Assignment 1: Products and emotion

This assignment actually proved as a challenge for me... Looking for a product is a challenge, looking for 3 similar products with similar yet different qualities... kinda profound ya...

So, after much deliberation, with a few products in mind, like DUSTBIN, BED and many many other electronic products, I finally decided on something that is more related to our daily life and is not IT based. THE CHAIR.

VISCERAL DESIGN
Visceral: It is a chair which gives people a first impression that it is sturdy, yet slender with a rather special support other then the normal 4 legged chair we see around.
Behavorial: Well, compared to a normal chair, it is too bulky and it tend to shake/rock more due to its unique design which can be a shock to unsuspecting people. (I will elaborate more during class but a simple explanation is that one can have a "falling" experience due to un-anticipated shakes/rocks.)
Reflective: Just a normal chair that we can find around, there is no show off value.


BEHAVORIAL DESIGN
A Roller chair, with wheels, armrest and a backing.
Behavorial: It is comfortable with an adjustable backing and has high "mobility". (One can slide across the room without standing up or rotates one's direction of sight without shifting the chair.)
Visceral: A very common roller chair that one can find around workplaces.
Reflective: As explained earlier, it is a rather common roller chair. (no show off value)



REFLECTIVE DESIGN
A chair with a "cool" design
Reflective: It is cool, trendy, brightly coloured and shaped in a manner normally one would not be able to see in a chair. One would view it more as a sculpture rather than a chair and the image it portray is one of modern and fashion, more popular with the young compared to the old.
Visceral: It is not like any normal chair you can see outside.
Behavorial: It yields a lot of different ways in which one can sit on the chair, but it is not very uncomfortable due to its contours which can be straining on one's back and the seat might be too low which might prove to be a hassle when used at a high desk or table.

(Different ways in which the chair can be used.)

Bad Design (Assignment 0)

For the first assignment, we were told to look for a bad design and capture the user reaction. It was quite hard initially, but the more I brainstorm, the more I realized that there are a lot of stuff pertaining to user experience and it is just that most of us adapted ourselves to what we have and tend not to think about it.

There are a few designs that came to my mind, but was reflected in the blogs of past year students taking this module. But I finally found this:

Figure 1

Figure 2

(1 and 2 refers to the position in which the pictures for figure 1 and 2 were taken respectively.)


From Figure 1 and 2, we can see that the urinal is virtually exposed to anyone who might be walking past the door of the male toilet and this is especially embarrassing as the door is right near the only path that leads to the female toilet. Anyone who glance in the door would see a person taking a leak.

I still remembered when I told one of my friend about this some time last year. His first reaction was, "REALLY!?". Then he checked out the flaw and decided to wait for the cubicle as the urinal that is nearest to the sink was being occupied.

I pointed this out to one of my female friends. Reaction? She went, "Oh ya!". Then she started giggling. Oh my God!

Reflections:
For most of the toilets that we used before, I realise that designers usually build toilets such that

1) People walking pass the toilet will not be able to see what is happening in the toilet.

2) Reflected image from the mirror about the scenes inside the toilet will not be seen by the people outside.

The above mentioned toilet had a serious design flaw made by the designer which I feel, can cause utmost embarrassment to it's user and post as a unsightly scene in social context.

The best way to fix this problem is to rebuild the toilet of course, but for now, maybe a drape/curtain can be used to cover the the "huge peep hole".