Exercise 3.3 Assignment – Speculations
ARC (Grow) / TERRAIN (Brain) / OBJECT (Logo) / MOOD (Anxiety)
Exercise 3.2 – Personas: (Amit Barot)
Project 3 – Experiences: (Amit Barot)
Part 3 – Final Presentation:
Part 2 – verbalized during critique sessions
Exercise 3.1 – Narratives: (Amit Barot)
Ode to Grilled Cheese
It still taste good even in the “Upside Down”…
Mappings – Part 3 (Amit Barot)
Field Site: Quail Hill Shopping Center & Surrounding Areas
My final mapping combined all my five forces into one single map. I did make some modifications based on my critique session. Having used Adobe Illustrator for the first time, I struggled with showing all five forces in a creative and visually appealing manner. Hopefully it’s still clearly understood. Given that the Quail Hill Shopping Center is the epicenter of the nearby neighborhood, I wanted to present the forces as I observed them. Traffic has a gradient that shows the areas where there are typically high traffic entering the shopping center. For Paths, I focused on the walkability of the area and wanted to show it as “arteries” to the neighboring area. The Businesses are self-explanatory given they are represented by commonly known icons. However, it’s important to point out that it represents all the relevant businesses that are necessary for a small community. Parks are a big theme within the neighborhood given the number of families that reside in Quail Hill. Additionally, Hangouts exhibit the areas where most people congregate. Whether that is on a park table, casual outdoor seating, or large outdoor lounge chairs and sofas.
Exercise 2.3: Geographies – Amit Barot
The start of this exercise leads to my indoor patio. Using my patio as a personal sanctuary, I have a statue of Buddha meditating cross-legged to harness positive energy. It serves as a place for me to sit in the morning, be alone with my thoughts, and attempt to clear my mind.
My journey continues outside of my home and into the neighborhood, I feel a sense of absence given I usually have my phone with me and I’m either listening to music, a podcast, or talking on the phone. Following the instructions takes me to all the familiar spots around my neighborhood, albeit out of order. I hear the faint sounds of cars on the nearby freeway overpowered by the chirping of birds. The morning carries on with it a gentle breeze and I can see families walking with their children and/or dogs. As I walk by the community pool I can see an insect trapped in a spider web on a tree. Across from the pool area, I hear the sounds of a ball hitting a tennis racket where a pair of early risers are engaged in a friendly match. I walk up the hill and see homes with their Halloween decorations donning their front door. Once on top, I pause to take in the view of the morning sunrise overlooking the city. What a beautiful place I live. I’ve been here countless times before but today seems different. It’s amazing how your surroundings stay the same, but your experience of it changes once disconnected from the daily distractions.
Exercise 2.2 Architectures – Amit Barot
My Apartment
Apartment Complex
Neighborhood
Project 2: Mappings Part 2 – Amit Barot
LOCATION: Quail Hill Shopping Center (Irvine, CA)
**Click on each force to access image via Google Drive**
Project 2: Mapping Part 1 – Amit Barot
Quail Hill Shopping Center
I chose my local shopping center in a quaint area of Irvine called Quail Hill. It’s the only shopping complex in this neighborhood.
My Five Forces are: Traffic, Businesses, Cleanliness, Walkable, Hangout.
***PLEASE NOTE: There is no space available to upload images. Below is a link to the school Google Drive for access to the photos grouped by Forces ****
TRAFFIC
Depending on the time of day, there is a lot of traffic heading into this shopping center. There is only two ways where you can enter & exit, and one way where you can only exit.
BUSINESSES
There are a variety of businesses ranging from grocery store, pharmacy, real estate, banks, restaurants, coffee shop, and fitness.
CLEANLINESS
This plaza is always kept clean and tiddy. From the walking areas and sidewalks, lounge chairs, and to the parking lot – everything is kept spotless.
WALKABLE
Numerous people throughout the day walk to and from this shopping plaza. They have widen the walkways and sidewalks to accompany families, bikes, and large amounts of people.
HANGOUT
There are numerous areas that encourage people to sit, relax, and lounge. Groups of chairs, comfy lounge chairs, and benches decorate the entire plaza. There’s even a fountain with tables and sofas.
Exercise 2.1 Informations – Amit Barot
LA LIVE
LA Live is located in downtown Los Angeles and it has become a hub and premier destination for sports, entertainment, and living.
This map accurately depicts the unique shape and size of sports landmark Staples Center as one would remember it when watching basketball, hockey, or concert events. Additionally, the tall Ritz Carlton building is memorable due to its elongated shape that is visible for anyone who has visited Downtown LA or see its skyline from the freeway. All the building on this map look close to its relative size and shape in reality.
This map uses the universal symbols usually associated in “location maps”, such as ATM, Parking, Restrooms, Elevator, etc. These icons are well established and indicate where one can find it on the map.
The color is uniform blue throughout to illustrate that each building is considered part of LA Live. Additionally, all text is in white, albeit different font size as associated to their respective brands.
The map groups information together to indicate a building has five floors associated to it. This process of organizing information into related groups is important to show how the connect together.
The indicator for streets are big white lines that give it a “pop-out effect” as it contrasts with all the blue buildings. This a very clear visual cue and makes it easier to visually process.
These Are The Chairs in Amit’s Life
Home Office Chair
This is the chair in my home office where I get most of my work done when I work from home. It was a pretty expensive Herman Miller chair that is adjustable and supposedly “ergonomically” correct. However, I don’t get that feeling after a few hours sitting on it. I do enjoy that the arm rests are adjustable as well as the back. This helps especially when I work for longer periods of time. I purchased this chair because it is mainly found in typical offices and for me it evokes a feeling of focus and puts in my “work mode”.
Dining Chair
This chair is where I sit when eating my meals. It’s light, comfortable, and has great cushion. It has a higher back than most dining chairs so it helps me sit more upright. I appreciate the simple color which gives me a feeling of calmness and soothing peace. I prefer when I eat to feel relaxed so that I can enjoy my meals.
Indoor Patio Lounge Chair
This is probably my favorite chair! It’s a relaxed lounge chair in my indoor patio and I love sitting on it in the morning with a cup of tea. I call it my “reflective chair” because I like to remind myself to start the day without thinking about what I have to do and focus on appreciating what I’ve done for that week, month, etc. Additionally, during the early evenings, I sit out here to get some fresh air and read my book. There’s nothing like having a slight breeze while reading that makes the entire experience all the more enjoyable.
Objects Love/Hate (Amit Barot)
Lovable Objects:
This futuristic yet functional LED desk lamp is one of my favorite objects. It a sturdy and strong lamp that collapses to reduce the space which is a nice affordance for a lamp (this might not be obvious in the picture). Additionally, it has three basic functions via sleek buttons.All three buttons are great visibility cues. These unobtrusive buttons are flushed into the design and are indicators of specific constraints. The arrows labeled “Up/Down” indicate a mapping constraint. The “On/Off” button serves as another source of obvious feedback. What I also like about this lamp is that it has 3 color temperatures (white, yellow, dim) to choose from. However, I also like it because in the back of the lamp, there is a USB charger where you can charge your electronic devices (primarily my iPhone).
Objects I Hate:
This is my Brother Laser Printer which I absolutely hate. It is an all-in-one printer with fax, copy, and color print functions. However, the affordance is non-existent outside of the lifting lid for copies. The printer has very poor visibility indicating when there is an error. It doesn’t tell me exactly what is wrong outside of a red light, thus its feedback is very uninformative. Additionally, it has way too many useless buttons that make it very confusing and offers bad constraints. The mappings are confusing and overlap between scanning vs. printing vs. faxing.
Histories: Amit Barot
Tiffin
Basketball
Backpacks!
Strategy: Iteration
Iteration is the concept of repeating a set of actions or procedures to achieve a preferred result. In UX, it would require a constant progression, testing, and tuning of the design.
Original Source:
Lidwell, William. “Aesthetic-Usability Effect” Universal Principles of Design: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design, Rockport, 2010.
Example from Original Source:
Example from Online Source:
Source: “Positive vs. Negative Iteration in Design” by Glenn Ballard, Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, 2000
Personal Life Example:
Fans have been iterated over the years from the typical spoke version to the current version in the image above.
Strategy: Inverted Pyramid
The inverted pyramid is a method of sharing information where the most important information is presented first and the rest is presented in descending order of importance.
Original Source:
Lidwell, William. “Aesthetic-Usability Effect” Universal Principles of Design: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design, Rockport, 2010.
Example from Original Source:
Source: Edwin Stanton, Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of War (1865) – report of assassination
Example from Online Source:
Image Source: http://shahaltplov.blogspot.com/2015/09/headlins.html
Example from Personal Life:
This is today’s CNN online article where the headline provides the most important information first.
Strategy: Design by Committee
A process where design is taken into consideration by a group and decisions are made by the group. Of course, this assumes no bias, the correct influencers are present, and a general agreed upon collaborative decision is made.
Original Source:
Lidwell, William. “Aesthetic-Usability Effect” Universal Principles of Design: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design, Rockport, 2010.
Example from Original Source:
Example from Online Source:
Example from Personal Life:
The Apple Watch involves numerous parts from a variety of companies/makers. Design by Committee is paramount for its success.
Strategy: Development Cycle
Development Cycle describes the stages involved in software product. The four stages are Requirements, Design, Development, and Test.
Original Source:
Lidwell, William. “Aesthetic-Usability Effect” Universal Principles of Design: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design, Rockport, 2010
Example from Original Source:
Example from Online Source:
Image Link: https://online.husson.edu/software-development-cycle/
Example from Personal Life:
This was the Software Development Life Cycle that we used at my place of employment (Allergan).
Strategy: Entry Point
The initial impression of a design upon it’s physical or virtual entrance.
Original Source:
Lidwell, William. “Aesthetic-Usability Effect” Universal Principles of Design: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design, Rockport, 2010.
Example from Original Source:
Example from Online Source:
Example from Personal Life:
Red Carpet Entrance for a Happy Birthday party definitely set the stage and theme.
Strategy: Most Advanced Yet Acceptable
A design that is unique, desirable, obvious and yet has pragmatic appeal.
Original Source:
Lidwell, William. “Aesthetic-Usability Effect” Universal Principles of Design: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design, Rockport, 2010.
Example from Original Source:
Example from Online Source:
Example from Personal Life:
Adjustable dumbbell that does the work of multiple dumbbells in one. This was once a premium product but over the years has become standard.
Strategy: Most Average Facial Appearance Effect
Study shows that most people are attracted to a face that looks average than a face that looks unique. Research has shown that combining photos of several people’s faces to generate a composite, an “average” face was created. In trials, it showed that these highly average faces were consistently rated more attractive.
Original Source:
Lidwell, William. “Aesthetic-Usability Effect” Universal Principles of Design: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design, Rockport, 2010
Example from Original Source:
Example from Online Source:
The “Average Joe” as depicted in the British TV Show: The Office.
Image Link: http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2011/07/the-british-office-where-are-they-now
Example from Personal Life:
The Jabbawockezz is a hip-hop dance group that uses an anonymous mask to ensure the focus is on the artistry of their performance.