I think that I may go into marketing or advertising so I think that this class had been very helpful and beneficial to me. This class had been great and I have learned so much thanks chuck.

I would tell first year students to not get behind start your work early and try and have a fun time.

I would tell some one who is going to be in this class the same thing try and stay on top of things.

First Thesis
The game room gives kids the opportunity to have fun and relax, while adding to the total positive vibe of our college.

I will address the constraints of money and space. Because if I want to remodel anything or expand the premises. I will also have to deal with the already created structures. The trigger points for them game room are the games and the comfort in general.

5 Readings
Product Services and Branding
The Third Place
The Design of Everyday things
Emotional Design
The Ten faces of Innovation.

I observed the game room at 3 pm on Saturday. Walking into the room I was greeted with the sound of old music and a blaring football game. Their were a lot people in there and it was such a jumble of noises. there are nice sofas and chairs by the entrance and bar stools along the right hand wall. Their were 15 people in the game room when I entered. The floor is a soft tile so it does not break from the dropping of billiard balls. The game room projects a feeling of fun and excitement. It is filled with pool tables, a ping pong table a wide screen TV and a jute box. It is a open social room that does a lot for the college. It gives students a fun exciting place to hang out and chill out.

Design affects marketing in many ways. Design of a product or experience should give away the meaning of it. The marketing is based on what the company wants their product to appear as or be like. So what the product looks like determines how they are going to market the product. One of the most important parts of market is the brand name. It tells you all you need to know about a product. When I see the apple icon on a product I automatically trust that product and know that it is backed by their seal of approval and warranty.

In this article he even discuses the idea of experience like in our previous article. Marketing is an experience, for the most part, you are marketed to in advertisements and thing all around you. So you could say that the marketing and experience is going on all around you constantly if you are in a modern place.

The brand K represents uniqueness, love, community, quality high education and respect. That is what I think the colleges marketing scheme is. The design of k is small and quaint this enforces most of these ideas. They also claim to be diverse which adds to the respect. The college has brick buildings and brick roads which adds to high quality of education.

Know the most important thing for your clients and give them they have not seen before. Make your product or place with your client in mind and try and solve all the problems they may run into. Clients do not always think of all the steps that are involved in the “journey” or trip of purchase. Make sure that the experience that they have is special to them and fulfils their needs and desires.

I think that experiences and products are very similar and yet different at the same time. Experiences are important because they are tied in with buying the product, but the product is also crucial to the experience. The experience is more important than the actual product. If you provide a good experience customer are more likely to return even if the product is not the best. Customer are not going to come back if they have a bad experience though. Both of these ideas take into account what they consumer is looking for.

I would take the class out to a movie at the rave. We could all get tickets and enjoy a good show. We would also have enough left over to purchase some snacks to share and enjoy. I feel like this experience would be great.

The third place is a small place where people can gather, be social and feel included. It is a place where no one is better than anyone else. It is a place to exchange ideas and feelings. It is a place that provides a level of comfort that can be found no where else.

I think what makes an important third place is that it is a small place that provides a feeling of comfort and safety. It is also cozy, warm and inviting. It attracts people who want to talk and express their feeling and opinions. It is a place to learn and teach.

I think that a good third place on campus could be the game room. They would need to add more setting first off. Another thing that would make it better would be if they combined the game room with the café next door. This would make it so people could have a multitude activities and options.

One point that I thought was important was that highly used plazas have a higher portion of women. So this mean that a designer needs to take this into account. People are also attracted to other people so designers should take this into account and put their plazas in a popular position. Another good point was that people are not going to go out of their way to get to a place. It has to have a good central location as well. The plaza also had to be viscerally appealing.
The design of urban spaces take more into account the behavioral design. They focus on what the structures do, rather that how they look, even though this is still and important part. They need people to come to the place that they have created ,so they need it to be appealing psychologically. They want people to not have any concerns when they enter a plaza or park. Product are all about how they packaging or outside material make the person feel but in a different sense. They want them to be attracted to their product for a profit not just to attract them to a space.
List for public place
Is easy to access
Provides comfort
Has places to rest
Attracts women more than men (because the men will fallow)
Is in central location.

I was impressed over all with the down town business area. It had good reflective design with all the reflective windows. Towards the outskirts of the down town it was not so nice though, I saw many bums and drifters. The police station is down town which gives people a sense of security. The side walk were very nice except some of the patterns were in the shape of X’s which I found very unappealing. The of the rest of the walks were good though, they were not too distracting. They had simple trees and flower decorations. The down town had a pleasant arrangement of stores, but they were mostly oriented towards women shoppers. In the business section there were mostly restaurant besides the offices. I assume this is so the business men and women have easy access to food while at work.

First they should make the whole down town have the same stile side walks to make it uniform. Then they could take out some of the benches that attract loiterers. They should also add some store that would make down town more appealing to men so they can broaden their audience.

“Those handsome groupings of benches and tables? They seem inviting until Gibbs points out that they often attract teenagers and other loiterers, who scare off shoppers. “
This point was made very clear to me on our trip down town I saw so many bums just loitering in benches. Also myself as a teen I sat in some as well and probably added to the general fight of other shoppers. But I never really though a down town other than mine. In my down town we do not have bums; so only teens hang out in the down town and they are not really threatening. But this idea of being scared of is real though and I could see how it would detract from sales.

Gibbs Points for a Main Street

Don’t distract people with flowers and fancy trees.
Don’t attract loiterers with lots of benches.
Don’t put in expensive thing that will go out of style or that are not easy to maintain.
See street as commercial space.
Clean side walk don’t want people to think that there is crime
Make thing with enough space so they can be easily maneuvered around.
Good security and lighting.
don’t make your mall a left turn mall and put in turn in road that allow people to view the store fronts more.
No restaurant next to clothing stores.
Store in right direction for the sun.
Restaurants can be more hidden but retail need to be more in prime location.
Promote a life style.
Large displays means cheap where small displays equals expensive.
Make sure people know when they are in down town.
Need a lot of shopping space to be a destination


I don’t think that Main Street should become a mall. I grew up in a small town and which has a beautiful Main Street. It is not the most busy place, but all the stores are surviving happily. Gibbs want to destroy the wonderful down town that I grew up in. I like the fact that our down town is not overly crowded, and that as a teenager I had some were to go with my friends. My favorite part is our park which Gibbs discourages because it take away attention to business. I don’t think that a down town is all based on business. It is based on a community and family.

My points for a Main Street
Have a nice but not extravagant walk space and foliage .
Have local food and shopping that is privately owned.
Have a park near by that is nice for children through adults.
Have well lit streets that are routinely patrolled by police.
Promote a home town feel, whatever it may be .
Good weather protection, like awnings.
Convenient parking .

The store I chose was McDonalds. I think that they have a wide market audience. First, little children love them, but they also appeal to adults and teens who want some cheap fast food. The store has a very warming feeling it has a red roof with gold and white trim. The door is a glass with aluminum trim. It also has a patio out front that is surrounded by a brown fence. They also have their huge iconic sign out front that is know all around the would. when entering the store you are greeted with the sounds of grilling food and humming of their workers. All their meals and items are displayed right over the cashier. They are in bright color with picture of how everyone wish their food came out of the back. The floor is tile which is easy to clean incase of an emergency.
The store tries to portray the idea of a sit down restaurant. They have booths all along the sides of the store. they try to give the idea that their food is inexpensive by promoting the dollar menu. They also seem to want to be a family place with all they toys for the kids and some have the play houses. When have gone into a McDonalds before I had never really notice how quite the customers are. The only thing that they talk about are what they are going to get. There is no much social interaction between people at all. They get their food, then sit to have a very quite conversation between large bites. This was also they part that I found interesting. This is because McDonalds is supposed to be a family dinning place yet the families really don’t speak to each other, defeating the purpose. The other thing I found was that it was a self refill on drinks that is right by the door.

shopping

This article contains many good points that are very interesting. First the store should take into account who their customer is, if they are male, female or both. Then they can arrange their store, and how their sales people act, accordingly. Next they need to think about the fact that people go to places just because other people do, so popularity is important. Then there is the Decompression Zone where people adjust to the store when they first enter. They also have the tendency to look from left to right to get an impression of there surroundings as they enter. Stores should put good anchor products to the right of the entrance. Also the store should be designed so that it is easy to walk around and affords the customer enough space. Stores should also put high demand items in the rear of their store so the customer has to dive all the way in to get what they want. Stores want their customers to stay in the store as long as possible.
I feel that I have been unconsciously effected by store designs my entire life. I think that most of the ideas that I have discussed above have effected my shopping and purchasing. Lots of people don’t think that they are being manipulated while shopping. We as a society may have figured out some of their tricks; but even if we have, our mind allows those tricks to trick us still. It is just a common practice to manipulate your customer and the better you do so the more successful you can become.
Analyze points
Organization of the store
If it is appropriate for its audience (male/female)
Does it draw the customer in
Does it keep the customer occupied
Does it have a great decompression zone

The Iconic

The packaging of a product is crucial to its profitability and emotional feel. The packaging is the first thing that some one notices when they look at a product. When first looking at a product, we always make snap judgments based on its design. The product is either appealing or not. The other key part in design is if it is involved in its function. Many products incorporate use into their design, for instance the Coca-Cola can opens at the top, which allows us to drink the product inside. If a product has appealing design that’s has great usability it could be a great product.
Any big product in today’s society has iconic packaging. The monster bottle is a black can with an M that looks like a beast scratched it out of the can. It is very bold but simple and give you the feeling that you are going to be given mass amounts of energy. Another iconic product design is the Macintosh apple design. It stand for the finest in computer and MP3 products. Any fast food chain or cereal product had its own mascot that symbolizes the product. If a product wants to be timeless it must have a design that can be changed but still maintains it basic loveable appeal.
Design is often incorporated with use ability. A cereal box it is made to show off the product plus to be able to re-close for later use. It also is made so the product can be pored right out the top with ease. Pop can have the tab at the top that allows the can to be opened. Some times it is very hard to open the can it you do not poses long finger nails though. You also have to be careful when opening the can so as to not cut yourself on the open metal edge.

This reading is all about the user and their needs. Websites should be geared towards their user first; then if it does not prevent the user purpose they can add their own needs. The article conveys the message that web sites should be simple unless the site has “heroin content” , which means that its material is so enthralling that it does not matter how awful the site is. This shows how naturally people will put up with bad design just because they like the information or product. Mostly this article describes how important it is to have behavioral design; how websites should be simple and easy to navigate.

The most important point in this article is that a web site should be easy to navigate. I have always had a problem finding my way around more complicated or poorly designed sites. I did not get a computer till I was older, but that is not an excuse for web pages to be hard to maneuver. I think that web site designer should be more concerned with making the website easy for the user.
A list of important points in web design.
-Ease of navigation
-Visually appealing but not distracting
-Provides me with what I was searching for
-Has interesting and well written content
-Does not have huge endless pages

The main parts in this article where hard to derive at first; then they became evident. It talks about how Wikipedia is almost like a community and I agree. It has a hierarchy along with rules and regulators. They also discuss the lead up in history of encyclopedias. Another of its main points is that peoples knowledge is more concise when pooled together, but at the same time it is very difficult to get some people to agree. This article also bring up the point that anything man made is bound to have flaws and corruption. People will change articles on themselves to make themselves seem more appealing. People will also change other peoples articles as jokes or out of dislike. This bring up another point that people naturally like to play joke or mess around with others. Overall we are shown a lot about human nature and they way we work together.

I thought this part of the article was humorous and help prove a great point. “Even Wales has been caught airbrushing his Wikipedia entry--- eighteen times in the past year.” I thought this was just great it shows exactly why a human run organization can’t be flawless. Even the creator is driven by its own wants and desires and throws away the care for the absolute truth.

I think that ease of use is very important in a encyclopedia. So i would compare how difficult it was to visually direct yourself while using it. They are made of different things, Wikipedia is online it has no actual presents while Britannica is in volumes of books. This give Britannica a very reflective look. Viscerally Britannica also is better it is a bright red. We also have think how the content was created. Wikipedia was created by many people, which brings up the problem of arguments and the fact that any one can publish something. While Britannica was created by a few scholars so it could be subject to unchanged bias and opinion. Then there is the fact that Wikipedia is free and I am sure that they are not giving out free 32 volume
Britannicas.

Simplicity V.S Complexity

I think that simplicity and complexity are part of most of the emotional design elements, however I think that some lead more towards one or the other. Visceral design is more appealing if it is simple. Visceral is our tendency to like certain thing because they a re biologically appealing. I feel that simplicity is one important part in our biological world for the most part. We like simple shapes and colors. We also like more complicated colors as well, along with the fact that some things are very complicated in our biological world. Behavioral is the only one that is literally one sided. The point of this type of design is to be easily understood; so it would be contradictory to make it complicated. I think that reflective designs can be either complicated or simple. Their could be a very nice chair that is one piece of metal that is reflective or a lazy boy with a million different positions.

“I think that complexity can only be justified on something that can do many different things, such as a computer.” -Ted

“Complexity is justified when extra features are included.”- Ronnie

I Pick these quotes because I disagree with both of them. They help me prove my point because I feel they show how the majority of the world view design. I personally think that we should not have to deal with bad designs. It is not a justification for something to be complicated just because it can perform many different things. We should be able to design even the most complicated ideas with simplicity. Also just because it has extra features does not give a design the right to be complicated either. I hope to live I a world were people don't accept poorly designed products.

It is a very difficult task to think of a product that is bought for the purpose of being complicated. My family tries to keep things simple but some of the art that we purchase is very detailed. It is even challenging to take in one of our pieces with a thorough investigation. We have a piece with a rooster on it that was created from all these colors and lines and shapes. So the rooster is not the important part it is a cover up the real art is how it is created by all the shapes and colors.
Complex products are only good when that is what the user is looking for. Most of the time they are inappropriate and frustrating for the user. Some users my take pride in the fact that their product is complicated and they are still able to operated it. I think the majority of the time simplicity is the way to go. It is easy to understand and operate. It is especially important when the product does crucial functions that need to be easily understood.
“A few summers ago, I was going on a three week long trip to Europe. The trip took me to France, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland. In order to document my vacation, my parents invested in a new digital camera for the family...It was the newest Kodak, complete with a special zoom and a bunch of other state-of-the-art features that I didn't understand. There were five buttons down the side, two buttons for zooming (in and out), and a cursor with four directions. I was unable to take full advantage of these features because the menus were seemingly impossible to navigate. They used terminology I did not understand, cued different images to appear on the screen that I did not know how to use, and made the camera far more intense than what was necessary. Visibility was great until you went into the menus, which I did not know how to navigate.” I like this quote from Brittney because I can really relate to her problem. For my seventeenth birthday I wanted a camera so my parents went with me to buy one. We went to Best Buy and Circuit City to compare prices. We ended up going to Circuit City and I bought a Sony camera. When we arrived home I took it out of the box. I was looking forward to being able to take artsy pictures, but all I could figure out was how to use the automatic function. This was a big disappointment for me. I wish that they had made the camera more user-friendly but that was not the case. I should have taken it back but I did not it had now become the family point and shoot camera.

I found a quote that Normand included in his chapter to be very shocking. “The brilliant conceptual artists Vitally Komar and Alex Melamid conducted surveys asking people questions like, what’s your favorite color? Do you prefer landscapes to portraits? Then they produced exhibitions of perfectly “user-centered art.” The results were profoundly disturbing. The works were completely lacking in innovation of finesse of craftsmanship, disliked even by the very same survey respondents.” I thought this was very interesting because it shows how people think they know what they want but in reality they don’t. It lets us know that people are naturally fickle and indecisive. I never grasped this concept to the degree that I have after reading this article. It made me think of all the times that I changed my mind after having thought it was made up.
I think that Normand could have used a more descriptive word instead of visceral but I feel the other categories are very easy to interpret. Reflective makes sense because it is how people want to be seen like an image or reflection. When I think about behavioral it brings to mind how something performs. I think that Normand should have used biological taste instead of visceral this would have been more simple and understandable.
If a designers need to know what type of design to make their product they need to take certain things into consideration. First they need to know which kind of person they are trying to sell to. If they are trying to appeal to a richer crowd they could make the product reflective. Then they need to think what would apply to the product that they are going to create. If they are going to make a glue stick it would be ridiculous to make it reflective it is obviously behavioral or visceral.

There are three main points that are made by Norman in this chapter. The first has to do with mostly our underlying biological preferences. It is the concept of visceral design. It has been determined by the evolutionary process. As humans we are attracted to certain thing naturally, such as bright colors, smooth designs and physical appeal. We are programmed to view these things as attractive. The second way of looking at designs relies only on the items usefulness, which is the concept of behavioral design. This idea goes back to our previous reading. The design relies on some of the old concepts of affordance, conceptual models and feedback. These are important because the main point of behavioral design is its function which all of the prior ideas have a role in. This new chapter of Normand is just an expanded way of looking at design. The final type of design is reflective. This idea plays on peoples cultural views. It tells us what we find elegant.
As I sit at my computer, I glance around my room scanning for objects that will fit into these three categories. The first thing that I see I immediately think visceral. It is a very bright colored Faygo pop can. The can is vibrant yellow and green with large bubbly lettering. On the sides of the can it displays words like genuine, twist and has a lemon lime picture. The next thing that I see is my large coffee cup. It is just purely behavioral, with it plain design and color. It is larger than normal coffee cups which affords me to be able to drink more coffee. This cup is very practical but neither elegant nor desirable. I am having a very hard time at first thinking of something in my room that qualifies as reflective. Then I glance at my shoes and see my pair of pumas. I am a skateboarder so what use would I have for a pair of pumas? Let me tell you none really the only reason I bought them was because I considered them to be fashionable. I was with my friend visiting Chicago and we saw them in a store. I did not perceive them to be a reflective item until now. I realize though that the sole reason for my purchase was for the compliments and style that the pumas provided.

“What is good about the design of the ca? Things are visible. There are good mapping, natural relationships, between the controls and the things controlled. Singe controls often have single functions. There is good feedback. The system is understandable. In general, the relationships among user’s intentions, require actions, and the results are sensible nonarbitrary, and meaningful.”I thought the article had a lot of interesting information for a couple reasons. The Initial reason is that it is proof that designers can come up with a device that can make sense to lots of people. It can have a obscene amount of different controls and options but the average person can grasp its controls. I also like how it makes me think about the concept of mapping. When you are driving a car that is all you are doing the whole time. You are using instruments together, such as the gas, brake, steering wheel and all the other controls. The first thing I do when I get in a car is start it. This requires me to push down the clutch and turn the key at the same time, the definition of mapping. Overall I thought that this article was interesting and informative.
Even though this book was written so long ago (ha-ha only 20 years) it has ideas that like Ford’s assembly line will always be influential. The ideas are so basic and important for the design of everything. Visual clues are an aspect of objects and devices throughout time. If a person can’t recognize how to perform a certain action or know how to use mapping between two different actions; then the device they are using is actually useless.
If I were to make a check list for evaluating the design of a product the first thing I question I would ask are all the commands easily seen and understandable. Then I would ask, do all the action give feedback; so that the user knows what they have done. Then I would want to know is the purpose of the device clear. Finally I would want to know if it is obvious what limitations the device has as well.

Feedback

The first chapter of this book has multiple key points that it discusses. It talks about the importance of visibility. It shows that it is very important to make clear to the user where the functions they wish to use are located. If the person is having trouble locating a function, then it is not an efficient product. The next important principle is mapping, which shows the relationship between two things. It is a problem when a user can’t figure out how to use two applications together for a purpose. Another idea is affordance; this shows that the object can be used for its purpose. If the user does not know what the object is used for the designer did not do his job at all. There is also the concept of feedback. This is a reassurance that the task requested has been done, signified by a signal on the object. If they are given no feedback then they cannot be certain that what they have set out to do has been accomplished. Also talked about is the conceptual model which is meant to predict what their action will come out to be. Finally there are constraints that tell the user what they are limited to do with the object.
The object I have the most difficulty using is other peoples TV remotes. They are always so complex with a lot of different buttons and options. Of course nobody I know has the same one either. They are always so visually clustered, that it is hard to find the button that I am looking for. It is also hard sometimes even when I do locate the right button, to then find the next one that I need. This would be a flaw in the mapping of the TV. Sometimes people even have two remotes, which makes me feel like sitting down and bawling my eyes out.
The iPod addressed some of these main problems that Norman talks about. The visual aids are awesome. Every button makes sense, the menu button goes back towards the main menu, the center button selects, the seek buttons are arrange so the user knows the direction that they lead to. It is a very straight forward object. It has great feedback because it is shown on the screen were you have gone. It has great mapping as well. It is easy to use multiple buttons in a combination to do any of the functions you wish.

The iPod

In the article “The Perfect Thing” the creators behind the iPod came together to solve many of the problems that where preventing the success of the MP3 player. They took the obstacles head on. First they sought out a way to give the iPod more memory than all other devices on the market. They found a hard drive that was 5 gigabits and was incredibly small. They also wanted this product to be about pocket size so that it would be easily transportable, yet still have a lot of song capacity. The battery for the iPod would have to have a much longer life span in order to make it practical. They also wanted the iPod to be an appropriate weight to have a little substance. the design that they came up with looked like a little box with a screen at the top with the command buttons bellow this. The real key innovation of this product was the scroll wheel; it aloud the user to scroll through artists, albums and songs at their own speed and ease. The wheel enabled consumers to find a song out of 1000 different options very quickly. The creators where also very set on making this product durable. They tested this product to make sure it would stay durable for its owners. Even though people were amazed by his product it is not perfect.
A thing may be amazing, or beautiful, or efficient but it can never be perfect. If given the opportunity to think of new addition for a product or thing there will always be new ideas. This is shown in the industry which is always coming out with new version of the iPod that my look different or have more functions. So I really don’t think that anything in this world is absolutely perfect because being perfect is subject to point of view. Some things that people consider when they think about their own view of perfection maybe elegance, strength, color, size, shape. But every person has their own thing or things that they look for.
I think that the iPod is a great music player. It provides a quick easy way to find any song, even out of a large collection. It has excellent battery life if you do not watch movies. It also has many great new setting like, on the Touch you can access the internet or with the iphone you can take pictures or run computer programs. Apple’s product has come so far sense its original version and I am sure it will keep innovating. Some of its weaknesses are that it concentrates on being good at so many things that some of its new or old additions may be compromised. Its battery life while watching movies is not sufficient either. Over all I think the iPod and the rest of its family members are amazing products and I am heavily anticipating their next upgrade or creation. But yet they will always still come out with these upgrades because they will never be able to reach that perfect product that everyone agrees on.