supei's UserXperienceD

Reflections on NM4210

2008-04-24T02:53:00.002-07:00

Relief. That it is all over. But well, maybe not quite for there is definitely the need to apply the knowledge and skills acquired for the near future. Nonetheless, in the process of walking through this course, countless number of "huh?" surfaces but eventually was pretty much understood. I wouldn't say that I understood all the concepts and ideas 100% but I guess good and well enough to apply for any future uses. I think in order to fully grasp half of the concepts taught, the utmost important thing is experience itself. As a greenhorn, I can't give fascinating insights to the general concept of the elusive term - user experience. But having to go through this course has no doubt make me much more 'user sensitive' and not take good products for granted. It has given me the chance to be in the designer shoes, and realise that being a designer, half the time you are blind to obvious issues. And there is when user testing is so important. It helps to enlighten me in seeing what is supposedly obvious and I could have spotted if I am the user.

The course has definitely equip me with more tricks (user research methodologies) in my bag (my favourite is laddering!). However, I may get too obsessed with all the methods at times and forgot about what was truly meant to be. For instance, having seen groups with great quantitative research backings, I felt threatened and thought that our research was not as good. However, having read the Fahey's article, I realised there is no need to worry over it. Yes, research helps but it is not the quantity that counts, it is the quality and the abilities to make use of the pieces of information to develop the ideas that was more important in a subject matter that is ever so subjective.

All in all, if I were to use one word to describe everything, it is "HUH?" It's really hard to pinpoint and explain the overall thoughts but well, no one can say I am wrong, for 'experience is experience, it can never be wrong, it is not fact.' :p

Reflections on Final Project

2008-04-24T02:53:00.001-07:00

It has never been easy. But it is a wonderful experience being able to walk through the process that is ever so indefinable and different from any other subject matters. It is so taxing on the mind. Every week one has to crack the brains out trying to grasp and understand what was being taught and presented.

But lucky enough it started off pretty well. Although the start was pretty much a rough one. Times and times, ideas were being rejected, but of course with very valid reasons that the group has failed to spot. However, lucky enough, the bad ideas were rejected or the group will run into great trouble as the process develops. The most noteworthy experience in the very initial stage of project development, is the need to identify 'needs'. We have started out with the idea of the wine bottle, half the mind already deciding what has to be done for the rest of the project. Bad move i must say. Because the more thoughts given into it, the more fallible the idea became. By already deciding the end product, there is no progression or product development at all. It becomes so restrictive, and 'stuck' to be exact. And the best part is we can't answer the question: for what is there a need for such a product (i.e. collectible wine bottle with glass imprints of famous paintings)?

Following advices given, we went around asking (or begging) for 'needs' ideas, and we chance upon the good idea on news consumption (applicable to myself, I don't enjoy reading news though I know it's a must and it's important) which eventually became our main idea.

It started off being quite fun because there is never a correct answer to the idea of 'experience' but it becomes such a drag having to go through hard to grasp ideas and concepts. Nonetheless the steps were necessary for the project to progress.

Having no prior experience in such product/service development projects, it is strenuous getting even the low fidelity prototypes done. We were pretty clueless of what has to be done, but went ahead with it in the spirit of trial and error (so we will gain experience and learn from it). Lucky enough, we managed to get through and obtain very valuable options that we failed to see.

The toughest part of the project is coming up the high fidelity prototype. Not in the designing sense because we already have a clear idea of how we want the website to look and feel like. It is the technical aspect that is very taxing. Nonetheless it is great to have walk it through. Because an idea will always be an idea. It will be stuck on the paper as words, and that is the end of the story without making the extra step to realise it. Even though it is still slightly different from what was in mind due to technical knowledge impediments, the concept and the feel of the prototype has achieved what was intended. Additionally, it is such a valuable experience for having to learn how to use the programs. One has the 'rough' feel of what can or cannot be done, and not have wonderful ideas that can never be realised. Only one word can be used to describe such wonderful but non-executable ideas - useless.

Weeks after weeks of refinements, and going through all the critiques, the sense of satisfaction in completing the project is no doubt a great one (even though we don't have that nice a flash website compared to the FLASH programmers group :p haha). But I guess we did still fulfill the needs and what was intended to and that was utmost important.

Reflections on "User Research Smoke & Mirrors"

2008-04-24T02:52:00.000-07:00

The steps to creating 'user experience' has all along be indefinable. After reading the Fahey's reading, it has certainly reinforces the idea of having no rule of thumb to even the very basic step of researching on the users in the process. However, at the same time the article has caused even more uncertainty and 'insecurity' or so to speak, with the ever hard to grasp term being even more intangible with its subjectivity being highlighted.

I think humans are never comfortable with things that are intangible and indefinable (probably that is why they often call painters/artists mad), and thus, have absolute reliance on facts and figures, math and science. Upon meeting such a elusive subject, they started grabbing all possible ways to pull the concept to the ground and nail it tightly so they are able to grasp and explain the term 'experience' with (statistics) confidence. It is indeed laughable looking at how the eyetracking has been used by misguided people. It all comes to prove that they simply can't live without hard ground facts.

I think Fahey has made a very good point that it is alright to have all these scientific methods lying around as options to be used as thinking tools but not the foundation of things. Seeing research as pieces of information to be used to plan design and not a measurement of effectiveness definitely allows more room for creativity and thinking. The tendency to focus and rely on specific statistically proven 'problem' will often lead to blindness to what is supposedly obvious.

Awe as can be, I was truly amazed by the creation of 'persona rooms'. As argued by Fahey, it may indeed be not worth the money, but I guess big organizations employ such [in]famous methods as part of their publicity. Imagine: "Company XYZ has spent $$millions on creating persona rooms to help facilitate their design process..." How much face value is being churned out here?

Although subjectivity is being much appreciated (makes it alot easier to argue for things when opinions differs; one just can say 'oh it's a matter of perception, no one can be wrong or right'), it is at the same time disturbing. Because one can never be sure of what to employ for the steps to designing (experience) and whether things will be successful. Uncomfortable with the idea, but I guess it is inevitable since appreciation of design and art has all along never be something tangible. Accepting and appreciating the nature of such subject matters is far better than being the misguided soul who tries to nail everything down with facts and lose the way amongst the 'smoke'.

Assignment 3: Emotion Design Probe

2008-03-23T10:50:00.000-07:00

It is indeed a tough assignment. Firstly, deciding on methodologies was a problem to start with. As all Singaporeans are, we are kiasu. We wanted to use every that was taught. But well, after much discussions we decided to stick to laddering, interviews and ethnography. However, later on, I was planning on categorizing and organizing information and thought of using the 3 emotion designs. But it is hard to articulate on reflective aspect of using the LTs. Lucky Geri came up with the idea of the experience matrix, which is indeed used for noting down the experience of an event. And in our case, the event is to use LTs.

Well, besides having to decide on methodologies, we have to decide on the sample. It was another long discussion and debate. Finally we decided to settle on Arts LTs. Why? Because we were thinking that the culture in Engineering, Science etc. is very much different from Arts. The design of the LTs are very much different and the topics and style of teaching may be very much different too. In order to come with a good solution, I guess the key is to be specific in identifying the problem/situation. Thus, we decided to concentrate on the faculty of Arts and to come up with solutions on improving the learning experience in Arts.

After dividing our work, the execution went pretty smoothly, except for interviews. We couldn't get much out of students whom we interview face to face outside the LTs. Answers were as vague as ever. But we were still lucky in being able to get a couple of good main points. Plus, we had information from laddering. So we managed to collect all our data.

Then there comes another problem. Solution. We had quite an argument over this. (Haha). Mainly because Geri sees the more practical side of solution. That is to improve on the functions. On the other hand, I am more idealistic and 'vague' in the sense that I think there is no solution because the underlying factors to all the complains of interactivity lies in the students themselves, not the LTs. Eventually, we came to a conclusion that well, as designers we could improve on things like making the seats comfortable, improving sound quality, widen the walking space between the rows of seats. But eventually, coming in late, not voicing up are culture embedded problems, which we can attempt to improve by putting microphones, the restrict students from coming in after lecture starts, but not to solve it instantly or be 100% sure it will change things. I guess it's the same as the theory of user experience itself. One cannot create user experience but can create the instances and chances for certain favorable user experience to occur. It's an important take home message I guess.

Well, below are the slides that we compiled. Geri did a voice recording and I used the imovie to combine the slides and the narration to come up with a short clip. And poor Xueli has to compile all the information collected, organise them accordingly and add in analysis of the information.

Reflection on 12 Feb class

2008-03-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

The thing that has the most impact on me in this lecture is the experience matrix (guess I have a fantasy for methodologies! haha. I do enjoy research though. Can get find out things...). By naming the things that happen during an event and categorizing them, is very much helpful in finding out whether the overall experience is 'low', 'medium' or 'high' one. Because most of the time when people ask you "how is it? do you enjoy it?" One will answer "ok la", "it's not bad" etc., which are very vague replies. And I guess by weighing what has been rewarding and what has been sacrificed, it helps to evaluate the things to improve on. Additionally, whether the rewards are priceless enough to outweigh the sacrifice and thus still great experience. All these took into the consideration of expectations. The designers will be able to gauge what is being expected and thus improve on things/elements of product or experience of an event.

Reflection on 5 Feb class

2008-03-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

Interesting methodologies that are used to find out about users are introduced in this class. It's the first time I heard of cultural probe and laddering. Cultural probe is extremely interesting in getting to know the users without the observer's obstructive presence. It's something like the ACNielson's media tracking dairy log. I think it's useful for people who can't articulate well. And I guess the best way to learn about one's culture is to analyse his/her life. However, I guess this methodology has its shortcomings. The participant has to be disciplined and consistent or the method will fall apart I think. But nonetheless I think it's best use for designing portable products in my opinion. Designers get to 'feel' and 'see' what kind of lifestyle the participant is having and what kind need surfaces going through the daily lives.

For the case of laddering. The technique may sound pretty 'lame' for the investigator has to keep asking why why why, making him/her sound stupid and retarded. But guess what. It's damn useful! Was trying it in class and it works! It really helps to delve into the person's underlying value. Amazing how things are linked to attitude, beliefs and underlying values.

For the framework of analyzing experience with technology, I find it rather hard to comprehend. Maybe because of the terms. But the explanation of the terms make sense. For instance, the recounting. We do enjoy telling stories and often this process is being left out till recent times when the term word of mouth become really popular. The framework actually take into accounts things that are not really rationale: connecting - we make a judgment in an instant without much thought. This is true in the famous case of Apple products because context and experience made reactions become instincts. The framework captured the emotional aspect in this sense...

Assignment 2: Four Pleasure Analysis

2008-02-03T18:41:00.001-08:00

Product Analysis

After revisiting of the importance of creating a persona, I have decided to revisit the product itself before coming up with the extended profile.
The design of the product is something that stands out from the usual but not to the extent of being strikingly different due its all-time safe color. As such, the product evokes some sense of urge to be different with its folded leather and, yet not something that is wild and outstanding compared to long high heel leather boots. Hence, it is highly likely that
consumers of this product will be someone who treasures security but has the inner urge to break from the norm though the urge is not strong enough to be confidently different.

*note: the following description is on an imagery subject designed for academic purposes.

Expanded RMA Profile

Name: Jamie Tan Miao Ting
Age: 27
Job: Analyst at JP Morgan Singapore
Nationality: Singaporean
Status: Single
Annual income: S$80,000

Common denominator
Majoring in finance and accounting, Jamie is a 1st class honour graduate of the Business School at the National University of Singapore. As someone who treasures security and stability, she has been with her current job since she first started work after graduation.

Idiosyncrasy defined
the work self
Jamie is an analyst at the Asian Finance division. Brain power exhausting is all you can describe about her work. She used to be a non-team player who hates to socialize. But after going through the compulsory Asia Finance Management Trainee Program (FMTP) at JP Morgan, she has gotten used to working in a team, leading the team and networking even though she still dislikes to do them. Jamie's belief that one will get paid off by working hard has led her to overcome the challenges at work.

Jamie coordinates with her colleagues especially those overseas through instant messaging. She enjoys the non face-to-face contact using IM even though she is not well versed with technology. Despite hating to socialize, Jamie is still being known to her colleagues as someone who is intelligent, diligent but at the same time very mysterious as she is never contactable once work doesn't require her to.

the pirvate self
Apparently, Jamie shows her alternative self, the self that yearns to take risks in life, and to be different after work and on weekends. Out of her plain usual plain black figure non-showing corporate suit, Jamie goes for figure showing, sexy and elegant designer label dresses such as those from Yves Saint Lauren and Donna Karan. However, they are never loud or elaborate in design and Jamie favors them to be black because they give her a sense of security. She would dress up to meet her girlfriends during their free time and hang out at exclusive bar, Vau wine bar, at Le Meridan Hotel.

ohana
Her contradictory yearn for security and stability; and risks or to be different could be due to her family background. Both her parents are practical and realistic businesspersons who got divorced since she is 10 years old. They have always taught her to be practical, as such she got herself into the business school and studied finance and accounting like what her parents expected of her. Thus, being forced to be practical and realistic, Jamie always dream of being different from the realistic mundane world. She actually hopes to become artist who does human portrait for patients at the asylums. It is due to her parents being divorced that she yearns to have to a complete and stable family instead, which would give her much more sense of security.

Given such a family background, Jamie grew up not to trust love and marriages. As such, she is single. She lives in a bungalow at Bukit Timah with her mother who is never home as she is busy running her business.

Motivation
Jamie seeks stability and security through meditation. She is a strong believer of meditation as it frees her from her mind, the stresses she faces and the fact that she is trapped in a realistic world.

Goals
She hopes to find a balance in life where she could fulfill her parents' expectations and at the same time be able to pursue her dream.

Four Pleasure Analysis

i. Psycho-pleasure (cognitive and emotional reaction)

As a strong believer of meditation, she goes for meditation classes to free her from the stress given by work and family background. (Need)
As she dislikes being in the realistic mundane world, Jamie loves to be with the nature. It relaxes her mind. (Appreciation)
Due to her contradictory yearnings, she loves to look at crows. Her mind goes blank and seems to get sucked into another world when she stares at them. Crows are of her favourite color and always seem to evoke an aura of mystery. (Appreciation)
She yearns for the appearance of her true love even though she does not really believe there is ever one. Thus, she indulges in romance fiction novels to fill in her empty space. (Appreciation)
Not being well versed with technology and probably a little techno-phobic, Jamie tries to free herself from contact with technology whenever it is possible as they add on to her stress level. (Need)

ii. Socio-pleasure

Being someone who yearns for security and stability, she doesn’t like to mix around with people whom she doesn’t know. She such, she is pretty much anti-social and has only her clique of good girlfriends whom she hangs around with during free time at Vau wine bar that they patronized very regularly. (Need)
As she doesn’t has a lot of friends and she don't consider her colleagues to be part of her real social circle, thus she prefers to meet her clique of girlfriends very regularly and keep in close contact through face-to-face meetings than emails etc. (Need)
Jamie still dislikes networking and socializing except with her close friends. Thus she actually enjoy most when she is not in the limelight during networking and prefers to stay home alone. (Appreciation)

iii. Physico-pleasure (body pleasures drive from senses)

Despite having a physically undemanding job, Jamie never balances her life with physical exercising. She hates to exercise. She derives her pleasure simply by lying in bed and do nothing (maybe just reading her romance novel). She doesn't see the need to exhaust herself physically when she already does so to her mind when she works. (Need)
Jamie has an unexplainable liking for the smell of grass. (Appreciation)
She also has an unexplainable liking for the feel and sound of typing the laptop keyboard despite being afraid of technology. (Sometimes she hates the extreme contradictory self. She calls herself a walking contradiction.) (Appreciation)

iv. Ideo-pleasure

With her background, Jamie feels that having a complete and stable family in life is the top most essential things in life. As such she volunteers herself at the orphanage. She admires celebrities who shows concern for children e.g. Angelina Jolie. (Appreciation)
As a believer of meditation, Jamie aspires to give her own meditation classes one day too. (Appreciation)
As she enjoys to be in the nature, Jamie feels strongly for the need to protect the earth. Thus she does recycling and minimizes the use plastic bags. (Need)

Product Benefits Specification

Phone for her alternative (private) self (not the boring corporate image)

Design must stand out from the usual but not to the extent of being strikingly different. (Appreciation)

i. Black
ii. Other elements that defer from the usual

Basic functions i.e. SMS/Call where Jamie can text/call her close friends. (Need)
Camera function to take pictures of her close friends and store them inside her phone. (Need)
Password lock function because she places emphasis on security. (Need)
Good brand name as she treasures stability, and the reputation to be environmental friendly. (Appreciation)
Product must be visceral and reflective rather than behavioral. As Jamie is not well versed with technology, she does not need her phone to be technologically sophisticated. However, there is a need to be user friendly or it will add on stress. (Need)
Nice keypad because Jamie likes the feel of typing. (Appreciation)

Example: Nokia 7390

Image from: Google

Nokia is well known for producing user friendly phones and their products are relatively stable. As such it will fulfill the need pf Jamie for a user friendly and a phone of a good brand name.
In addition, caring for the enivronment is one of Nokia's corporate responsibility aim.
Basic functions i.e. SMS/Call and camera function of 3 megapixel to take pictures of her close friends and store them inside her phone.
Password lock function is available.
Nokia 7390 is known to be a fashion phone more than a phone with great technical specs.
It is mainly black in color and has bronze tinge to it. Design is slightly different and clam shell phones are not common, but definitely not out of the world kind of design.
Nice keypad buttons.

Reflection on 29 Jan class

2008-02-03T12:33:00.000-08:00

The class activity was actually to judge from the photo of a product on what target audience the product is meant for and come up with a imaginary subject. Through the activity, I realised that to come up with the target audience is pretty much easy, but to come up with a specific imaginary subject is tough! I guess to paint the persona, one has got to be very specific, exclusive and the key is really to know and understand each individual consumer is pretty much distinctly different.

Geri and I came up with a subject, and the comment is that it was good but not specific enough because there is still alot of such people around. So the assignment 2 will be a second attempt to better the skills of coming up with a good imagery subject that one can really visualize.

However, before embarking in the assignment I guess there is a need to understand the subject of the matter more. Why is there a need to paint a specific persona? I had the same question as Mike. Having designing a product by keeping a specific person in mind, wouldn't it be way too subjective and narrow? Also, in reality, commercial success is the main aim of producing all products. Can selling to one person ensure commercial success?

After reading the readings to look for the answer, I realized that there is indeed a need for a persona. It is the key to commercial success. In her article, Alison Head put forth the same doubt: How can designing for a single soul possibly ensure an interface that supports the needs of many users? Based on Alan Cooper's view, she argued that "personas introduce designers to hypothetical users who have names, personal traits, and habits that in a relatively short time become believable constructs for honing design specifications." Such personas are "stand-ins with archetypal characteristics that represent a much larger group of users." In order to have a strong sense of what users' goals are and what an interface needs to fulfill them, designers need to have persona.

Additionally, as argued by Tina Calabria, by creating a product through analysing a group, the data collected from them will end up to be a endless list with no priorities. Such approach has no directions and the ending of such will be designing a product that targeting no one at all. By using personas, it is like enriching the market segmentation technique, where designers can identify the type of users profile in.
Lastly, as argued by Paul-Aumer Ryan, in order to create an emotion design, knowing one's audience is very important. Idyllic designs can never exist due to individual differences in cultures. As such, if designs are geared towards being idyllic by focusing on designing for the masses or a group, it will not succeed. He argued that designs must gear towards hedonism, where there is a match between the emotional effect of design and emotional effect of situation to achieve emotional designing. As such, in order to gear towards hedonism, it is more effective to have a single subject in mind.

With all these arguments, it is evident that there is indeed a need to create a persona in the process of designing a product...

Assignment 1: Products and Emotion

2008-01-25T07:16:00.001-08:00

Product: USB (thumb drive/ memory stick)
Behavioral

Image from: Google

Imation Swivel Pro Flash Drive, 1GB, S$20.98

Behavioral:
This thumb drive is purely practical and functional. It is easy to use, and because of its size, it is able to fit into all USB slots. (Seriously. I once had a Kingston thumb drive which is gigantic and it can't fit into certain disc reader because of its body hindering the reader tip to be slot properly into the reader slot.) In addition, it is compatible to all operating system. It also has a USB cap that is attached to the drive itself, and thus the cap wouldn't get lost.

Visceral:
Other than that, I would say that the thumb drive is a common average performer but is culturally acceptable. No one would think that the owner is a geek if he/she carries it. It is absolutely not attractive nor does it helps its owner distinguish himself/herself from the others.

Reflective:
I guess the user experience for this product, if were to describe it in levels, it would be of the lowest. As mentioned by Donald Norman, products are multi-dimensional. Also, in the attempt to define user experience, Jesper Jensen brought up several studies that describe user experience as a component of many things - usability, branding, valuable, context etc. As such, this product has only fulfilled one element of user experience i.e. usability/functionality. In addition, if were to argue using Maslow's theory, it only appeal to the most basic physiological needs.

Visceral

Image from: CNet

Philips Swarovski Lock In USB Memory Key, 1GB, S$250

Behavioral:
How on earth do I insert this drive into the reader? Probably there is a removable cap somewhere. But one look at it, it seems like an expensive keychain more than a usable thumb drive. Whatever the case, this thumb drive only comes in 1GB unlike the imation where it goes up too 8GB. Also, given the body size of the thumb drive, can it really fit properly into the reader slot? I doubt so.

Visceral:
However, given its "blinky" Swarovski crystal and unique lock design (for a thumb drive), it appears attractive. A very cool and elegant design.

Reflective:
Using Maslow's theory, this product will fulfill to esteem needs of a person especially to the Swarovski collectors who would have the strong desire to have it. As mentioned by the reviewer from Cnet, Juniper Foo, such gadgets are more for fashion wear than a tech gear. As such, the branded crystals has make the product has some self-image and show off value.

Reflective

Image from: miiSTOR

SanDisk Ice - a platinum thumb drive with 456 white diamonds (5.19ct) that comes with a platinum chain; Reading speed: 15mb, Writing speed: 9mb; S$51,000.

Behavioral:
Although it is backward compatible to USB 1.1 port, and to both windows and mac operating systems, users could barely save anything inside the thumb drive given its pathetic and miserable memory space. It is evidently not produced for the sake of being usable or functional. (May be it is enough for the RICH to store their miserable documents.)

Visceral:
It is sleek, timeless, elegant, expressive and attractive. It is definitely an eye turner if one really uses it or wear it around the neck.

Reflective:
With its exorbitant price and showy aesthetics, this product would definitely fulfill the esteem needs and arguably the self-actualization needs of its users. It reflects one's status symbol, style and evoke a strong sense of self-image.

However, I guess the reflective value of an item also depends very much on the culture, environment, one's context and the marketing of the product. Supposing in a common middle class environment where everyone carries a normal looking thumb drive and you come flashing in with the USB. People will talk about it and want to see it. If you are known to be rich and to be a spendthrift, people will assume it is real and the product will directly reflect your status. However, if you are not known to be so, people will think it is fake and at the most, attracted to the thumb drive because it is different from the normal plain designs. It won't do much self-reflection unless the thumb drive is being marketed and everyone knows about it. Additionally, if from the upper class, it will reinforce your status and give you a chance to compare with others of the same social status.

Others: Just for fun!

Image from: Google

Reflection on CNM Advisory Council

2008-01-25T07:15:00.000-08:00

During the advisory council, the panel talk on the future trends in new media, has had Mr Derek Callow from Google mentioning 'user experience' more than five times! He named it as an important concept in contributing to the success of certain products. He specifically mentioned that although there is no 100% sure formula for the success of products, but when designing one, the designer or the team should keep the users in the top of their minds. A great take away I would say, reinforcing what we are learning is of great use.

Reflection on 22 Jan class

2008-01-22T02:57:00.000-08:00

From today's class, Mr. Reddy helps to reaffirms my analysis that user experience is something very subjective. This is further proven by the class activity - smelling of perfumes. I was so surprised that one of the perfume in which I think it smells like a perfume for an old man is actually for women!!

In addition to that, a new insight was gained. That is, there is no way one can ever design user experience, but what one can do is to design occasion for experiences.

Although I realized that it can be very subjective, I have never ever thought of it as not being able to create. It may be because consumers of products tend to take things for granted. Like what Mr. Reddy mentioned, when something is good it is good. One will enjoy the experience and thought or rather expect that the product is designed to be meant that way. The user will not think from the point of the designer and give thoughts about the process in which it is being created. It is hard to think from the view of the designer I guess, till you are in his/her shoes. It is hard to realize that it is actually true that one cannot design user experience (unless someone pointed out to you) because it is upon the individual to interpret the product. The users' interpretation is something uncontrollable. As such, the only thing a designer can do is to create flavourable moments that will make the users enjoy the process of using the product. However, I have yet to be enlightened on how we can create such instances. I guess these would be taught in the later dates...

Assignment 0: Bad Design

2008-01-20T04:08:00.001-08:00

Apple's Mighty Mouse

Image from: Apple store

Users comments from:
Grey's Blog
Apple reviews

Users reactions:
There seems to be a mixed reaction towards the product. Some found that it is the worst product the Mac ever designed whereas some thought that it is terrific. There are some who experience difficultly when they first started using the mouse but once they have gotten used to it they fell in love with it. However, according to the famous Wall Street journalist, Walter Mossberg, he commented that for once, Microsoft has beaten Apple on hardware design.

Most of the users who dislike the product had problems adjusting to the design of the button placements and the constant breakdown of the scroll button. As mentioned by one of the users, the side button is too hard to activate with one's thumb and 4th finger. A better option will be using the the thumb and middle finger. However, by doing so, it will be impossible to activate the right-click button.

Impression of the brand:
From their reviews it seem that they are very disappointed with Apple's Mighty Mouse. One even called it the "Mighty Mistake". However, such disappointment only shows that Apple has all along shown respect and insights on user experience. As Grey mentioned,"[n]ever has an Apple product shown such disdain for its users" and "[n]ever has an Apple product been based upon such false assumptions." As such, it only shows that Apple has built a strong brand name and reputation on having hardware and software designs that not only take aesthetics of products into consideration, but also the overall user interaction with its products.

Reflection on the product and user reaction:
The product was claimed to be an answer to the call of many Mac users for right click button. As such, Apple came up with this mouse that combine both its famous one click button and the Windows two-click button. It attempts to enhance user experience integrating a top shell that has a scrolling function. However, the constant breakdown of the scrolling button and the hard to squeeze button, has caused users (extreme) frustration.

In product specific terms, due to technological flop and its design failing to take into consideration the way human fingers are structured.

However, in perspective specific terms, I would argue that the overall user experience is still pleasurable. Other than the aforementioned defects, the mouse looks cool (much better than the two-eye black rodent). In addition, as claimed by those who love the mouse, once you get into the habit of using it you will fall in love with it. As such, although certain elements of the product has hindered the user to fully enjoy his/her experience in the first stage of adoption, the hindrance could be overcome and user may eventually still enjoy the experience. This is however, very much subjective. One of the user has commented that the defects are simply just too much for him to bear. As such, I would argue that user experience is something very much subjective. You may enjoy a certain product but others may not. To design a universally welcomed and enjoyed product that gives users excellent pleasure and experience when using it, is an impossible task.