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.