Design time!

Session 8

There you go. Conjunctivitis caught me! I cant make it to class.One of the most unfortunate things that can happen as I really wanted to go to class, I really enjoy the interactive sessions and then we are supposed to present the Proof of concept as well. But this red eyed monster ( well conjunctivitis can do that to anybody……make them a monster!!!!) has to sit in her room and read the lecture slides by herself. So the maximum I can do is write what I think of design which would have been the core issue of the debate in class I gather from my classmates who were nice enough to share the ideas with me.

The design of a product is what really creates its commercial value. A product may be technologically very advanced but unless it is well designed and an appealing buy which will condone the user with an emotional benefit it will really not create the market fervor. Techno toys love technology but a layman will want an appealing product, a teenager will ant to showoff his possession which looks attractive rather than explain technical details of an ugly possession. Take the Apple ipod and Creative mp3 for instance. Creative may be better in technology but the ipod creates a “cool effect”.

The youth believes that anybody who is somebody will carry an ipod.

A few ideas from the lecture notes. In design you must be clear about the underlying idea in order to communicate the idea comprehensively through the design. The initial layout is important. We must use clear color patterns and avoid cluttering. These are components of a good design. Once the design is ready we must test it on real users to get some useful feedback. Task analysis with the users and their feedback to the test is really important .We should ask our users to talk aloud as they work with the design .This way we can follow the flow of their thoughts and use it to analyze faults in our design as well as make relevant changes to the design. So these were a few ideas about design which I gathered and have discussed with you.

I would say that design is the underlying component of creativity whether it be brand design or product design. If I as to extend this idea to more generic terms I would say even analysis and communication are skills with an underlying design component. You need to design your ideas and your communication, use design to structure and filter your thoughts………an interesting way to talk about design don’t you think?