ID Year one Semester one

Design Fundamentals One ID1105

Reflections of a Design Student

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“Stay hungry, stay foolish” - Steve Jobs

Hi.My name is Delane and above is one of my favourite quotes by an inspiring man of stature.

By embarking on this journey of design, I hope to stay hungry for knowledge and learning and in this process, develop that “foolish” thinking; wild, daring, curious but of course relatable and relevant at the end of the day.

This is merely the start of my journey and I am so excited to share with you the things I have learnt in this first Semester.

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Content

Week 1&2: Letter Forms

Week 3: Typographical Hierarchy

Week 4&5: Grids & Layout (Menu)

Week 5: Wallet Exercise

Week 6&7: 1st Prescribed Research Method

Week 8: Human Centered Research Methods & Tools (User Journey, Interview)

Week 9: Synthesis of Research (P,IO,Q)

Week 10: Ideation Tools (Speed Dating, 100 ideas)

Week 11: Idea Communication & Prototyping (Clustering Filtering Layering)

Week 12: Prototype iteration & Presentation

Week 13: Final Presentation

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Week 1&2: Letter Forms

In week one & two, students were tasked to search for objects or scenes that resemble alphabets. This exercise was to open our eyes to the commonly unnoticed things that were already in our environment.

This was our first experience at looking at things differently by observation where we become more sensitive to details. I think this exercise conditioned us to looking at things rather than just seeing things.

It was also interesting to find out that our project became something that is considered a typeface of its own. A family of alphabets with similar style.

My partner and I chose to base our observation project at the NUS SDE school building. Some alphabets became jarringly obvious to us while others were more subtle and required a change in perspectives.

This was a fun exercise.

Ready Made Alphabets

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Week 3: Typographical Hierarchy

In week three, we learnt some basic Adobe Illustrator skills and Typography knowledge.As part of learning the basics of design programmes, we learnt about kerning and leading. Where we were tasked with a Kerning exercise where we had to spot an error in the daily environment.

This kerning error was taken near my neighbourhood. There were really quite a few errors if you actually look for it! Especially in signages.

Kerning error

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We were tasked to manipulate words in their form and orientation to emulate or simulate their meaning and feeling. In this sense the exercise was aptly called “Emo words”.

I drew inspiration from a particular designer by the name of Ji Lee for his quaint style of transforming words in this way, his work is really just so clever. My work is different in terms of style and definitely not as impactful as Ji Lee’s but I hope you can tell as first glance how the manipulated words emulate their meaning.

When it was presentation day there was mixed responses to everybody’s work. Personally, I thought BOX was clever and POUR was not as good however some peers reviewed it opposite from my views.

It is all very subjective but as long as there are people who appreciate my efforts what is enough!

It was challenging using the program for the first time and I felt very handicapped simply because I had an idea of how I wanted the words to turn out but I could not replicate that onto screen.

After repeated attempts and some tips from friends and seniors as well as changing my word choices I managed to come up with some word manipulations that I was somewhat happy with.

Emo Words

Week 3: Typographical Hierarchy

Emo Words

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O

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Week 4&5: Grids & Layout

In week four, we learnt how to communicate information through grids. By grouping certain information and emphasizing words through visual hierarchy. I learnt that humans usually read from left to right and up to down. This gave me insight on how and where I should place important information. I also learnt that unexpected hierarchy could also add value to the delivery of information.

The task this time was to redesign an existing menu.

We had to work within limitations. Namely, no pictures and it must be in black and white. Our final menu, though seemingly simple went through multiple alterations. Such as placement of the information blocks and leading as well as overall presentation.

One thing to note in our final menu is that the information blocks in column 2 is one spacing lower than those in column 1 and 3. The problem was that the information in column 2 looked out of place if it was in line with the other two so we lined it in a way that each row of text in column 2 was between each row in 1 and 3.

My partner and I actually began with a vision of placing our information blocks in a diagonal orientation to emulate the ‘N’ in the restaurant’s logo. However it was difficult to fit the information in such a manner without compromising the delivery of the information so we went back to a basic vertical grid style. We applied what we learnt from week 3 about visual hierarchy.

We were inspired by Pazo Menus

Menu

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Final Menu design

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Week 5: Wallet Exercise

This is Sooky

my partner for this exercise.

We were tasked to design a wallet for our partners by finding out what they like, their habits, what they look for in a wallet and etcetera through a series of interviews with them. This was the lesson we learnt about the process of Interviewing and crafting a Design Statement.

By “many important things” it means her IC and her keys as well as other items. I designed a wallet with many card compartments and a large pocket with zip to keep her keys and coins in.

This also keeps her things safely in the wallet without fear of it dropping out.

Sooky likes to keep her receipts in her wallet but somehow mixes up her dollar notes with the paper so I added a center opening with a divider where she can keep things separate.

She is a dancer and often has to carry extra bags. For her wallet she needs one where she can tuck under her arm or grip firmly and the design has an embossed or textured surface and is of a longer length for good grip and versatility.

A Wallet to Sooky is where she keeps securely her many important things.

Designing a Wallet

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After 5 weeks of learning the basics in Visual Communication and a preview to Design Thinking with the wallet exercise, we were given our first big project of Redesigning the NUS Library.

This project spanning 4 weeks brought us into Design Thinking via application and first hand experience.

The following pages document this journey.

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Rede signingThe

NUSLibrary

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Rede signingThe

NUSLibrary

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Week 6&7: 1st Prescribed Research Method

Receiving a project that spans 4 weeks was really daunting!

We were introduced to the P.O.E.M.S framework

and learnt that Observation was the first step to identifying problems, noting areas of improvement or things that were already good in the Library. We then condensed our observations to the significant ones as depicted in the image cluster on the next page.

This was similar to the alphabet exercise in week one where we observe the environment looking for something specific. The interesting thing once again is how much you notice and how the unnoticed become obvious and even awkward. One example of this was the chairs in the level 3 Study room where the chairs were inconsistent as depicted in the leftmost image under objects. I believe this fact would not have jumped out at me if I was not looking specifically at objects in the library.

I realised that through actively searching with our eyes for things that fit into the P.O.E.M.S we familiarize ourselves so much quicker compared to a map because we experience the place and are forced to categorise our observations one way or another either by floor or rooms. I find myself remembering a certain place like

“Oh, the level with that out-of-place shelf with dictionaries by the left of the staircase next to the lift.”

I think that this experience is something that can be applied or is applied to a larger scale by designers of familiarising through observation and experiencing the physical setting.

One thing to note though is that we have a tendency to point out all the problems rather than simple observation and it often turns into nitpicking. It can be amusing but it may drag out the process by harping on the same point unnecessarily.

It may be human nature to be cynical but I think it can be consciously avoided.

People

Objects

Environment

Services

P.O.E.M.S

Messages

Research MethodThe start

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Messages

Services

Environment

People

Objects

P.O.E.M.S

P.O.E.M.S image cluster

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Week 8: Human Centered Research Methods & Tools (User Journey, Interview)

User Research

We continued in week 8 by putting ourselves in the user’s shoes and simulating a user journey through an image flowchart.

For my group, we identified 2 user types: Casual User Researcher

We then documented the commonly visited areas and simulated the activities done by these user groups. In the User Journey map below, the upper branch is for a casual user and the bottom branch is for a researcher.

User Journey

User Journey map

I feel that this exercise allowed us to understand and experience as a user first hand by placing ourselves in the actual environment.

We come to interact with objects, be influenced by messages and try out the services in the library. From this we actually notice pros and cons that pure Observation does not show. I now understand why this step comes after P.O.E.M.S. It supplements and helps us further our research.

It is also a process that changes assumptions to more accurate conclusions based on experience.

For example I may have an assumption that the library books are hard to find because there is no clear segmented shelves for different genres of books.

However when I actually use the book finding service, it is actually relatively easy to use and understandable. Librarians are also there to answer any queries.

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Form queriesValue Ladder

Big Questions

Critical Questions

Open Questions

Who are the stakeholders?

Pre-interview, we had to formulate questions that we learnt through studio about value ladders in forming queries.

Some main things to consider when forming a ques-tion are as noted on the right.

Interviewing is not merely a series of random questions loosely hinged around the topic of the library but rather, the questions must be clear so as to derive a desired an-swer and also phrased in a way that encourages the user to share more rather than stop at a yes-no answer.

I think it was a rather amusing process when we had to come up with conversation starters and scenarios that would lead up to the actual interview question. My group mates were going wild with ideas like bumping into a person and striking a conversation or even awk-wardly complimenting a person for no good reason.

We had to profile the interviewees as per their name, age, gender and faculty with their photo on A4 papers for downloading of information in the next step.

User ResearchInterview

Say

Do Think

Feel

AravindhAged 20From Faculty of EngineeringReading Civil Engineering

Typical Interviewee Profile

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Week 9: Synthesis of Research

In this week, we begin to offload our research results and observations. We start by looking at our interviews.

By classifying our user research under

Problems Insights Quotes/Opportunities

This facilitates our process by working within a structure and the colours allow for easy recognition at a glance.

We learnt that less words and more drawings communicated our thoughts better and allowed for easy recall when we visit the board the next time.

I think once again the idea of communication is important here where we are communicating within a group among each other. Working in such a way let us understand at a glance what the others have observed and reduces repetition.

The challenge here is categorization.

My group members and I often found ourselves stumped when it came to placing our observations in the above categories. Especially for Insights and Quotes/ Opportunities. The observations were so similar at times and we found ourselves writing down the same observations but just phrased differently.

I think this is an indispensable part to the design thinking process because while we may be vaguely aware of one anothers observations, it only becomes clear when they are materialised on paper. From there we can group things together in a concise manner.

Synthesisoffloading

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Week 10: Ideation Tools (Speed Dating, 100 ideas)

Our next task was to come up with 100 ideas. We learnt a tool called Speed Dating where we came up with ideas based on the pairing of ten action words and 10 library words.

In my opinion it was a game of associations when com-ing up with ideas based on the logic of speed dating. As the number of ideas did not match up to 100, we came up with 2 other methods and tools to churn out ideas.

Colour coding was an activity that we came up with where we wrote a colour on individual sheets of paper. Members were given a minute to come up with as many associated words as possible within that time and pass the paper to the next person for the next minute. The rotation is continued till the original colour returns to the one who wrote it. The group then reviews the words under each colour linking to the library.

Revisiting Interviewswas the idea of grouping the main problemsand coming up with solutions to the problems. From here we noticed the more urgent problems were lighting, finding books, lack of power sockets. We built our ideas around solutions for these problems.

LightingSmell

Water Dispensers

TemperatureLack of Power Sockets

Finding Books

Toilet

Directions

ActivitiesAVIA System

Furniture mismatch

Borrowing Books

Space

Ideas

Ideationby the 100

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Week 11: Idea Communication & Prototyping (Clustering Filtering Layering)

High Relevance/

High Value

Low Relevance/

Low Value

WOWOK, Pretty Cool

In this week, we learnt about developing our ideas further with the Ice cream flavour exercise where we learnt about clustering ideas by grouping the flavours suggested in class into our own defined categories.

Followed by picking the most interesting flavours and developing the idea around that particular flavour.

For examplethe aqua flavour is best tasted under water in an isolated vacuum bubble or there will only be flavour when tasted underwater.

From this example we developed the idea of an aqua flavoured ice cream to a context and how and where it can be eaten. This is called layering and can be applied to the design process.

Here we filter the ideas using the scale on the left clustering ideas into OK, Pretty cool, WOW, High Value and Low Value.

The most feasible and interesting ideas would then gather in the top left quadrant of the scale. This is a further filtering process to sieve out the best ideas.

This is a very fun and visual representation of filtering ideas which is good for me as a visual learner.

Idea CommunicationI scream for icecream

Clustering & Filtering

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Physical Mock up

Spatial Mock up

Experience

Prototypingthe Idea

After deciding on the final idea,we begin our prototyping process.

The three prototyping methods

Creating the Physical MockupAs our idea was along the lines of changing the ambient lighting, we decided to do a physical mockup of the space because we could not simulate a spatial mockup because that would mean renovating the library areas

It was a challenge creating a prototype that simulated the desired lighting environment we intended. Things like the bulbs being faulty and even the external lighting affected the ideal conditions we wanted to create.

And while we managed to get feedback from users when they viewed and interacted with the prototype, it was insufficient because there was no tangible feedback from users based on experiencing the prototype physically.

Prototype #1

Original Library Model Proposed Prototype

Full-length

windows

Sensor

hanging

Lamps

Design Statement:

The NUS Library is a

place of study for

students at

all times of the day.

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Week 12: Prototype iteration & Presentation

Prototype iterationFurther Development

Post presentation, we learnt that we have to be more realistic and scale down our ideas to a work-able level. From there we can build a prototype where users could actually experience the idea.

Especially in our case where our idea was a little too ambitious and was bordering along the line of an architectural development. So we downsized our idea of a hanging lamp to a table lamp which we could simulate by bringing in an actual table lamp.

While developing our prototype we must not forget our Design Statement and deviate from it because it sets the direction of the project.

FeedbackHanging-light may cast shadows and is obtrusiveLack of user interactionSystem is too architecturalFloor-to-ceiling Windows impractical to implement

LessonCreate a lighting system that can be scaled down for test-ing which allows for user interaction that isunobtrusive and is feasible for future implementation

Prototype #1 Developments

Idea #2

2-Part

Lighting System

1. Passive Sensor System. Lighting changes according to time of day

2. Lighting Levels. Dual level lighting at table level for more efficient

studying

(Floor-to-ceiling windows omitted)

Slides on prototype development

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From there we garnered feedback and reviewed the next prototype.

From this I learnt that prototyping is a continual process of development and reiteration, feedback and review. where we gain valuable insights with each round.

And here we see again how assumptions fail in the physical environment when users actually experience the product.

While there may be mixed reviews from users, how we can deal with that is to develop the product and always remember the Design Statement.

It is almost a wonderful feeling to see your idea form into something physical and develop further. In the next page you will see our final prototype after the four weeks.

So that is just what we did.We brought in a lamp to the library and approached users to study with and without the table lamp for 20 minutes and collected their feedback.

Prototype #2 Developments

FeedbackTable Lamp is bulky to some and may be obtrusiveLighting change does not make a difference to someDirection of lighting does not cater to all

LessonLamp has to be unobtrusive when not neededLamp has to be adjustable to user preferences

Slides on prototype development

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Week 13: Final Presentation

FeaturesRetractable optional usage and unobstrusive when kept

Movableto cater to left and right handers as well as personal preferences

Sensor lightingcater to day and night

Final PresentationFinal Prototype

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ConclusionThrough this whole journey, I developed a real appreciation of the product that we designed because of the design process we went through.I also came to realise that a designer is as much a researcher and thinker as he is a creative person.There are many takeaways from what we learnt in this first semester which I will carry with me as I continue my ID journey.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Hans and Jie Yu for bringing us on this journey

Delane FooA0101024J