Welcome to the year 2028; the last of the environmental protections in United States were abolished by congress in 2027. One year later, we look at the small town of Apex, NC for a glimpse into the past. We launch the Historic Adventures app and select the year 2018 from a list of dates. The app dutifully renders the scene, presenting us with the wondrous site of foliage, long since stripped from the land.
Foliage may be gone, but an egregious set of artifacts are almost as pervasive. Advertising now runs rampant in the town. Consumer protection laws do little to stop the mega corporation that has risen from the ashes of a charred earth.
With a renewed desire for justice, the group of citizens stand behind the viewscreen of the Historic Adventures app. They march on Congress tomorrow; anger fuels their drive and commitment for reform. It’s too late for Apex, but the planet can still be saved.
Joyce is walking through downtown as she usually does, visiting different shops and saying hello to everyone she meets. She grabs lunch at Peak City Grill, one of her favorites. Her waiter, John, greets her as usual, and notices she’s recently upgraded from her flip phone. “I know you’re an expert on the town’s history, but I bet even you could learn something new about the city from that new app the Historical Society made!” he challenges. “I’ll take you up on that, but lunch is on you if I don’t!” Joyce retorts. They laugh and John agrees to the bet.
She downloads the app and tests it out. As she sits in the restaurant, she realizes it’s one of the locations for the scavenger hunt. The clue mentions a fire that burned downtown, and she remembers one happened in 1905. This fire was common knowledge for anyone growing up in the city. “This’ll be easy, she thinks. But there is no key! As she looks through the different time periods, she learns that two fires burned downtown, one in 1905 and another in 1911. Since she’s a regular, lunch is still on the house. She thanks John and continues down the street, learning more about each building as she greets the rest of her friends.
I sit and wonder why I’m here, posting a receipt,
while pursuing a degree, one that’s quite ‘elite.’
“Creative writing?” Nope, not quite! Wouldn’t that make sense?
Design it is! “Wait, what? That’s odd, you must feel pretty dense!”
It’s true, I do, for after all, I’m paying quite a bit –
That $50k is awfully big, my wallet took a hit!
But here it is: my grad school work! Posting a receipt.
“I’ll write a poem, it’s pretty bad…my degree’s quite ‘elite.’
Download the full-sized PDF of all five forces here.
Nature
One of the first things you might notice from this site is its use of nature in numerous ways. Towering palm trees, lush grass patches, bubbling water features, and the open sky are all part-and-parcel with the caramel stucco and crimson terracotta shingles that make up every building. This is fairly common in the Golden State, but the Irvine Spectrum takes outdoor living to another level by inviting its crowds to lounge outside in its cool breezeways and shaded plazas.
Commerce
Commerce is the life-blood of the Spectrum, the force through which it thrives and nourishes itself. Trendy clothing shops, enormous retailers, mouth-watering dining, state-of-the-art tech – you name it, and the Spectrum’s got it. Any variety of retail needs may be met by a visit to this site, and its circular layout and various stalls subtly entice one to continue just a bit further down the way until they are swept up into another shop, mesmerized by a display in each store’s giant floor-to-ceiling windows.
Entertainment
Not feeling the need for retail therapy? Then you’ve still come to the right place! Night transforms this place into a vivid playground for both kids and adults alike, with venues and fun for all. Comedy clubs, concert stages, arcades, cinema, and even a massive Ferris wheel are all contained within the Spectrum’s grasp.
Location
Nestled perfectly between the merging 5 and 405 freeways, the Spectrum is poised right in the heart of Irvine, California. Not only is this location extremely accessible, but it’s poised right in the middle of Irvine, California, one of the state’s most populated cities. Further, the Spectrum is surrounded by innumerable businesses, both large and small, which, like clockwork, spill into it’s walkways and businesses every day for lunch, meetings, or just a short break from the office.
People
Without patrons, this site would become a ghost-town. Luckily for the spectrum, there is no shortage of life, however. Local schools, businesses, and neighborhoods supply a seemingly endless flow of traffic in and out of the center, at all times of day. Weekends bring families in need of shopping and some time out of the house. Nights see dates and hangouts happening throughout the center. Mornings and lunch are inundated with nearby employees searching for a quick cup of coffee and a bite to eat.
This map details the available concessions and activities at TwitchCon’s 2018 party at Avaya Stadium in San Jose, California.\
Color One of the most prominent features of this map is it’s strong use of a monochromatic palette. To match branding, most colors are tints, tones, or shades of Twitch’s iconic purple, and it uses contrasting yellows and reds to separate structures from nature. Color is also used to pop structures out, adding white to buildings and giving them a 3-dimensional effect with the use of flat design. This design style is employed liberally in this map, adding the slightest amount of dimensionality by giving each object a shadow from a global lightsource. These shadows are created by using shades of their parent color – an extremely simple effect. This is primarily for legibility and ease-of-use of the map, with white callouts clearly marking the function or name of each location.
Biophilia The addition of trees and textures to show grass and shrubs is an indicator of biophilia, which drastically alters the mood of the image. Although repetitive and not true-to-form, the trees lighten the tone of the information-heavy map, and give the viewer a more holistic scene (although slightly exaggerated) of the location. In this instance, these markers might truly refer to a field or patch of grass, and can actually be more of a subtle tool in that regard, but the trees in particular seem to be placed playfully and with more of a design-driven intent than functional. This skews the viewer’s understanding of the location to be more lush and natural, drastically changing its reception.
Contour Bias Contour Bias, or an inherent preference to rounded objects rather than ones with sharp edges, is seen throughout this map. Even the smallest details, like the tips of the flag, or the point in the top of the tent, all contain rounded edges. This is partially due to the flat-design aesthetic of the map, but also lends itself to ease-of-use principles. The softer edges are easier to glance over and don’t pull one’s focus easily.
A groundbreaking collaboration exploring the dichotomy of light and dark inside of each of us…this ascendant work transposes thought and physicality effortlessly throughout the canvas and exposes the very truth of what it means to be human…
Chair 1: My Bed
Arguably my favorite in this list, my bed is the primary spot for most of my life once I’m home. This ‘chair’ is easily transformed to fit whatever activity I’m engaging in; if I’m working, I can add some pillows behind me and use a laptop table, whereas video games allow me to lounge and shift my position as needed. This bed has a lot of emotional attachment tied to it as well, as it’s the main place my dog Rosie tends to hang out. She seems to hold this ‘chair’ in high esteem as well, as she spends all her time on it, and loves digging through the blankets to make that perfect puppy-cave. When sitting on the bed, my entire room is visible in front of me, whereas when sleeping, I may turn to one side and shut out everything by facing the wall. I love this spot!
Chair 2: Burger Boss Booth This chair was located at a fast-casual restaurant in which I met a friend. While the booths afforded sitting, their physical constraints were extremely limiting, especially to those of taller stature. My friend and I were constantly bumping knees with each other, and the table associated with the system was too small to hold two trays of food. The benefit of these booths were their high backs, however, as they seemed to create a much more intimate space for us to have a conversation. The seats were comfortable although small, and gave the illusion of privacy within a crowded restaurant.
Chair 3: Waiting Room Couch This comfortable leather couch was soft and seemed to encourage you to sink into it while waiting for the doctor to see you. The waiting room was strangely warm, working at odds with the leather material. This made it feel a bit sticky, but that was more than made up for by how soft and cushy the sofa felt. The context of the doctor’s office made this seat feel a bit strange, however, as one wouldn’t usually think of that type of place as a communal, social space, but this sofa seemed to suggest otherwise. It felt oddly dissonant with the area in which it was housed. That could have been done purposefully by the staff, in order to help patients feel “at home” and comfortable by associating the office with their living rooms, but that’s just conjecture.
Chair 4: Honda HR-V Driver’s Seat Although I stated earlier that my bed was my favorite spot, this is easily trailing closely behind. The seats in my car are made of a very breathable material, which is a godsend for someone, such as myself, who tends to sweat. Further, the seat’s adjustable allowances let me customize my commute to the most comfortable extent! This seat allows me to adjust the pitch of the bottom, the angle of the back, the height of the head rest, as well as how close or far I am to the steering wheel. While most chairs seem small for me (as I’m somewhat tall), this chair allows me the most comfort due to its flexibility. This is one of the best seats in the house…or rather, on the road!
Chair 5: Steelcase Series 1 This chair could have easily outshone the qualities of any chair on this list, if not for the kiss of death – its materials. While the body and netted material of this chair have a wonderful, contemporary look and feel, the choice of heavy, industrial-feeling woven fabric for the back completely destroys anything it touches. The material is so unforgiving and rigid that it actually physically degrades material which rubs against it! Pilling on shirts, sweaters, jackets, and coats has become expected thanks to this chair – it’s gotten so bad that many of my coworkers actually bought blankets specifically to act as a barrier between their apparel and the chair’s material. Apart from that glaring and unfortunate design failure, the ergonomics of this chair are amazing. Full, movable back support and a wide range for both height and the placement of the elbow panels make this chair extremely comfortable in any position!
While visually stunning, the Sony PlayStation Gold Wireless Headset is a treasure trove of design on all counts. As soon as it is put on, one can see, hear, and feel the incredible amount of thought put into every aspect of the headset’s design. Similar to the magical regalia a player might don their character with, this headset provides a considerable boost to enjoyment and engagement when worn – you can definitely consider this loot to be god-tier.
For starters, the visibility of controls and status is both simple and sleek, and just the right amount. A small light indicates whether you are live, muted, or connecting based on it’s color and whether it is solid or blinking. In terms of controls, they blend seamlessly into the material with just enough protrusion to be both visible and easily found by touch. Interacting with these controls is extremely easy, thanks to the system’s feedback mechanism and physical mapping. A press of the volume up or down button, for instance, not only follows our mental association of increase being up, and decrease being down, but you are given both haptic and on-screen indicators of what action has been taken. Similarly, pressing the mute button stops an ever-so-slight feedback of your own voice following a high-pitched beep, clearly indicating that something (in this case, your voice) is on hold. The last key feature of these headphones is their ability to weed-out unwanted background noise and mumbling. In this way, the habituation of a normal conversation is not put at odds with using this device, and we can converse with others as if we were there in person – no need to worry about possible distractions around you!
The Bad & Ugly: Apple’s MacBook Pro Touch Bar
Ok, so maybe it’s not ugly…until you open up anything on your desktop. While this technology could still prove to be fairly useful, the first few iterations of it have been absolutely terrible. And not just subjectively – the inherent concept behind it is flawed. By trying to eliminate the physical constraints of a keyboard, Apple created a customizable space in which users could fine-tune macros and functions and essentially create their own, personal keyboard. If only that’s what they ended up with! This space is supposed to be dynamic as well as reactive, reading not only the behavior of the user, but the context in which they are present. For instance, switching into a photo app will place the thumbnails of every photo in your library into this tiny space, so you may, allegedly, quickly sort through them. But what if I wanted to use that space for editing tools? I have to now double down on my own work just to have a functional space, in which function once existed (the F-keys).
Beyond this dissonance between app context and user context, this touch bar makes an already poorly physically-mapped keyboard even smaller, thus causing innumerable typing and input errors. And now that it’s missing F-keys, the burden is placed on the user to re-configure something that existed for years before, or find those functions within the menus of every application. Semantic mapping also gets thrown out the window now, as common labels and functions are simplified to an extreme purely for the sake of this flashy tool. Apple has forced us into iconography that is repetitive, confusing, and innumerable at best, rather than allowing its users to rely on their experience with similar tools. Our habituation of not only a keyboard, but the advanced functions held within, is completely disregarded by this ‘purposeful’ design choice.
It’s extremely easy to be mesmerized by the stunning visuals and elaborate choreography of Bot & Dolly’s aptly-named “Box.” The moniker evokes a simplistic object, one in which things may be placed and from which things may be taken. But these actions are highly constrained by the properties of each object in the process – “Box” artfully considers this notion and then obliterates it in a matter of minutes through their mastery of projection mapping.
At its core, this performance transforms our very ideas of a box from something constrained and humble to something infinite and all-encompassing. The ‘box’ in this instance hides boundless patterns and geometry, and is ever-changing in both makeup and content. The universes held inside are shifted, split, and reorganized, all while being affected by the placement and interaction of their pieces. Our very understanding of the box is toyed with as the camera playfully glides from one side to the next, changing both our perception and the outcome of each canvas.
Yet, as viewers, we’re still tethered throughout the performance by a single, simply dressed participant – a deft partner in this elaborate dance. As this person pushes and pulls the canvases, we’re brought back to the constraints of reality, of something human and finite. But this is shattered once again as we are urged to question whether they are operating on the piece, or if it is operating on them.
– 2 –
Levitation
In every sense of the word, Bot & Dolly have elevated design and entertainment in creating this piece. Completed in 2013, “Box” was a clarion call towards greater interactivity between technology, art, and design in ways unseen prior. Not only a collaboration between video, sound, and performance, this piece married robotics and entertainment into a new standard; since purchasing Bot & Dolly, Google has leveraged the robotics for use in contemporary film, including 2013’s “Gravity.” Just as practical effects became (almost) overshadowed in use by computer-generated imagery (CGI), Google’s ‘Iris’ technology might hearken a return to more physical means of capture that is complimented by digital means, similar to what we see in “Box.” Echoing the canvases throughout the piece, this technology has completely transformed the industry in which lives.
– 3 –
Intersection
The intersection of humanity and technology is extremely tense at times, especially regarding robotics. Often-heard threats of outsourcing and layoffs seem to follow this field closely, and can be paralyzing to the industry as a whole. More recent examples like Amazon’s automated warehouses spark debate over the validity of human staffing in the future, but this is a key opportunity for new industries and opportunities to open. Circling back to “Box,” this work did not create itself. Human minds had to conceptualize, construct, test, choreograph, and output every aspect of the piece. This technology might be more efficient and less error-prone, but it cannot exist within a vacuum. This notion is perfectly visualized throughout “Box,” as robot and human merge into a compelling visual odyssey.
– 4 –
Teleportation
As the introduction to “Box” playfully notes,
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
–Arthur C. Clarke
Go see for yourself or click any image above to be transported by the magic Bot & Dolly have created in their masterpiece, “Box.”
Feedback, as defined by Don Norman in The Design of Everyday Things, is any means of “communicating the results of an action” to the user. Norman goes further by defining a set of standards that all feedback should meet; it should be immediate, proportionate, well-designed, planned, and prioritized. Feedback has grown much broader as our scope of technology has expanded, including haptic vibrations, vocal response, various interface states, and so on. In essence, Norman’s original definition still holds true, but has expanded beyond his original examples of simple flashing lights and beeps. In our current era of technology, interfacing might contain numerous forms of feedback to accommodate a slew of user needs for a single button press.
Example 1 – Dishwashers
One of Norman’s key gripes about poor feedback was the beeping of his dishwasher in the early morning. He felt that, rather than meaningful interfaces, cost-cutting systems held precedence in the design of the device, thus resulting in an annoying, meaningless beep when the dishwasher’s cycle had finished. As his typical use of the machine occurred late at night, he was often woken up by this beeping. Unfortunately, this type of feedback still exists in current models, although some allow you to configure the beeping volume, or even turn it off. In other ways, however, dishwashers have gained new types of feedback. Newer models show clocks and timers which may be edited on the fly, and some even show timelines of the current cycle and the system as a whole. Pressing a button shines an indicator light, as well as changing the digital display accordingly. These changes have improved feedback on these machines, but there is still much left to be desired in that realm.
Google’s ambitious Material Design for Android has become a standard in application and mobile development, and has easily branched out into the world of web and interface design. This is largely due to their focus on accessibility in design, much of which is echoed throughout the feedback of each component. Material Design standardizes innumerablew types of interactions and the states associated with them, as well as the feedback tied to each through multiple means – including haptic, visual, and auditory responses. One clear example of this is the button states laid out in this design system.
Each state of a button shows clear feedback to the user of when the button is held, pressed, or dragged, and this feedback has been carefully engineered to be shown around a finger press or mouse click. For example, the purple button on the bottom-right shows the beginning of a circle protruding around where the user has touched, giving a visual indication of interaction with that space. Similarly, the selected line item in the middle-top shows a clear color change and filled check box upon selection, giving the user an immediate notification that their action was input. These visual indicators are just one factor Google focuses on, and might be complimented with vibrations and sounds matching the direction and intensity of the action.
Example 3: Instagram Photo Editing
Instagram does a fantastic job of giving immediate visual feedback to the user in multiple ways, including both a comprehensive “end-product” view of their photo, as well as clear selection states similar to my previous example.
In the above example, editing a photo of my dog allows me numerous options, including a choice of filter and the ability to fine-tune setting such as saturation and brightness. In the filter selection, I am given a small thumbnail previewing each effect, as well as a larger version of my current image with all edits being made. Not only is the selected filter popped out more than the others, but its title is much darker, showing me that I’ve clearly selected that option. Further, I am able to select each one and see it’s effect without finalizing anything. This feedback is immediate, changing the image right before my eyes. Once I go into more detailed editing of the photo, I am also able to manipulate a slider, which dynamically changes the image in front of me. I’m not given only a before/after, but rather I can see my image change in degrees as soon as I begin moving the slider with the finger. Small percentages of change are visible to the user on the fly, giving immediate feedback to every change I want to make. This is an excellent example of visual feedback at work.
Iteration is one of the key process throughout design and development with the goal of creating a holistic product that captures the true needs of your user through repeated testing and rebuilding when failure occurs. As Lidwell, Holden, and Butler define it in Universal Principles of Design, “In nature, iteration allows complex structures to form by progressively building on simpler structures. In design, iteration allows complex structures to be created by progressively exploring, testing, and tuning the design.” One might think of iteration as natural evolution as applied to design; this sort of positive, systematic reworking and tailoring of a system or product to work towards some more functional result.
Example 1: SnoWalkers Snow Shoes
The example found in Universal Principles of Design explains the evolution of SnoWalkers snow shoes over the years, as product designers used high-fidelity prototypes of the shoes in their true environment to test out new models and improvements. This led to various iterations of the snowshoes, and new features meant to improve the shoes’ function and versatility in their harsh environment. Some might think of more handmade snowshoes when they think of the product, consisting of rope tied between thicker sticks. These have since evolved to include stronger materials like steel and fiberglass, and lock-in mechanisms for specialized shoes. All of these improvements have evolved through iteration after iteration of products and testing.
Example 2: Apple’s iPhone
When looking at iPhones since their original announcement in 2007, each new model is arguably both the result of iteration, and itself an iteration of the product as a whole. Not only has the hardware, materials, and design of the iOS gone through an incredible amount of testing and reworking, but the product structure and vision has also seen some dramatic changes. From it’s first ‘iteration’ in 2007, the iPhone has continued to push new features, eliminate old ones, and rework some into something more functional – though the latter is not always the case. Throughout Apple’s story, the product’s roadmap and vision are also huge inputs in the iterative process, and act as part of the evolutionary process. This could potentially leverage the user, which might clash with a more purist view of iteration. But, this still holds true to an iterative process, using the market as a force of testing and refinement in the building of a more advanced product.
Example 3: Letterpress Printmaking
Inherent to the art of printmaking is an extreme degree of iteration.One must test and print at every point in the process in order to achieve exactly what their project’s vision was. This is especially true for letterpress, as the art demands a high focus on things like roller pressure, ink type, registration, and paper choice. Because all these factors affect the outcome substantially, one is able to play with each to achieve a specific outcome for their prints.
In this example of my own prints, I needed to test the ink color and roller pressure to ensure that the outcome was both legible and wasn’t leaving a heavy impression (or deep embossing) on the back of the cards. This was so people would be able to write in those spaces without bumping over ridges or having the ink pool opposite the printed text. To achieve this, I had to constantly iterate on different levels of pressure, consistencies of the ink, and amounts of ink on the rollers. Print after print, I would take detailed notes on how each successive iteration turned out, and finely tune each new print to achieve a specific end goal. This process is highly representative of iteration as described by Lidwell, Holden, and Butler.
Chair 2: Burger Boss Booth
Chair 3: Waiting Room Couch
Chair 5: Steelcase Series 1
In this example of my own prints, I needed to test the ink color and roller pressure to ensure that the outcome was both legible and wasn’t leaving a heavy impression (or deep embossing) on the back of the cards. This was so people would be able to write in those spaces without bumping over ridges or having the ink pool opposite the printed text. To achieve this, I had to constantly iterate on different levels of pressure, consistencies of the ink, and amounts of ink on the rollers. Print after print, I would take detailed notes on how each successive iteration turned out, and finely tune each new print to achieve a specific end goal. This process is highly representative of iteration as described by Lidwell, Holden, and Butler.