Week 03 - Origination

Class Format

Beginning again with a review of last week and a reading quiz based on chapter 2 of 'The Laws of Simplicity'. We then moved through a thinking game and further collaborative work on last weeks group exercise of idea generation for the exhibition at the end of the year.

 

Group Exercise

Reading Quiz

• What does the acronym SLIP mean according to Maeda?
  - It is an organisational process.
• Define each character of the acronym, S L I P in one sentence
  - Sort individual elements into groups, Label these groups, Integrate the relative characteristics of the groups and Prioritise the importance of each group.
• What does Maeda say is only a pinkie away?
  - The tab key.
• Why is this important to us as designers?
  - To create tabular data sets which make them easier to quickly comprehend.
• What are the principles of gestalt psychological theory?
  - To make identifications based on similarities or groupings.
• Where might one find the aesthetics of blur?
  - 'The aesthetics of blur are common in the history of art...' Maeda uses a broad brush here although he does also give an industrial design example with the controls evolution of the iPod.
• Why is blur important in interactive design?
  - By blurring the distinction between similar sets of information understanding is aided by simplification through collation.
• Why do good designers squint when they look at something?
  - To gain an overall perspective.

 

Thinking Game – Perspectives

In the below exercise adopt 4 different perspectives and describe 4 different interpretations of each of the following non-verbal communications. Write the results directly into your blog.

1. A person nods his/her head up and down
   - An affirmation, an admission, a concession and an agreement.
2. A person’s lower lip trembles slightly
   - Disappointment, shock, sarcasm and remorse.
3. A person smiles slightly
   - Agreement, amusement, sarcasm, time to get sexy.
4. A person yawns
   - Boredom, fatigue, reciprocal and sarcasm.
5. A person shrugs his/her shoulders
   - Confusion, misapprehension, defensiveness and disinterest.
6. A person inhales quickly
   - Anger, disbelief, shock and panic.

The purpose of this exercise was to gain an understanding of how differing perspectives can affect our design choices. Differing economic, cultural, social, political, etcetera circumstances render possible perspectives infinite. The designer is then tasked with defining the perspective from which to create before beginning to do so. This is important as it simplifies the given task by providing perspectival parameters.

 

Research

Video

John Maeda about his transition from making tofu to design on youtube. He pretty much gives a synopsis of his entire career. Inflection at the end of sentences bugs me. I am not sure where I read this, but in psychological terms it is generally considered as a sign of insincerity or insecurity. I just had another look at the video and it is not exactly that he inflects his sentences, more his general vocal pitch which bugs me. This is of course an extremely critical view, he perhaps would not bug me so much if I were in a different mood. I did like his his view on his first computing experience as it was similar to my own, although this was with a commodore 64.

 

Images

Mock up images for last weeks group exercise where we came up with fabric covers for bicycle helmets. My image sources can be found here and here. It of course turns out that this not a new idea, there are various helmet covers available primarily designed it seems to shield the weather. Our groups intention is to develop this further with unique designs like the brain and circuitry to the top and left.

Reflection

The class today demonstrated how how perspectival differences can effect design choices. This is an an important consideration for two reasons. The first being to consider from where we are designing and the second being to consider to whom we are designing. Basically, think about what you are creating in terms of its origin and its destination.
The Meada reading was concerned with with the principle of time as it relates to achieving simplicity. To illustrate his points he returned to the acronym he coined in the first law of reduce. Shrink, hide or embody time. As always it was a comfortable read with easily digestible opinions.