Week 03 Blog Assignment

Very nice posts so far! But are you reading your peer's posts too? It would be nice if you left some people your comments on what they wrote; hopefully someone will do the same for you too. You don't have to read everyone's post — just a couple each week and maybe leave a response to one of them.

By now you should have read Chapter 2 of the book Designing the Obvious (if you haven't, do so now!). Hoekman says something very provocative in this chapter: "...most companies suffer not from a lack of talent or skill or passion or ambition, but a lack of vision. And most of the time, this is the cause of all their other problems." It's as if people are playing the whole game of HCI design without understanding why they are playing the game. For every business, the answer has to be more than "to make money." Simply put, we need to start with why, not what. Listen to Simon Sinek's TED talk (even if just for the first 8 minutes):

http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

"What is a thing. Why is a belief."

So return to the product you pointed to in your second blog post. Tell us again what it is and show us an image of it, along with its link.

Although you were not a part of the design team, try to infer what you believe to be the motivation for the application or feature. Talk about the why, not the what.

(If you'd like to change to a different example, that's fine too.)

2 - Kyle Baker

Using these criteria, find a web site (or app), or a part of a web site (or app), that you might consider to be obvious design. Your task is this:

URL: http://imgur.com
The website is called imgur.com. It is an image hosting site which people can post picture to. I find this is a obvious design because it displays pictures that people post and is much like reddit. Reddit has what is called a front page. In both reddit and imgur, people can upvote or downvote a post. when an image or post gets upvoted, it moves up the ranks. On the front page, the most upvoted posts during a certain time are shown, such as the day, month, year, or all time. This makes it easy for people to view images/posts that other people enjoy. It also has a viral search parameter that shows the most viral images/posts of the day. you can easily change different parameters, such as times that votes are tallied. It also allows people to view pictures that are being uploaded in real-time. This is an obvious design for an image sharing site because it allows the best pictures to be shown to the widest amount of people. It also has easy navigation, it uses the keyboard's arrow keys to change pictures, and the number pad to vote on images.

2- Brad Van Galen

Hey guys, the app that I chose is called Gas Buddy.  The app is extremely simple to use and does exactly what it is suppose to do.  It's very straightforward and leaves no room to confuse the user.  It is very bare except what is needed to make the app run.  You can either find gas near you by clicking the button or search by city or zip code.  Then once you are in the area where you want to find gas you can either sort by the shortest distance or by cheapest price.  There is no sign up and it allows you to quickly and effortlessly find gas wherever you want.  It is a very clean design and there is no surprises when using this app.  I feel like this is one of the most obvious apps I have ever used.

2 - Alexander Young

I Chose the app Any Do because I think it is a very simple and easy to use app that exemplifies the use of obvious design. How it works is it you input things you need to do in the future and it will keep track and let you know what is due. I think the app is very slick and makes keeping track of homework, tests, doctors appointments, girlfriends birthday, extremely easy. I think Any do app is much better than most calender functions that come standard on phones/computers.

2 - Rachael Smith

The website that I have chosen is SB Nation. This website is for sports fans that want the news on everything sports. Everything is very easy to read on their website and is very self explanatory. It allows the user to, "... get what they need and move on." (Hoekman 7) From the Homepage the user is able to click on the featured stories for that day that are general sports stories. They can also clearly see all of the different sports at the top of the page that enables them to click on a specific sport to see news about. Also, within that bar there are drop down menus for each sport that allow users to pick specific teams are events depending on the sport. Those teams are also sorted by conference to make it even easier for the user to find what they are looking for.

This site is very straight forward for any user. Everything is very easy to read and easy to find. The user is able to quickly get news for exactly what they want. It is a very self explanatory website. To get news for a certain sport you click on it, to get it for a specific team you click on it. They don't have to use a search bar to find everything, even though there is one, because it is so easy to use and find your news without it. To me and many other users this is a very obvious design for a website because it is very self explanatory and you are able to quickly get your information for the day and be done.

2- Robbie COrr

Hey everyone, I think that both the Instagram application, as well as the website show a simple design that allows users to intuitively navigate the program without instruction. The login functions similar to major sites that require a login and password such as Twitter, Facebook and Gmail, but once in the program the simplicity is amazing. In general, the control panel at the bottom allows the user to easily post images/videos from their phone, explore the public for the most liked/trending pictures, or scroll through the feed of followed Instagrammers.  I can see the steps in my head that the designers sketched in order to provide the fluidity of the page, and by restricting image size the format looks uniform and easy on the eyes.  Lastly, the ability to view images both full screen (on the right) and as an album (in the middle image) makes the viewing experience efficient.

2 - Chase Buckner

I chose https://www.spotify.com/us/ for my example of obvious design. This is a good example of obvious design because of how user friendly and well thought out it is. For instance, when you first arrive at the website, as seen in the first picture, you are directed to look at the top of the screen and from there you can easily figure out what you want to do next. You can look at what Spotify can offer you with their "Features" tab, which once clicked will automatically scroll you down the page to the area with the proper information. You can "Upgrade" if you already have Spotify, look at the "Help" tips, sign in if you already have an account with "Log In", or "Get Spotify for Free", located in the center of the page. I chose to focus on the "Log In" feature since I already have a Spotify account. As seen in my second picture, as soon as I hit "Log In" nothing on the page changes except for a little box pops up asking me whether I want to log in through Facebook or with my email address. This is all part of an obvious design because you could put a young child who is able to read on this site and that child would be able to do anything that you requested because Spotify has such a simple and interactive layout. Even though there is a lot going on in the background which could confuse some people, Spotify has kept it neat where it is important, the top bar, which doesn't run away from you whenever you scroll further down the page, it follows you wherever you go.

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2 - Kyle Hiller

The website I am choosing is the Gmail login page.  The reason I have chosen this is because there is one simple step/option on the page and nothing else.  Google then allows you to access any number of its many services once you have logged in, but the simplicity of the login page is in my opinion very effective and a very obvious design because there is no room for confusion.  Even though there are so many different options for the user once they have actually signed into their Google account, the sign in page itself is very simple, clean and an all around good design for users. 

2-Taylor Payne

The website that I am choosing is Google. Google's homepage is very simple and obvious. There is simply just a search bar, which is clearly positioned in the middle of the screen. This, along with the Google logo, is the first thing that the user sees. Then under the search bar, there are two obvious search methods the user can select, Google Search or I'm Feeling Lucky.
This website is obvious because the options on the homepage are so limited. It is obvious that Google is wanting the users to search from this page.

2-Martin Johnson

The application I chose is the Flipboard application "the stuff you care about all in one place". The design is one of the more obvious ones I've seen. The interface works flawlessly and and is very intuitive. Touching an article or flipping are the only two moves a user makes. Flipping across the screen encompasses the entire navigation process. It's so simple, yet this is the first app really to do this. As seen below, the interface is set up to be aesthetically pleasing yet not overwhelming. The cover stories and interests are displayed using a tile format. One instantly knows where to go and how. The great thing is that even as you make commands and move through the interface, the setup stays the same. One can view story after related story or jump around with complete ease.

The content is also an obvious design as one can connect their favorite social media sites to the Flipboard and fully integrate them. The app is completely personal and customizable according to ones social media, magazines, news, and other media preferences. With all the customization, as shown below, everything is still relatively easy to find. One never gets to the point where they are lost or looking for help to get somewhere. In fact, as you discover more of what you like, Flipboard will start to adjust to your preferences and recommend media for you.

 

Link to Flipboard example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97dU6Gzc3JA#t=27

2 - Hyuk Beom Kwon

www.pandora.com

This Pandora radio website is a music streaming website that provides the service of playing musical selections of a certain genre based on the artist's selection of users. 

I believe this website has qualities of obvious design that agree with the book "Designing the Obvious". 

When you enter the website for the first time, it shows very simple search engine on the whole window. 

It conforms to the way users interact with the web, and focuses on the activity of searching music. 

It has a clear purpose of providing the music service. 

This website does not have too many features, but just few useful ones, such as play or next song button, register, sign in, lyrics, publish, and so on. 

This website plays the music at the same time users search the artist. 

Lastly, this website reduces clutter to a minimum. 

These are reasons why I think Pandora.com has an obvious design. 

2 - James Farley

The app I chose to talk about is Sleep Cycle.

 


The sleep cycle app is an app that keeps track of what stage of sleep you are in, and wakes you up to calm relaxing sounds at the ideal point in your sleep cycle so you feel as refreshed as possible. Waking up during a point in your sleep cycle when you are in a deep sleep will always lead to a groggy morning. This app uses the built in accelerometer in your iPhone to sense how much you are moving in your sleep, and wakes you up when you are at the point in  your sleep cycle that is considered not a deep sleep. The design of this app is very simple, clear, and easy to use. The purpose of this app is very clear, and is human centered. There are few things going on on the home screen, just a box to select your desire wake up time, and a start button. On the statistics page there are easy-to-read graphs, and numbers regarding your sleep quality. Overall everything that this app has built into it is necessary, it is organized into four simple tabs, and is an extremely obvious design.

2 - Michael Metzler

 

This is the "IU Mobile" app. It is for students and teachers of Bloomington, IN. It has everything from class lists, bus schedules, to email. It has anything you could need while roaming the town. IT definitly reflects the intent of the creators. All the functions of the app are very useful. You can go through the list and make a point that all the features are useful, if not to you personally, but to someone else here at IU. Each feature is very simple and some require no input at all to activate. The features are self-explanatory so no training or prerequisites are necessary. Any person of any skill level can use the app to its full intent and ability. The features draw you in and you want to check out all the app has to offer. The app is uniform and simple. It has a perfectly obvious design.

2 - Kalvin Greer

The application I am going to explain is found at: Ookla Speed Test

I feel that this application is very obvious and user friendly. When the app is opened (as seen in the first image) you simply press the large "Begin Test" button on the center of the screen. Once clicked the app takes care of the rest for you and displays your results in a very easy comprehensive layout. It is very easy to see what your download and upload speeds are. Another nice feature that is obvious to use is the navigation pane on the bottom of the application. You are automatically put on the main app page of the speed test you currently are running. However you are easily able to see your previous speed tests along with dates and locations. I feel this app is very fluid, user friendly, and overall very easy to understand and use which is the whole idea. 

2-Alex Li

1.

• http://www.blastradius.com/submissions/jordanflight/
• http://www.awwwards.com/case-study-the-air-jordan-2012-by-blast-radius.html

2.

In the video it actually shows the website starting at 00:55 - 01:07. I wish the website was still up but there are only videos of the it now. The website was a very clear and simple. It showed Jordan shoes and promoted it through this amazing website. It was very intuitive and so well organized. Even though it was only online for a while, the design for this website was very obvious for many different reasons. First it was very linear, meaning all you have to do was scroll. There were not links that you had to click to get where you wanted to go. It was just one long web site. Another obvious design are the circles/bullets on the right hand side of the website. When you clicked on one of them it would immediately take you to the section that you wanted to go to. Lastly the flow of the website was seamless and so elegant. The website truly had a design that was obvious.

Week 02 Blog Assignment

By now you should have read Chapter 1 of the book Designing the Obvious. The author, Robert Hoekman, Jr., describes what makes an obvious design.

Using these criteria, find a web site (or app), or a part of a web site (or app), that you might consider to be obvious design. Your task is this:

1. In your blog post, provide a link to the site (or app) and direct our attention to the aspect that you might consider to be obvious design. You might wish to paste an image from the site (or app) into your post (if you do, zoom in and copy the part of the screen to which you refer).
   
   
2. Explain why it's obvious design.

Label your note with the week #, a hyphen, then your first and last name. Example: "2-Michael Tumblin".

1 - Michael Metzler

My name is Michael Metzler. I am currently a junior going for a duel degree in Informatics and Computer Science. I am also a Business minor. I hail from the town of St. Charles, IL. I have played club hockey and club volleyball for IU. I am in Sigma Phi Epsilon, and the Chicago Blackhawks are the greatest sports team on the planet. What worries me the most is my artistic ability. A new idea that I have taken away is how bad things are designed. Now, I look at almost everything differently and critique the design.

1-Robert Corr

Hello Blog Group G! My name is Robbie Corr and I too am from Carmel, IN. You can call me Rob, Robbie, or just Corr. I am a junior Informatics student with a business cognate and am also minoring in Entrepreneurship. It is exciting to me to see how technology is affecting companies and markets on a global scale. I enjoy golfing and playing pretty much all sports, especially soccer and basketball.  Never before have I designed anything that could be considered real, so I am looking forward to the opportunity to learn under the tutelage of such a professor.  By the end of the course I hope to gain an understanding of design as it pertains to not only the web, but all kinds of products and services. Nice to meet all of you and see you in class!

Kyle Hiller

Hello everyone my name is Kyle Hiller.  I am a sophomore studying Informatics with a Business cognate.  I am from Carmel, IN and have lived there since I was in preschool.  I enjoy playing many different sports for fun.  I played rugby in high school and have played basketball my whole life.  I love to watch college basketball and the NBA.  I am very excited for this class and this semester.  I enjoyed the opening video from the very first class and the Kleenex example.  I am not the most artistic person, but am excited to use the art supplies we got for this course and hope to do well with designing.

1 - Kyle Baker

1. My name is Kyle Baker. I'm called Kyle or Baker. It doesn't matter. I'm a junior who is majoring in Informatics. I'm from Indiana. The most interesting about my existance is that I've spent the last 7 days doing absolutely nothing. In this class, I'm worried about not paying attention to all the details of the class. This class is going to be kick ass if the intro video is any desrcription of the rest of the semester. 

1 - Chase Buckner

Hello, my name is Chase Buckner and I am a sophomore majoring in Informatics with a cognate in security and a minor in economics. I am from Fishers, Indiana and have lived in Indiana my entire life. A few interesting things about myself is that I like being around fires, I have a lighter collection, and my parents own their own Ice Cream Store. I enjoy hanging out with my family and friends, watching NBA, NFL and IU games, I am a TV show buff, and I enjoy cooking. I also like building things with my hands, this past semester my 3 roommates and I built a bar in our townhouse and I really enjoyed the whole experience (picture of finished product below). The thing that worries me the most about this class is the creative aspect of designing objects because I am really not that creative of a guy. One thing that I took away from our first class was just how much thought goes into every single object around me at any time of the day and the fact that people get paid to perfect the smallest things of a particular product, like the Coke can sound.

1-Martin Johnson

Hi,

My name is Martin Johnson but I go by Skip. I am Junior majoring in Marketing and am from Minneapolis, Minnesota. One of my biggest interests is world travel and experiencing other cultures. This is why I joined the organization Alternative Break Program a few years ago. Over the past winter break, I led a trip of students to Ghana to work with an NGO.

One of my worries about the class is that I won't learn enough about material I'm interested in. I think Marty will do a great job though. A new idea I enjoyed from the first class was thinking about man made designs. Something so simple like a door has so much thought put into it. This alone made me look at other objects differently and notice HCI in articles I've read this week.

1 - Rachael Smith

Hey! I'm Rachael Smith, I got by Rachael or Rach which ever is fine. I am a Sophomore Majoring in Informatics with a cognate in Fine Arts, a minor in Marketing, and maybe going for a minor in Computer Science. I'm from Deerfield, Illinois which is a northern suburb of Chicago and went to Deerfield High School. I'm a total geek and love to play video games and read about new technology that are coming out and that people are planning on making. My favorite thing to do is joke around, have a lot of fun and laugh. I also love every kind of boarding. I snowboard, long board, skate board, wake board, etc. I love art especially graphic design and typography. I also love music and play about 15 instruments. My pets are my best friends and I love them to death!  I have a chinchilla (Aria), a dog (Cleo), a fish (Mr. Pickles named by my amazing Big), and my lovely hedgehog (Hank). I love all my sisters in my sorority Theta Phi Alpha and love to be with them. I work at Starbucks which is the best job in the world and I hope to be working with UITS next semester. I'm very excited to be taking this class and learn more about HCID. I had an AI last semester that is studying it and LOVES it so I'm really excited and not worried about anything in particular other than not really knowing what we are exactly learning about throughout the semester. A new idea I took away from the class was that I wasn't alone in the confusion of why no one can seem to create a door that makes sense after doors being around for so long.

1 - James Farley

Hey everyone I am James Farley, but I go by J.T. I am a sophomore majoring in Informatics with minors in business and security. I am from Crown Point, Indiana, however I went to a small high school called Boone Grove. As far as interesting facts go, I am a basketball fanatic, a black belt in karate, and have recently taken up snowboarding. A couple of my friends convinced me to go with the IU ski club to the Telluride trip over winter break and it was the best vacation I have ever had. I had never snowboarded before this trip, so learning how to do it was an awesome experience. I am worried about the drawing aspect of this class as I thought I would never have to draw a single thing in my collegiate career being an Informatics major. A new idea I took away from the first class was how awful people are at designing doors, I have never really thought about it before that class.

1 - Kalvin Greer

Hey everyone my name is Kalvin Greer. I am a sophomore and am majoring in Informatics with a minor in business. I am from Newburgh, IN which is about 10 minutes away from Evansville down on the southern tip of IN. I love to do outdoor things. I am an Eagle Scout so that might make some sense to my love for the outdoors. Mainly at the moment most of my time is taken up by snowboarding and mountain biking. I also work for the IT department at the SRSC/HPER. Something that I am most worried about for the class is the drawing/designing aspect. I can think up ideas but it is virtually impossible to actually recreate them on paper. A new idea i took from the class was the whole idea of the pop when you open up a soda can. Very interesting way to look at things and how much thought goes into everything we interact with. 

1-Alex Young

Hello I-300, my name is Alex Young

I'm a sophomore here at IU and am currently still part of University Division. I was born and raised right here in Bloomington. Something interesting about myself would be I like to play Jazz trumpet and I make the best omelettes in the world. I am probably most worried about the drawing portion of the class. Something that I got out of the first class would be more critical analysis of everyday inventions.

1-Taylor Payne

My name is Taylor Payne. I am a sophomore from Lawrenceburg, Indiana. I am majoring in Informatics with a cognate in Medical Sciences. Before I came to IU, I was a member of the East Central Marching band. I love hanging out with my friends and one of my favorite things to do in Bloomington is visit the puppy store at College Mall. One of the things that I am worried about in this class is my artistic ability. I can barely draw stick people. One thing that I took away from the first class is that there really are a lot of different doors, and that bathroom stall doors are terribly designed.

Jordan Hayes - Your Awesome AI :P

Hello and welcome to the experience of a lifetime!

My name is Jordan Hayes, and last year, I was sitting in your seat wondering what in the world is design, design-thinking, the whole game of HCI! I thought I knew a lot about design, great products and services, but as you go through i300, you will start to see there is so much more than just having a beautiful design. Beauty doesn't happen by accident as you will learn...it's very hard to achieve :)

I grew up here in Bloomington, Indiana, and have lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota and Sarasota, Florida working as a Marketing Director and Property Manager. Most of my experience is in Marketing-designing ways to get others to see great designs or services.

During this term, I want and encourage you all to reach out to me and ask for help, advice, or just talk about life. I really care about your experience in this class and what you to get the most out of it. To make sure you are learning about design and understand the concepts that are going to be thrown at you, we need to have a conversation. I am not just one of those AIs that sits in the back and is just THERE. I am here for you!

In my free time, which is almost never ^_^  I really enjoy swimming and cycling, discovering new musical artist, playing with my friend's puppies, and exploring this world! I love local art and going to the playhouse, fine wine, craft-brew (Three Floyds is my favorite) and discovering new tech!

For the past two years, I have been preparing to become a designer and trying my best to get into companies such as Apple to start a career that will impact people's lives. I just don't want to market and sale other people's products, I want to have a say in the design! It's one of the reasons I applied for the HCI/d Masters program and if any of you feel this is the career you have been looking for, lets chat!

Have fun, talk with others, go crazy on your designs, and again, HAVE FUN. This class can be a blast and I will try my hardest to make sure you guys love it!

Best,

Jordan

(P.S. for my Anime fans here, check out what a few of us from the Master Program did today...WE ARE THE SURVEY CORE  #attackontitan)

1-Hyuk Beom Kwon

Hi My name is Hyuk Beom Kwon. You can call me 'Tiger'.
I'm a junior majoring in Informatics and minoring in Economics. I am from Seoul, Korea. An interesting thing about myself is that I studied Voice before I came to IU. I was accepted to some music schools, but decided to come here instead. I'm worried about group works we are going to to for the semester. I'm not native speaker and do not have much experiences in group works, so I might have hard time with doing some projects. The new idea struck me from the class was that every innovative design these days were not invented by single person, so working in a group is very important nowadays.

1-Alex Li

Hi everyone, my name is Alex Li. I am a Junior majoring in Informatics and minoring in Computer Science, Security and human centered-computing. I am from Greenwood, IN. I was originally born in New York, and my family is from China. I can play saxophone and clarinet. I used to be in the marching band back in high school. I am worried about all the projects that we will be doing in this class. I am scared that I won't do well on all of them. I really liked the baseball analogy, it really stuck to me. I never thought of school in that way, how students are taught only parts of the game and our capstone is the whole game.

   

1-Brad Van Galen

Hey guys my name is Brad Van Galen, I am currently a Junior.  I am going for a double degree, a BA in Cognitive Science and a BS in Informatics.  I am from Elkhart, Indiana which is close to South Bend. Something interesting about myself is I have an identical twin.  We both go to IU and we live together.  I am worried about the different projects that we are going to have to do and what they entail but I also look forward to what this class has to offer.  Something that struck me during class, and it is actually really obvious but I never really thought about it that way, is that everything around us was built and design by another human being.  I mean think about it we have a lot of stuff around us haha.

Week 01 Blog Assignment

Welcome to your first blog assignment!

Make sure that you are logged into this blog as an author (you'll need a Google account; it's free).

 

This first assignment is easy:

1. To begin, click on "New Post" icon (the pencil) in the top bar (only use the comment box to comment on posts or to ask questions about the assignment). Label your note with the week #, a hyphen, then your first and last name. Example: "1-Zach Ackerman"
   
2. Tell us your first and last name—how you want others to refer to you in this class.
   
3. Tell us your year in school (sophomore, junior, senior, etc.); your major; and where you're from (your home town).
   
4. Tell us something interesting about yourself. You decide how long it should be; but hopefully it's more than a sentence (you're all more interesting than a sentence)!
   
5. What worries you most about taking this class? (It's OK to be worried about something; be honest. You'll likely discover that you're not alone.)
   
6. What's a new idea that you took away from the first class?
   
7. Upload a picture of you; a face shot is best—and large enough so I can recognize you in class. (No disguises, just a high quality face shot.)
   
8. Lastly, move your cursor over the the black vertical bar on the right; a bullet-list icon pops out with the label "I300 Blogs." Click on that to see a list of all the other Group blogs. In particular, click on "Marty's Blog" and read what's there. If you write a thoughtful comment on my post you'll earn a magic point! :)