9 - Kyle Baker

I believe that HELP systems are a very important part of developing a good program. While a good design can introduce users to the layout and the functionality of the program. There are some features that the designer implements that are either innovative so they aren't thought of as a feature of a program. Or they are placed in different locations that users might not think of because the designer decided that their placement would make the design better. In regards to obvious design, some times the designer cannot make everything obvious because that might clutter the interface. I do not believe that a tutorial or a HELP system is a replacement for a good design. I believe they are a good addition to good design.

I believe that the person to focus while designing for this final project is the children who purchase the toys after the movie/comic books come out.

9- R Corr

In my opinion HELP systems are only truly helpful when designed properly and only for certain tasks. I personally have had problems with Pearson, the textbook company's teaching products. The issues being either the subject, or the programs inability to allow multiple different paths to the same outcome. An "obvious" design is undoubtedly a key to making things like tutorials less necessary to operate the site for the users. Although, many times the service may me so complex in nature that it requires a certain amount of explanation. Just like you can test a product during the early stages of the design process, it would be pretty easy to test how simple, or complex the instructions for the product should be.

For Project 5, there are couple different personas I can think that would accurately fit the ideal super hero consumer.  First off is the middle aged man, maybe still single, who has been a lifetime comic collector, or super-hero action figure enthusiast. He would most likely enjoy some of the more "classic" Marvel products, yet his personal favorites may be less main steam heroes.  The second persona I can picture is a pre-teen boy who loves the popular super heroes. This boy dresses like batman for Halloween and throws his action figure out the second floor window to see it "fly".

9 - Brad Van Galen

I think that help systems do what they are suppose to do help, but they are definitely not a substitute for good design.  I believe that they should be there for the beginners and should show features that maybe aren't as obvious if you didn't know they were there but it should still be easy to navigate the essential functions of the product.  If you rely on the help features to teach the user than many users will not use this product because many users do not want to waste the time to go through an entire tutorial just to use a product.  Users want to open the box and go from there.  If they want to go more in depth or want to learn something specific then that's when the help features come in to play.  If you just rely on help features then you are limiting your target population.

For project 5 I think there are two major categories that you should consider for the persona.  First you should obviously focus on the super hero.  The second persona should be the comic book fans and the fans of the super hero.  They should your primary focus.

9 - Kyle Hiller

In my opinion, help systems are useful are helpful but that they could work much better.  They are a very important part of a system and play a crucial role when it comes to the overall use of a system.  However, I think that they are definitely a little bit a substitute of good design.  I think that they have always just been the same exact way and that way has gotten the job done well enough for there not to ever have been a big enough push to completely change the excepted design for so long.  However, there is also a point at which help systems could be designed in too prevalent a way that the system has worse usability and user rating.

When it comes to the development of the personas for project 5, I think that the best two categories of people to focus on are both the devoted/intense fans and the casual fans for our chosen superhero.  This is because when it comes down to it, the people who are going to be judging and giving honest opinions on a change made in project 5, the fans, who are who the final product is made for, are going to give you your best results.  Other categories of people such as the writers and creators could be good to take into account as well, but the fans will probably be the most helpful.

9 - Martin Johnson

I think HELP systems are a very good idea; especially after readying chapter six. Designers of software focus on intermediate users because very few people become experts and the beginners learn at a high rate. However, it is very important to give beginners the means to smoothly make the jump to intermediate status. HELP systems like online help and tutorials give the beginners just this without getting in the way of the intermediate users. This idea was highlighted in designing the obvious as very important. If accomplished, it is a win win because intermediate users are not bugged by beginner tools and beginners quickly move to an intermediate stage which most software is designed around. 

 

I do however think that good use of instructive design can point beginners to the right places without having intermediates noticing unnecessary hoops that need to be jumped through. I believe tutorials can be useful but if something can be designed instructively than that is optimal. People don't like to read instructions and go through help wizards. If the end goal can be reached with instructive design then this should be the method used. In some cases, I think HELP systems are substituted for good design because it is the easy route to take; Just throw together a wizard and your user has a place to go for help. This is much easier to do than make an intuitive and seamless software.

 

 Regarding categories of people to focus on for project five when developing a persona there are many choices. I believe that the persona will depend more upon who you are leaning on more for a target audience. This could be any people from the hardcore comic fans, the comic designers, children product consumers (and their parents), cinema producers, toy designers, and many other types of people.

9 - James Farley

Help systems are usually not very efficient and helpful, however in the right scenario they can provide the user with useful information to understand the software more thoroughly. Many help systems can be confusing or hard to navigate, leaving the user very frustrated. Sometimes the user doesn't even know what they are looking for, or what it is called, making the help system almost useless. However, I believe that there is software on the market that have help systems that are very beneficial to the user and compliment their respective software well.

 I believe that help systems do not cannot substitute the transparency of good design. However I believe that a good design can substitute help systems. If a piece of software has flawless design, help systems may not be necessary at all. However that is a risky decision, and the design team should only make that decision after rigorous usability testing. On the contrary I do believe there are certain pieces of software that are highly complicated and need a help system, even with good design. An example of this would be Microsoft Excel. Excel has a plethora of uses for the user, and the possibilities are almost endless. It has great design, but it just too complex of a program not to have a help system.

When developing personas for project 5, I will be keeping in mind who we are designing for. My first idea for a persona will represent the hardcore comic book/superhero fan. We all know that one person who devotes their life to reading every comic book ever printed, and reading all the information on the internet about their favorite superheros. My second idea for a persona is the casual superhero fan. This will be the person that had a few comic books around the house growing up, and likes to see the new movies about mainstream superheros as they are released.

9 - Alex Li

When I want to fix some code and I would just go to W3 School or Code Academy to help me. In most cases, I look up on the internet on how to solve my problem rather than go through the default help system of a program or application. Though for some people going through the program's actual help system is very helpful. I think that help systems are good for what they are design to do, which is to teach you how to use a program or application that you have never used before.

Are help systems substitutes for good design? I personally don’t think they are. Designs can be good but it can always be improved upon. There is no such thing as a prefect design. I feel that there always needs to be a help or tutorial system for people no matter what. Even if the designs were better and more “obvious” it still is never perfect because perfection is unattainable.

The persona that we are developing for in project 5 is the fan base. We need to think about the fans and what their likes and dislikes of a superhero are and design for that. We are also designing for the toys as well as for whomever buys the toys. It can be a new weapon or vehicle that they superhero somehow acquired. We are also kind of designing for the super hero but the thing is the superheroes are not real and the fans are. Making a persona will better help us make an item for that superhero because we want the item to fit the superhero. We want something that the fans will think fits into the schema of the superhero’s world. 

9 - Chase Buckner

    When it comes to help systems I think that some can be helpful while others cannot. In my experience, rarely have I used the built in help panels and information areas in softwares like Microsoft office or Adobe. I have never found them helpful even when I have tried to use them. On the other hand though, I have found online help extremely helpful. Whenever I get stuck within a certain software, the first thing I usually do is google the problem for an idea. I have also used resources like lynda.com which is an online tutorial service that teaches you how to use software. I used it to learn the basics of the Wordpress website and it did a good job at teaching. I do not think that they are good substitutes for good design but I feel like some compromises have to be made since there is no such thing as the perfect design. In the case that the design were better and more obvious, there would definitely be less of a need for these help systems. If there was a perfect design, no, you would not need these help systems, but as we have learned this semester, there is no perfect design.
    For developing personas in project #5 there are a couple of categories of people on whom to focus. One persona would be the current fans of the selected superhero because you want to create a gadget that will not go against the notions that these fans already have in their head. This is important because you want to keep the current fan base to have something to build upon when you attract new fans. The other persona that would be beneficial to develop would be potential kids who will want their parents to buy the toys of the superhero. This is so because you want to develop a a gadget that is marketable to kids so that they want to own it. If it is done right, this will be a cash cow when it comes out.

9 - Hyuk Beom Kwon

What do you think about HELP systems--online help, tutorials, etc.? Do they work? Are they substitutes for good design? That is, if the design were better and more "obvious," would you really need these help or tutorial systems?

Also, when you think about developing personas for Project #5, what are categories of people on whom to focus? (There is no single correct answer!)



I think Help documentations usually do not work very well, because as Jensen Harris mentions in page 173 of the book, users "won't know the terminology they need to locate the right information."It is hard to find the information you want immediately as you turn on the help system. Also, I believe most help systems are in languages than pictures, so some users may find it hard to get help on what they want to do. 

However, HELP systems on online are helpful. I rarely use help documentations these days because if I search help for my program or application on the internet, they have lots of resources around and mostly they are explained in easier ways. 
 For an obvious design, I think HELP systems are needed because there can be a possible situation of having flaw on my program. Usually, flaws of program are hard to find the solution on your own. If there are HELP systems to solve these flaws, then it would be very useful. 

For project #5, categories of people can be fans of superheroes who buy toys a lot, and patriots. I think it is obvious to target fans of superheroes who are willing to pay for toys related to their favorite superheroes. And I thought patriots were good for personas because superheroes are usually patriots of their own countries, so it is possible to assume that patriots are more likely to be in these stuff. They are mostly the same group as fans of superheroes.

9 - Michael Metzler

 

Help systems are a good thing in certain situations or designs. They do work, but should only be used in a case where needed. If you can make a design obvious enough, they are not needed. Some designs or applications are complicated so the user can get the most out of them and in those citations, tutorials are the most useful. If a design is obvious enough, it does not need a help system at all.

When developing personas for Project 5, there are two categories on whom to focus in my mind.
Those being the superhero's personal fans and fans of the superhero genre as a whole. The superhero's personal fans are the most important to please, however, it is also important to make sure the design makes sense for the fans of the genre. It is a good outside look on your design to make sure this isn't just a selfish interest.

Week 09 Blog Assignment

Skim Chapter 6. (That is, read the chapter quickly but read slowly any section that grabs your interest.)

What do you think about HELP systems--online help, tutorials, etc.? Do they work? Are they substitutes for good design? That is, if the design were better and more "obvious," would you really need these help or tutorial systems?

Also, when you think about developing personas for Project #5, what are categories of people on whom to focus? (There is no single correct answer!)

Finally, comment on someone else's post to this blog assignment.

Spring Break

I went to Fort Lauderdale for Spring Break 2014.
This is my mom and I.
She's the best.

Chase Buckner - Spring Break '14

For spring break my three roommates and I went to Destin, Florida and enjoyed the sun while we could. The ocean was clear and was sunny 4/7 days we were there. Destin is only about 40 minutes away from Panama City Beach and is a little more relaxing. There's an air force base only about 30 minutes away so at least 15 times a day, we would see a fighter jet or a massive cargo plane fly over us.

Alex Li - SPRING BREAK

I went to Panama City Beach.

I like turtles

The sunsets were beautiful and the beach as absolutely amazing.

Kalvin Greer - SB2K14

This week for spring break I traveled to the great city of Panama City Beach Florida to soak up the sun. Here is a picture of me and two of my pledge brothers on the beach when we were feeling rather confident in ourselves.

Spring Break - Hyuk Beom Kwon

I went to LA for the spring break and had fun eating lots of foods there. I had IN-N-OUT and it was awesome.

And the weather was perfect in LA. I hope I can visit there again soon. 

SB - Martin Johnson

I went to Valencia for Las Fallas. The people of the town build huge structures of art that are very detailed and beautiful. At the end of the week they burn them all at once throughout the city. It is pretty crazy; I actually saw one burning in a street that caught an apartment building on fire.

Taylor Payne

I went on a nature walk here in Bloomington with my boyfriend! It sure was nice to be able to relax. I'll be going to the beach this summer. :)

8 - Chase Buckner

1)  From what I've learned so far about "playing the whole game" of HCI Design I've realized that a lot of the rules, tips, and tricks that Marty has taught us not only pertain to HCID, but are applicable to almost all aspects of life. For example, my partner and I started religiously using the team protocols throughout project 4 and even though it was a much more complex assignment, compared to the previous projects, it went smoother than all of the others. These team protocols can be applied to any team I become a part of for the rest of my life.
    One thing that I have really enjoyed about I300 are all of the mini life lessons that Marty offers up to us nearly every class. I like them because it's advice that can have a real impact, not only on your education, but your career, if you take these life lessons to heart. I always leave class thinking about something worthwhile; and I enjoy that. The mini life lesson that really stuck with me was the one about working hard. Marty spoke about how much a company values, respects, and rewards an employee who puts their whole heart into whatever they are doing and gives it their best shot. It put things into perspective for me that if you want something and work hard for it, then it's achievable. The other life lesson that I found valuable wasn't so much of a life lesson, but rather little tricks about ways to stand out when it comes to situations similar the career fair or job interviews. Saying or doing something, even if it is a small gesture, can make a big difference in prospective employers and colleagues.
    The thing that sticks out the most in my head about learning "the whole game" is the idea of iteration. It's a vital part of the design process because the first few times around, everyone is going to miss something. It's like the idea of practice makes perfect, the more you work with something, the better you get; the more you work with a certain design or idea, the better the design gets. I liked Marty's analogy of writers and how they don't just write a perfect book on their first draft when it comes to the idea of iteration. Even though HCI Design isn't what I want to do with my life, I appreciate what I have learned so far in Marty's class and look forward to consuming more valuable knowledge in the weeks to come.

7-4-RCorr

It is important as a designer to realize early that your cannot please all users. There will always be people who decide they like your competitors product more, and therefore will use it. The tools used to gain knowledge on target users such as use cases and usability tests allow designers to gain insight on the users of the product. Hoekman advocates the larger user-centered focus and stresses its importance to the design process.

In the context of Project 2, situation-centric design would refer to stepping on the elliptical machine and putting yourself in different situation. User Tests, as used in the project, also allow the designer to gain perspective on problems that arise when "playing" or "messing" around the product. On the elliptical I may have given myself different tasks to accomplish and see if I could accomplish them. If not, I would discover a flaw in the design from my perspective.

8 - Kalvin Greer

Upon beginning to play the whole game I did not understand the concept of touching on so many different aspects in such a different way than I'm used to. At first I didn't understand how to correctly conduct a usability test but after working with others I was able to better understand how much info you can truly receive from conducting them. I also learned how much it can make a difference to not design for yourself but the outside user because once you become too invested you can try and add too many unnecessary features. The idea of trimming down to the bear minimum was an eye opener to me when talking about how to design.  

8- RCorr

As I reflect on the concept of "Playing the Whole Game", the different aspects of class start becoming apparent. Evaluating the target audience using methods such as such as persona making, use cases, and usability tests sets the platform for more concrete decision making. I then think of designing by sketching and iterating the entire design process. Daily sketch-noting is an example of playing the whole game within the class room. The 7 Themes of Good Design are the lenses a designer must be considering throughout the process in order to view the design more objectively. Today, I learned the importance of willing to fail, and getting work out there to be critiqued early and often. As project 5 gets underway, the team aspect of "the game" starts becoming more and more important, and I look forward to learning more about it.

8 - Kyle Baker

For this blog assignment, I want you to do two things:

1) Reflect on what you're learning about "playing the whole game" of HCI Design. What do you know now that you didn't know even 2-3 weeks ago? Be specific; give examples. Share what you are learning (write a paragraph or so).

Compared to 2-3 weeks ago, I now have a better understanding of how design can be a specialized craft. I now understand to design a product centered around the consumer and not around the designer. In other classes where we had to come up with designs for products or Websites, I really could have used this knowledge to better improve the designs that I've implemented. Another major knowledge base that I've acquired was based around the fact that iteration improves upon a design. In other product design classes, I'd spend too much time coming up with the "perfect" design, and didn't focus on the major ideas of the product and improve upon them. If I'd simply have a major, good feature and then design the product around that central idea, I would have completed the design easier and more likely better.

6 - Kyle Baker

For this week, we turn to Chapter 5, "Support the User's Mental Models."

As you think about your work on project #3, what is the user's mental model with respect to the feature in YouTube you are redesigning / designing? 

I believe that the user's mental model with respect to the redesign of YouTube with my feature added would be correct in what it is in reality. I added Folders to channels to further organize a user's videos. I Believe that a new folder implimentation would be easy to understand because we're (as a community) used to using folders in our everyday life.

How might this mental model contrast with the implementation model of the programmers? (Don't get too involved with this one.) 

I don't think that the mental model of the consumer would differ much for the implementation model of the programmer because Programmers often use folders and such to organize their content. I believe that folders have become such a common place for organizing material on a computer that it has become common place for consumers and programmers

5 - Kyle Baker

The feature for my YouTube assignment was adding folders to channels.
The Unnecessary Quest Questions:
Is there more than one way to complete this task this feature accomplishes? I agreed that there would be.
When i asked this question about my feature, a decided that by one owner of a channel having multiple channels for each subject that they decided to talk about they could easily still accomplish the same feature that my additional feature added.
Does this feature completion directly to the completion of the task?
The task that I sought to accomplish was that of organization. I decided that in order for one channel to completely and wholly organize their channel with each of the subjects they wanted to cover, this feature would be necessary.
Is the task this feature supports vital to the activity this application supports? The application this supports is video distribution. I don't believe that organization is completely necessary in order for the application to accomplish this goal.
While completing the 60-Second Deadline, I decided that The same task can be accomplished based on the already implemented design of YT. I would not include this in the second draft of YT if we only had 60-seconds.
These questions would be answered while redesigning the product

8-Taylor Payne

This semester, I have learned a lot about playing the "whole game" of design. On of the biggest things that I have learned to use in this class is testing and redesign. I didn't realize how important it was to test you project or idea before finalizing it. This concept can be applied to many different situations. For example, writing essays, resumes, or anything else of that nature. This is definitely a skill that I will be using in other classes.

8 - Brad Van Galen

I have learned that it's actually not that difficult to play the whole game.  I think it is actually relatively easy to play the game, from creating a persona to usability testing I have had little problem playing this game.  What I have found though, is it is hard to play the game well.  I find it easy to throw something on paper that is average and may even get a decent grade but it takes time and a lot of effort to be able to go back and continually iterate and come up with fresh ideas.  There comes a time in the process that looking to enhance the design in any way just involves sitting down and staring at the problem, or even getting away from the problem to let me subconsciously try and come up with a solution.  Broken down, I feel like each part of the process can be easily followed, but doing it well, that is where the true difficulties lie.

8 - Hyuk Beom Kwon

HCI design is the concept I have never heard or seen before, so I learned many new ideas and terms for this course. For an instance, it was a shock to me that HCI design team uses persona for testing, which is not even a real person. Also, it was a shock that how much design affects our daily life with thoughts and consumptions. For an instance, design of coke can that was presented in the first lecture was quite surprised to me. From this, I learned the design could be everywhere. And learned how much effort and complex works do design teams put for final products.
Also, unanimity for team works looked interesting to me, too. I was in Quaker school for high school, and remember that they also used unanimity for voting. I always thought unanimity is the best way to vote, because going by unanimity means that everyone on the team agrees on the result in any level. Also, I believe unanimity results in obvious design faster than other ways. This course made me think a lot about whole things going on for designing.

8- Rachael Smith

This class has been a great learning experience so far. I have learned a new kind of notetaking that I have started to use in other classes as well and have learned some great life lessons. Another thing I have learned more about is "playing the whole game" being a Fine Arts minor and doing graphic design for many years I have learned a lot about the importance of each step individually. However, this class has taught me the importance of the entire cycle along with a few extra steps and parts to the "game" that I didn't know before.

I always knew sketches were very important. They let people convey what they want to their audience in a quick and free way. I never really took the time to make detailed sketches because all my sketches in the past have been for myself and maybe to show my piliminary ideas to my clients. This has always worked for me but in this class I have learned how to make my sketches more friendly to my clients so they are able to fully understand what I am thinking. I have learned to annotate and label my sketches and how to make them quickly but still look presentable. Practice makes perfect.

I didn't know about "obvious design". Every designer really wants their design to be and "obvious design" but I was unaware that there was actually a word for it and that it would fit into the "playing the whole game" cycle. Since learning about "obvious design" I have changed the way I look at different designs and along with that my style has shifted a bit as a designer. By taking a look at designs that were and weren't obvious and reading about it I have made more of an effort to make it an obvious design more myself and others rather than what I think is obvious, that idea also came from learning about persona and their importance in the whole game. They make me think of how others will see the design even before critiques and have help me make more designs for consumers rather than for myself.

7- (5) Rachael Smith

In the book it walks about dropping the nice to have feature. Although it gives multiple different ways to I use the Unnecessary Test the most. In this test you have to ask yourself, "Is there more than one way to complete the task this feature supports?" (89). While doing my redesign for the homepage for YouTube I asked myself this question a lot. I ultimately decided to delete a sidebar section of my design. Although personally I thought that it would be a good feature to have and that it looked nice in the design it really was a "nice to have feature". I found that I had created other features and easy ways to get to the same pages within the rest of the design and that I really didn't need it. Therefore, by using the Unnecessary Test I was able to get rid of it and make my design more user friendly and less cluttered.

7 - (3) Rachael Smith

http://www.sbnation.com/

This is a website called SB Nation owned by Vox Media. I wrote about it in my second blog and I talked about why I thought their website design was an obvious design.

I think the motivation behind this website was to get people caught up and engaged in the sports they love. They wanted to make it easy for sports fans to keep up because not many sites do. A lot of other sites make it complicated and hard to find the teams you really care about. I think SB Nation had a clear view in their head about making it fast and user friendly so fans were able to keep up and stay interested in sports. They didn't want users to have to struggle with having to go through teams and other sports they don't care about just to read the short segment of what they do care about. I also believe their motivation was that they wanted fans to be able to access information easily about more than one sport. Their attitude is, "it starts with the fan" they care a lot about what their fans want and prove it by only using, in their opinion, the best reporters to give the fans their stories. The company wanted to make it user friendly for the fans because that is their ultimate goal, that is what to them ultimately matters.

8 - Alex Li

I have learned so much from this class. Learning about all the different aspects of playing the whole game has really helped me with working on group projects. Something that I have learned from these couple weeks was persona and team protocols.

I never knew how important a persona was when designing a product for a customers. It really helps with focusing your designs for a specific target group and designing for their needs. I really feel that I know the persona when I am designing something. It is always fun and interesting when our group makes a persona for our projects because you’re making a fake person but you get to know them very well.

I learned so much from team protocol as well. I know how to work in teams better now by using these team protocols such as voting on a topic. When everyone agrees, then the whole team can make progress as well as everyone on the team will have skin in the game. It really helped our team move forward on the last project (project 4) because we were stuck on what functionality that we wanted out refrigerator to have. What we did was we voted on what primary function we wanted our fridge to have and our team was able to agree upon one which allowed us to continue making progress on our project.  

8 - James Farley

I have learned an enormous amount about HCI design and how the entire process works. Playing the whole game of HCI design has a very dynamic feel to it, and every part has a reason. I didn't really understand how using a persona could help design a product, as it isn't even a real person. However, after doing a couple projects using a persona I can begin to see how many people in the real world use them to help create the products for the users. I also didn't really understand the entire concept of usability testing. I figured if you designed something well enough, users should be able to figure it out. However after doing some usability testing I realized that is not always the case. Nobody is perfect so chances are there are going to be flaws when designing a product, and what better way to find them then having people test the product as it would actually be used. Usability testing helped me figure out design flaws in the projects 3 and 4 especially. Overall, I have a much better understanding of the complex, dynamic, and ever-changing game that is HCI design.

8 - Michael Metzler

     Playing the whole game of HCI has been fun at times. It is exciting to see and understand the process which designers go through in their tasks. The group protocols are very helpful along with the other group ideas Marty has shared with us, are really helping me in my group work. Not only in this class, but in other classes as well. I did not know anything about design really before this class, and now I should go apply at Adobe...just kidding, but maybe in the future. The life lessons are what I like most about this class because you can apply it to everything, not just design.

8 - Kyle Hiller

"Playing the Whole Game" has a much different meaning to me now than it did the first few weeks of class. When I initially heard about it in class I assumed that it was a very black and white sort of thing in the sense that there was one specific way that was expected to get something done.  Now after completing the multiple different projects, I have realized that there are so many different ways to design something.  What works for one designer might make absolutely no sense to another designer, but they could both create something equally functional in their own unique design methods.  There are so many different aspects that go into "Playing the Whole Game" that all have a very different role each time you design something different.  One time research might be extremely important in order to have a successful design, while another time there is little research that needs to be done but instead a lot of prototyping until a successful one is found.  However, no matter how you look at it, all the steps in 'the game' are going to be intertwined with each other and all rely on each other in order to create a successful design.  I now know that the design process for something/anything can (and normally should) take many hours and many attempts at it; good design doesn't just happen.  I noticed this working on project 4 and having to go back many times and change or re-do work we had done but then realizing something else would work better.  It is something that has to develop from a solid team and trial and error.  I also now know that 'failure' in design is very important in the sense that when you are designing something, you often have to realize what isn't going to work first before you can get to a design that works well and efficiently.  The "Playing the Whole Game" concept is something that has changed greatly for me throughout this course so far and I am sure that by the end of the course I will have an even greater and different idea of it than I do now because I will continue to learn and get better the more designing I do.

7 (4) - Kyle Hiller

(Making up week 4 blog)

While it is easy to get in the mindset of "the user is always right", this can become very dangerous and hurtful if the designer(s) take this literally.  The user's wants and needs should always be kept in mind while designing, but at a certain point during a design there should be a goal to design for the general situation or population, rather than one specific user.  What one user uniquely wants will almost never completely line up with what another completely different user might want.  Designers should always be noting when a certain amount of users are asking for the same feature over and over, but it should get to a point where the general majority of users want it in order to not upset too many users.  Hoekman pushes the idea that a specific user base shouldn't be the focus of a design, but rather to design for a general situation.

Looking back on project 2, Hoekman makes very valid points for advocating situational design.  This approach doesn't focus as much on the actual user and their needs but rather looks at the whole situation as a whole and designs from that perspective.  Thinking about the machines we dealt with in project 2, I now notice that even more simplicity might have been ideal because nobody wants to be hassled by pushing too many buttons or having to set up too many programs, settings, etc. when they are using these workout machines.  

8 - Martin Johnson

I now know the complexity of "playing the whole game" of HCI Design. There isn't one path to take and many times, one will find themselves revisiting past destinations and making further revisions. For example, this last project 4, instead of doing everything in order, we would do a step and then revise the past step. This allowed us to truly partake in what the HCI Design process has to offer. We would continue to reference our persona, sketches, and so on after the we had completed the next step on our agenda. Any changes or new insights we discovered we would add to both parts. This is completely different from working our way through a project without much revision or changing to "finished" parts.

 

 

Weeks 07 and 08 Blog Assignments

This is a double assignment since we missed last week's blog assignment. 

For Week 07:

Take a look at blog assignments 1-6. Did you answer all of them? Each is worth 15 points. That's 90 points; and with this one, it's 130 points; that's more points than Exam #1. If you didn't answer them all, do so now and earn partial credit (10 points). After this week you will forfeit all points for these six blogs assignments. 

Similarly, if you didn't do one of the projects, please set up an appointment with Marty. This is your last opportunity to correct this problem.

That's it for Week 07 -- just catch up; you automatically will earn 15 points for this part. HOWEVER, read on for your Week 08 Assignment, due next Monday at 11:59 PM...

For Week 08: 

So you're just wrapping up Project #4 and you took your first exam.

For this blog assignment, I want you to do two things:

1) Reflect on what you're learning about "playing the whole game" of HCI Design. What do you know now that you didn't know even 2-3 weeks ago? Be specific; give examples. Share what you are learning (write a paragraph or so).

2) Find what someone else said in this blog (as a response to the week 08 assignment) and write a reply to that person, commenting on their reflection. Don't just write something like "Good job," but really comment on what the person is learning in this class. Try to comment on someone who doesn't have any comments. Of course, feel free to comment on more than one person! And return to the blog in a couple of days to see if anyone replied to your post. Feel free to reply to their comment as well!

Let's have some fun with this one... but let's be reflective about our learning too.

6 - Kalvin Greer

In project 3 I aimed to fix the subscriptions page of YouTube that had lots of used blank space. When looking at what the user's mental model is for this page I believe that having lots of unused space on a page can be very frustrating to someone using the page, especially one who might have issues with pages that aren't aesthetically pleasing.

This idea could vary greatly when looking at the implementation model for this feature because all the page is really supposed to be used for is to see videos that people you have followed have posted. It doesn't require much space and therefor isn't actually broken just could have been done better. 

*Note: One thing that is kind of cool is that if you go to YouTube's 'My Subscriptions' page, they actually did fix it similar to what I had envisioned which is kinda neat. 

6-Taylor Payne

In our Project 3, my partner and I re-designed the layout of YouTube’s homepage. We wanted to make it less cluttered while also giving it a new look. We felt that there was a better way to display the videos and categories, and that we could also adapt some of YouTube’s current features to fit our needs.

We believed that the users’ mental model of YouTube’s homepage is a page that they can go to quickly browse through new videos and categories.

For our implementation model, we added a ‘categories’ bar, which added some organization and quick access to the different categories that the user might want. We also made the decision to display the search results into the video area (the area that typically displays the video you are watching) just to add a new feature. This helped to make the page less cluttered.