CSE 510 -- Lab #1
Due: Jan 12, 1999
Purpose:
Find and describe an example of poorly designed human-machine interaction.
Assignment:
From your direct observation of someone else having difficulty using a
machine (or any designed artifact or situation), prepare a short
description (including both text and diagrams as needed), sketching the
situaton and explaining the difficulty. Additionally, think about and note
the various perspectives of those who may have created the situation (ie.
Why would someone choose to design it this way?).
Goals:
- user-centered:
- Start by thinking about problems that you've had
(easy). Challenge yourself by trying to notice the problems that
others have (harder). How do you watch? How do you uncover their
intentions?
- critical search:
- Having read some of Design of Everyday Things, by D. Norman,
try to
pick up some of his spirit in the search for problems in design --
poorly designed everyday things may be the hardest to notice.
- multiple descriptions:
- A very important design skill is the ability
to be fluent in the language(s) of design -- various representations
for describing, analyzing, and synthesizing experience and
interaction. Try to invent some new representations or discover
combinations that work well.
- multiple perspectives:
- Any design is the result of compromises --
there is seldom a right answer. Think about the historical, economic,
aesthetic, political, physical, and personal factors that played (or
may have played) a part in influencing your target design.
Hints:
Look for something that others might not think of -- the more diverse
the examples we share in class, the better.
Try out a variety of representations for your diagram (photo, sketch,
flowchart, cartoon, outline, story, table). Use a combination if time
and space permit.
A polished essay is not expected. We want a quick way to capture and
communicate design problems and possible solutions. This should be a
sketch, not a work of art.
Although we said any domain was fair game, try to stay away from
computers for now.
Presentation:
If possible, please prepare your summaries as a Web page -- we will then
link them into the class web. If you do a sketch, handwritten document, or
the like, we can scan it in. A polished Web page is not the goal
for this assignment. We'll also have a mini-poster session in class to
discuss the summaries (so please print them out in a form suitable for
posting on the wall, 2 pages or less if possible).
The 590H web has examples
of this assignment as done by students in the previous offering of the
course. (Check out the clock.)