the end of the first quarter…

As I complete my first semester of the graduate program at IU, my mind is filled with more questions and thoughts than it was six months back. Though I have gained a lot of knowledge and skills when it comes to interaction design, this brings along a wave of confusion which I like to call “placing a sharp corner in an ellipse”.

One of the great things about the HCId program at IU, is it allows us (me and my fellow amateur designers) to evolve our design process in our own way, using our own judgment of what we feel is the right technique. The program doesn’t tell us that “contextual inquiry” is the method that is to be used to identify the needs of the user, instead it shows demonstrates what the method is, and allows us to experiment with it and formulate our own opinions and thoughts about the method. This way of learning (some call it studio based…which I may or may not agree with), has helped me mature as a designer.

Let me first explain what I meant by “placing a sharp corner in an ellipse”. For those of you who haven’t figured out what I meant to say, “try to find a square corner in a circle”. As we learn different methods and techniques involved in interaction design and usability testing in class, much of my reflective thoughts are aimed at placing these into the realm of a design process, “my design process”.

In the second quarter of my degree at IU, I will be aiming to learn more about design principles and experience design. But for now, at the end of the first quarter, the score stands at Design 15 : 8 Me.

letting go…

In one of the lecture sessions that have gone by, Marty talked about something that ironically stuck to me like glue…”letting go”.

As a designer, we tend to design and come with ideas and concept ever so often. But, ‘letting go’ is perhaps one of the most difficult things to do as an amateur designer. I’m guessing you professionals out there are used to it by now (or may be not!).

One of the projects I’m working on currently for CHI Student Design Competition, involves the homeless population. The problem description can be found here. To be honest, my group has struggled with its dynamics and we are just starting to work as a ‘team’. Solving team issues is a whole another experience, something I will blog about at a later stage. Anyway, as we started generating ideas and concepts, none of the ideas i came up with appealed to me except one. This particular idea, stuck to me like glue. I was excited, and like any other amateur designer, thought to myself, “this is it…this is a winner..”!

I now realize was wrong. Its funny how Marty mentioned the same thing a month or so back, when he said we will come up with ideas that we think are the in disputed solutions to the problem and after further research we find that its not so great after all. So its not like I didn’t know this would happen, but its only when it happened multiple times, that I start getting the feel of it.

Many people would argue though, saying that there have been many cases where designers have stubbornly gone ahead with an idea which turned out to be a winner. That brings up an interesting question,

When do you know “this is it” and when do you think “this is it” ?

the first few weeks…

<< I first posted this on the ‘orange group blog’, but then decided it was meant to be in a separate blog site altogether..so here it is.. >>

When I started typing this, I didn’t have a title yet. So the Title you see is something I may have thought of towards the middle or the end of the following post.

It all started on someday in Aug last year, when I stumbled upon the field of HCI on the internet. As I kept reading about it, it felt like “thats what I want to do“. But I wasn’t sure. I was a little apprehensive at first about learning design. And to an extent skeptical. Simple because I felt that I didn’t have any background whatsoever in design and back then all I cared about in designs was either the symmetrical layouts or the intentionally abstract designs. Its now around 400 days since that happened. And now… I am sure. This is what I want to do.

August 21st 2007. Our ‘official’ journey began. The learning experience with Marty & co. When I look back at the previous six weeks and six projects, I realize that I’ve learnt so much!

The following image, is a snapshot of my design-brain on 10/04/2007. (Blurred intentionally)

Our first lesson, was doors. Yes doors. As weird as this may sound, that was probably the most important lecture to me so far. Reason? It opened my eyes to the world of design. It took me through the ‘doors’, into the design world. From the world of “users”, to the world of “designers” who design for the users.

Following are my insights/thoughts/pieces of knowledge, in chronological order.

- Personas are everything. Create your personas. Then allow them to create your design.

- Study the user’s mental model.

- The design problem statement, is probably the most important part in a design process, especially from a business perspective.

- Documentation is very very important. (This was after getting a miserable grade in the thermostat project)

- Reminders: Be user centric. You are designing for the users. Not for yourself.

- Personas should be Goal Oriented.

- Seven Themes to good design.

- Embrace your constraints.

- Solve the CORE.

- Personas are NOT everything!! They are just tools.

- Be imaginative. USE the medium to the full possible extent.

- Solve the CORE (again).

- PRInCiPleS are the key to the locked doors, which hide the ‘convinced’.

- Design IS the argument. (Though I prefer saying the Argument IS the Design)

- Finally, Maya Lin taught me one important thing. The master-key to good design, is to Identify the most deepest needs of a user. In order to identify that, one must first block himself/herself from design ideas.

For days now, I’ve been trying to integrate what I’ve learnt in Youn’s class and Marty’s class. The following image, is a hazy structure of the big picture in my head.

 

welcome to mein Leben..

for those of you who are ignorant of the German language (and I don’t mean that in a bad way).. the title of the blog mein Leben means “My Life”.

Thats precisely why I registered this blogsite. For a long time till now, the blog fever had deluded me, but now i’m infected with it. I feel like blogging, and telling you about my life! Something I would have thought ridiculous a few years back.

Nevertheless, this blog will hopefully be the journal or diary that I’ve failed many times to maintain. It will contain a lot mingled thoughts and ideas I obtain from the HCID program at IUB, events in my life and events in someone elses life that interests me!

Please comment! It feels nice to know someone is reading my blogs !!