Wednesday, 1 October

In-class review of analyses

Review student examples

Homework for Monday, 6 October at noon:

• Complete initial (group) analyses of pairs of exercise equipment - This is an extension
• Read Don’t Make Me Think, “Mobile” (part 1) pp. 142 - 154; answer reading response questions and complete interim assignment; submit through Oncourse assignments

1. What, according to Krug, are the benefits of constraints to designers?
2. What examples of "affordances" in interface design does Krug cite? What are their characteristics?

Monday, 29 September

Follow Up: 

  From Quora Digest: What methods can be used to describe a designer's ideal range of knowledge and skills? Ryan Singer, Product Manager at Basecamp

"Here are the dimensions I look at:

1. Writing: Can they think and communicate clearly? Writing skills are critical to UI.
2. Interface design: Can they organize elements in 2D space so that the arrangement is meaningful, clear, and instantly understandable? Can they organize elements in time (navigation, flows, steps) in a way that minimizes uncertainty and feels efficient? 
3. Product: Can they appreciate the problems and desires our customers have and turn that understanding into business value? In other words, do they know what matters and what doesn't matter to customers and stakeholders? 
4. Development: Are they able to code their designs in HTML/CSS? Can they go further and integrate their designs into the application source code? Can they talk shop with programmers? 
5. Character: Are they a nice person with a good motivation?

I hope that helps. I think you can tell a lot about a company's culture by seeing how their people look across these dimensions."

Review of Project 1

Review interim work

These are really affordances/signifiers more than mappings per se:

Good and bad constraint examples

Good-ish constraints

 Bad mapping example

 Mapping (bad and good)

Mapping -- bad, bad, and good

Note: mapping involves the extent to which a design (physical or virtual) supports users' mental models. What are you expecting to happen? Does it happen? Describe and, if possible diagram, one's mental model.

From one point of view every interaction involves mapping -- does the object or interface conform to people's mental models or not? Within the interface there are signifiers/affordances to guide you as to what to do and constraints keeping you from doing what you should not be doing.

Reiterate project requirements

Work with group

Homework for Wednesday, 1 October at noon:

• Identify exercise equipment to study, do preliminary analysis
• Read Don’t Make Me Think, “Omit needless words” pp. 48 - 53; answer reading response questions and complete interim assignment; submit through Oncourse assignments. The questions themselves are:

1. What is Krug’s third law of usability?
2. What are the three benefits Krug identifies for eliminating needless words.
3. What is “happy talk” in the web, or broader interface design, context? What is it to be avoided?

Wednesday, 24 September

Review student examples of affordances/signifiers, constraints, and mappings

Review Signifiers, Constraints, and Mapping

Form Groups for Project 2

Homework for Monday, 29 September at noon:

• Each group should find and photograph at least one good and bad example, of a similar type, of intentionally-designed affordances/signifiers, constraints, and mappings on the IUB campus, or in Bloomington. You can consider analyzing remote controls, gasoline pumps, self-service check outs, and product packaging. Submit as a PDF through the Assignments portion of Oncourse. Include Title and subtitle, headings and subheadings, images, and short captions describing why your choices are good or bad examples of affordances/signifiers, constraints, and mappings

• Read Don't Make Me Think "Animal, Mineral, or Vegetable," pp. 42 - 47 and complete Reading Response 6 questions and submit through Oncourse assignments. The questions are:

1. What is Krug’s second law of usability?
2. What are the three characteristics of guidance that Krug recommends, and when it must be given. 

Monday, 22 September: Project 2

Updates on submitting work: up to three submissions allowed, you may submit late work through Oncourse (but it will be penalized).

Submission reminder: please include your last name in the title of your file name, include your name in the document itself, and save as a (reduced size) PDF

Review of Project 1 submissions:

• Overall conclusions concerning the relationship of form and function in the building?
• Recommendations? What would you do to improve it from a user-responsive point of view?
• Relevance of project elements to IT?

My view:

• IT is the how, DESIGN is the why -- we are seeking, through these activities, to get "behind" user experience. 

• Instead of simply adapting to the frustrations of our daily interactions with design, we need to understand, experientially, the nature of user-experience.

• An interaction is an interaction whether with a door handle, a smart phone, an app, or a web page -- they operate the same way because, cognitively, we, the users, engage with them in the same way.

• Since we intuitively know from experience how things work in the physical world we, as the Krug book shows, need to look to it for guidance on how to create successful user experiences in the virtual world.

Introduce Project 2: Assessing Modes of Interaction

Introduce affordances/signifiers, constraints, and mapping

Affordances/Signifiers -- good or bad?

Constraints -- good or bad?

Mapping -- good or bad?

Homework due Monday, 29 September at noon: This is an extension.

• Each group should find and photograph at least one good and bad example, of a similar type, of intentionally-designed affordances/signifiers, constraints, and mappings on the IUB campus, or in Bloomington. You can consider analyzing remote controls, gasoline pumps, self-service check outs, and product packaging. Submit as a PDF through the Assignments portion of Oncourse. Include Title and subtitle, headings and subheadings, images, and short captions describing why your choices are good or bad examples of affordances/signifiers, constraints, and mapping.
• Begin finding examples and taking photos of them before Wednesday, 24 September, however.

Wednesday, 17 September

Discussion of recent Reading Response Question replies

Final in-class review of format and content for Project 1

Homework for Monday, 22 September at noon:

• Complete Project 1 and submit through the Assignments portion of Oncourse; each team member should submit the project
• Complete the "Evaluation of Team Member" form and submit through the Assignments portion of Oncourse (you may fill out by hand and scan and submit or you can find a Word version of the form in the Project 1 folder on Oncourse)

Monday, 15 September

Everyone clear on how the course (materials) work now?

Hints: listen carefully in class and take notes (in your design journal), read the course materials critically, then  ask questions

No more late submissions from this point forward.

Discuss blog formatting adjustments -- links, cutting and pasting text, changes, and due dates

Review mid-term study questions

Discussion of design language and wayfinding analyses

Discussion of the presence of Universal Design principles in the wayfinding "nodes" in the Fine Arts Library

Review project contents and formatting approaches

Significance:

Design has significance beyond the aesthetic, reaching into other fields, especially business
.

Meet with group members in class to discuss approach: choose which interim elements to incorporate, identify remaining text to compose, plan layout

Homework for Wednesday, 17 September at noon through Oncourse assignments:

Each group to produce a more or less complete draft of project 1 for in-class review. The elements of the presentation are:

• Title: Subtitle [probably centered], this would be something like, The IU Art Museum and Fine Arts Library: An analysis of design language, wayfinding, and Universal Design

• Overview [of project, one paragraph], this will simply tell the reader what is to follow in the paper -- a case study with three aspects and conclusions addressing the extent to which the form of the building does or does not support the activities that take place in it, with particular emphasis on finding a book.

• Case Study
• Design Language, here you will present one of your design language/organizing principle analyses setting out, visually and in words, the organizational ideas used in the floor, the vertical surfaces, and the design as a whole. 
• Wayfinding Experience, here you will present one of your wayfinding analysis experiences including: diagram on floor plans/maps the route you took to find your assigned book, photographs or sketches of the key “nodes” that helped you navigate to your assigned book [the harder it was to find, the better the example]. Annotate and/or briefly describe each of the stages of your journey. Conclude with a photograph of yourself with your assigned book at the place you found it. 
• Universal Design Principles, here you will present one of your Universal Design analyses in which you note the presence, or absence, of any of the seven principles of Universal Design at the nodes on your journey, have a minimum of five good or bad examples. Illustrate them and explain with reference to the definition and aspects of the principles as set out in the Principles of Universal Design document.

• Conclusion. This is very important. You, as a group, should reflect on the major elements of the design language (form) of the IU Art Museum and Fine Arts Library and the extent to which they do, or do not, support the activities, e.g. finding books, that take place there (function).

• References (in APA format)

It is best to use headings and subheadings to help organize your document, also choose a simple, consistent format for the document as a whole.

Wednesday, 10 September

No classes to be held in classrooms, instructor and AIs will be available during class time in the Fine Arts Library. Bring your work and your questions.

Homework due Monday, 15 September at noon through Oncourse assignments:

• Read Don't Make Me Think "Billboard Design 101," pp. 28 - 41 and answer the following reading response questions:
• What are the three traits of a webpage with clear visual hierarchy?
• What four formatting suggestions does Krug provide to facilitate usability?

• Complete Project 1, Interim Assignment 2: an annotated wayfinding map to your assigned book. Submit as a designerly document including:  Title/subtitle, overall map of wayfinding path, explanation (in words and images and/or video) of each "node," concluding with a selfie of you holding your book where you found it. Include no fewer than five "nodes" and no more than ten. This is an extension!

• Complete Project 1, Interim Assignment 3:a designerly document including:  Title/subtitle, explanation (in words and images and/or video) of the presence or absence of any of the seven principles of Universal Design found at the "nodes"along your wayfinding path (minimum five, there may not be an example in each case) Cite the reasons why each is a good or bad example with reference to the information set out in Principles of Universal Design

Monday, 8 September

Review course materials

Discuss journals and sketchnoting

Address reading response questions

Review: What were the organizing principles of the building?

What was your experience of trying to find an assigned book?


"It's a fact: People won't use your website if they can't find their way around it."

Steve Krug Don't Make Me Think

 

Stewart Brand clip on I.M. Pei's MIT Media Lab building from How Buildings Learn

Introduce Principles of Universal Design

Design thinking as a "third way" that is:

• synthetic, not (solely) analytical
• incorporates rationality and intuition
• holistic
• characterized by learning by doing, not formula following
• fosters innovation, not merely refinement of ideas

According to design theorist Nigel Cross, in his book Designerly Ways of Knowing:

"Even a ‘three cultures’ view of human knowledge and ability is a simple model. However, contrasting design with the sciences and the humanities is a useful, if crude, way of beginning to be more articulate about it."

"If we contrast the sciences, the humanities, and design under each aspect, we may become clearer of what we mean by design, and what is particular to it.

"The phenomenon of study in each culture is

• in the sciences: the natural world
• in the humanities: human experience 
• in design: the artificial world

"The appropriate methods in each culture are

• in the sciences: controlled experiment, classification, analysis
• in the humanities: analogy, metaphor, evaluation 
• in design: modelling, pattern-formation, synthesis

"The values of each culture are:

• in the sciences: objectivity, rationality, neutrality, and a concern for ‘truth’
• in the humanities: subjectivity, imagination, commitment, and a concern for ‘justice’ 
• in design: practicality, ingenuity, empathy, and a concern for ‘appropriateness’

"From these ways of knowing I drew three main areas of justification for design in general education:

• Design develops innate abilities in solving real-world, ill-defined problems.
• Design sustains cognitive development in the concrete/iconic modes of cognition. 
• Design offers opportunities for development of a wide range of abilities in nonverbal thought and communication." 

Note: all sections will meet on Wednesday, 10 September at the Fine Arts Library. Tom and the AIs will be in the conference room in the library to help answer your questions.

 Homework:

• Read Don’t Make Me Think, “How we really use the web.” pp. 20 – 27; answer reading response questions and complete interim assignment; submit through Oncourse assignments by noon on Wednesday, 10 September
• Critically read Principles of Universal Design

Reading response questions:

• What are the "three facts of life" Krug identifies in terms of how people really use the web? Briefly explain each, and its significance.
• What is "satisficing"?  Why is this concept relevant to web (and all) design?