Seminar 2: Reading notes (Thomas Ziegelbecker)

Summary + Reflection

Chapter 6 elaborates on the gathering of design ideas (i.e.; concepts), which process is also called brainstorming or ideation. The main priority at this stage is to find as many concepts as possible (diverge first), where the authors recommend to use paper and sketches, rather then digital devices and textual description. We already applied a few of the guidelines and instructions, mentioned in this chapter, in our brainstorming session. For instance we adhered to the brainstorming rules, or we used pain points as a starting point.  This refinement / converging (defining the details) of those ideas is the contents of chapter 7. In this chapter the authors recommend to use constraints, laws and principles (Fitt's Law, Hick's Law, George Miller's Magical No. 7, Tesla's Conservation of Complexity, Poka-Yoka) as guidance when doing so. They also mentioned that affordances (feedback and feedforward) are the key to a successful design, which is what the designer should provide to the user in order to allow for the best mental model which promotes a deep understanding of a product. For instance, one should follow Standards to reduce the need for the user to learn new things, according to the authors.

The second part of the chapter was about elaborating on terms such as frameworks (metaphor, posture, structure), States and Modes (flow of navigation). In terms of framework I found the functional cartography interesting as I think that we can use it for our project. States are important, because by defining them we get a clear big picture for the prototype. 

The rest of the chapter was about documentation (Sketches/Modes, Storyboards, Tasks, Use Cases, Mood Board, Wireframes) and when and how to use them. In our project we already used Sketches, Use Cases and a Story Board (Scenarios), where we will incorporate the chapters theory. 

The very last part was about Controls and the differentiation between digital only and non traditional forms. The latter and the issues, which arise from it, will definitely be a of interest to us in later stages. 

Chapter 8  was about interface design and the transition from the design to the actual prototype (low- vs. high-fidelity). In our case we agreed on building a low-fidelity paper prototype. 

The last part of chapter 8 covered testing and gave tips of how to conduct a product test in the right way. For our project we incorporate two central tipps, which are setting up a test lab and writing a test plan.   

Questions 

• Do you really need to not use technical tools? 
• When to apply which way of documenting? 
• Do you always need a wireframe, do you always need to have Mood Boards, etc.? 
• Does the way of documentation depend on the kind/size of the project?