unbroken. He pointed out humorous and often poorly designed public service announcements and warning signs. He also points out seven reasons that he believes the designs don’t work. I liked his third point which was that the design could be broken because things changed in between the time it was designed and the time the design got used. Our world (particularly where technology is concerned!) is fast paced and it can be a struggle to keep up. Designs should be made to last. Godin’s energy and enthusiasm was refreshing and I found myself wishing his talk was a bit longer – which would have also given him time to explain more fixes for broken things. In my google searching, I found that on Seth’s Blog he wrote,

“I did this talk about three years ago. I have to admit that very little in the way of progress has occurred.”

Well, I suppose it might finally be time to change this.

This TED talk was worth the second viewing and I would highly suggest that if you liked it the first time, you give it a second go. His list of seven reasons why the designs don’t work are good to remember.

Additionally, the website that Seth Godin mentions gives even more examples of poor design. Ironically, the design of the website isn’t totally appealing and comes off a bit boring.

 

However, I do recommend the content for its entertainment value as well as more of Godin’s unique talking/writing style. In viewing this website, I also realized that it functions much like the journaling work we’ve been doing with designs that are working and not working. For example, one person wrote in to criticize the design of the Chevy Impala’s AC design.

“At night, this is very readable and easy to see.  However, during the day, the blue LED is very hard to find in all the chrome reflections – it takes a concentrated effort to tell where the dial is pointed.” – Doug Shaefer

ARE YOU INDISPENSIBLE?

I also looked a bit further into Seth Godin’s work and found that he wrote a book called “Linchpin: Are you Indispensable?”

The description of the book says that it is more than a how-to, but rather that it pushes you to see things differently and make changes. Godin said about this book:

“a linchpin is the essential element, the person who holds part of the operation together. Without the linchpin, the thing falls apart.”

Not so surprisingly, this got me thinking about the UX Design Team Projects that we are currently working on. I don’t mean to get sappy or sentimental, but I think it is important to remind ourselves that we are each a linchpin in this project. Each one of us has a distinct role in the assignment and we are not as interchangeable as we may seem. Group projects can often be stressful and cause us to crave a temporary coma allowing us a grace period in which we don’t have to complete the assignment and can leave our group members to do it. That being said, the group presentations this week of the work done so far showed some excellent ideas and a really interesting dynamic in each group that I’m excited to keep up with.

 

IN CLOSING

Phase two of our UX Design Team project is upon us which means task flows, wireframes, and design brainstorming are all due. Thank goodness we already know how to do these things. Good luck to everyone !

Our second class.

Hello Principles of Usability students!

Our second class of the semester was a success.

To review: we took our quiz on the first few reading chapters (I am happy to report that we all did fairly well on these!), we shared the contents of our binders (an item that we would like to alter and make better), we shared our task flows, and we used class time to  work on the upcoming assignment for the Visual Cookbook iPad App.

Honestly, I wasn’t even sure what an iPad app looks like! However, our class did a bit of googling and came up with some great answers.

This image is from the Wall Street Journal website and it shows the iPad App for the Wall Street Journal. I like this example because it is cleanly designed with a nice level off professionalism while still remaining creatively interactive. Apps for iPads seem to be very interactive and informative. This is an important thing to note as we prepare to design our Visual Cookbook apps.

Looking at each others task flow charts was one of the most interesting parts of class.

^ This is a scanned image of my own task flow chart for making tea in a coffee pot.

We will be using these task flow charts to create our Visual Cookbook iPad apps. In the post from Liina below, there is an excellent link to an iPad app design template. I took a look at some of the feedback and it sounds like a great thing to download! If you’re feeling adventurous, you should try it!

^ the image above comes this website.

Personas: are an important part of user-centered design. A persona answers viewers questions, gives you more credibility, and can make you more or less appealing. The smallest little thing (see the image below!) can make you loose or gain credibility.

^ the link above comes from grokdotcom.com

T H E   A S S I G N M E N T

For next class we need to create three personas showing the different demographics for your app. Who are you targeting?

It is a good idea to document all of your research!

Next, we need to build three sets of wireframes for the pages of our app. This should include three versions of the homepage, three versions of the categories, and three versions of your recipe pages.

All of these can be sketches at this point but we’ll also need to create visual examples in Illustrator or inDesign.

And finally,

This scanned image from my notes reminds us …  “No over-complication. Simple is fine.”

this is a blog post about maria cameron

Oh, hello!

My name is Maria Cameron and I am 19 years old.

I hail from Rochester, MN… just an hour and a half away. Which is pretty nice.

I am currently located in the computer lab of CVA. But, generally, I reside within the Summit-Hill area of Saint Paul, MN. I love it here.

My story leading to art school is not very exciting. BUT, I’ve always had a passion for art – whether it be performance, visual, digital, or informational – and knew I needed to go to school for something art related. I’m currently here for Graphic Design and I have a love and appreciation for info design and an intense interest in communication.

My top three online activities – It begins with tumblr. Then I venture over to flickr. And finally, inevitably, facebook.

Luckily, my offline activities make up for all of these. I’m an avid biker – weather permitted (and sometimes not!). I also appreciate a really good book. And I’m a traveler. Ok, wistful traveler. I haven’t quite had the chance to go that far yet.

Useful objects that I interacted with today include – my best friends, my front door, and my favorite number two pencil.

Until next time,

Maria Cameron