Before I took this class I had no previous design experience or know-how, but now after just a few weeks I find myself subconsciously critiquing simple design flaws on websites, apps, etc. I think Marty has taught us how to think like designers. I believe this is because we learned about the function of personas and usability tests in our projects - a major part of playing the whole game. These ideas taught us to always think about and consider the user and how to make their lives easier. I also have learned that nothing is perfect the first time because what may seem obvious to you (the designer) is not always obvious to the user. This means that project testing and redesign are a very critical part of the whole design process because they allow us to see our oversights and shortcomings.
I'm looking forward to the second half of this class!
This is a very thoughtful post. I think you made a very good point about how this class has taught most of us that previous design projects may appear to have many flaws that we were unaware of at the time. I also liked how you stated that we design and redesign products to make users lives easier.. We both posted very similar ideas about our thoughts on "playing the whole game."
ReplyDeleteYou're right, nothing is perfect the first time around, and probably not the second, third, or twentieth time around either. I find myself walking around and thinking about how things could have been designed better to be easier to use. At the career fair, I had a 5 minute conversation with a recruiter solely over how poorly designed the pens they were handing out as souvenirs were (the cap didn't fit not the other end, it looked like a clicky pen or possibly a twist off, but it wasn't. It just pulled right off.), and he agreed with me. This class has made me see funny little things like that.
ReplyDelete