Catharine+Charlesworth



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toc =Week Eleven= Glen's asking a series of questions to usability professionals in interviews - his abbreviated list is below. Answer the below questions briefly in consideration of the material on these two websites: []- basic introduction to various forms of accessibility in web communications []- integrating accessibility in design

1. How would you describe web accessibility? 2. Who do you think benefits from accessible websites and how? 3. Do you think your website/blog should be accessible? Should all Canadian websites? 4. What do you think is the biggest challenge of making a website accessible?
 * Web accessibility is making websites and their content accessible to as many people as possible, regardless of visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive disabilities.**
 * Those who would not be able to access certain content if care is not taken to account for the varying physical and cognitive abilities of individuals. When the creators of websites - and their content - make content accessible, they broaden their potential audience. More people are able to engage with the material on their sites, and as a result participate in discussions or spent money. Thus making sites accessible is not only inclusive, but potentially profitable.**
 * While bloggers aren't under any obligation to make their sites accessible, it does benefit them to do so. Not only can more people contribute to their discussions and give them feedback, but they send a message of inclusively: making the effort to include everyone reflects positively on the blogger.**

=__Week Ten__= Read the article 'Using Nature as a Design Guide' at [] about Janine Benyus, creator of the burgeoning "biomimicry" movement. Look over examples of her biomimetic principles applied to products in the slideshow located at [] and write a short, one paragraph synopsis for each of your three favourite product designs.


 * The idea of creating non-toxic glue by mimicking muscle secretions is both brilliant and ecologically responsible. Toxins and pollutants are a huge concern as companies try to go green, and finding other applications for this material could make even more products environmentally sound.**


 * Bio-inspired colour displays, which daw on the techniques that peacocks and butterflies use to display colour, is a novel alternative to LCD and Plasma displays. This display method would be hugely useful for products that run off of batteries and need to reduce their energy consumption, such as Macbooks. Anything that will increase the battery life - and the lifespan - of electronic products is an improvement that will have strong environmental impact.**


 * From self-cleaning leaves to self-cleaning paints: Sto found a solution to keeping walls clean that removes the need for toxic chemicals. This natural water-repellent could be expanded to other surfaces and products, further reducing the need for toxic coatings.**


 * 12 Sustainable Design Ideas - learning from the natural world**
 * 1. Self-Assembly -> forms things out of themselves, their surroundings -> solar cells, perfect lenses, form at room temperature**
 * 2. CO2 as a feedstock -> making biodegradibles out of CO2**
 * 3. Solar Transformations -> iron instead of platinum**
 * 4. The Power of Shape -> bumps increasing efficiency, colour without pigments (thin-film interference), clean without detergents**
 * 5. Quenching Thirst -> pulling water out of fog, out of air**
 * 6. Metals without mining -> take minerals out of waste water**
 * 7. Green chemistry -> silk from spider, nature's recipe book**
 * 8. Timed degradation -> dissolve on cue, timed**
 * 9. Resilience and healing -> refrigeration a problem; stuff that dries out completely and then regenerate them**
 * 10. Sensing and responding -> locusts don't collide with each other in swarms**
 * 11. Growing Fertility -> net fertility farming, have to grow the capacity for life**
 * 12. Life creates conditions conducive to life -> builds soil, cleans air and water**


 * Scaling: build up of minerals inside pipes: has to flush with toxins or dig em up -> same build up that makes seashells. Produces protein to stop build-up; can make chemical to do the same thing**

=__Week Nine__= View the video of Bill Moggridge. the founder of IDEO, at PICNIC08: Design as a Collaborative Process at []Describe how he 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 Bill Moggridge's 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. (Hint: Bruce Mau's Massive Change web site also presents examples of these principles of using 'a shared mind'.)
 * Moggridge defines collaborative design as requiring an interdisciplinary team to tackle modern design problems. A wide variety of backgrounds will allow the development of a "sharemind", an intimate relationship and willingness to work together.**
 * In one example of this, Moggridge cited a recent campaign by the Red Cross to encourage people to donate blood. This asked donors to write short blurbs about why they were donating blood, and to post their pictures on a communal board. This would put a human face on blood donation and motivate others to donate as well.**
 * The other example Moggridge discussed was Takamura's Tangible Earth. A giant globe with input from global satellites, the model shows the planet from several different perspectives, such as surface temperature or the concentration of certain "greenhouse gases".**
 * An example of collaborative design is the Product Red campaign. To raise money in the fight against AIDS, several large companies produced products designated as (RED). It took designers from various disciplines to create these products. They were then promoted by celebrities that appeal to different social circles, from Bono to Oprah to Kanye West. Check it out at:** http://www.joinred.com/Home.aspx

=__Week Eight__= Read the online article 'Can the Cellphone end Global Poverty?' at [] very carefully. In three paragraphs, describe the role of Jan Chipchase in defining the role of cellphones in the developing world for Nokia, and the benefits of analyzing and defining cellphone use and design in different cultures as part of their market expansion.
 * Jan Chipchase is a "human behavior researcher" with Nokia. Also called a "user anthropologist", he travels the globe exploring and analyzing the cell phone use of people in third-world countries. After gathering as much information as possible about either current or potential Nokia clients, he sends this research back to Nokia, where designers and engineers incorporate it into their designs.**


 * By analyzing the way these clients use their phones, Nokia can design products that suit their specific needs, and are therefore more marketable and more successful. For example, when researching in Mumbai, Chipchase found that houses were prone to flooding, and that people hung their possessions from the ceiling to protect them from the waters. As a result, designers concluded that their phones would benefit from having a hook to hang them up.**


 * Sales are growing, and it is possible that cell phones will help to alleviate global poverty. They give people in third world countries, who have no access to land lines or mass communication, opportunities to grow their business**.

=__Week Seven__= Write a description of interaction architecture as defined by Mat Hunter at http://www.designinginteractions.com/interviews/MatHunter and Rikako Sakai at http://www.designinginteractions.com/interviews/RikakoSakai in relation to their work with Kodak in 1995.
 * An information architecture is an extensible series of rules for the design of a certain kind of technology. In their work with Kodak, designers Mat Hunter and Rikako Sakai analyzed what exactly users wanted from a camera, and then create a user experience prototype based on that information.**

How does the author define 'leading questions' and 'hypothetical questions'? Write a paragraph each to define these terms. **A //leading question// implies or forces a certain type of answer or response. This can be done in the phrasing of the question itself, or in the selection of possible answers in the case of a multiple choice question. In the former case, questions should not show bias in favour of one answer over the other. In the latter, multiple choice answers should all be equally likely.** **Hypothetical questions utilize unlikely or impossible scenarios as the basis for the inquiry. The respondent may be unable to give a meaningful response, having never before considered the situation, and the data produced is often unclear and practically meaningless; as a result, they should be avoided.**

=__Week Six__= 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. **The first stage is the ‘enthusiast’ stage, when a technology is first picked up by early adopters. The first 35mm cameras in use in the 1950s were exceedingly difficult to use, yet this challenge was part of the appeal to these early enthusiasts. Enthusiast users want to exploit a product and use all its capabilities.** **Once enough people become proficient in a technology, it reaches the ‘professional’ stage and is further developed to help people work. In the case of the camera, the design of the manual controls became more uniform. Users at this stage look at the productivity and change of activities made possible by the technology.** **After the product has built up large enough volumes through the first two stages, it reaches a price that is accessible to the customer: the 'consumer’ phase. The priority has switched from manual controls to automatics. With today's 35mm camera, flash, film speed and exposure are all set automatically. Consumers using the product at this stage see the possibility of defining themselves through their use of the technology.**
 * The cell phone underwent similar phases of adoption.**

=__Week Five__= As part of 'Experience Prototyping', bodystorming has been developed as a method of enquiry for interactive design. Research the definition of 'bodystorming', and write a paragraph describing its characteristics. After viewing the video 'Part 1: Bodystorming Experiencing a Disability' at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyE5bDqaSwcdescribe the information revealed to the researchers in the three different case studies for one paragraph each. You should have a total of four paragraphs for this tutorial. Can you think of how you could use bodystorming and video to help you analyze the design of your major project? It is helpful to keep this method in mind as you work to design your group project.


 * Like the term 'brainstorming', //bodystorming// lets a person get up and interact with the world in the creation of their design, rather than just sitting around a table. In the examples given in class, researches physically recreated the experience of having a disability in order to better** **understand it - and design for those who have it.**

**In the first case study, a young woman blindfolds herself in order to research the impact of visual impairment - blindness. The test subject felt disoriented, dependent, and relied heavily on her other senses. She used various techniques to adapt, including counting her steps to build a mental map. This experiment brought insight into developing multi-sensory approaches which incorporate hearing and touch as well as sight.**

**The second case study attempted to replicate the impact of a cognitive impairment, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) on a subject. They did this by having the subject recite a phone number while solving math problems. The subject had difficulty with the task, and reported a decrease in self-esteem and an increase in frustration as a result. This lead to insights into providing clear explanations, and providing enjoyable tasks to improve concentration.**

**By binding the subject’s arms and hands with pens, and then covering them in gloves, the final case study replicated the feeling of having Chronic Arthritis, in order to study its impact on a subject’s motor skills. The participant reported a fear of injury which made them nervous, even when completing simple tasks. This anxiety caused an increase in body temperature, which further aggravated his condition. This gave researches insights into the need for accessible routes, passing space, and objects composed of safe, ergonomic materials in order to decrease apprehension and encourage participation. They also emphasized the need for further research into voice recognition software.**

= = =**__Week Four__**= 'The Story of Stuff' with Annie Leonard at http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html is a cultural and educational phenomenon and has had over 4 million viewers. Write three paragraphs on how Annie Leonard defines the system of the 'materials economy' and describe its interactions. **A****nnie Leonard breaks down the materials economy into five key stages. This materials economy is the linear system by which finite resources are extracted from the Earth and used to produce goods, which are then distributed, consumed, and disposed of. Throughout her video, Leonard addresses the potentially fatal flaws in the current system, calls for change, and suggests alternatives at each stage of the process.**

**The begins by filling in the ‘missing pieces’ in the textbook description of this system. The first missing part is people: the people who work at each part of this process; the government that oversees it; and the corporations that perpetuate it - and which the governments, according to Leonard, are pandering to, rather than listening to the people.**

**She then describes the difficulties within each stage of this economy. Our current extraction practices are overtaxing the planet; we are taking too much stuff, not sharing that stuff, and doing damage to our world in the process. The people who used to live off this land are then forced to work within the second stage of the materials economy, production. For low wages, they work in toxic conditions, adding chemicals to products which pollute the environment already ravaged by extraction.**

**Once stuff is produced, it is distributed to retailers as quickly and cheaply as possible. Often this means relying on externalizing costs, whereby people further back in the chain are ‘paying’ for the products with low wages and a lack of resources, and the price of stuff doesn’t accurately reflect what it cost to produce and distribute it. These products are created using strategies of both planned and perceived obsolescence. As a result, stuff is consumed at a rate unsustainable by our small planet’s limited resources. People get trapped in cycle where people are working to make money so that they can buy stuff, after which they come home and are told they need to go shop more, and so go back to work - and on it goes.**

**Then we dispose of our stuff, chucking it in landfills - or worse, incinerating it, releasing the toxic contents put in during production. Recycling is an option, and it is helping to reduce waste, but it is not nearly enough. Waste reduction needs to start at the beginning of the process, which should be circular.**

= = =__Week Three__= Choose a country on the web site's map, and read through the description of the products designed for that country. List five characteristics of socially responsible product design. = = = = =__Week Two__= 1. List three definitions of ergonomics:
 * **Support responsible, sustainable responsible economic policy, helping rather than exploiting poorer economies**
 * **Minimize environmental impacts**
 * **Increase social inclusion**
 * **Improve healthcare at all levels**
 * **Advance the quality and accessibility of education**
 * **Ergonomics is the scientific study of humanity efficiency in and interaction with their environment. There are three types:**
 * **Physical Ergonomics: deals with how humans interact physically with their environment**
 * **Cognitive Ergonomics: deals with mental processes, and how humans deal**
 * **Organizational Ergonomics: deals with “socio-technical” procedures, and how processes, events, and groups are organized.**

2. **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'.** Advice 5: Review and adjust shift lengths of drivers: possibly reduce number of shifts per week, increase rest periods/time out of seat.
 * Case Study 7: Truck Operators**

Ergonomically designed potato peeler: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Taylors-Eye-Witness-Ergonomically-Designed/dp/B0000APENN = = = = =__Week One__= Inside the Apple iPod Design Triumph http://www.designchain.com/testprint.asp?issue=summer02&template=coverstory Question: Describe the unusual business model used in the ipod's fabrication as developed by Apple. **While Apple is highly secretive about its building and design details, reverse engineering has revealed that many of the internal components are made by outside companies. Apple partnered with PortalPlayer, an audio design company, which both managed the design process and selected other members to contribute within a ‘design chain’. These companies, including Toshiba, Sony, and Texas Instruments, were known for high-quality work at a good price point. Designing from the outside in, Apple chose not to integrate all the functions into one chip; outsiders speculate that this was to manage risk, and to include the best possible off-the-shelf parts within the iPod.** Jonathan Ive at the Design Museum http://www.designmuseum.org/design/jonathan-ive Question: 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? **When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, he re-established design and innovation as key company values. Relying on the commitment of various teams to excellence as well as problem solving, Apple is working in a new field, and thus products like the iPod have the chance to revolutionize the industry. Investing heavily in tools and processes, Apple creates a relatively small design team (with little exclusively personal space) which collaborates on a specific product. These products are distinguished by the attention to otherwise-overlooked details, what Ive calls “fanatical care beyond the obvious stuff”which products more accessible. Advances in new materials such as polymers, new techniques for metal forming and joining, and “‘twin-shooting’ or co-moulding plastics; all have provided new opportunities for design.**
 * 3. Find an example of a product which is ergonomically sound, and add a link to an article about this product.**

Who Is Jonathan Ive? An in-depth look at the man behind Apple's design magic http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_39/b4002414.htm Question: Describe the importance of Apple's design team. Are other companies trying to compete with Apple by creating their own design teams? **A former Apple designer describes Apple as a cult, and its design teams as “an even more intense version of a cult”. A group of about a dozen, these design teams are rather reclusive industry leaders, rarely attending industry events and never sharing inside information - even with other Apple employees. An international, middle-aged group of close-knit experts, they work closely with engineers, marketers, and others involved in the construction of the product. The teams goes through many iterations of a design, exploring different alternatives and discovering new innovations. While these small teams produce dramatic results, they can still only address so many markets and projects, giving companies such as Dell, HP and Microsoft opportunity to compete with design teams of their own.**

__IMPORTANT SITES__
www.ideo.com www.designinginteractions.com www.massivechange.com www.proboscis.com www.buckminsterfuller.com

[[image:theperfectthingcover.jpeg width="89" height="138"]]
The Perfect Thing: How The iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness** by Steven Levy //A funny, insightful look at the history, development and cultural impact of the iPod. With wit and candor, Steven Levy tells the story of portable music prior to MP3 players, from the transistor radio to the Walkman, and details Apple's leap into the music business from a unique, insider perspective. Whether you're an Apple fan or simply interested in the story behind this wacky little device, this book is worth a look.// [|Buy It Online] | [|Google Books Summary and Reviews]