Opinion article on lessons learnt in NM4210

Initial Impression
Upon reading the course description, my initial impression of this course was basically a course on user-centered design. I thought we would learn about interface design and similar topics, to my surprise the course is much more!

Course structure
I thought the topics covered were useful to learn and were presented logically. The course was delivered well, we would learn one weeks lectures then have a small project with respect to the most recent material. The final project allowed us to implement what we've learnt in the course to that point as well as that weeks new learnings. The course structure allowed us to build a routine and plan accordingly for N2M4210 homework.

Final Project
A final project in this type of design course is almost mandatory in order to put theory to practise. The final project for this course did involve a lot of development work that students couldn't really work on until the last couple weeks. I feel that groups that created a website to demonstrate the user experience had an extremely large amounts of work, since they acted as web developers, graphic designers, and user experience designers. In the end, my group was thinking more graphic design and less user experience design.

I understand user experience to involve all interactions with the product. Including hearing about the product, signing up, and using it; I am not sure our final project covered all of those subjects. It would have been interesting to spend more time designing the complete process rather than making our website usable.

Moreover, it would have been interesting learning how to make a product give you a certain feeling everytime you use it or think about it. This is the objective of user experience design and although the final project should include some thoughts on this, I am not sure that we emphasized this point enough.

Application
I learnt a number of user research methods that I'll surely apply to future design projects. I hope that I'll always think user experience design now that I've learnt the concept. The course is full of a number of systematic ways of doing things and I'll surely keep the website as a favourite!

Reflections on User Research Smoke & Mirrors article

First, I found the series of posts to be insightful and interesting. It touched on many different topics covered within this module and thus some of the thoughts hit home.

The article started with comments on the use of eyetrackers. I've never actually thought of using an eyetracker but could see how the authors "pitfalls" made sense. If you know that someone is looking at something is that enough? I agree that it is solely not enough. You don't know why the user is looking at it, if it is interesting or confusing; two different conclusions that would lead to contradicting results.

I really enjoyed the sections on user research. This is a topic that we covered and focused on in this course: ethnography, card sorting, etc. As a result of this course and other design projects, I feel that user research is a must. I've had design projects completely change do to the feedback and response we receive. A perfect example is the final project for this module; we started expecting to create a credit card solution and ended up creating an online game.

The author of the blog hints that user research gives experienced designers results that they would feel are obvious. This is a point I disagree with. However, I wonder if this is because I am not an "experienced designer". I find that user research gives me insight and a perspective that I could get from nowhere else.

The blog continues to say that user research is useful as a business strategy. I felt that this was a great point! Even if the required design changes are evident, a designer might need the research results in order to push the company to implement the changes.

Another interesting point I felt the blog mentioned was in response to the IDEO video. I watched the IDEO video in one of my design courses and found it to be inspiring. It was slightly unpleasant reading the authors critical remarks; the video is idealized and probably staged but nonetheless designing should be a constraint free process as demonstrated in it. I feel that this is important and especially when innovating a new solution as demonstrated in the video.

All in all, I enjoyed the blog series and particularly enjoyed the opinions shared, whether I agree with them or not. It was a fun read and I would recommend it to anyone in any design industry.

Final project: Designing for user experience

Need

The group was given the task of identifying a need. After brainstorming several needs, the need to teach financial responsibility at a young age was agreed upon. The solution that will be designed to solve this need will be created from the perspective of a commercial bank. The target customer is youth since it is best to teach financial responsibility at a young age, before detrimental problems arise.

User Research

The group developed user profiles and conducted user research. The novice user for this product is someone with very little banking experience and simply wants to gain competency. The advanced user is a young person with some financial experience and is interested in understanding all the services offered by the bank. The anti-user is the young person who understands banking services and needs more from the product. In this case, a more advanced product is required.

The user research led to a number of user requirements that a solution tackling this need must employ. The user requirements are listed below:

• able to effectively teach variety of financial knowledge to youth
• easily accessible
• easy to use
• not intrusive
• able to fit easily into the user’s day-to-day life
• targeted towards the identified user age group
• teach content relevant to user group
• able to measure progress and success
• able to provide long-term results
• give incentives for use
• interactive
• affordable or even free
• easy to manage and update content
• supports growth of users (i.e. able to provide material for various levels)

Proposed Solution

The group decided on using a series of online game based on financial knowledge. This was seen as a fun interactive to teach financial terms an different banking services. The group conducted more user research when performing information organisation decisions. In this case, the games must be categorized logically. The games all have a different theme varying from Jeopardy to Wheel of Fortune.

High Fidelity Solution

The group decided to create the Jeopardy game as a proof of concept. The key functionalities of the Jeopardy game that will help increase the positive experience of the game is as follows:

• The game will involve a wager system that affects the score
• The online game will have a multi-player option
• The different games will be locked and only become accessibly when the previous game is completed
• There will be an interactive-chat function on the website
• For extended learning, students can click the “learn more” link and more information on the specific topic will be shown

The group built the high fidelity solution in MS Access. Problems arose since the solution is to be implemented using a website and thus the prototype had a jump from a website to MS Access in which the user experience was negative. It was decided that the proof of concept must be redone and created online using a web language.

User Evaluation

Overall the feedback in response to the changes was very positive. Users felt it was worth the extra work and development in order to demonstrate the idea. The overall look and feel of the project was improved.

Assignment 3: Desing probe

Task


The task for assignment 3 was to "Improve learning experience in lecture theaters". Students worked in groups and selected any user study methods.

Approach

Our group of four divided split in half and each subgroup chose a user study method.

User study methods:

• Ethnography
• Laddering

My subgroup did laddering. We asked four different students at NUS what they felt the positives and negatives are with respect to lecture theatres. We then continuesly asked "why" until a root reason was reached.

Result

Both the ethnography and laddering approach reached similar design points. The points heavily relied on the overal design of the lecture theatre; corrections were identified that could improve students learning experience. Some of these points include:

• circular lecture theatre design
• better control of temperature
• make classes smaller and interactive
• design for laptop use

Assignment 2: Four Pleasure Analysis

The purpose of this assignment is to design a hand phone that targets the RMA profile discussed in class. This post will create a story, perform a four-pleasure framework analysis, identify the needs, and then describe the benefit specifications of the phone.



Story


I would like to introduce you to Roger Gilbert. Roger is an upper class middle-aged conservative man. He is a Director at an Engineering Firm. Roger works long hours during the week, roughly 6am - 7pm each day. He is always connected with the firm and works from home after hours regularly.

Roger lives a balanced life full of healthy hobbies like working out at the gym, tennis, and gardening with his wife. He spends his weekends doing things he loves that he doesn't have time to do during the week. Roger also loves golf and plays often at his country club. At any time in his day both during the week and on weekends, Roger expects to get calls from work regarding time critical tasks.

His children are in their mid-20s with one in his last year of University and the other married with one child on the way. Roger also enjoys catching up with them at least weekly. This means his once full house is empty and he has turned the unused bedrooms into an entertainment den and a personal study.

Although Roger has many possessions that are expensive and a reflection of his status, that is one of his least priorities. He buys nice things for their purpose and does not believe that one's assets should represent anyone.



Four-pleasure Analysis



Physio-pleasure

• Roger lives a balanced life and works out regularly - Need pleasure
• He also enjoys golf and various hobbies around the house (e.g. gardening) - Appreciation pleasure

Socio-pleasure

• Roger wants to be constantly available to the company - Need pleasure
• Roger has an extremely busy schedule and loves to fit in personal interests when he can - Appreciation pleasure
• Roger's personal social needs relate to his family and close group of friends. He wants to be as family oriented as possible and doesn't want his work to hinder these relationships.

Psycho-pleasure

• Roger always wants to be spending his time effectively. If he is not doing work for the company he wants to be improving his health or spending time with family. He values his time a lot and hates to see any of it wasted.
• Roger works as an engineer and believes it is important to understand how things work. His favourite products are the ones that he fully understands. Roger is easily annoyed if he feels he doesn't understand how to utilize something.

Ideo-pleasure

• Roger feels that he is extremely blessed and tries not to take anything for granted. He tries to give back whenever possible and loves new ways of helping others.
• Roger is content with his professional situation and doesn't really want to be promoted any higher than he already is. He feels that the work will increase exponentially if he enter the executive managment team of the firm. He does however attempt to help other move up in the company and does whatever he can to help.
• Roger wants to be seen by other as an example of how to live a well balanced life. He is comfortable and happy to see that young professionals are willing to listen to the wisdom he has gathered over his career
  
  

  Physio	Socio	Psycho	Ideo
  balanced life	Company	Time use	Give Back
  hobbies	Appointments	Understanding	Positive
  	Family		Example

Product benefit Specifications

The hand phone I would design for Roger would have four main benefit specifications. The specifications are mainly features and do not specify the appearance of the phone. The phone should be slim and futuristic however this is not a priority for Roger, functionality matters a lot more; hence the specifications deal mainly with functions of the phone.

• The phone should have internet access and importantly have email access. The benefit of this is that way Roger can stay in touch with his company and family.
• The phone should have an extensive calendar. One that allows Roger to rely on it solely. It must help him plan his day and make it more efficient.
• The phone must be capable of sending and receiving large amounts of data. This is important not only for Roger’s work but also personally. It will allow him to receive pictures from his children.
• The phone should be lightweight and easy for Roger to carry with him throughout his day and while he works out. It should be able to clip onto his belt that way it is always close to him.

Assignment 1: Products and Emotion

The assignment is to find 3 examples of products that represent visceral, behavioural and reflective design. I believe that the wide range of televisions is a good example of the different types of emotional design.

Visceral Design

Hitachi's Ultravision Director's Series (60" Flat Panel Plasma HDTV)

• Visceral: This is a very attractive looking television. It is slim and extremely large. Gives you an excellent first impression .


• Behavioural: For the average television user this television is not very effective. It costs $6999 (USD) and has a large number of input/output channels that are not required for simple television viewing (picture shown on the right). As a result, the Hitachi 60" plasma is not an effective choice for most television users.

• Reflective: Not much show off value past the initial reaction unless someone knows a lot of technical information regarding televisions.

Behavioural Design

Dynex - 32" Flat-panel LCD HDTV

• Visceral: The television does not stun someone the first time they see it. Flat panels are quite common today .

• Behavioural: This television is an effective choice and uses current technology (HDTV). It costs $499 (USD) and is well whorth that price. 96% of customers at bestbuy.com recommend this product and reflect on it by saying "Nice Picture, Easy to Use, good quality!" Don't need a lot of other equipment to ultilize it.

• Reflective: This is not a show television or a status symbol. It does utilize present technology and does look good however it is only 32".

Reflective Design

Sony - BRAVIA SXRD HD Home Theatre Projector

• Visceral: This projector makes a great first impression and a lasting one. When utilized it is very attractive!


• Behavioural: If you intend to build a home theatre then this is an effective way of doing so. It is costy at $14999 (USD) however it is a great value when compared to other projectors. Projectors are fairly easy to use and makes for an excellent viewing experience. You do however need a lot of exra equipment to fully utilize it.


• Reflective: This is definately a status symbol. The projector can use a screen size from 40" to 300". No television can compare to it. It is by definition a theatre in your home.

Assignment 0: Bad Design

Shower Head

The showers in Prince George Park residence are an example of a bad design. The height of the shower head is roughly over 150cm where as the average height of a male in Singapore is 172cm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height).

Also, it is important to note that PGP is a popular residence for exchange students from European and North American countries where the average height for men is greater.