Video Reflection: David Kelley > Human Centred Design

This video interested me because of its topic human centered design. David Kelly talks about how we today are using a more “human centered approach to design and that were including behaviors and personalities in the things we do.”

He goes through the lecture showing examples of this, the first example he shows is a handspring device which is a handheld computer at the time. Then the heart stream defibrillator which is saving a lot of lives and is used at the airport. Another product he introduced was the reader which is a tablet form device making reading magazines enjoyable.

He explains that the development of design has led up to focusing more on the human centered approach to design and looking at incorporating behavior and personality also in to the design. To show us how designers are doing this he shows a few clips that focus on human centered design.

One example that interested me that he showed was where Scott Adams asked them to design an ultimate cubical for Dilbert. The team thought to build their own cubicles to see for themselves the problems that come with them. They first group builds a cubicle making the walls, screens for their computer and their family photos. In the second group scenario the walls are alive and they give “Dilbert” a “group hug”. They want to make the cubicle more human so they achieve this by many features in the cubicle. There was a flower in a pot that wilts when you leave in disappointment and when you come back stands up straight as if it’s greeting you. To make it more home like, in the walls they add a built in fish tank and a small punching bag with the bosses face on it so you can let aggression out. There was a hammock that stretches across the cubicle for that afternoon nap.

This was one of many examples looking at the human centered design approach and I enjoyed all of them. I wrote about the cubicle one because it to me stood out with the human approach and you could see the personality in it making the cubicle “human like”. This I believe would also increase employees work quality as it is enjoyable to work now with the feeling of happiness rather than the feeling of entrapment.

It’s important for industrial designers to see this video so that they can see how important human centered design is in everyday living. The video also is great because it shows how far we have come from 9 years ago in terms of the design world. 

Video Reflection: Don Norman's Emotional Design

Don Norman’s lecture is very interesting and allows everyone to understand design in a whole different way. He goes through by explaining that aesthetics of a design is as important as the functional features of a design. He uses the example of the Phillipe Stark juicer, its aesthetic features are beautiful but the actual use of the product isn’t what it’s bought for. 

Don Norman says that he has bought the juicer and has it in his entry way of his house but “doesn’t use it to make juice”.  He also says that he had bought the gold plated special edition and it comes with a little note saying not to use it as a juicer as the “acid would ruin the gold plating”. As an consumer our main interest are in what emotionally and visually pleases us and by having these senses pleased the product seems to work much better for us as it makes us happy.

There are three levels of design he mentions in his talk. The visceral level is subconscious and it’s the feelings we have towards a product. The example he uses is glass water bottles. We don’t buy the water bottle for the water because water is water, but we as consumers buy it for the bottle because we can then use it as decorations of reuse it.

The behavioral level is also subconscious, and this level of design is all about “feeling in control” and includes usability and understanding. For this he uses the example of the global knives as it is so “nicely balanced and sharp and you really feel you’re in control of the cutting”.

The third level is reflective it is the part of the brain that has no control of what you do and doesn’t see the senses, it’s a “little voice in our head” that tells us whether it is good or bad. He uses the example of the hummer and how the owners of it say that they have never had a car that has attracted that much attention. This was all about image for the owners.

What made Don Normans talk interesting was that it was easy to understand and follow because he explain his points by linking products and designs. I believe it is important for industrial designers to see this video as an inspirational and learning experience for them to view design in a whole different light. This video taught that design should very much incorporate beauty, fun and humor.