Actionable Analytics, Going Deeper, Seeing Further, and Informing our Intuition

After reading the articles I noticed similarity of them all dealt with researching, observing, and analyzing ways to improve design for consumers. The design for consumers have significant importance we as designers must investigate what and who we are designing for. I know that research and developing, which is why I sometimes take a different approach at a project than the class. I take more time understanding every project I work on. I feel it is very important or else it will not be successful and I could not transfer my idea into a working project. Designers have the responsibility of visually communicating concepts that words may not translate.

Presentation Layers Accessibility and SOFA

These articles were pretty interesting in the fact that they discussed the different techniques for creating and designing websites. I am really interested in creating websites, because the ability to make websites I feel are in high demand; especially around college students who aspire to start their own businesses. In class, discussed the many usability and accessibility issues within websites. I never even thought about the usability and accessibility when thinking about creating a website. I didn't know about the many rules to making a website user friendly. The web designer has to make sure the site is available to any user in any operating system from any device; including the blind and deaf.

Data Visualization and Developing Diverse Brand Strategies

The articles talked about the strategic process of creating a brand. I thought they were interesting because I learned about the things that should be in my portfolio to attract and impress clients and/or companies. As a designer I’ve always known that I need a variety of content in a sleek, strongly design portfolio but seeing the list of content along with descriptions added extra emphasis to the process of create my brand. Branding is a very important type of design because I feel it is what makes or breaks and Idea or path to success. It is about delivery, what the product, company, or person can deliver to the audience, and if that deliery isn't strongly thought of and designed then it is a waste of time.

Question Everything; Innovation Through Design; Embracing Risk

Question Everything talks about the advice given by Jane Suri about the creative solutions for a project. I felt the most interesting section of this article was about the thought and consideration of cultures.We spoke in class about a super market in a part of town inhabited in minority culture including a larger variety of food than in a store in a suburban or upscale neighborhood. The article says that we should question everyday experiences, like grocery shopping, which is a good idea because doing that will open the opportunity to come to new realizations, view a different perspective, and learn something new about culture; which is beneficial in becoming a great designer. Innovation Through Design was about the design of a bike for people who want ride bikes but do not have the confidence in riding a bike. We had a somewhat heated debate about whether people should even ride a bike in Austin on the street altogether. Finally, Embracing Risk was about the risks designers take. We talked about your (Michelle) daring risks you have taken with your clients, which I wouldn't go to the same extent, but I feel risk taking is essential in finding your style and limits as a designer.

META/Systems at Scale

I loved the discussion from reading Designing Systems at Scale. The examples the article gave very clearly pointed out that in order to design a large scale system it is essential to start at human scale. We talked about HIV/AIDS and we agreed that the epidemic could not be solved with one step. It would have to be solved by a measure that would not be humane, and unethical and something we are not willing willing to do. If the larger goal is broken down into something smaller and more manageable, like educating the African American youth in middle school, then the design solutions would be at a realistic goal we can possibly reach. The article mentions the importance of being a visionary, explaining the goal as a bigger picture, changing the goals of a small community. Change starts with education, if we could educate the communities that are more prone to any social problem, then we are thinking on a bigger scale with small scale action.

Prototyping

These articles change how I thought of some of these terms. I thought the experience user testing as the last or somewhat least important part of the researching. “Experience Prototyping” says user testing is a part of prototyping and one of the most important parts of the research process.

I believe the term "essence" is too broad or vague and pretty close to impossible to attribute it to information. I think what the authors were trying to describe a central message or purpose; with the message the author is trying to send they are trying to get the reader to experience feelings from that message.

I do very little prototyping in my process and I know my process should involve more prototyping. I get a lot of “designer’s block” and once that happens I tend to sleep on the concept and let the process come to me. I pick one idea and perfect that idea through criticisms of my own and fellow peers; which can open a whole slew of problems. Doing more prototyping, I feel will definitely help my design process.

Designing Interactions

These articles were very interesting and made me consider reevaluating how I define myself as a designer. The child’s answer to the question "What is Design" is pretty funny, considering if you believe 100% that art allows you to be all weird and funky but that design is about doing what people want. I feel like design is the process of taking an idea and creating real form and function from that idea. Designers have personal stakes when creating art into every piece whether it is personal work or for a client. I liked the idea “Design is everywhere...looking for a definition may not help you grasp what it is.” Why, well this sort of proves my idea that design is in everything yet we cannot explain it. We have become so engrossed in the "design" of ads, TVs, computers, yet no one can scientifically explain how something in a clock is in an ad or some other combination of things.

It is the process of making an idea a tangible and functioning concept are what create what people understand as design. To understand design,you have to jump right in the process itself. Tacit versus explicit learning is evident. A person “knows” what design is through tactile learning, having an hands on learning by doing approach. I design by seeing what I want and then jumping right into a program and going to work. Tutorials or hands on teaching is how I learn best. I like to watch someone do something creative and then on my own go back and try what I saw.