Exercise 5 - Love & Hate

An object that I own which I use daily is my Brita. Honestly, it is the easiest thing to use and it saves me money on water. You can’t go wrong with that combination. One of the reasons I find it to be such a good design is that it is mapped in such a simple way that using it is easy. There is good feedback when it comes to the filter. It lets you know when it needs to be replaced when the electronic bars on the top are no longer lit up. Once they are gone, it tells you it needs a new one for maximum water quality. The handle is grooved, obviously made for fingers to fit, and the spout to pour is visible. The opening on the top is easily accessible; the finger grip on the top is an affordance to its opening.



One of the things I can not stand due to its design is my coffee machine. There is nothing about it that makes it easy to use. There is limited visibility when it comes to its different functions. There is no mapping when it comes to where the opening for the filters is, and where you put the grinds in. You have to figure it out for yourself. The only way to start the coffee making process is to press a button, the only one on the machine, at the front of the base which only shows the symbol of ‘power’. This is a cultural constraint because that symbol represents on/off only in North America.

Gio Petrucci

Project One is due on Wednesday - Good Luck!

Hi Class:

Good luck with Project One.

I have five last minute tips for you.

1) Go over my presentations, and think about how they apply to your interaction. Remember, 8 marks are assigned to "Use of Course Concepts to Deconstruct the Interaction."

2) On that note, read over the Project One description. Carefully. If there's any confusion, email me (before Saturday at 11:59PM).

3) Be sure that the scope of your exploration isn't too broad. Your interaction should have an identifiable beginning and ending, and your ethnography should be comprehensive enough to cover most permutations - this won't be possible if you've bitten off more than you can chew. Remember, you can also narrow down your focus after the ethnographic observation phase.

4) Remember to make your blog post!

5) Try to have your 10 minutes planned out in advance. All members of your group should participate. I will cut you off if you're more than 1-2 minutes longer than 10 minutes.

See you Wednesday.

Another Famous Map . . . and links from Week 3

John Snow's map of London's Cholera Outbreak, which "not only convinced the world that cholera was a waterborne illness, but ultimately brought about profound changes in science, cities and modern society."

Also, here's some more information about Charles Joseph Minard's thematic map of Napoleon's ill-fated march on Moscow. If Minard could establish structure and convey information through a map/diagram in 1861, then so can you!

Lastly, here are links to Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Map, Mark Lombardi, and IntellectSpace, as shown in class during Week 3.

Presentation: Basic Principles of Experience Design

Presentation: Basic Principles of Experience Design

Supplementary Reading: James Corner, Mappings, 213-252

Supplementary Reading: James Corner, Mappings, 213-252

"Mapping is a fantastic cultural project, creating and building the world as much as measuring and describing it. Long affliated with the planning and design of cities, landscapes and buildings, mapping is particularly instrumental in the construing and constructing of lived space. In this active sense, the function of mapping is less to mirror reality than to engender the re-shaping of worlds in which people live." (Corner, 213)

Supplementary Reading: Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information, 12-35

Supplementary Reading: Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information, 12-35

"Even though we navigate daily through a perceptual world of three spatial dimensions and reason occasionally about higher dimensional arenas with mathematical ease, the world portrayed on our information displays is caught up in the two-dimensionality of the endless flatland of paper and video screen. . . . Escaping this flatland is the essential task of envisioning information - for all the interesting worlds (physical, biological, imaginary, human) that we seek to understand are inevitably and happily multivariate in nature. Not flatlands." (Tufte, 12)

Supplementary Reading: Colin Ware, Information Visualization 201-240

Supplementary Reading: Colin Ware, Information Visualization 201-240

"The Brain is a powerful pattern-finding engine; indeed, this is the fundamental reason that visualization techniques are becoming important. Ther is no other way of presenting information so that structures, groups and trens can be discovered among hundreds of data values. If we can transform data into the appropriate visual representation, its structure may be revealed." (Ware, 239)

Flow Charts by Martin Stevens

Flow Charts by Martin Stevens

Presentation: Establishing Structure, Maps and Diagrams, Conveying Information

Presentation: Establishing Structure, Maps and Diagrams, Conveying Information

Exercise Five: Jesse Colin Jackson

An object I love is the STAEDTLER Mars technico 780 C lead holder. I have 4 of them. One I've had since 1996, and the rest I've acquired later. In each I keep a different weight of lead: 6H, 4H, 2H and HB.

Affordances are subtle yet clear. The knurled end gives a tactile indication of where to best hold the lead holder; the clip keeps it secure in my pocket protector (ha, ha). As we expect, the end serves as a push-button to advance the lead. More unusually, it also serves as a sharpener, a possibility subtly suggested by its size (the same as the lead) and clarified by a diagram on the Staedtler website.

When the end is depressed, the lead advances. One potentially problematic aspect of the design is that unlike most lead holders, the lead does not advance incrementally. Instead, the push-button opens the jaws at the end that grip the lead, allowing the lead to potentially fall out of the pencil (an expensive error, at 2 bucks a lead). Once learned, it becomes natural to guard against this with your other hand when advancing a lead, and the infinite adjustability allows the lead to be sharpened to both a sharp and rounded tip, but perhaps a physical constraint could be introduced that prevents the lead from falling out completely.

There's no way to automatically differentiate between the different weights of lead, as the only available colour is blue. I've added an ugly label made of masking tape to each, which provides crude visible feedback, but it's an ugly solution at best.

[Disclaimer: I'll concede that I don't actually use a lead-holder much anymore. So perhaps there's some wistful nostalgia in my praise.]

An object I hate is my Sony Ericsson W810i mobile phone. It seems clever, at first: I'm impressed with the fact that the camera elements are mapped to a conventional camera. To operate the camera, you turn the phone sideways, which places the shutter button exactly where you expect it to be. By taking advantage of my existing camera interaction model, Sony has made it easier to take pictures. . . if I could figure out how to turn the camera on. There are no physical constraints to keep me from pressing the buttons when the phone is in my pocket, and these affordances are way too small in the first place: I'm forever turning the walkman on when I want to answer a call, as the buttons for these functions are right beside each other.

The audible feedback is excruciating: why can't mobile phones come with a normal ring tone? Why does my phone have to sound like a cat? I know, I know, I can download new ring tones - perhaps one of you can show me how.

Exercise 5: Tori

I don't think that I could go so far as to say that I 'hate' my old camera (pictured bottom left), but I will say that the new one (pictured top left) better suits my purposes.

The visibility of the DVX100 (top) is far superior. All camera functions are placed on the body, allowing for quick and easy changes. Additionally, the state of each function is clear via the use of dials and switches instead of buttons where necessary. So I can feel with my finger (without having to look away from the monitor) what my settings are.

The old camera required going into menus and used an organizational system that was not intuitive. This decreased the usability and therefore the image and sound quality, while simultaneously increasing frustration.

Mapping is also far superior with the newer camera. The joystick navigational tool for menu options up, down, left, right, and for forward, backward, play, stop creates easy navigation through menus and the VCR mode.

Credits:

I had to grab these images from the internet as my cameras are being lent out right now. The DVX100 was taken from here (and altered): http://www.compusales.com.mx/images/Videocamara%20AG-DVX100BP.jpg
and the PVGS70 was taken from here: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41K9Z3SMVVL.jpg&imgrefurl=http://shop.spack.net/p/pa/na/panasonic%2BPVGS70%2BMiniDV.B00008RUES.html&h=347&w=500&sz=27&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=IF6WXz1jbN7mvM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpanasonic%2Bpvgs70%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN
and the thumbs up image was from here: http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/hand-thumbs-up-2.jpg
The image inside the PVGS70 was taken by me in 2004 using that camera.



Also, I am obsessed with organization. These nesting Ziplock tupperware make my heart beat a little faster.

Nesting (Pg 104 under hierarchy).

Exercise Five: An Object you Love, an Object you Hate

In your home, find two functional objects: one that you love, and one that you hate.

Make a brief post to the blog where you describe your love/hate relationships, using the tools and vocabulary introduced in the Basic Principles of Experience Design presentation. Before you post, review the following terms in Universal Principles of Design: Visibility, Affordance, Mapping, Constraint

Be sure to include photographs of your objects in your post. Make sure the photographs adequately represent the source of your love/hate relationship.

Exercise Four is due on Sunday, January 27 at 11:59PM.

Exercise Four: Read a Map

You have been assigned a map. In one concise paragraph, deconstruct its strategies for conveying information for the class, using the vocabulary introduced in Exercise Three, as well as any new vocabulary you've learned from reading Universal Principles of Design (hint: this is bonus mark territory). Maps contain many visual elements: focus on one or two strategies only.

Conclude with a statement describing your visceral reaction to the map: does this map work for you? Why, or why not? Is this reaction solely a product of the success or failure of the map to convey information, or are there other factors at play?

Provide at least three images of your map: one of the folded map, one of the entire map, and one detail that shows the strategies in question.

Exercise Four is due on Sunday, February 3 at 11:59PM. Please do not lose or damage my maps!

Alignment, Highlighting, Layering and Signal-to-Noise Ratio

Diandra, Julian, Jennie


Alignment – The process of which elements are put in a certain order by forming rows and/or columns to create an organized space and create unity to make it easy for a spectator to gather information. For example: Margins define the reading area of a page by separating the main text from the surrounding environment as they provide important visual relief in any document.



Highlighting – A technique used to bring focus to a certain word, sentence, area and or image. Jesse is using this technique in presenting this assignment to us. **


Layering - The technique in which information is organized into groups to manage the order in which they are accessed. For example: Adobe Photoshop allows you to organize your information through layers making it easy to access or view multiple layers at one time.


Signal-to-Noise Ratio – “Signal” refers to the ultimate necessary focus and or parts of a project while “Noise” refers to the unnecessary visual elements that clutter and or distract the viewer and the point or critical part of the design.

Excercise 2: David McInerney

Jennie's Music Video

Exercise Two - Andrea

Exercise Three - Nolan, Phil, Julian, Andrea

COMMON FATE
Common fate is one of Gestalt’s principles of organization, which look at design compositions as a whole. This principle suggests that elements that move in the same direction or have similar orientation will be seen as a unified group.






straight lines make one group, slanted form another.



INTERFERENCE EFFECTS

The Stroop Effect is an interference effect that occurs when one is forced to interpret the words in this list as colours based on the hue in which they are written. The brain gets confused because we are taught that what a word reads is more important than its colour.

ORIENTATION SENSITIVITY
Orientation sensitivity has to do with the eye’s interpretation of lines. It’s based on the oblique effect and the pop-out effect.
Oblique effect: the ability that a person has to accurately perceive horizontal and vertical lines better than slanted or oblique lines. This effect is caused by a higher sensitivity in the eye for viewing horizontal and vertical lines. In general, people tend to enjoy designs with distinct vertical and horizontal elements, because of this phenomenal effect.

Pop-out effect: The tendency of specific elements in an image to be seen quickly as more prominent because of their angle on the page. If an image in the foreground differs in angle from the background pattern, it will be more easily detected, and will pop out at the viewer.

Orientation sensitivity is important in design because it is necessary to look at the way things are placed in a composition and know how to make a certain object in a series stand out.

Josh Macleod video assignment

Excercise 2- Dong Min(Dennis) Hong: Diagram.

Exercise 2 - Iliana Shabatova

Diandra's Video

Excercise 3 -by Shona, Joanne, Kay and Karan

Highlighting – a useful technique to bring attention to a specific area or image.
Highlighting can be a very effective technique when utilized properly, but there are certain guidelines that one should follow when highlighting:

• Never highlight more than 10% of the visible design
• Bold is minimal noise and clearly highlights
• Italics adds minimal noise but is less detectable and legible
• Underlining adds considerable noise and compromises legibility
• Avoid using different typefaces to highlight, instead try using Caps
• Colour is very effective, but should be used with another highlighting technique.
• Colours should be very distinctive from one another.
• Inversing elements add considerable noise but work well with words.
• Blinking should be used to highlight critical information (ex. Emergency status lights) and should be able to turn on and off.

And so here's a gamble for a bonus mark. I think Jesse's excercise 3 image is using "colour" and "typeface" (all capitals) as a highlighting technique. Um. I think.

Layering
Organizing information into related groupings to manage complexity and reinforce relations in the information. There are two kinds of layering: two-dimensional and three-dimensional. Two-dimensional layering only allows one layer of information to be available at a time, while three-dimensional layering allows multiple layers of information to be available at one time.

For example: Photoshop is a program that allows you to use three-dimensional layering because it allows multiple layers of information to be viewed at one time.

Alignment:Ordering elements by forming rows and/or columns in order to create unity and coherence. e.g. the arrangement of data in a grid or table

Signal-to-Noise Ratio:
In design, "signal" refers to the focus, point or message of the design. "Noise" refers to unnecessary, distracting visual elements that confuse or interfere with the point of the design. A design with a HIGH Signal-to-Noise Ratio then, will be one that conveys its message easily to the viewer. A design with a LOW Signal-to-Noise ratio, will have unneccesary visual elements that make the information in the design harder to comprehend. This term seems to be used mostly when referring to charts, and other quantitative data. The design below shows a chart with a low Signal-to-Noise ratio.

Exercise 2 - Kay Lee

Excercise 3: Josh, Dennis and Dave

Figure-Ground Relationship

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elissaweichbrodt/61743311/

Traditional western art theory that separates the figure (object) from the ground in terms of perspective, lighting, colour, or sharpness. There is a tendency of the mind to separate any stimuli (visual, auditory, olfactory) into the categories of figure and mind, one being clear and the focus of attention, the other being relatively vague, shapeless and irrelevant.




When a person is presented with an ambiguous image, one that does not make immediate visual sense, this law identifies our overwhelming tendency to simplify the object into something easy to comprehend, rather than assume (often more accurately) that it is a piece of something larger and more complicated taken out of context.





One of the strongest indicators of relationships between subjects. This principle makes subjects seem more similar proportional to their physical distance from each other.

Exercise Three: Strategies for Conveying Visual Information: Kristen, Iliana, Miriam

INTEREFERENCE EFFECTS

The event in which mental operations are made slower and not as preciecly by opposing mental developments. This process presents itself when it comes across two or more emotional or unconscious formations are in competition.Human perception and cognition associate with several various mental systems that break up and send knowledge independently of one another.The product of the many systems are transferred to the mind, where they are understood and solved.When the outputs or the product of these systems, are in agreement, the course of analysis or perception develops much faster and the final work is ideal. However when the product of the systems are opposed, a resistance happens and extra processing is requires to fix the problem.This extra time used to fix these issue brings a negative influence on performance.

Examples of Interference

INTEREFERENCE EFFECTS OF PERECEPTION

STROOP INTERFERENCE : An unnecessary manner of a stimulus (anything encouraging an action) provokes the mind where it tampers with parts affecting an important feature of the stimulus.

GARNER INTERFERENCE : An unnecessary difference of a stimulus provokes the mind where it tampers with parts affecting an important feature of the stimulus.

INTEREFERENCE EFFECTS OF LEARNING

PROACTIVE INTERFERENCE : Past memories meddle with learning. When learning a new language, mistakes can occur when the person learning the language begins to relate to former language and starts to put to use the past grammar into the new language.

RETROACTIVE INTERFERENCE : Learning conflicts with memories. When remembering a new phone number, it can be effected with past phone numbers already in the mind.

In order to intercept any interferences, the only solution is to avoid designs which produce these mental processes which are the opposition. The Stroop and Garner Interferences (Interference effects of Perception) are a cause of code mixtures such as a red GO button, or a green STOP button and it can also be caused from a correlation of subject which are closely placed together which visually correspond with each other. To put a temporary block to the interferences of learning, Proactive and Retroactive by using a combination of teaching techniques such as videos or activities and leaving time to breaks in between.

REFERENCES

http://blogs.ipswitch.com/archives/Go%20sign.jpg

http://www.usu.edu/psycho101/lectures/chp9memory/stroop.gif

http://www.gpc.edu/~bbrown/psyc1501/memory/interference.jpg

http://blogs.ipswitch.com/archives/Go%20sign.jpg

Excercise 2 - Dong Min (Dennis) Hong.