Juhi_Negi

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**Week 1**

- Apple is known for its innovativeness when it comes to the design and presentation of their products and their business models implies that this is due to the subcontracting of third party companies; hired for designing the various aspects of their products. Companies such as Portalplayer took care of the marketing and sound quality aspects and the product was designed for the typical sleek Apple look, proving that the final outcome is the result of integrating ideas from various companies.
 * Describe the unusual business model used in the iPod's fabrication as developed by Apple. **


 * What distinguishes the work of the team of Jobs and Ive in relation to products designed by Apple? What new materials are enabling different design? **
 * - Apple products reflect simple yet novel designs that are created by design teams, comprising of not too many people, which focus greatly on the details of their product features. The primary difference between Apple and other companies is that the latter focuses more on the internal functioning and appeal of the product, whereas Apple pays equal attention to both if not more to the exterior features. New materials such as various forms of plastic and the combination of plastic and metal are facilitating the progress of design. **
 * Describe the importance of Apple's design team. Are other companies trying to compete with Apple by creating their own design teams? **
 * - Apple has a small design team comprising of young professionals who are culturally sensitive and passionate about their work, resulting in detailed perfection when designing a product. Originality seems to be key to these individuals since money (budget) is not an object, unlike other companies who are trying to cut back wherever possible. Most companies do not give this much importance to their design teams and thus fail to match up to the design standards that Apple sets.

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 * Week 2**

- Ergonomics ~ (a) Physical Ergonomics: deals with the ability of a person to handle the physical activity in their respective environment, taking into consideration their posture, health, safety, handling of materials, task repetition and the layout of the workplace. (b) Cognitive Ergonomics: deal with the person’s ability to handle mental processes such as their memory, perception, analytical and reasoning abilities. Factors affecting and affected by this include mental stress, decision making, efficiency in performance and ability to learn. (c) Organizational Ergonomics: deals with the structure of an organization, the policies that are followed and the procedures that are delegated within it. It involves motivation, job satisfaction, communication within the organization, the structure of the hierarchy, working hours and supervision since all these factors affect the efficiency in a workplace.
 * List the three definitions of 'ergonomics'. **

- Case Study 4: Wet Mopping I would suggest installing a lever that would allow the bucket to be placed at different levels, low level while mopping and a higher level when required to be refilled, which would eliminate the need to lift the bucket for any reason. The mope used could also be of the kind that cover a wider surface are, which would reduce the twisting and turning the cleaners perform hence reducing the strain on their backs.
 * Read each of the task analyses and case studies at ** [|**http://www.ergonomics.org.au/ergonomics/case_studies.html#case6**]** . Choose one of the case studies, and add an additional recommendation to one of them in step two as 'advice'. **

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-ergonomic-keyboard.htm
 * Find an example of a product which is ergonomically sound, and add a link to an article about this product. **
 * - An essential ergonomically sound device is the ergonomic keyboard. It is used to prevent strain to several muscles and the onset of Carpal Tunnel syndrome. **


 * Week 3**

(a) Economically practical / affordable (b) Healthcare oriented (c) Environment friendly (d) Emphasis on improving knowledge (education) (e) Technology that doesn’t require too much training
 * Choose a country on the web site's map, and read through the description of the products designed for that country. http://other90.cooperhewitt.org/ **
 * List five characteristics of socially responsible product design .**
 * -** ** 5 characteristics for socially responsible products in countries within Africa: **


 * Week 4**

“Story of Stuff” - http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html - Annie Leonard believes the system of the “materials economy” is a five stage process; it involves the extraction, **production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of materials. She states that this linear system of utilizing our resources will eventually fail on our planet due to their finite supply; more so at the consumption rate of today’s generation. 99% of the items we buy are discarded within 6 months of use, making a mere 1% of our purchases worthwhile. This was actually a solution that a retail analyst, Victor Lebeau, came up with to “boost the economy” to counter the financial aftermath of World War II; his suggestion was to simply increase the overall consumption rate.
 * Write three paragraphs on how Annie Leonard defines the system of the 'materials economy' and describe its interactions.

The first stage, extraction of materials, is where we abuse the natural resources on our planet to use as raw materials for creating consumer goods. Due to this our vital resources, such as forests, oil and water, are being depleted. The second stage is the production of goods using these extracted materials. Not only are we exhausting our supplies of our natural resources this way, but we are also adding harsh chemicals and toxins towards the production of these goods, which have permanent detrimental effects on our health and well being.

The third stage, distribution, is the dispersal of all the products created to as many consumers as possible by the means of marketing and lowering the costs to keep the economy going. Consumption, the fourth and most vital stage, is where people buy the products created. In today’s society people are distinguished by what they consume and the new concept of perceived obsolescence (where consumers discard products at a rapid pace assuming them to be useless only to consume more of such items) just encourages this rate of consumption to gain more momentum. The final stage, disposal of the products, is when the goods consumed are finally deemed obsolete and are discarded at a dump site or burned away creating more pollution. Annie Leonard discusses various ways that we can implement positive changes in this cycle, and that people are finally beginning to see the harmful effects of their actions, by methods such as recycling, consuming less and appropriate disposal of waste. 
 * Week 5**

Define Bodystorming and discuss the information in each of the 3 case studies presented in tutorial. [] - Bodystorming is a method that is employed to put creative ideas and concepts into a physical form by involving the body, ie. to presume that the product existed in reality and how it would be used physically by the person. (a) Visually impaired – This kind if impairment results in people relying on multi sensory approaches, such as sound and touch. It also heightens the operations of the other senses to compensate for the disorientation felt due to lack of sight. (b) Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) – This case presented us with an individual who had to memorize/recite a phone number while solving math problems. Unable to perform these tasks simultaneously the subject felt frustrated and anxious, which in turn had negative impact on his self esteem. (c) Chronic Arthritis – This case tried to replicate the effects of chronic arthritis on a subject by fastening their hands and wrists and placing gloves over them to reduce mobility. This caused anxiety and apprehension within the individual for the fear of injury, causing their body temperature to rise. The solution to reduce anxiety was to provide passing space, accessible routes and tangible objects comprising safe materials.


 * Week 6**

(a) The enthusiast phase: is when the technology is new and is being explored in the aesthetic sense by the user, to gain more insight on its functions and capabilities. As stated by Liddle, when the 35 mm camera was introduced it required a highly educated and experienced individual, astronaut, to operate it. (b) The professional phase: is when the user is has become familiar with the technology/product and puts it into practical use, in the professional setting taking advantage of its usability and productivity. This stage is when the camera went from being a very expensive and exclusive technological product to an item of professional and commercial use. (c) The consumer phase: is when the product becomes available to the consumer market for practical or leisure purposes. The controls and mechanism of the technology become less manual and more user friendly. This is the phase when the controls of the camera became more automatic and were available to the public for general usage.
 * [] **
 * What are his definitions for these three stages of adoption, and how did he apply them to his case study of a camera? **
 * Write one clear paragraph for each of his definitions, listing their attributes in relation to the development of the camera. Can you think of another consumer product which has undergone similar developments? Name it. **
 * -** David Liddle’s three phases for the adoption of a new technology:

Another technological product that has undergone similar developments is the telephone; from a large and puzzling switchboard that was controlled by operators it has gone through business and various commercial environments and finally to the general public using it in domestic households.


 * Week 7**

Description of interaction architecture by Mat Hunter and Rikako Sakai in relation to their work in Kodak, 1995. Define a leading question and a hypothetical question. - Matt Hunter considers interaction architecture to be form of a social communication process, which makes the transfer of information easier and faster digitally. He strongly believed in consumer experience and considering all of the users needs he came up with a prototype that involved a security camera, which Kodak later used to create their digital camera which made sharing images much easier.

Rikako Sakai discusses the PhotoStitch versions and how she had the opportunity to re design it. The problems she tried solving were that it had too many steps and the object was not visible to the user, so she introduced a user interface and an animation explaining how to use it; she came up with these ideas after monitoring the way consumers interacted with the product.

Leading question: is one that forces or requires a certain answer, whether the answer is chosen from a set of options provided or based on facts. These are based on real situations and require objective answers. eg. Qs - Where were you last night? Ans – I was at the movies.

Hypothetical question – are ones that do not necessarily require distinct answers and the questions are mostly based on fantasy or imaginary situations. They are more opinionated, since they are based on fictional scenarios, and require subjective answers. eg. Qs – What would you say to him if he punched you?

- Bill Moggridge described the concept of design as a collaborative process that involved teamwork and required people to work with a sense of togetherness. He believed that several creative minds working together in sync would produce more innovative and better ideas than a single mind working by itself. Because design is aimed at attracting consumers it entails thorough knowledge and market research. He also believed that not only did it require teamwork for efficiency; it also required the knowledge of global and social issues to address the perception of the people. ** b) Redesigning of surgical equipment project: this project brought together a team of surgeons to redesign equipment that they had used previous versions of. This enabled them to be more familiar with the drawbacks and advantages of the equipment so they could use this knowledge towards their project. Because it was them who would ultimately have to use their final product they were more involved in the redesigning process and managed to come up with a more efficient design. **
 * Week 9**
 * Describe how Bill Moggridge defines 'design as a collaborative process', and cite two examples of how creators involve the people they want to create for in their work, according to his lecture. ** ** Find an online example of a product which utilizes his principles of collaborative design, add its URL, and describe its design in three sentences.
 * 2 examples: **
 * a) American Red Cross Project: this project chose to integrate their donors into the program by posting a picture of them and asking them to explain the reason they donated their blood. This allowed other people to see their perspective and story behind their actions, which in turn encouraged more people to donate blood as it made it appear as if they were more involved in the whole process.


 * Week 11**

Glen Farrelly: Questions on Usability and Accessibility - In my opinion, web accessibility is the ability of a website to make its design compatible with any kind of user, regardless if they are with or without a disability. As long as the user is able to navigate the website with ease, even they do possess visual or motor impairments or hearing loss, the website is considered to be web accessible.
 * 1. How would you describe web accessibility? **

Although everyone benefits from accessible websites on some level, it is web users with disabilities that it proves to be most advantageous for as navigation in general is made easier and allows them to connect with the digital world and have access to unlimited sources of information. Making them web accessible would enable users with visual impairments to hear the text and users with hearing loss to be able to read (subtitles) of the material presented on the websites. They would also benefit corporations as the number or users visiting their websites would increase because it would be able to cater to a larger audience. **
 * 2. Who do you think benefits from accessible websites and how?

A personal website/blog that is purely expressing private or individual thoughts need not necessarily be web accessible since it may not have such a large impact on the lives of such a large populace. But if they are expressing informational or useful ideas that need to be viewed on a public platform then I believes they should be made accessible. The same applies to Canadian websites – it is unfair to have useful and constructive websites containing important information inaccessible to all users. **
 * 3. Do you think your website/blog should be accessible? Should all Canadian websites?

- The biggest challenge of making a website accessible would be to make it compatible with all the different kinds of disabilities that users may possess, because not only it is it a difficult task - this may also be a very time consuming and expensive process. **
 * 4. What do you think is the biggest challenge of making a website accessible?

