chunyu huang

11/8/07 Audio

I like the positive aspects of games that some of the audio touched on. It is interesting to think that games can involve non-passive thinking, while other entertainments such as movies and books and so on encourage observation, critical thinking and transfer knowledge. At the same time, even though it is educational (not in a traditional way), it can also be fun and gains a lot more attention and engagement. The case about using games to promote and teach behaviors and thinking that relates to social problems is really quit amazing. You can imagine books and propaganda and documentaries educating people and arousing public awareness and actions. I have the perception of games existing only in the virtual word so for people to apply skills and knowledge they learn in games to the real world and make it a reality is something quite amazing. I think this the transfer of virtual into real is made possible through the development of game software. People can now interact with real people through virtual space ad the reality of interaction, the concepts, and real-world situations, will only increase.

10/16/07 Prototype

Role focused prototype is concerned about its relationship with the user, what purpose does the artifact serve, how it might change the user’s life, and explain what it is and is ot about. Look and feel is concerned about the aesthetic of the prototype, the user’s reaction to the appearance of it, and figure out what is attractive and unattractive for the audience who ultimately wants to deal just with the user interface and not the technology behind it. Implementation is focused more on how the artifact is goin to be made in the end. It can deal with developing artifacts that are more technology based. Implementation prototypes are often time consuming and complicated to build so they most often will appear in the end product. It is useful to show artifacts that ultimately need to be realized and not just conceptualized. Look and fell is good for things such as children’s toy and for observing how the audience reacts to it. Role is good for explaining to a broad audience the concept of the idea and what its experience should be. Things such as user scenario would be helpful for those not part of the design team but general public.

10/?/07
What I found compelling from the article was the fact that the quality of representation can affect our approach, making it either a reflective or experimental task. For example, world problems when left in its present state can be a reflective challenge but when converted to a diagram/numbers, it can be solved experientially and much quicker. From my experiences at parsons so far it seems that there is an emphasis on making the reflective into experimental, from text on complex information into quick, easy-to-understand representations. I think this is an area that generates a lot of creativity and innovation, where the person who is able to present an approach the same info in a new way is recognized. Although the products of these end viewers’ opportunity to think reflectively on the same subject matter when everything is so experientially laid out before them unless they have the ambitious and curious mind to push themselves or the subject matter further. However, the contribution of reflective to experiential representation is in the fact that it makes digesting information faster and easier, which is invaluable in the current society where there is so much information and knowledge to soak in. It helps people build the foundation they need to build new ideas in a much more efficient matter. Otherwise, just trying to learn and relearn knowledge in the form it was first conceived would probably not have lead to as much breakthroughs.

10/4/07 Audio 10 faces of Innovation

The line I remember the most was how Mead described her experience with observation was diving into it and not coming up for air until it was done. I was somewhat skeptical when I approached this assignment because though observing people is interesting, there is this conscious awkwardness when you know people know you are looking at them and taking pictures of them. I tried to look at things in a curious manner, even though some were things and events that were quite mundane, to hopefully discover new and interesting things about the people and the environment. In the audio, it mentioned that only after thoroughly understanding people and their needs, can we better solve their problems and wants, I can’t say I have found any serious problems during any observation, except for a person asking for things which may cause people to fell unease. Perhaps my documentation of my observation was unpleasant for some people but overall I received open and no negative feedback from what I notice. I think keeping an open mind like the audio suggested helped a lot since I tried to document things that at first I thought were common and mundane, but a story slowly evolved from it. It’s hard not to have bias toward the environment and surroundings though. Sometimes a space is more attracting and inviting and sometimes certain personalities/ characters are more interesting than others that you can’t help but follow them around to see what they might do next.

9/25/07 – Related to Pillow

My design of creating new uses fro the umbrella by providing a new way of looking at the object in another from than typically perceived. The pillow confronts the digital world that invades the space regardless of whether we are a willing participant or not. We cannot prevent other people’s electromagnetic waves from coming into our surrounding because we don’t see it or hear it. Similarly, in my design of the umbrella, I portray the noisy environment in dorm life and the frustrating conversations and party noise that penetrate the walls to neighboring rooms. The people subjected to this environment have no control of the noise level, and the murmurs unless they can shut the mouths of their neighbors somehow. The umbrella in my design acts as a magnification of noise and also as a repellent of noise. I think there is a subconscious desire to process things we hear but can’t hear very well and attempts at deciphering what the conversation is can be frustrating. Therefore, my umbrella magnifies noises and allow the person to listen in on what is going on in the other room, pick up rumors and gossips and such, acting like a cup against the wall. The alternate of that is to use it as a ear plug to block out noise at night when it is time to sleep but sleep is not for everyone at college.

I think the design would not work in our world because the umbrella design are substitutes for what is already in existence but it just combines 3 items into 1.

9/20/07 Aesthetically Controlled Interaction

Aesthetically controlled interaction focuses not only on usability or efficiency but integrates aesthetics and function that expects the appearance of the product to fit the functionality and role it was designed for. The outcome of the design when these two elements are integrated, rather than regarded as separate are more meaningful, creative, and ultimately not boring. It should consider the physical elements, the manner in which the users will interact with it, and what role/frustration it serves in our culture and everyday life. To achieve this designers can approach this through interaction webloging where they step out of what the object or interface is typically used for and design for extreme characters where they answer the needs and aesthetics of extreme characters.

9/18/07 Podcast

These talks made design and technology more accessible in the sense that it demystified technology. To me technology has always been harder to grasp and understand. I always viewed it as the impossible and that although you can improve upon the current technology and design, it is near impossible to do something utterly different. However, the works of Bunker Roy who developed the after collection system and IDEO have really proven to themselves and the world and their critics that through blasting walls and through brainstorming and re-brainstorming, the right application of technology and smart use of knowledge that already exists, the impossible is not so impossible after all.
I think technology and design touches all aspects of outlives, which can be seem from Bunker’s application of it in a 3rd world country that drastically improves people’s life and given them opportunities that they never had before. On the other side, there is IDEO who work with more well off business partners that are also able to improve people’s life in an interactive and functional way that probes and inspires further investigation on technology, such as Prada’s changing room, as well as improve function and behavior in the workplace like Dilbert’s cubical.