DSGN 341 Blog

                This week I really enjoyed getting to choose my readings and become knowledgeable about topics I was passionate about. One thing that stood out to me was in Design Thinking is Not the Answer, Especially if You Don’t Know the Question. They discussed how just telling people about design thinking isn’t a fix. You need to change the mindset and the lifestyle in order to have people change how they think about it. Exiting this course, design thinking has had many take aways on my life that I will bring to future businesses. I think using humans to solve solutions is so intelligent. If you use the people you are trying to sell too, you’re guaranteed to create something brilliant. 

Throughout this week I learned a lot from our readings. One thing that stood out to me was in my additional article I chose to read. This article is called The Total Economic Impact of IBM Design Thinking. I found this article to be very interesting for a few reasons, however, the one that stood out to me the most was the hard facts. During our classes and college, a lot that our teachers say and show us can sometimes go over our heads, or we don’t believe them to be true and we are just trying to get our work done. However, this article has shown true and hard facts in regard to design thinking and the process they follow. This was really interesting to see the statistics put into a real-life scenario. 

Throughout this week I learned a lot from our readings. One thing that stood out to me was in Design Bootleg, the authors discuss how testing with users is a fundamental part of human centered design. This directly correlated back to thigs class and all of the activities we have done as groups and connecting with others. Specifically, the class where we made our ideal wallets. And then switched and made the ideal wallet for one of our classmates. We had to draft many different designs in order to eventually achieve a wallet suitable for our partner. This is simply testing with users! 

Throughout this week I learned a lot from our readings and Ted Talks. One thing that stood out to me was in the Ted Talk by Kevin Bethune. He discusses the creation of the first iPhone and explains that if you had asked first cell phone users what they wanted in the next phone, they would have said bigger keypads, instead the iPhone revolutionized the whole industry. This related back to our reading a lot as well. Throughout our Shape of Design reading, they discuss how designing is problem solving, and how we must respond and move as the space around design shifts and our culture changes. 

Throughout this week I learned a lot from our readings and videos. However, our readings in Design is Storytelling by Ellen Lupton was where I was most interested. I really enjoyed learning about Multisensory Design. Multisensory design incorporates the full range of all of our bodily experiences, according to Lupton. While reading this section I found this to be very true! One part that really stood out to me was discussing showering in the dark. We take our sight for granted a lot, at least I do. Showering in the dark was something I hadn’t even thought about. Finding the soap, adjusting the water, are all multisensory things I hadn’t thought about! This section really opened my mind up to discussing things I hadn’t thought about!

This week’s reading was very interesting. Throughout the Shape of Design, we learned about how design must respond and move simply like a tightrope walker. It discusses how there are differences between each designer’s work. We also learned how the success of design does not suggest the success of another. 

Throughout this week I have learned a lot. Through reading Design is Storytelling by Ellen Lupton, we learned about personas. We discussed how the process of creating personas and scenarios helps design teams work with their uses and build empathy. We talked about how scenarios are short narratives that seek to fulfill different goals. We also talked about how products have personalities. Between their different materials, colors, shapes, and graphics each engage a part of our senses and influence our behaviors. Throughout the Shape of Design article for this week, we talked about how design seeks to build bridges between our ideas and connecting them back to others. 

This week I learned many things from our readings. I really enjoyed a lot that was said in our reading for Design is Storytelling by Ellen Lupton. Throughout this week’s reading we are exposed to emotion and how it impacts design and our everyday lives. “Designing for emotions requires thinking about how users will anticipate an experience and how they will remember it later” (Lupton 59). We learn the three layers of user experience, the beginning (aka the visceral level) the middle (the behavioral level) and the end (the reflective level). We also learned about the experience economy and how it has changed the way commercial companies design and deliver products to all of its users. I really enjoyed a lot from this week! 

Throughout this weeks readings I have learned a lot. In the reading, The Shape of Design, chapter three, one of the biggest insights I learned was about the first step of any process. You have to start with Why-based questions. I thought this was quite interesting due to the fact that it says any process. This could be for anything and it would still be necessary and relevant. Also in this reading, I learned how your ideas must improve, there is “no conceivable way that you could come up with anything worse” (The shape of design chapter 3). This was interesting to me because brainstorming and creative thinking takes practice, just like anything else. Therefore, if you practice and try again the results must be better at every point. In the reading, Design is Storytelling, by Ellen Lupton, I learned a lot of valuable insights. One of those being designers plan structures. Some people believe that designers do not have structure and do not plan, they simply do. However, designers plan just as much if not more. Consider an architect, or website designers, you have to plan your steps and structure your thinking in order to complete the task at hand.

Throughout this week I learned about the personality profile, which includes collaboration, experimentation, empathy, optimism, and intergrated thinking. I also learned about the creative process and how it is different for each person. I learned about how the heros journey impacts design thinking. I learned how to balance the transfer or knowledge and respect others opinions and advancements. Design is all about problem solving whether that be a subway or condoms! And Design is story telling. How each design says something different.