Wednesday, 27 August: Visual Thinking

Discuss course materials – questions?

Discuss readings

Form Project 1 groups, assign books to find

Show examples of previous student work 

Review design journals and writing/drawing tools

The following pages are from Elizabeth Boling's Design Sketching,  available from Lulu

Sketchnoting example

Do in-class exercise with Visual Thinking 101 by Sean Griffin

Omar Sosa Tzec (IU HCI/d student) sketchnoting examples

Formatting in Word: layout, font choice, inserting images, drawing tables, scanning and printing

Homework:

• Read Don’t Make Me Think, “Street signs and breadcrumbs” (part 1) pp. 54 - 70; answer reading response questions and complete the interim assignments and submit through Oncourse assignments by Wednesday, 3 September at noon
• Visit the IU Art Museum and Fine Arts Library and begin documenting the experience of finding an assigned book following the process set out in the Project 1 brief 
• Read "The Power of the Doodle: Improve Your Focus and Memory"

Interim Assignments (Deadline extended to Monday, 8 September at noon):

• What is the “organizational system” used in the floor of the IU Art Museum atrium? Sketch or photograph it and describe it in words.
• What is the “organizational system” used for the vertical walls of the IU Art Museum? Sketch or photograph it and describe it in words. 
• What is the overall concept for the building geometrically? (You may wish to look at the model in the atrium to identify the key elements)

Reading Response Questions:

• What, according to Krug, are the overlooked purposes of navigation on a webpage?
• Also according to Krug, what is the relationship between navigation in physical spaces and navigation on a website? Be specific.

Monday, 25 August: Interaction, Viewed Broadly

Ambient Music/Video:

Brian Eno Mistaken Memories of Mediaeval Manhattan

“The focus in this book is on testing Web sites, because that’s what most people are working on nowadays, and to keep the book short and uncomplicated. But the same method and principles can be used to test and improve almost anything people use. Web applications and desktop software are obvious candidates, but I think it applies equally well to ballots, cell phones, PowerPoint presentations, instructions for digital cameras, and the forms you fill out in your doctor’s office. I’d like to think that you could substitute ‘your product” wherever I refer to ‘your Web site’.” (p. 11)

Steve Krug, Rocket Surgery Made Easy Revisited

From Designing the Obvious by Robert Hoekman, Jr.

 

Self-service check out at Krogers -- a machine, not human-centered, design.

From Designing the Obvious by Robert Hoekman, Jr.

Course overview:

• In this course we’re going to do things
• We’re going to explore a series of frameworks/perspectives/lenses for understanding design in use (there is no "unified theory")
• In particular, we're going to explore how we can learn from the physical world how to embed virtual designs with the clues, e.g. metaphors, they need to be understood?

 

Desktop and desktop metaphor

The Microsoft User Interface Development Process


Hugh Dubberly How Do You Design? A Compendium of Models


Review of syllabus + schedule, and resources from Oncourse


The Academic Code


Introduction of Project 1: Analyzing Form + Function

A Wayfinding map showing access for the disabled to the Indiana University Fine Arts Library.

Homework:

• Read through course materials, note any questions you might have
• Read Don’t Make Me Think, pp. 9 – 19  and review Dubberly's How Do You Design? Read the introductory materials and scan through the models presented answer reading response questions and submit through “Assignments” on Oncourse by noon on Wednesday, 27 August
• Choose a design journal and appropriate pens, pencils, markers, and other tools

Reading Response Questions:

• What is Krug's definition of usability?
• What is Krug's first law of usability?
• Summarize the importance of Krug's view that web designs should be self-evident, obvious, and self-explanatory. Give an example of one interaction you've had that conforms to this view and an example of one that does not. Be specific.
• What, according to Dubberly, are the advantages of using a formal design process? Why were such methods developed? What can you conclude from the inclusion of so many models in the book?