Fan Switch

Design Excelence Poster.

David Kelley: Human centred design

David Kelley: Human centred design.

David Kelley’s Human Centred Design is about the huge change in the design world throughout the years and the way many designers have changed their approach towards designing products. Years ago the design industry was mostly centred around the product/object and very little focus was on designing around humans who would purchase the product. Since then designer have become more focused on human centred design where they design behaviours and personalities into designs. Focus on the product is still important in the design process, however, recently human centred design has been of a higher priority for the evident reason that no matter how highly technological or how beautiful a design is, it will not be successful unless it fulfils the consumers’ needs and wants. In order to communicate this, when a new product is designed, apart from just making a 3d model of just the product/object, designers have begun to put the product/object in the motion of how it will be used. This is effective as it demonstrates to consumers the experience of the product use through interactive videos and how exactly the design will potentially fulfil their needs and wants.  This is a very important video for all designers to view as it demonstrates how human centred design is far more important than just creating a product as it meets the needs and wants of consumers and in turn becomes a much more successful design.  Furthermore in communicating the product designers should clearly demonstrate what services it provides and exactly how consumers interact with it. Kelley demonstrates this through examples such as the New York Prada store where the video shows each and every function of the product, what it is intended for and how to use it. Personally I agree with the whole concept of human centred design because, as mentioned above, no matter how technological or beautiful a product is it will not achieve success within the market if it does not supply customers with a need or want. However, in saying this, designers must be careful not to fully neglect the actual product or object but find a balance between human centred design and product design.

Don Norman's Emotional Design

Don Norman’s video Emotional Design refers to the affect of people’s emotions, from designers to consumers, on the world of design.  In order to actually come up with great products that will agree with consumers’ emotions, designers must be in a happy state of mind which allows for more creative and out of the box thinking, problem solving and makes the designer more susceptible to interuption leading to great ideas and designs. However designers must not always be in this state of mind as they will always find a better way of doing something and in turn designs will never be finished. Therefore in order to help designers get their work done they must set deadlines and be anxious. Norman talks of his new approach to design which is “beautiful”. He suggests that great designs are not necessarily those that are beautiful to look at but unpractical or those that work great but look ugly (which was his previous approach to design). Consumer are much more interested in designs that, alongside functuality, also bring them fun, pleasure and happines when being used. In order to succeed in the eyes of consumers, each design must reach 3 levels of a human’s emotions . These include the Visceral level, which can be experienced by the choice of colour or font used within the design, the behavioral level, which can be reached by making the consumer feel incontrol through creating a design that is easy to use and understand, and the reflective level, where designs are able to reach the consumer’s consciousness. The video effectively conveys the huge affect emotion has on everyday designs and how strongly consumers’ decisions are affected by their emotions. Through this video it is clear that the world of design is meanigless without emotion.  It is evident that in order to become a designer one must be fully aware of consumers’ emotions and which they wish to affect, however, in order to be a successful designer one must strive to reach the visceral, behavioral and reflective level within consumers and in turn creating a product which brings fun pleasure and happiness. Furthermore designers must be in the right state of mind through every step of their product design enabling them to maximise the success of each and every product they design.  

My Radio :)

·         Visit a museum. What did you see? I visited the Power House Museum and saw thing like robot dogs, postage stamps and steam engines.

·         Visit an exhibition. What did you see? The lost tools of Henry Hoke

·         Read and comment another students ides1122 blog. Whos blog? Ameli Morgano. What did you comment? On her uploaded photos.

·         Read three design magazine/journal. Which ones? – Real living – Space Magazine – Inside out. Inside out as it was a magazine filled with great styling and magnificent pieces of furniture.

·         Do the unsw library induction ELISE. Done.

·         Visit another library. Visited COFA and borrowed A Hand Weaver’s Pattern Book

·         Watch TED talk show. Watched big, bigger and biggest which explores on design each week showing the various greatness of it.   

Piranesi in progress