Tanner Sheridan Blog 11

Kaizen is about constant iteration and improvement. It is about taking a design and continually making changes to better the design. This relates directly to the theme that good design involves continuous redesign. It is impossible to make a perfect design on the first try or even to make a perfect design at all, but iteration is key to improving a design to make it as good as you can based on usability testing, user feedback, and insights. Our group applied kaizen to our idea of having a a device which tracks Disney vacationers throughout the park using GPS, records there steps using a pedometer, and acts as an interactive map. After analyzing our design and applying kaizen, we decided that it would not be plausable for each person in the group of vacationers (especially kids) to carry one of these devicesds. So we redesign the device to interact with watches that act as gps trackers and pedometers and are linked to the central device to create personal profiles for each person in the group.

Tanner

Jeff Lewis blog 11

Kaizen is a method of constantly improving your design or iterating. This is the same as the #5 theme of good design, Redesign. We are constantly improving on our design which allows us to develope in increments and not try to get it 100% perfect the first time. We get closer to perfection through iteration.

Our group is doing the restaurant theme. A concept our group was developing focuses on entertaining our guests in a healthy way while they were dining in our restaurant.

After kaizen we decided to break the dining experience into different segments. we talked about having a story to interact with our guests and characters. Then we chose a variety of healthy foods the guests could choose from. We also decided to have a more natural atmosphere like in a forest to promote health. The story, the food, and the atmosphere would all tie together to make an entertaining and healthy experience.

Chris Hall Blog #11

1. “Kaizen means iteration”. This is a sub heading in Hoekman’s book and, to me, really gets at the heart of what Kaizen is. Kaizen is a way of going about improving something, which you created or was given to you. As Hoekman mentions Kaizen allows you to improve the whole by improving little bits over time, which eventually add up to a great deal. This sounds a lot like Theme #5 good design is redesign. In essence both of these concepts state that a good design never stops evolving. There is always a way to make something better, or at least in a week or so there will be.

2. My group and I chose the restaurant/bar project, and one of our concepts was to provide pairing suggestions when customers ordered drinks. We thought this would encourage patrons to order food with their drinks as well as give us a means to impart knowledge about “healthy type food” to the customer.

3. After we applied the Kaizen concept, our group focused on the question of what mentality do people have when they go into a restaurant/bar? This lead us to thinking focusing more on how the patrons might react to our pairing suggestions and not so much on the pairing suggestions themselves.

Week 10 and 11 Blog Assignment

Blog 10 is a "feebie." Everyone earned 15 points on it.

Blog 11 is this:

Chapter 8 is a great chapter to read, and it won’t take you very long. It’s called “Reduce and Refine.” It reintroduces the word “kaizen.” Does it remind you of one of our seven themes? Which one? Good design is… ?

Now think about Project #6. Think about one of the concepts you or your team recently generated. Apply the kaizen technique to it. What was it before, and what is it now? Just describe the two states: before kaizen and post kaizen. Begin your post by defining kaizen in your own words.

So, here’s how to organize your post (after reading the chapter!):

1. define kaizen in your own words; relate it to one of the seven themes.
2. describe a project #6 concept before you apply the technique of kaizen; and
3. describe the revised concept after you apply the technique of kaizen.

Because I’m posting this late, you’ll have until WEDNESDAY, 11:59 PM to reply.

Mark Rodriguez Blog #09

Chapter 7 is "Design for Uniformity, Consistency, and Meaning." It's all in the title! Uniformity is good for design because people always look to certain places when they open some kind of interface. Like on websites, people tend to look towards the top right and left for some kind of links to useful information through other web-sites. Keeping this consistent among different websites and such will help people easily understand the meaning of the web-sites.

A great web-site that is uniform, consistent and meaningful is tuitivegroup.com. It's very uniform with the top right having links to useful parts that you would want to get information from. In the .top left it tells you the name of the company. The center of the website addresses what the website is for and who they are making it very meaningful. The main parts are highlighted, when you hover over them they begin to spell out what they mean.

Andrew DeVoe - Blog Assignment #9

Theme #4 has almost the same principles as stated in Chapter 7. The ultimate outcome is that the user isn't overwhelmed by confusing, irrelevant, and inconsistent qualities of a design. A good example of a website that follows this criteria is Gamefaqs.

The website is extremely simple and straightforward. Whatever game you could be looking for a guide for, you just type it in. The layout of the site is simple as well, the whole design is made with columns. That's pretty much it. So, once you figure out the flow of the first page (and you will easily do so in no time), then the rest of the pages are just as easy to navigate. I feel this site is a good representation of the material presented in the chapter as well as theme 4 of good design. Simple, eh?

Blog Assignment 9-James Berghoff

The website I chose that I feel shows good use consistency, uniformity, and meaning is CNN.com. Through consistency, the site does a great job of keeping font size consistent between different header sections of news and what each news article is about which gives the user a good idea of what they are looking at. In terms of uniformity, the site is very consistent with its uniformity. It makes sure to have all the breaking and top news right on top of the page in bigger font so it stands out to the user. Also, along one side of the page is other popular recent news, and at the bottom gives different sections of news such as "world", "tech", "local" and these sections give links to articles relating to each header. In terms of Meaning, the site stays consistent with giving news to its users and each link takes the user to a particular location based on its header or quick topic summary. This is why I feel CNN.com is a good site in terms of consistency, uniformity, and meaning.

Tanner Sheridan Blog 9

It is easy to see how Chapter 7: Design for Uniformity, Consistency, and Meaning would go along with the theme of "providing for ease of learning." A website design which utilizes a uniform and consistent design is obviously one that would provide for ease of learning. I know I have used this example before in my blogs, but I find the site's excellent design allows for it to apply to many of the themes we discuss. The site is of course JamBase.com. Immediately once you are on the page, there are multiple ways for a user to find a live show. You can use the search function with its convenient artist, venue, city, and date filters to find the live show you are looking for, or you can navigate to one of the items on the header menus and find your show that way. The page clearly places emphasis on the search engine using a blue background rather than the orange that is used on the other page sections. The alignment of the different sections also makes it easier for the user to distinguish between which section is what and whether that section will help them find a show, give them news about upcoming shows, or read articles about past shows, artists, or venues.

Tanner Sheridan

Blog 9 - Janelle Velkoff

Theme number four, providing for ease of learning really is interrelated to chapter seven's topic of designing for uniformity, consistency and meaning. Part of making a site easy for users to learn and understand is making it clean and consistent.

I chose to use the Urban Outfitters website (I happened to be on it before I read this blog assignment) because it seems to really be consistent in it's design throughout different areas. The site is easy to use because it is broken down by sections, women, men, apartment, new, sale, etc. Once a section is chosen this is where I think it really shows great uniformity, consistency, and meaning. The topic of visual hierarchy is something that we talk about a lot in my graphic design class, and this site does a great job of using it to the fullest. When you select a clothing category that becomes the highlighted item and then the subcategories appear in a smaller thiner font. Their use of consistent typography is also great, font weight, height, and use of minimal color to show emphasis is used uniformly through out the site and makes it very approachable for users. Also the idea of intelligent inconsistency is used in their homepage, there are oversized graphics and fonts to draw attention to new things or promotions. This is a smart way to emphasize things and show what they really want people to see as soon as they get to the site, but if they want to get straight to the women's clothing that is also an option in the same size text that it always is shown in.

Steve Flockenhaus-Blog 9

Chapter 7 seems to speak a lot about helping internet users navigate through useful and not useful websites at a quick pace.  It speaks to the visual hierarchy, or organization, of web pages putting the most important information towards the top in a big font with the support below in a smaller font.  The chapter speaks about findability, putting useful things in useful places.  While reading, I thought the most important parts were the subjects addressing uniformity.  The book explains to use only a few fonts and to align similar objects on a page.

This site I chose that exemplifies these traits is Health.gov.  On the site they have large Topic headings and subjects of the topic in smaller fonts beneath.  The fonts according to each the heading and subject lines are uniform.  Finally, the bullets are aligned on the along the page.

Blog 9 - Stephen Miller

The title of Chapter 7 alone speaks to the fourth theme. Chapter 7 is "Design for Uniformity, Consistency, and Meaning." These three tenets all fulfill the fourth theme and provide for ease of learning. For this one, I'll look at Hulu. For a first time user, Hulu provides multiple, easily accessed options for finding shows. On the home page, it displays three separate columns indicating new content, popular content, and featured content. This provides the opportunity to the user to find new content they might enjoy. The actual operation of Hulu is very straightforward. You find the show, clip, or movie you want to watch and it loads and plays automatically. Content is also organized by genre (Channels), and other factors across the top of every page of hulu - it is designed with uniformity. The site leverages its content to draw in the user and by suggesting other shows you might be interested in and keeping content up to date keeps the user interested in the long term.

evan Samuels - Blog post #9

Chapter 7's discussion of uniformity and consistency is very much tied to the "ease of learning" as explained in theme 4. This is because any given website should reflect a user's mental model so they feel comfortable navigating the site and without having their workflow interrupted. The more uniform and consistent a site is, the easier it is for users to find the information they want. For example, users expect information to be organized and aligned in neat columns, have a color scheme that is easy on the eyes, and also to have a navigation pane at the top so the users can navigate the site deeper. Likewise, some elements should stand out if they want to be emphasized more than others.

The example I used for c hapter 7's discussion of uniformity and consistency is CBS sport's website. The site has a big top window for easy navigation, as well as CBS's logo for the user to recognize. Also, all of the links are in blue and match the color scheme. The information on the site is organized as well. Likewise, your attention is immediately drawn to the top 3 headlines of the day, which are displayed as pictures. You can view each headline by clicking the picture.

Yong Hyun Kim - Blog Assignment #9

As I’ve finished reading chapter 7 of our textbook, I noticed that it is basically about uniformity, consistency, and meaning which are related to ease of learning. All those stated in chapter seven’s title which is uniformity, consistency, and meaning relate to theme 4 which is providing for ease of learning. The messages of chapter 7 speak to this theme by providing familiar atmosphere of certain applications to the users. The users don’t have to fully understand how the website works. Instead, the users can use the websites easily with simple knowledge. With the ease of use in certain products, uniformity, consistency, meaning, and simplicity follow vice versa.

An example of a website containing uniformity, consistency, meaning, as well as providing ease of learning is google.com. Google website is simple as it looks. The users don’t need to analyze the website before actually start using the website. There is just a search box, that is all which Google.com provides at first screen. And the two buttons below the search box seems clear enough for new users to use as they are stated.

Jeff Lewis Blog 9

Chapter 7 is about designing for uniformity, consistency, and meaning which are all necessary for providing for ease of learning. Uniformity and consistency help the user to become familiar with an application and makes it easy to navigate through. If each page were different on a site people who just be confused. Having said that it is also necessary to use simpler irregularities to signal importance. You should put meaningful data in a way that stands out so it gets noticed.

An example of a website that uses these things to create an ease of learning is youtube.com. It follows uniformity and consistency by aligning your results in the same pattern each time you search for something. It also keeps the search box in the same location no matter what you do. It does a good job of minimizing chrome which allows more room for what you really want to see.

Bethany Hufford - Blog 9

Chapter 7 is on designing with uniformity, consistency, and meaning. These three things allow a website to be easier to understand and allow the user to learn how to use it much more quickly. Chapter 7 begins by talking about visual hierarchy. Web pages and applications need to be organized so the headings and important sections stand out. Content should be proportionate and well aligned.Typography is also a very important aspect. The font, size, and color is very important in identifying important sections of webpages, headings, and other content that the developer wants to highlight. All of these aspects of design combine to make a webpage easier to understand and learn.

A good example of this is Gmail. Gmail uses very simple colors. Everything is done in shades of blue except for the logo. All of the headings for folders within the mailbox and other links are always aligned in the same spot no matter which folder you are in. The page also uses a consist font that underlines important headings. All of the messages are displayed in a similar matter with unread messages highlighted. This consistency and uniformity makes it easy for a new user to learn how to navigate through the website.

Kym Pagel Blog 9

Uniformity and ease of use, discussed in Chapter 7, result in the ease of learning defined in Theme 4. If the content follows traditional formats then the user has to perform less analysis on the website and can just spring into actually using it. Increased space focused on relevant content and uniform spacing makes the page less cluttered, and therefore easy to learn. So if you want ease of use in your product, then it should follow many of the things described in chapter 7.

An example is the Blogger Dashboard which all of us have access to. There aren't any real ads to clutter up the space and all of the content within the page is restricted to the middle of the page and aligned to particular spots on the left and right of that middle portion. The width and formatting are consistent throughout the site, so even if you go to a new page you still get a feeling of familiarity. White space is used to separate the interaction elements but not to the detriment of the user because it is still easy to locate and navigate different headings and tabs. The tabs used throughout the site are an example of design patterns, and they are easy to find and use.

Chris Hall Blog #9

Chapter seven and theme #4 of the seven themes of good design seem to take two separate approaches to achieve a similar goal. Theme #4 of the seven themes of good design talks about the ease of learning, not making the user feel overwhelmed, and elevating the user to their next level of expertise. Chapter seven, as its title suggests, talks about uniformity, consistency and meaning, which in theory will aid in theme #4’s goal of ease of learning. A good example of these concepts that I found was phonescoop.

The reason this site is a good example is it follows many of the rules and suggestions laid out in chapter seven regarding design and consistency. Right off the bat you notice that there are not very many colors on the site (with the exception of the advertisements). This site also follows the rules about alignment in the sense that entire site is contained inside a single columns which is broken down into smaller columns. The site also follows chapters sevens notion of consistency, in that the banner at the top and the side bar navigation are the same size and in the same place throughout the site.

While some might say that this site feels a little too crowded, and violates the notions of proportion that are discussed in chapter seven, once a user starts to explore the site they find out that most of that crowded feeling is due to the large amount of actual content and not design elements such as logos, navigation bars, and advertisements (with the exception of the one just below the banner).Over all I feel this site is a great example for the ideas of ease of learning as well as consistent design.

Enrique Pérez Blog #9

The message of chapter 7 speaks to theme 4 of good design, providing for ease of learning, in several ways. Chapter 7 talks about uniformity and consistency which help users understand, obtain meaning from, and focus when using a website or application. Uniformity and consistency are achieved in websites or applications via visual hierarchy, alignment, proportion, typography, intelligent inconsistency, leveraging irregularity via color and dimension, and implementing design patterns. The utilization of these design approaches allow users to build spatial memory to websites or applications so that users mental models can be supported, therefore making the use of a website or application almost natural to the user.

An example of this is a website that is known to many users of social networking sites, Facebook. When you enter the URL to go to the Facebook home page, your attention is demanded by a dark blue banner that spans the top of the webpage whereas the rest of the webpage is lighter shades of blue with some exceptions of text and other important buttons needed for new users. When a user reaches the Facebook site, most users will read from left to right, first encountering the Facebook name then the login fields located in the dark blue banner. Once a user logs in, the dark blue banner stays at the top of the page, however, the size is smaller now that the focus is the users content. The dark blue banner has all the essentials a user needs to navigate through their Facebook page. Also, located in relatively the same location as the login of the homepage, the user can log out from their account. The Facebook website designers have done a good job in making it easy for users to learn how to access, use, and get off Facebook.

Week 09 Blog Assignment

Chapter 7 is about designing for uniformity, consistency, and meaning. Because it took me longer than anticipated to get out this assignment, and it’s spring break, I’ll make this easier for you.  

Some of the advice in this chapter sounds to me like one of the seven themes: Theme 4 is “providing for ease of learning.” How does the message of chapter 7 speak to this theme?

Provide an example not used in the book or in class and explain it.

 

Bonus magic point: email spring break photo(s) — on the beach or elsewhere — to Marty (msiegel@indiana.edu) !

Steve Flockenhaus-Blog 8

Sorry I'm a little late.  While interacting with the Wufoo site I started to mess around with creating forms.  I added new fields to the form, edited them, and went back to the menu to add a field.  One modeless feature of the site is that while the add a field menu is displayed and the button to "add a field" is clicked, the menu shakes on the screen to alert the user that the menu is already in fact being displayed.  An error message is obviously an unnecessary warning here and the site simply points in the user in the direction of the menu.

When deleting fields from a form a very helpful dialogue box appears on the screen.  This box happens to be document-modal in that a user can still use other windows and other applications, just not the window where the box appears.  The dialogue box explains what happens when deleting a field and that it cannot be undone and even offers a link to export the data first.  Then at the end of the message the options are "Yes, I am sure.  Please delete the field." and "Cancel."  This is a great example of writing helpful error messages.

In an attempt to submit a form with an empty required field Wufoo utilizes modeless text boxes with error messages.  Upon submitting the form Wufoo takes you back to the part of the page where the error occurred.  A message appears above the uncompleted field telling a user there was an error and that it is highlighted below.  The word "highlighted" is also highlighted in the same way as the error so the user knows exactly what the problem is.

One of the features I noticed Wufoo does not support, at least in one aspect, is the use of an undo or revert to saved feature in filling out the forms.  I found when attempting to complete my own form that upon submission there is no way to un-submit or undo a submission of a form.  In this way the site is not very forgiving.