Week 01 Assignment

Question 1.1

Instructions:

Consider the artifacts you use regularly.  Do any of these artifacts evoke a reaction of "I love this" every time you use it?

Task:

Create a blog post for the assignment on the Week #1 page titled Question 1.1 and post:

  1. A photograph of the artifact (you can take the photo or you can use one from the web or elsewhere).

  2. A short (fewer than 100 words) explanation of why you love it.

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Zip Lock Bags: "I Love This!"

No doubt that this little piece of plastic is one of my favourite artifacts: Everytime I use them i get this "I love this" feeling! They are reusable, re-sealable, easy to open, available in different sizes and can be used for a variety of purposes.

You can store almost everything in them, there is really (almost) no limit!

You can even use them in Cooking, a great and easy way to keep your spices fresh or prepare your marinade!

They are available from the mid 60's, I'm quite sure they 're here to stay for long!

Question 1.2

Instructions:

As you go through your day, make note of things that annoy you or cause you extra effort, time, money, or discomfort. In the language of this course, find some gaps in your user experience. Identify at least 10 of these gaps.

Select a gap that will form the basis of your class project. Your gap (course project) must meet these criteria:

  • You personally experience the gap (i.e., you want to solve the design problem).
  • You have access to at least five people who also experience the gap, or a closely related gap. This access is ideally face-to-face, not solely via the internet.
  • You can imagine creating some kind of design and prototype of an artifact that would address this gap within the next 8 weeks. In other words, the challenge is not so complex that you cannot imagine addressing it in this course. (For instance, the gap “I really wish I could travel in outer space” would be a poor choice for a course project.)
  • You can imagine the gap being addressed by an artifact in a domain that interests you personally (e.g., physical product, architecture, apparel, graphics, web design, furniture).

Here are some examples of gaps that I have I believe would make good course projects. You could certainly pick one of these if you are really having a hard time identifying one on your own. (These are mostly related to physical goods, which do make good projects, but you could look at an information challenge, an architectural challenge, or a problem from any domain.)

  • A better “murse” (a “man purse” for carrying my wallet, keys, and cell phone)
  • A comfortable shirt that is dressy enough to wear to work, but also suitable for riding a bicycle, and holding a pencil and a couple of note cards
  • A bicycle storage solution for my new apartment
  • A solution for organizing my desk, including handling all the cords and chargers

Task:

Create a blog post for the assignment on the Week #1 page titled Question 1.2: 

  1. Your list of 10 gaps.
  2. Put a star next to the one you will use for your project.
  3. Create a page on your site called “My Gap” and place the chosen gap there.
  4. A very short (fewer than 100 words) explanation of why the gap you have selected meets the course project criteria.

Here are my Gaps:

  1. A way to remove seeds from chilli peppers.
  2. A better Grater that allows grating vegetables till the end, without grating your fingers.
  3. A way to repair the shabby heels in my sneakers.
  4. Something to hold my sneaker laces inside my shoe when I have not tied them up.
  5. A keyring that you can locate with your smartphone when lost.
  6. A way to automatically feed my dog providing fresh food everyday, when I'm away for days.
  7. A CD-Case with a led light for Djs.
  8. An automatic watering system for my garden.
  9. A solution where I can store and easily find information for my Music Collection in details, including all release formats, providing reports and search options. *
  10. A smartphone app that communicates with the above information and through scaning the barcode of a music product, allows you to know if this is in your music collection. Usefull when you 're in a recordstore and you re not sure if this item is in your collection or not.

Question 1.3

Instructions:

Watch the Visual Expression I video and use the techniques you learned to draw a sketch of a chair.

The goal of this assignment is to get you comfortable with the basics of sketching to ensure you create a quality output of the visual expression of your design to submit. You will be using these guidelines from now on and will get a chance to practice with your own gap in Homework Question 1.4 “Design for You.”

Task:

Create a blog post for the assignment on the Week #1 page titled Question 1.3 with a sketch of a chair that:

  • Fills the page.
  • Uses dark lines.
  • Uses annotations where appropriate to explain certain parts of the sketch.

See my scetch below!  (A Hi-Res PDF file is available here)

Question 1.4

Instructions:

Using whatever method you’d like (understanding that we haven’t yet taught you any methods), design an artifact that addresses your gap for you personally. That is, solve your own problem. Create some kind of visual expression of the design (e.g., a sketch, drawing, illustration, diagram). Create some kind of simple prototype of the artifact.

The goal of this assignment is to get you going on doing some design. This will probably be frustrating, as you don’t yet have many tools at your disposal. Still, give this a good try, but don’t spend more than about three hours on this challenge if you are frustrated.

By “prototype” I mean any approximation of the artifact that communicates the main concept or lets you try out the concept. This could be a cardboard model, something made out of LEGO bricks, an object glued together from foam or wood. In the case of apparel, you could cut up an old article of clothing and modify it with a stapler and tape. In the case of a web site, you could create a mock-up in PowerPoint. The prototype is intended to be very rough. I’m just forcing you to try something out early in the process.

Task:

Create a blog post for the assignment on the Week #1 page titled Question 1.4 with:

Your visual expression of the design.

See my scetch below. (A Hi-Res PDF file is  available Here)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A photograph of your prototype (or other digital representation if your prototype is not an object).

See a Screen Capture below. (A Hi-Res PDF file is available Here)