Interpretive understanding of taking notice of what people do in their everyday lives, what they use and how they do it. Also, how this might inform design and create an influence within a design process.
Page 54, Parked Car
I think from this image, most people would assume that the driver of the car was in a hurry to get parked because they were late for some form of transport. However, if you notice in the car window screen the user has set up a sun block to keep the car cool; from this I feel that the driver wasn't in a rush.
The layout of the car park isn't making full use of the space available, because there is some left over room (see right-hand side of image). You can see that the car has been parked over the edge of parking line in order to give the car and user move room to get out of the car (possibly to remove luggage from the back seats). Also the bigger automobile (bottom-left of image) seems to have parked over the line as well because there is extra 'wasted' space next to the pre-designed parking space.
I think the main issue within this layout is the actual design of the car park itself. For example: the spaces have all be arranged in straight lines where as the end of the parking space is going diagonal ( \ ).
I think this image is very useful for informing design, because a solution is possible by simply changing the straight lines of the parking spaces to match the angle of the edges. Eg:
New Design: \ \ \ \ \ \ \
This would allow more cars to be parked within the area, make better use of the space given and would also generate more money for the owners of the car park (providing they charge per hour or day). Another Solution could be to provide wider parking spaces (possibly at an extra charge) for users with lots of luggage, large automobiles, families etc.
Page 86, Toilet Cubicle
The toilet in the image appears to be a disabled person's toilet, I say this because it has a bar along the wall, which is common to disabled toilet cubicles.
The main issue within this cubicle is space and distance. If this toilet cubicle is designed for disabled user, then I feel the layout is completely wrong. For example: the distance between the toilet rolls and the toilet itself has quite a bit of space between the two. This would prove to become a difficulty for the user (depending on their disability).
An example of this becoming a difficulty would be: If the disability was to do with the users legs, the wouldn't be able to reach over towards the toilet rolls by themselves without the risk of falling off.
Although I have picked out a potential problem within the image on page 86, there is something in the image that could influence design. You can notice that a user of this toilet cubicle has used a bar that is designed to help disabled people move onto/off the toilet for hanging up their newspaper.
This can lead to new designs within toilet cubicles, by including a small bar or a slot in the wall which will allow users to put magazines or newspapers in the toilet for future reading (if the toilet is within the work place). Although statistically more men read while on the toilet than women, so this design should 'possibly' be aimed towards men's toilets rather than womens.
The image also brings out some useful ideas for women cubicles, where a small bar could be put in place to allow women to hang their handbag upon whilst they are using the toilet. This would also stop robberies occurring through the bottom gaps on the toilet cubicle, which has occurred often, mainly in public toilets. Obviously one of the most common occurring things within a toilet cubicle will be a hook on the back of the door, where men and women can hang their coats, bags etc. However I believe this is still not a safe place for users to hang their bags/handbags because anybody can reach over the top and grab anything in reach, this is why I developed the idea of having some form of hanger next to the user, while they are sitting down.
Reading Week 3
Jane Fulton Suri and her team at IDEO use images to help understand ways that ordinary people use various objects in everyday use. It allows the team to develop new designs by studying how people interact normally within an environment. Jane uses images to learn “firsthand about the context, habits, rituals, priorities, processes and values of the people” , by using a collection of images Jane and her team can ask themselves various questions about, how the user is interacting with objects they are using, what they do whilst using and what they do within the environment.
An example of this would be on page 169 where they have used the concepts within a breakfast routine. The main focus of this study was to work on the concepts of 'toasting bread' before eating and 'juicing oranges' before drinking them. Whilst conducting the study of these rituals the design team developed breakfast concepts that they wished to study. Once the study was completed and after thinking about the activities rather than the juicer or toaster they understood various stages:
- Toasting bread & Stacking toasted bread – before eating it
- Juicing oranges & drinking juice
“By thinking about the activities rather than the 'juicer' or 'toaster' themselves, led to new ideas: a toast-rack life for the toaster and a straight-into-the-glass juicer”
(IDEO Reading, Page 169 by Jane Fulton Suri)
From the above example; you can see that the team at IDEO have thought of some concepts from daily tasks that people do in their everyday lives and studied them. They were asked to do this by a company named 'Matshushita' to see if they could improve the products. After studying the concepts, Jane and her team managed to improve the products to create a simple and more efficient product for the user. Jane and her team at IDEO tend to study people in comfortable surroundings, mainly in their own everyday life environment. By doing this, the team at IDEO can study how people interact with various things, how they differ and how improvements can be made.
Jane Fulton Suri goes on to say that, not everything in our surroundings has to be re-thought or re-designed with some unique idea to make it more exciting etc. She states “this is the type of product you see sold in an airplane catalog”. So as designers, we shouldn't attempt to re-design everything we see in our daily life – instead we should concentrate on how we could improve things to make them simple and more effcient, and try not to overdo our thinking when it comes our surroundings.
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