First Prototypes and User Testing

Wayfinding Project

Wayfinding Definition: Wayfinding encompasses the information-gathering and decision-making processes people use to orient themselves and navigate through space; simply put, how people get from one location to another.

Summary of Project 

For this project my group members and I the situation that needed to be improved which has Budig. Our starting point was the main entrance of Budig and our ending point was room 110, which is the same room as Hallmark Symposium. Some of the problems we encounter were figure out which color to chose for our Wayfinding design. We first used a bright red for our signage and covering the rails and the base of the walls with painters tape. But after getting advice we decided to go simpler and just use the signage we designer and use painters to make a lines to make navigations through the hallways easier. And from the responses we got from the KU students it was more effective and easy to understand. Our group also decided to use a more coral color to complement the beauty of building. And we also created a color-coordinated map to help the students to the main auditoriums in Budig.   Overall, what I learned from this project is sometimes simple it the best way to go with a design.

Tim Brown Designing Thinking Reflection

From listening to Tim Brown, he is urging designers to use designing thinking to think big.  He urges designers to focus less the fashion and aesthetics of the object and more on making the object have a bigger impact in the world. Brown says that designers have shifted from designing big things to designing small objects. What stood out to me was when he says that instead of designers focusing on the technology first they should instead focus more on the people. I thought that was a great point he mentioned. Designers are creating these projects for the people so; it makes sense to have the people themselves participate in the design process. Overall, he wants to designers and the consumer to have an active relationship with each other so that project/product is more effective and impactful.

Human Center Design Tool Kit Reflection

Human Center Design Tool Kit

From reading this, this is a kit that contains the elements to Human Center Design. This process has been used to create new solutions for multi-cultural organizations with new creative invocations.  This kit mentions how it will help you hear the needs of the people and create new to meet the peoples needs and deliver the solutions. With using this kit it helps increase speed and efficiency of the creative new innovations for solving the world’s problems. The reason for using this kit is to interact with the people themselves who can guide the designers to the best solution. And also with you using this kit, it gives designers the choice what whatever technique that is best for the situation. Overall, the reading with gives tips on how to organize the teams plus shows examples through case studies on how effective the tips were from the kit. Also the toolkit thoroughly explains how to plan out the process of each project. In conclusion, the toolkit would definitely be useful in helping designers be effective with their work.

Coco wayfinding reflection

This reading is talking about the design company IDEO reveal their method card. These cards are used for inspiration for practicing and ambitious designers looking for a creative spark in their work. The IDEO release these cards to encourage designers to try a new approach for making user friend, useful and pleasant to people. These cards have been categorized represent ways to understand people: Learn, Look, Ask, and Try. The reason for this is to help designers plan their project and to remind them of the different methods. The Learn section analyzes the information to gather insights and patterns. The Look section views people to discover in what they rather do.  The Ask section enlists people’s participation to produce information relevant to the project. The Try section create mockups to help understand and to evaluate planned design. Overall, each section of these cards are suppose to help designers through the design project of their projects.