Week 5: Collaboration

What are ethics?

Formal and informal codes and conducts that govern a persons or groups behavior.

It is about respecting others by acknowledging their views and adopting a balanced view yourself.

Trustworthy and ethical behavior in collaboration may encompass the following:

• acknowledging discomfort or anger

• being prepared to fully participate

• communicating in an open way

• honesty

• honoring commitments

• sensitivity to social, cultural, personal situations and dynamics

• showing respect

• understanding of the consequences of actions

• being mindful of what is going on around you

• obeying rules that are in place for the good of all

Essential

Communicating in an open way

Honesty

Honoring commitments

Sensitivity to social, cultural, personal situations and dynamics

Showing respect

Understanding of the consequences of actions

Obeying rules that are in place for the good of all

Eg. For the roadways to work and for people to commute relatively safely, people must communicate their intentions to other drivers – ie. Blinkers, horns.

Acknowledging discomfort or anger

Being prepared to fully participate

Being mindful of what is going on around you

Non-Essential

Acknowledging discomfort or anger

Being prepared to fully participate

Being mindful of what is going on around you

Eg. A disgruntled customer cannot expect to be automatically acknowledged if they do not speak up first and communicate what the problem is. Often others are busy and sometimes things need to be pointed out to them.

Being prepared to fully participate

Who’s Got a Dollar?

In class we completed this group exercise whereby we were asked who had a dollar. That person then had to give up their dollar to another person. This kept going from $1, to $2, to $5, to $10, to $20. Each person as they received the money had to say what they most liked about working in a team environment.

In relation to the above exercise, we then had to answer the following questions:

1. Would you volunteer your money - that is, take risk?

Yes, I did volunteer my money. I had trust in the exercise and the people in the group that it would most likely be returned anyway.

2. How did you feel?

I felt willing to participate and curious as to where this exercise was going.

3. Did you feel a little sheepish?

No, not really, I would have felt sheepish if I didn’t have anything to contribute to the exercise.

4. What about when the ante was upped to ten dollars?

Again, I was curious as to how far this would go and what would actually happen with the money, but I didn’t feel sheepish or worried.

5. Twenty?

Much the same as above.

6. Did you think the volunteers were foolish?

Perhaps if we were in a bigger group and most of us hadn’t contributed then some may wonder why the volunteers were so willing to give up their hard earned cash. In a smaller group, I did not feel that the volunteers were foolish.

Trust & Creative Partnerships

As a group exercise, we had to practice some different scenarios with one another;

• Maintaining eye contact with another class mate for 60 seconds

• Maintaining eye contact with another class mate for 60 seconds whilst holding hands

• Maintaining eye contact while standing at different proximities: comfortable, closer and further

Eye Contact

Looking straight into someone’s eyes for 60 seconds feels, too long and too intimate.

ETHICAL BEHAVIOR

It can be inappropriate and impolite to stare directly at someone for a prolonged period -it can be considered rude and disrespectful in some cultures. The amount of eye contact varies amongst people depending on how well you know them and how you feel about them.

TRUST

If you know someone well, a prolonged look can mean trust and understanding. If you don’t know someone, their use of eye contact, their use of eye contact can give you an idea of what they are like, trustworthy, etc. Eye contact used in the appropriate way can signify openness, confidence or interest. If a stranger stares for too long, it can be creepy/untrustworthy.

Eye Contact + Touch

Looking at someone whilst touching them requires close proximity. When completing our group exercise of holding hands and looking into the eyes of a classmate for 60 seconds, it felt too intimate and uncomfortable.

ETHICAL BEHAVIOR

Looking and touching requires 2 people to be close and when doing this with a stranger, it feels as though you’re invading personal space and therefore breaching respect.

TRUST

Eye contact AND touch is usually reserved for those that you do trust. When it is someone you don’t know, it can make you feel uncomfortable, wary and suspicious.

Proximity

Comfortable distance between two people can mean several things such as: interested (depending on where their body is facing, if its open, etc). At comfortable proximity it still feels uncomfortable to maintain 60 seconds of eye contact.

Closer proximity whilst maintaining eye contact was even more uncomfortable. Personal space varies from person to person and it also depends on how well we know the person and how relaxed we are when around them. Doing this with someone you don’t know very well is awkward and uneasy.

Further proximity was more comfortable when maintaining eye contact with someone you don’t know very well – but it still felt a bit uncomfortable and invasive.

ETHICAL BEHAVIOR

Respect comes into how close you stand to someone – people need their space to feel comfortable. Some cultures have closer proximity between people than others.

TRUST

A comfortable distance is usually for acquaintances or people meeting for the first time.

Closer proximity is usually reserved for people in closer relationships (unless your at a concert or in a crowded train) and there is more trust involved. Further proximity is generally for strangers and people you have less trust for.

Week 5: Origination

The Laws of Simplicity

Chapter 4: Learn

Describe the relationship between teaching and learning according to Maeda?

Maeda says that the single most helpful thing that helped his teaching was to experience the other side of learning, becoming a student. According to Maeda, teachers have the easy role as they have to act as if they know the answers, students on the other hand, have a harder role, as they have to ‘wring’ the answers from the teacher and make sense of them.

A good teacher would encourage the following: making a connection (between the student, teacher and the content), motivating and inspiring. A good student is enthusiastic and keen to absorb information.

Describe the importance of the use of metaphors in learning, why would you use

them, how, give an example?

Metaphors are a figure of speech in which one object is likened to another by speaking as if it were that other. Eg. The sun is a chariot of fire. A metaphor says something IS something else Eg. Desktop, (iPod) Dock

Metaphors are important to transfer large amounts of existing knowledge from one context to another easily and in a relate able manner.

BRAIN - what does the acronym stand for – why is it important?

B= Basics are the beginning

R= Repeat yourself often

A=Avoid creating desperation

I=Inspire with examples

N=Never forget to repeat yourselves

These all satisfy rational needs: feeling safe (avoiding desperation), feeling confident (mastering basics), feeling instinctive (repetition). Inspiration is the real reward.

 

Describe a situation where you have been required to teach someone a skill.

How could you apply the BRAIN principle to it?

Riding a bike.

B = how to sit, pedal, steer, balance, etc

R = practice in different situations

A = perhaps start out with training wheels to ease into it, and avoid scaring them off.

I = inspire with examples of other people that ride (family, sports people), point out the positive outcomes such as independence.

N = practice, practice, practice!

Although not a YouTube clip as such, this TED Talk provides some of John Maeda's insight to the simple life and getting back to basics. This talk also demonstrates his ability to teach the differences and comparisons between simplicity and complexity.

IDEA GENERATION – EXHIBITION CONCEPT

This week the groups for the exhibition were able to meet again and discuss and debate the concept for our exhibition (amongst other things). The theme and branding team are working hard to come up with some images and names to present. So far the teams are still divided as to what the name should be. Most people like the concept of ‘Blossom’, however, they don’t necessarily like the feminine qualities of this name.

As part of the logistics group, we need to encourage people to contribute their groups’ input (on Google Docs) and we also need to importantly devise some sort of a countdown method to the exhibition, to make sure everything gets done before the 28^th October 2010. I think something like iCal might be an effective tool as it is simple to use and understand. It can be presented to the class each week so everyone gets a visual of where groups are at, what needs to be done (and when), as well as who is relying on who to get their tasks done.

Week 4: Origination

The Laws of Simplicity

Chapter 3: Time

1. What is the major benefit of saving time?
Savings in time feels like simplicity. Reducing the time spent waiting translates into time we can spend on something else. Therefore we are thankful and loyal when a process allows us to save time.

2. How do designers integrate time into their products? 

Designers can integrate things like progress bars to show people how long they have to wait. Seeing the progression of time doesn’t make the wait seem so long when you can see the progression.

Maeda also suggests that time can be embodied in the face of a clock, digital or abstract, or as a blinking LED light. Other ways to integrate time is through "styling" to create the illusion of motion and speed.

Products such as the ipod Shuffle and amazon.com are designed to save you time by choosing what you might like.

Time is also considered when casinos are designed. It is the opposite in this case, time is purposely hidden, ie there are generally no clocks and no windows visible so people are more likely to loose track of the time, stay longer and therefore spend more money.

 

3. Explain the relationship between making waiting shorter with making waiting more tolerable. 

If the process cannot be sped up in any way, the wait will seem less if it is made more tolerable. Things like progress bars, and elevator music help this process, as does the recorded voice when waiting to speak to someone on the phone, to let you know where you have moved up in the queue.

4. How can you use your timeline to increase your own efficiency as a designer?

For me, I can increase my efficiency by creating smaller deadlines in order of priority. Breaking up the whole project makes it more tolerable.

5. Briefly outline an event or activity in which you are adept at time saving? 

When trying to complete my homework, if I’m having a mental block in creativity (when working on my visual diaries, etc), I’ll go on with my reading. Both need to be done but require different ways of thinking.

In programs such as Photoshop, Action and Batch processing help to save time. Using such tools shorten the time taken for tedious things which allows more time for creativity.

6. What part of your design process do you need to improve at, in terms of saving time? 

I need to improve on my use of the shortcut key strokes to save time and increase my efficiency as a designer.

Also when embarking on a large project, it is a good idea to list and plan all the components as this will save time in the long run.

THINKING GAME: Analyse Patterns/Branding

This is last years exhibition logo. The following are some words that come to mind when looking at it. Further down is my interpretation of the meaning and effectiveness of it as a logo.

>Simple

>Minimalistic

>Representative

>Clear

>Concise

>Contrast

>Neat

>Corporate

>Subtle

1. The Name suggests that it is directing to something, or that it is the point or purpose (of the exhibition). ‘See the point’ means to understand the meaning and to ‘make a point of’ means something is thought of as vital or essential. A point is actually a unit of measurement for type and it can be a unit of credit (for students or in a sports match), it is quite flexible in lending many meanings and definitions to the one idea.

Having read into the meaning behind the name, I actually think all its inferences are quite clever, however, before having done this, I didn’t really think that the poster was all that ‘catchy’ to look at – I certainly didn’t realize it was representing an exhibition. So as most people wouldn’t be reading too far into it, I don’t think the name is as effective as it could be.

2. The graphic pattern represents the word ‘point’ visually. The collaboration of dots suggests it is literally a point tapering to its sharp end. It looks a bit like the point of a fountain pen. I also thought that each little dot also represents a point, like a full stop or a decimal point, or perhaps the point of a pen touching the paper.

I think the graphic pattern illustrates the name well. It compliments it in a subtle, visually appealing way. However, if the word was not there also, I don’t think it would be as effective as it currently is. I feel the overall look it a bit serious and ‘corporate’ looking for a creative exhibition.

The following are words/phrases for a NEW logo for this years exhibition:

Thinking about the many areas contributing to this exhibition, I came up with the following ideas/concepts;

·      Collaboration

·      Connect

·      Celebrate

Considering the skills and techniques we have learnt throughout the year, this exhibition is a culmination of that, so the following words came to mind;

·      Flourish

·      Evolve

·      Generate

·      Create

As for thinking outside of the tetrahedron, we are the ‘fruit’ of this year, so how about;

·      The Next Generation

·      Pick of the Crop

These are things to consider when designing a logo from a graphic design point of view. The designers address the important principals of good design which memorably represent a brand. Some key points for an effective logo are: simplicity; use of shape and colour; and that it reproduces well in both colour and black and white.

The evolution of famous logos is also quite interesting:

Week 2: Origination

The Laws of Simplicity

Chapter 1: REDUCE
 
What does the acronym SHE mean according to the book?

“The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction” and this can be done through the SHE methods John Maeda has derived.
S = shrink. Making objects smaller simplifies them by lowering the expectations and people tend to be more forgiving when it plays up. Also, when a smaller object exceeds our expectations, we tend to be surprised and pleased. Eg. Spoon and bulldozer
H = hide. Hiding functions allows the user to feel they are in control of the complexity. They can choose how complex they would like their product to be, still allowing all the bells and whistles.
E = embody. As shrinking and hiding features on products are ‘taking away’ from it, it becomes important to embed the object with a sense of value that can be lost after

In your words define ‘humanist technologist’

It is the human ideas behind the technology that is implemented for human needs.
It is about humans implementing technology and being the brains behind new and ever developing ideas catering for human thoughts and feelings. It ties in with morals and ethics. Technology for humans, not for the sake of technology.

How can you apply the notion of reduce to your own design process? (give a
specific example)

Less is more. Sometimes too much can take away from the purpose/meaning.

Eg, Dogme – a new avant-garde style that takes on a reduced approach to film making. Reduce options and resources available to get best results. The 10 rules that stipulate this movement are referred to as “The Vow of Chastity”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogme_95
Here is an example of a Dogme movie by Richard Fiander (in the form of a YouTube clip). Its simplicity and rawness are representative of the Dogme style. There is no lighting, no tripod and the editing was done only by starting and stopping the camera at the appropriate times.

From what you have read in Chapter 1, explain the relationship between
complexity and simplicity (give 3 specific examples from the book OR your own
experiences)
The owner can choose to hide complexity, and thus, the relationship between complexity and simplicity becomes like a switch (p6).
There is a balance between the elegance of simplicity and need it all complexity. Eg chamshell mobile phone (p5).

Any design that incorporates lightness and thinness conveys the impression of being smaller, lesser, and humbler. Eg. Ipod Nano

IDEO VIDEO

What type of organisation is IDEO?

IDEO is a design and innovation consulting firm.

It is a place that has developed a fun culture which continuously helps the team come up with new and fresh ideas.

What are the different processes they employ in design research?

IDEO cutomise their processes for each challenge they are given. The often adopt a shared approach bringing people together from different disciplines to explore new ideas – ideas that are more human centred. The teams processes include observation, making prototypes/mock-ups, building, storytelling, and actually using the prototypes in real life situations.

Their motto is: “Fail often in order to succeed often”

How did they define the range and scope of the problem?

The IDEO team speaks to people who work with or use the object, they get different perspectives from their diverse team, and embark on direct and experimental learning consistently.

“Design thinking is an approach that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods for problem solving to meet people’s needs in a technologically feasible and commercially viable way. In other words, design thinking is human-centered innovation.” —Tim Brown

http://www.ideo.com/

PROS & CONS FOR GROUP PERSPECTIVES

Students

PROS: Students are given the lots of creative freedom

CONS: Students need to get permission for many aspects of the exhibition (ie from CDU)

CDU

PROS: The students will be doing most of the organizing and groundwork/CDU will get increased exposure

CONS: May have to bear some of the costs

Sponsors

PROS: Sponsors will get increased exposure

CONS: Will have to contribute to costs

Week 3: Origination

The Laws of Simplicity

Chapter 2: Organise

1. What does the acronym SLIP mean according to Maeda?

Sort.

Label.

Integrate.

Prioritise.

2. Define each character of the acronym, S L I P in one sentence

Sort the groups (on pieces of paper) to find their natural groupings, then each group needs a relevant name or code, integrate the groups that appear significantly like each other and ensure that the items with the highest priority receive the most attention. Organisation.

3. What does Maeda say is only a pinkie away?

The quick path to simplicity. Maeda is referring to the TAB key and knowing where things are on your keyboard. It is about your working strategy, getting things done quicker, shortcuts, etc.

4. Why is this important to us as designers?

It can help reduce the clutter and chaos, maximizing use of space, more visually appealing. Efficiency.

5. What are the principles of gestalt psychological theory?

We seek the most appropriate conceptual "fit" which is important for survival and also is the heart of the discipline of design. The mind has a natural tendancy to group, simplify and order things. Eg If the first and last letters of a word remain the same and the middle ones are changed around, the mind orders it.
http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/process/gestaltprinciples/gestaltprinc.htm  

The orange figure in the picture becomes the focal point because it is dissimilar to the other shapes.
Here is a YouTube clip that talks about the Gestalt Principals of Perception and related examples. The speaker talks about how we, as humans, are programmed to see shapes, faces and patterns. He gives examples of 'faces' in orange peel and on the moon (among other things) to highlight the principals of Gestalt.

6. Where might one find the aesthetics of blur?

It is common in the history of art, Impressionist paintings (Monet) late 1800s, stylised images by Georgia O'Keeffe. Ipod. Apple mouse - 5 buttons, looks like one.

 Monet's "Impression: Sunrise"

7. Why is blur important in interactive design?

It blurs all controls into one image of simplicity. Blurring in art negates the exact representations and evokes imagination and creativity when it is represented differently.

  

8. Why do good designers squint when they look at something?

To find the right balance, makes things appear more simple and groups forms. Gives focus.

THINKING GAME

1. A person nods his/her head up and down - Agreeing, Acknowledgment, Permission, Understanding

2 A person’s lower lip trembles slightly - Sadness/Whimpering, Stress, Cold, Nervous

3. A person smiles slightly - Amused, Arrogant, Acknowledgment, Satisfaction

4 A person yawns - Tired, Bored, Distracted, Sympathy

5 A person shrugs his/her shoulders - Unsure, Confused, Neutral/Passive

6 A person inhales quickly - Impatient, Stress, Psyching Up/Bracing yourself




GOOGLE DOCS 
PROS:

• Everyone can contribute thoughts and ideas
• Everyone in the group can comment on others' thoughts and ideas which creates interaction amongst the group
• An organised and efficient way to share information
  

CONS:

• It is another medium we have to keep updated
• There is no guarantee that everyone will continually check the posts
• You need to have everyone in your group in your contact list otherwise you cannot see messages that they have posted