Category: F2023 – Mang

Emotion & Attractive

I thoroughly enjoyed this article as it underscores the significance of both user-friendliness and visual appeal. The author also acknowledges the importance of human interaction with products and a comprehensive design approach. In today’s context, the visual attractiveness of a product holds the potential to substantially enhance the overall user experience.

Don Norman doesn’t exhibit bias in this reading. He places value on usability and functionality while also recognizing the necessity of beauty and enjoyment in design. This well-rounded perspective is crucial as it demonstrates the complexity of human interaction with products and the need for a holistic design approach.

This reading has reinforced my belief in the importance of aesthetics within design. While functionality and usability remain pivotal, the aesthetic charm of a product can significantly elevate the user’s experience and satisfaction. This is especially relevant in today’s landscape, where numerous options are available, and a product’s visual appeal can truly set it apart. This reading also prompted me to question: How can designers strike the right balance between usability and aesthetics?

Her Code Got Humans on the Moon—And Invented Software Itself

The article offers a captivating glimpse into the formative years of software engineering and the substantial impact Margaret Hamilton had on the Apollo space program. It’s fascinating to observe how Hamilton’s efforts served as the foundation for the evolution of software engineering and how her groundbreaking ideas continue to influence the field to this day.

I found this article particularly appealing because it underscores Hamilton’s exceptional status as one of the few women working in the tech and engineering fields. This resonates with me as a computer science student because I’ve observed a distinct gender disparity in my classes and at internships, with a significantly higher number of male students compared to their female counterparts. The article also touches upon the challenges Hamilton faced as a working mother and a programmer in the space industry, as people questioned her ability to balance her career with motherhood. However, it was during one of the instances when her daughter inadvertently interacted with a keyboard and caused a simulator crash that proved to be of immense value. This incident played a crucial role in bringing the astronauts safely back to Earth after Jim Lovell selected P01 during a flight. By showcasing Hamilton’s achievements and contributions, the article challenges conventional gender roles and stereotypes. It highlights the significance of acknowledging and celebrating the accomplishments of women in the software development field.

Reading this article undeniably increased my understanding of the important roles played by early software engineers like Hamilton. In our current era of highly sophisticated software, it can be easy to forget the pioneers who established the groundwork for these remarkable advancements.

 

concept:

These days, there is this board in D2 with cardboard cutouts that mention ways to eat sustainably. I coincidentally happened to pay attention to the board right after our last IM class, which gave me an idea – a switch that lights up when the cutlery touches the plate. The premise is that if you get a portion proportional to your appetite, and are then able to finish your food (the cutlery touching the plate), the LED lights up.

implementation video

process:

It is a simple series circuit consisting of an LED and a resistor. I used aluminum foil on the base of the plate and the spoon so that a larger surface area is conductive. whenever the spoon makes contact with the plate, the circuit completes and the LED lights up. I used a green LED to indicate successful completion of a meal.

reflections:

There is certainly room for improvement. I didn’t try it out with actual food, so I’m not sure if the food content would actually affect the way the switch works. Also, the foil doesn’t actually cover the length of the plate. Because of this, even though it technically *works* it doesn’t capture the essence of the concept fully. In addition, I’d also love to improve the visuals of the project, because the aluminum foil and tape do make it look a bit tacky.

The piece by Dan Norman aptly captures my response to reading The Design of Everyday Things, which I had brought up in class discussions as well, and this story of the three teapots in Emotion & Design is a perfect follow up to his story about the artistic but inconvenient doors in his previous work. “Pleasurable designs are not necessarily usable. But need these attributes be in conflict? Why not beauty and brains, pleasure and usability?” I would consider myself a proponent of beautiful design, but I am also a regular user of everyday things, and I care about their usability. What Dan Norman says, and I agree, is that “design matters, but which design is preferable depends on the occasion, the context, and above all, my mood.” There need not be a race between aesthetics and utility. In fact, I like nice design so much that I occasionally go on the Museum of Modern Art online store website just to look at pretty things. This $315 lamp or this $140 side table are probably not setting utility standards for any other lamps or side tables, but they’re beautiful, and I am glad someone designed them.

Also, Norman’s discussion of the system of affective thinking was agreeable, and quite therapeutic to be honest. I can appreciate how it can be taken as a lens for looking at life in general. If the affective system works independently of thought, as he claims, then I can attribute unstructured or neurotic thoughts to the neurochemicals that “bathe” my relevant brain centers, affecting the way I “perceive, decide, and react.” Norman also offers his solution: affective reactions can be overcome with time and practice. This, he says, requires patience, and taking agency over your thought process. This too, then, is not a race, since anything that requires patience by definition cannot be done in haste. To learn to have healthy thoughts is to learn to be patient.

DO YOUR EXERCISE CORRECTLY!

My Concept: When I was in the gym, the couch always would tell me to do the exercises to the fullest extent because I used to do only half of them. For instance, my pushups would be twice the distance from the ground than the right pushups. I wanted to create a tool that helps the user to control the right way of doing the exercise. Specifically, by sticking the aluminum folds at the right distance on each side of the arm, the user can control the way he is pulling the equipment by bending the arm. When the arms are completely bent, the foils touch each other and the bulb lights up. Hence, the user knows that he is correctly doing the exercise (he is fully bending his arm) when the bulb lights up. 

The video of my creative switch in work: testing creative switch

Process & Highlights: I have created a simple circuit with one resistor and one light bulb as we practiced in class. Then, I added the connecting wires which would be used as a switch, breaking and completing the circuit. First, I checked whether they worked by connecting the wires. When I was certain that my circuit was complete and the switch worked, I extended the wires by adding additional ones with the foil to make them wearable. After that, I added the aluminum foil to the ends of the wires and stuck the wires on my hands. 

Reflections: To be honest, this was the quickest assignment of Intro to IM because of my physics background in high school. Additionally, because I already had an idea, the implementation wasn’t a big issue. This project can be developed further by replacing the multiple wires with one long wire because these wires can easily be disconnected from one another, breaking the circuit. Additionally, I would replace the Arduino board with a more flexible, thus, wearable one. Furthermore, I would improve the aesthetics of the product, so it can be implemented and used in the market.

“Emotion and Design: Attractive Things Work Better” by Donald A. Norman

I really enjoyed reading Norman’s work, because it perfectly encapsulates many discussions we have been having in class about design and usability. My overall takeaway from the piece was that good design exists at the intersection of aesthetics and functionality, though there is a place in the world for highly functional but ugly or highly aesthetic/creative but unusable items.

Norman’s piece, however, brought an interesting dimension to the conversation that I hadn’t heard of before: the link between design (or more accurately, perceived attractiveness) and emotion. I really agree with his sentiment that in neutral situations, “Attractive things work better”. In my opinion, in everyday objects, the more aesthetically pleasing an object is, it is not only more likely to be purchased but also more likely to be held on to for longer (i.e. it’ll be a long while before it ends up at some random Goodwill). It’ll also be more likely to be treated with care – amongst myself and my peers, I’ve noticed the more aesthetically pleasing an object looks, the more likely we are to be able to take care of it. For neutral objects, in most situations, the efficiency cannot outweigh the ugly – and the moment the user feels no need for the tool, it is more likely to be gone or treated carelessly.

“Her Code Got Humans on the Moon—And Invented Software Itself” by Robert McMillan

I thought this article was quite informative (I didn’t know the inventor of modern software was a woman!) and I didn’t have much thoughts on it, but one point that was really interesting to me was the lack of emphasis on error-checking mechanisms at the time. The idea that higher-ups at NASA believed it was unnecessary the astronauts were “perfect” is so unbelievable to me, not only because the stakes were so high, but also because the fallibility of users is one of the main considerations in software engineering today! I think this reflects a shift in the mindset that has occurred between then and now. Their inability to believe that the astronauts could make a mistake reflects that they believed that user was smarter than the tool, whereas in modern computing we always believe the tool has to be smarter than the user.

Although Donald Norman’s ideas about emotion design and the role of aesthetics in design and Margaret Hamilton’s invention of the modern concept of software may seem unrelated at first glance, I found quite some connecting ideas between these readings, especially in the concepts of user-centered design, and its application in stressful situations.

Donald Norman and Margaret Hamilton both stressed the significance of developing products and software with the end user in mind. Norman’s work on emotional design emphasizes the importance of developing products that elicit good emotional reactions from users. Similarly, Hamilton’s work in software engineering was centered on making software more user-friendly and stable, as well as ensuring that it fits the demands of its users. Although Hamilton was a programmer and her job circled around functionality rather than anything else, she knew that failure might occur not because of mistakes in the system, but because of human mistakes when interacting with it. The story of the prelaunch program called P01 stuck in my mind, when an astronaut accidentally launched it at a wrong time and that almost cost the whole mission. Hamilton was aware that users are not perfect even in using systems that they were well trained on using, and even if they are astronauts themselves: “We had been told many times that astronauts would not make any mistakes,” she says. “They were trained to be perfect.” For me, this story defines what is user-centered design: it is the assumption that users are not perfect and the stress on importance of considering the human element in design and engineering, ultimately leading to more effective and user-friendly products and software.

This has been further backed up by Norman in his discussion on designs for low and high stress environments. I think it is not highly disputable that something like an Apollo mission is quite a stressful situation, which, according to Norman, makes good human-centered design “especially important”. Stressful environments and circumstances increase the chances of human error, and Hamilton was right in her idea to take that into account and to prevent as many misuses due to human error as possible in her design of Apollo software.

Concept

This attempt to create an unusual switch was  inspired by my unhealthy obsession with led light shoes as a kid. With so many lights and colors on my shoes that changed depending on each step and pressure, I have blurred memories of randomly walking and jumping around just for those lights. Since this assignment required us to not use our hands, I thought it would be perfect to try creating something similar to those shoes.

Process & Highlights

Visualizing the circuit was relatively straightforward. It consists of a simple series circuit with two LEDs and a 330-ohm resistor.I experimented with various methods to create a switch using two aluminum foil sheets and settled on the following design. I attached one sheet to the back of a sandal and the other to the floor. When stepped on the second sheet, both pieces of foil come in contact and the circuit closes, allowing the LEDs to glow.

Videos of its implementation: IMG_8316,  IMG_8326

One significant challenge I encountered was positioning the lights on the shoes instead of using a breadboard. To make this work, I used a combination of jumper wires, aluminum foil, and tape. I also intended to use three LEDs: yellow, green, and blue. While the yellow and green LEDs worked when connected in series, the blue LED did not. I suspected it was due to insufficient current, as the bulb wasnt faulty. I tried various resistor combinations but they did not work.

Reflections:

I am content with the outcome of this assignment. While the wiring may not be aesthetically pleasing, I believe that with better resources and materials such as conductive fabric and alligator clips, this project could be further enhanced. During the assignment, I contemplated changing my idea several times but realized that it needed to be hands-free, which limited my options. This project made me realize and appreciate our dependence on our hands. Overall, physical computing seems fun and I’m excited to learn more.

Donald A. Norman’s “Emotion & Design: Attractive Things Work Better” was a pleasant read about the importance of the balance between beauty and usability. When it comes to products, especially digital ones, one of the most important characteristics to me is beauty, or, in other words, how aesthetically pleasing a design is. This necessity makes sense considering that beauty increases the satisfaction of the user when using a product, as explained by the author. Now, of course, there is a whole scientific explanation behind this idea, but honestly, I am not that interested in that, since this is such an intuitive concept to me.

For instance, the author gives the example that although colored monitors offer no advantage over black and white ones when it comes to displaying data, everyone strongly prefers them. The fact that colors offer more intrinsic pleasure to the users is incredibly obvious to me. Humans are not robots that just perform tasks over and over again thinking only about usability; we also care about aesthetics and entertainment, and that is precisely why products that look better will always be more successful, even if their performance is a bit inferior.

Moreover, attraction is so important that aesthetics are an actual driving force when it comes to your work style. Some people are essentially driven by the beauties of life, just as much as others are motivated by knowledge or power, for example. Even eating a sandwich cut in half somehow makes it taste better than just eating it plainly for me; that is how much we can be influenced by looks.

The other text, “Her Code Got Humans on the Moon—And Invented Software Itself” was also quite interesting. It is fascinating to me to see the great things that people can accomplish when they are so driven and focused on their objectives. The passage where Hamilton mentioned when she would think about the headlines was especially compelling.

“Her Code Got Humans on the Moon—And Invented Software Itself”
Moved by both, Hamilton being an ‘outlier’ as a woman in tech and engineering in the 60s and her as a pioneer of software engineering, “Her Code Got Humans on the Moon—And Invented Software Itself”, was one of my favorite readings for this class so far.
In an era when software was still in its infancy, she and her colleagues were pioneering new ideas and techniques that would shape the future of computing.The pressure and responsibility that Hamilton felt during the Apollo missions serve as a reminder of the importance of attention to detail and the consequences of errors in complex systems. Her commitment to ensuring the software’s reliability, reminds me of the dedication and alertness that I should have, striving to pursue a career in a similar field.

Emotion and Design
I often find myself irritated by misaligned elements and clashing color combinations and end up being called ‘picky’ by some of my friends who think that as long as a message is conveyed, aesthetics can take a backseat. I liked most of Norman’s ideas as they resonated with my thoughts. However, I realized that it’s all about the balance between beauty and usability. This also makes sense in the aspect of many choices that we make. For example, if I were to purchase a drawer, I would choose the push-to-open drawer for its aesthetic over a drawer with a big handle that’s easier to use, because the former too, is user-friendly and also looks better.When he talks about affect and behavior, the cognitive aspects of negative and positive affect make a lot of sense to me but when he mentions pleasing designs can make users more tolerant of minor design flaws. I think it’s true that aesthetics can mask some issues temporarily, users are likely to become more discerning over time. Pleasing aesthetics may initially captivate users, but if underlying usability problems persist, users may eventually become frustrated and abandon the product or service.

One thing this reading leaves me thinking about is, it claims that attractive things work better. However, attractiveness is highly subjective and culturally influenced. What if what one finds attractive might not resonate with another? And how do we take into consideration a diverse target audience?

In the first reading by Norman, “Emotion & Design: Attractive things work better,” I found his exploration of the emotional aspect of design very interesting. Indeed, good design isn’t just about aesthetics or functionality; it’s also about how we feel when interacting with the product. Norman’s emphasis on the importance of considering users’ emotions and needs, particularly in high-stress situations, highlighted the human-centered nature of design. I particularly appreciated his vision for the future: “Let the future of everyday things be ones that do their job, that are easy to use, and that provide enjoyment and pleasure”. This statement is a good reminder of how important the design itself is depending on the emotion and the situation in which the user is under and what kind of experience we, as developers, want to give the users.

The second reading, “Her Code Got Humans on the Moon,” further illustrated the idea that “we should not solely rely on users when designing technology.” Users can sometimes behave unpredictably, especially in high-pressure contexts like space missions. The story of Margaret Hamilton serves as a compelling example of how careful and well-planned design is vital for the success and reliability of complex systems. This reading reinforced my belief in the importance of meticulous design and efficient code to create technology that is not only robust but also user-friendly. It also highlights the need for proactive problem-solving and consideration of user behavior to achieve success in complex projects.