From the journal entries, I have been learning and observing many different aspect of interactive media design from the readings, guest speaker, and class lectures. I really enjoy doing these assignments because they forced me to review what I learned from the class and then organize my thought each week. After writing the journal entries, I know more about interactive designs which exist around my life and absorb knowledge of interactive media design. Moreover, it is a good way to clearly express my thought without feeling nervous. I always want to contribute my opinion into class discussion, but my ability of English is not good enough to let me catch up the topic immediately and then react quickly. Therefore, I took notes about the class content and put my opinion into these journal entries. I think it is a good chance for international students to express their opinion.
Here is what I learned from each journal entry.
In journal 1, I organized the principles of game design after reading the textbooks. It is important to learn the principles because games are the most common interactive design. Moreover, in the article by Song and Lee (2007), the computer game industry has become the fastest growing field of the entertainment industry, but only a very small number of computer game products except Wii, PS series, and XBOX, overcome the costs of production and generate earnings. To know more about the principles of game design, it will be easier to design a game which fits players’ need. I may not work in game companies in the future, but I think these principles can be applied to many interactive media.
The journal 2 analyzed the website design of Virgin American Airline and compared the website designs of its competitors. This assignment taught me a lot what the key elements of a successful website should have. It is important for me to know the elements because I am learning how to design a website by myself in this quarter. After analyzing these websites of famous companies, I know how to avoid creating a bad website and design a user-friendly website. For example, in general, I will make the interface simple (Maeda, 2006) and use more icons instead of texts. Therefore, users can easily understand what these buttons mean even though some of them probably don’t understand English.
The journal 3 described the elements for XBOX’s success based on my observation and the speech of Shelley, who is the Interaction Design Manager in Microsoft. From this journal, I learned what factors a successful game design should consider and what makes XBOX outstanding from other competitors. It is a good chance to know and analyze one of the most popular games.
I have never thought about the design process before the journal 4 because I usually focus on design itself. However, I have learned more than I thought from this assignment. For example, I have learned what designers should do in the pre-production such as competitors’ analysis, and try to discover what designers may miss some important elements during the design process. It helped me realize how the famous design companies work on designing their products.
In journal 5, it is very interesting for me to observe an object designed without screen that I interact with in my daily life and then analyzed it by the concept of “The Design of Everyday Things” (Norman, 1990) which also reflects my life struggle with some designs. Furthermore, in the process of looking for an object, I suddenly realized almost everything around my life is designed; none of them come out by accidently. “Design is everywhere.” However, I also realized too many bad designs around my life at the same time. I started to wonder that design make human live better or more complicated? Are design like Maeda (2006) said, “Technology has made our lives more full, yet at the same time we’ve become uncomfortably full? ” For example, why is it so complicated to use the Comcast remote control to watch TV? What’s wrong with its visibility and mapping? It is a good chance to think about these questions.
In sum, during the observation experiment, I learn to examine and analyze designs from a critical vision. Moreover, I cannot help criticizing all designs I see around my life and thinking how to improve them all the time. The most valuable learning is that now I know what elements designers should pay attention during the design process and how to avoid mistakes. At the same time, I realize a good design needs a lot of efforts such as research, group discussion and repeated experiments. Maybe a good design is simple, but it definitely does not come out by accident. I do not have a job yet, but I know how to take what I learn from these journals and class lecture to design a great website and interactive media. For example, I know to design a website from users’ viewpoint instead of designers’. Moreover, I realize it is important to make the interface aesthetic and simple. Every function on it should be consistent and users should easily understand what the next step is.
Reference
Maeda, J. (2006). The laws of simplicity. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Norman, D. A. (1990) The design of everyday things. Doubleday Business
Song, S., & Lee, J. (2007, August). Key factors of heuristic evaluation for game design: Towards massively multi-player online role-playing game. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 65(8), 709-723. Retrieved October 8, 2008, doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2007.01.001
Journal Entries
Journal #1
http://yijen.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/journal1-principles-for-game-design/
Journal #2
http://yijen.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/journal2-website-analysis/
Journal #3
http://yijen.wordpress.com/2008/10/22/journal3-xbox-360/
Journal #4
http://yijen.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/jornal-4-blockbuster-website/
Journal #5
http://yijen.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/jornal5-comcast-digital-cable-remote-control/
Filed under: COM597- Theories and Practice of Interactivity
