Blog 12+13 Mark Rodriguez

Throughout this course I've learned so much about the design process. I thought I had known a lot from taking architecture classes in the past, but this brought a whole new dynamic to the game. I've learned about this "Game" that is in design that includes creative thought, reiteration, challenging others, and testing yourself. The game is full of all these processes that come together to create a design that fits a user. The Game is repetitive, but the reiteration really helps a design, and helps designers get a better understanding of what users want/need.

I'm taking a lot away from this class. In fact, almost every software and web page design i see I always have a critique for it on the spot. But not even just software and web design, almost everything I see that has some sort of intuitive design to it, i have some kind of comment about how to use it. I really enjoyed this class and think that Marty's style of teaching and our text really helped us LEARN the material.

Blog 12 & 13 Tanner Sheridan

Coming into I-300 I knew very little about design and human and computer interaction. I have learned all of the words and terminology that surrounds the process of playing the "whole game" of design, but more importantly I have learned that there is never a perfect design and that iteration and testing a crucial to the design process.

I have learned the importance of keeping the end user in mind, but at the same time being able to be computer imaginative(if the medium is technology) and awake users to needs and wants that didn't know they had.

Along with these concepts and processes I have learned a lot of valuable skills about teamwork and problem solving that will surely serve me well in the future.

Blog 12+13 - Janelle Velkoff

Coming into this course I had absolutely no idea what it meant to "play the whole game" because I honestly had no idea what HCI Design even was. I've obviously learned a lot over the last few months but one thing that I know will stick with me is the idea of reiteration. It is just something that I had really never considered, but now it is something that I see as necessary in every project I do. The idea that no design is perfect and there is always something that can be improved the next time around, has really helped me with a lot of different projects. Also the importance of usability testing and designing around a persona will really be something I keep in mind for projects in the future. I have really enjoyed this class and feel like it has given us all a lot of skills that we can take with us so that we will be more successful as we continue in our informatics classes.

Chris Hall Blog #12 & 13

As the risk of sounding like everyone else, when I stated this class I had no idea what HCID was, let alone that there was a “whole game” attached to it. All I knew about HCI/D was what I heard from my friend who is a first year HCI Design master student. And most of it was grumbling about lots of work.

What have I learned? Well there are all the technical aspects, terminology, and protocols that are associated with design. But more then that I learned that the process of design is not nearly as simple as I first thought. I learned that a good design never stops evolving (something that took me a while to fully understand). Most of all I learned that even a bad design can have some good elements to it and should not be whole heartedly dismissed.

What am I taking away from this class? Again there are all the technical aspects, terminology, and protocol that are associated with design. But I think the most valuable thing I will take away from this is class is a better understanding of the design process and a new found appreciation and respect for those who “play the whole game” and do so well.

Kym Pagel - 12 & 13

I came into this course a blank slate because really I knew nothing of design. I could pick out designs which I thought were horrible but otherwise had no clue.

I've learned that good design is a lot like good music. First: iteration. You have to practice a lot, until you feel sick of what you're doing. The finished result in design just, like in music, will never be perfect. Small iterative steps of improvement are basically the bread and butter in both.
Second: Team work. Just like working in an orchestra you have to be a good team. You have to have the same goal and communicate well. If one of the members disagrees or doesn't understand something then it will negatively effect the product. More opinions and input give new and better perspectives which benefit the product in several ways.
3. Focus on the users. This is more abstract and hard to explain. In both cases the goal is to create something which fits the user's needs and inspires them. The audience/users should receive benefits from the product in a satisfying and understandable way without frustration. It might seem like a stretch but it makes sense to me.

Blog Assignment 12 & 13 - Bethany Hufford

Coming into this class I had very little knowledge on what good design was and how much work it takes to really get a good design. Learning how to 'play the whole game' has really shown me how to think about design and achieve a good design. One of the most important things that I have learned is reiteration. A design is never finished and there area always improvements that can be made.

Blog Assignment 12 & 13

At the beginning of the semester, I had no idea about what it meant by 'playing the whole game', 'seven themes of good designs', nor 'PRInCiPleS'. Furthermore, I had no insights nor thoughts on any designs I see everyday in my life. I never thought deeply about why and how the design is designed in certain ways at the beginning of the semester. However, as I've been taught on basically how a design is formed, now I have knowledge of and insights of designs I see daily. When I see something, now I can think about why something is designed that way and what needs to be improved. Two things I've most learned in the class are teamwork and design. By taking I300 class, now I can talk smartly about designs to people.

Enrique Pérez Blog 12/13

When we were first introduced to the ‘whole game’ of HCI Design, I was nervous as to what the ‘game’ would entail. As the semester progressed, I realized that I have been playing the whole game in my interior design courses. I could not help to laugh with myself as the each part of the whole game unfolded in I300. Learning the whole game has reaffirmed that the processes I go through in my interior design courses are necessary to develop a better, more obvious design. It’s intriguing how the game applies not only to HCI, but interior design, among other fields. The whole game is important in design, but what I’m I’ve learned the most is the importance of sketching and iteration.

In addition to better understanding the whole game, I’m taking with me the notions of kaizen, team protocols, the PRInCiPles framwork, the seven themes of good design, and the idea of elevating versus innovating. All that I’ve learned in I300 will be of great benefit as I continue in the interior design program and consider going to graduate school for HCI, automotive engineering, or industrial design. I will also be using our course book as a reference for future projects. I’ve found that I’ve learned several of the practices mentioned in the book in my interior design courses when it comes to formatting and designing presentations. This class is obvious for designers to be.

Blog Assignment 12/13-James Berghoff

Going into I300 I had never heard or known about "playing the whole game" of HCI design, it was all very new to me. Coming out of the course I have learned the process that it takes to achieve good design. It is not just designers coming up with an idea and just throwing it together, they have to take a lot into consideration when designing and its a process that needs to be carried out of a long period of time in order to make it right. I enjoyed the class and feel I can use what we learned in future courses and work.

Jeff Lewis Blog 12 & 13

At the beginning of this class I had no idea of what it took to design something. It is much more complex than I thought. I have learned the "whole game" and I will be able to use it in other situations other than this course.

A major thing that I've learned is that you must reiterate constantly while designing something to advance towards perfection.

Another thing that I've learned is to design with a purpose by keeping the user in mind. Just becuase there is some new technology doesn't mean that it should be incorporated. If it doesn't serve a purpose for the user than its a waste of time. Don't just design to incorporate the most gadgets.

Andrew DeVoe Blog #11

1. Kaizen is synonymous with iteration. It constantly re-evaluates and calls for yet more critiques and re-designs. This directly relates to the theme #5: A good design is re-design. Once you finish a design, the next step is to take what you've made, and to find all your mistakes and re-evolve the whole thing all over again.

2. Our group is doing the lines project, and we decided to observe a line at a crowded restaurant to see how people will react when there are no sanctions to the lines.

3. We decided that we needed to get an idea of how people feel when they are in line and it's completely unorganized, as well as what they're expectations as to how long they have to wait once they stand in the line.

Weeks 12 and 13 Blog Assignments

If you do this one it's worth DOUBLE points, 15 for each week, 30 points total!

And because it's being posted late, you'll have until Monday night, April 19th, to write your answer.

The last chapter of our book encourages us to “get in the game.” Read the chapter; it will take 20 minutes (at most), and it’s good reading.

So here’s what I’m curious to know: When you began this course, most of you had no clue about the “whole game” of HCI Design.

What have you learned? What are you taking away from this course?

#11 - Nik Spurgetis

At one point, I said I was not an I300 loser, but it seems that I am, as I totally forgot to post this yesterday :-/

Kaizen is analagous to our idea of continual redesign. When I see the word kaizen, my mind isolates the "zen" and that evokes feelings of wisdom and peace; taking it slow and steady. Thus, my personal interpretation of kaizen is colored by the notion of tiny, inspired changes instead of huge overhauls.

One concept my group has for Project 6 (pre-kaizen) is that of a glorified tablet computer serving as the dinner table in a restaurant (see: Microsoft Surface). Without going into too much detail of what exactly would be displayed on the table, our first vision of this system was that the whole tabletop was going to be a touch-responsive screen. However, this would probably prove to be "overkill," as we would probably not fill the whole area with content, driving component costs up, and being too much of a distraction.

Applying the concept of kaizen, we decided that the screen area should be limited to the center of the table. This modification of screen position is ostensibly cosmetic, but it changes so much about the overall design--now parents can easily see what their children are doing on the computer, and the content is much less likely to be obscured by dishes, silverware, etc.

blog 11 - Janelle Velkoff

Kaizen to me seems like the theme of good design that we talked about where it entails continual redesign. We have talked so much about iteration and that's really what kaizen is, doing little things to improve your design over and over. Each time the design gets stronger, but you still can usually improve upon that.

One of the concepts my group worked with for the line issue was integrating activity within the line. A gaming system like the Wii seemed appropriate for getting people active and letting them have fun. Making games focused towards the theme of the ride and also include some physical activity.

After applying the technique of kaizen our design looked a little different. The idea was the same but we realized we should restructure our ideas a little bit to fit the needs of different people. Giving the option of different levels of intensity in the game for those who wanted to be or needed to be less physically active. Such as making a game where you were trying to get something that was high up, a low activity level choice would mean you reach for it and a high activity level would have you jumping up and down. This seemed like it would help us make the activities appealing to a wider group of people.

(sorry this is a few minutes late my laptop died at the library!)

Stephen Miller - Blog 11

Kaizen seems to really be about revisiting your designs and never truly declaring a project as "finished." The context in which an application exists is constantly changing, and this requires a dynamic approach to design. Anyone can crap out design after design - the good can be distinguished from the mediocre by the slightest of adjustments, and the technique of kaizen encourages and facilitates this approach.

My group is tackling the restaurant challenge and one of our current concepts is that of a restaurant themed like "Rabbit's Garden" from Winnie the Pooh. The concept originally involved a restaurant where the patrons went and picked their own fresh fruits and veggies from "Rabbit's Garden." After applying kaizen, we realized not everyone might be interested in getting up and wandering around a garden while they are at a meal. To solve this, we could make the fresh produce picking optional to patrons. While this may seem rather obvious and small, it makes the restaurant even more accessible to patrons of all walks of life.

Evan Samuels - Blog post #11

1) My interpretation of kaizen is useful improvement and only making changes that are the most beneficial yet won't be too overwhelming. Likewise, the 'theme of good design' that is closest to my interpretation of kaizen is "more craft than art". Yes, designs should be aesthetically appealing, but the main goal of any good design is its usefulness to different users in different contexts. Craft is useful, but with art, this isn't always the case.

2) For project 6, our goal was to improve the experience of waiting in line, while emphasizing health and wellness, as well as storytelling and adventure. Before we really sat down and thought about our concepts and applied kaizen to them, we had no clear view of what to do and how to do it. It was easy to include storytelling into our concepts because it was Disney and we had some prior experience with the adventure of Disney. However, our main issue was 'how can you exercise and move around in a small space like a line?" We were also throwing around ideas about mental wellness vs. physical wellness too. Everything was a mess and we weren't going in any direction.

3) When we finally sat down and thought out our concepts using kaizen, our goals finally become clear. We changed our focus from forcing activity and wellness outright to more of a storytelling focus as a way to engage our customers and entertain them. This change in focus allowed our group to focus on core goals of the project, which is to: 1)keep with the main storytelling theme of Disney; and 2) give customers something to do in line. By focusing on engaging customers and not forcing wellness, we make wellness fun because they aren't thinking of the pressures of working out, but on entertainment, thus reinforcing healthy habits. A extra plus is that it takes their minds off of the boredom of waiting in line.

We also have separate spaces where the actual physical activities are performed and where the informative reflective sections are so the experiences and benefits last beyond the moment. This is opposed to having everything happening all in the same time and not extending the benefits beyond the moment

Kym Pagel - blog 11

1. Kaizen is that word we keep hearing over and over in class, 'iteration'. It's all about repeating the design process several times and adding small fixes at each go until you can't stand to ever iterate on it again. Kinda like perfecting a song on a musical instrument. So, this relates to the 'Entails continual redesign' theme. Continual redesign doesn't have to be major, it can be small iterative improvements.
2. We, team Wonderful, chose the restaurant idea. One of the concepts made by the other dude was to put it in an active setting, because this will encourage physical activity and exercise beyond the main experience within the restaurant. Having the active setting will also let them burn off calories directly after the meal, and help create a mental link between physical activity and fun.
3. Active setting is cool but pretty vague, he suggested playground and then I suggested obstacle course. Either way this would provide the user for an outlet for their energy and a great time after their meal. Then I realized that if we could find some way to integrate the playground into the restaurant, that would be even more fun and wellness oriented.

Mark Rodriguez - Blog #11

If i were to compare one of the 7 themes to "Kaizen", I would say it's exactly like the "Entails continual redesign" theme. This is pretty much a key point in his book, constant redesign of your work. The author says that if you continually critique while getting some constructive critisism from peer, you should keep redesigning in order to slowly and surely make a better design.

One of our early sketches included a large projection for the lines at the roller coasters. At first it was all drawn on the ground throughout the whole line experience. ropes to keep you in order of where you're at.

After Kaizen, we started slowly changing it into a more interactive experience. Instead of just seeing something, you have a pit stop where you enter a "realm" of 3d stuff and projections onto the ground that teach you things and show you how to interact with the "world" you're in. It's taken a couple sketches, but i think it's been worth it.

Yong Hyun Kim - Blog Assignment #11

1. In my own words, Kaizen is one kind of concepts of improving something continuously after something is created. Kaizen is something like iterating over and over until you are satisfied with the design. I believe Kaizen can be related to the continual redesign part of seven themes of good designs because the theme continual redesign parts and Kaizen have basically same concepts. Both concepts state that good design or concept is created by repetition of iterations.
2. For project 6, our group is working on the waiting in line. Our major focus on the concept is to create a concept where people can be more entertained in line, and also how people can become healthier while waiting in lines. So far, we have come up with a concept where we will be implementing physical activities/games provided to people in line, so people feel less boredom while waiting in line and be entertained. As well as being entertained, people will also be gaining better health because our games will involve lots of steps moving.
3. After applying the technique of Kaizen, I’ve thought that our concept for project 6 could be improved to be better for the people waiting in line. Based on our researches, we have found that people will feel more entertained if they are performing specific acts as groups. So, I thought of dividing up people as groups while they are waiting in lines. Also, when people are notified how much calories they lose while waiting in line as well as participating games in line, people will be more likely to enjoy themselves waiting in line and be more passionate about participating in games.

Enrique Pérez Jr. Blog 11

1.) Kaizen is essentially changing for the better. This best applies to theme 5, redesign, of the seven themes of good design. Through redesign or iteration, a design changes for the better so that, for example, users can interact with a design intuitively rather than questionably.

2.) A concept developed for project 6 is creating a ride-like, waiting in line experience. From a secondary research source, we found that Walt Disney planned Disney Land to separate pedestrians and vehicles. Although the separation has been successful, pedestrians experience a vehicle, traffic-like experience when waiting in line. Therefore, the concept is to create a comfortable, vehicle-like, experience, for waiting in line. The idea of line-pods was developed. This concept would employ varying sizes of line-pods given that customers will be in line by themselves or with family and friends. The line-pod would be an enclosed, climate controlled environment. Seating would be available for users, however, the idea is necessarily to sit and be comfortable. The idea is to create an environment for users to interact. This could be achieved by incorporating games/activities that can be carried out in the line-pod to keep user unaware that they are waiting in line. The line-pod would promote healthy foods via a mini-bar like implementation.

3.) Applying the kaizen technique to the line-pod concept is difficult. The best way to simplify the concept would be go go with a different concept. The line-pod concept may be too large or expensive to implement. Simplifying the concept without an actual pod would be to simply implement climate control/protection, games/activities, and promotion of healthier foods to the existing line.