Seminar 1 - Lisa Torekull

By reading the book you get a lot of helpful information that will become useful for our project, especially this weekend when we are going to Tom Tits.

But first I’m going to explain about the four approaches that are presented in chapter two. The four approaches explain how designers can create the user-friendliest design.

·      User-Centered Design: Here the users will be in every step of the development. That’s important because as a designer some things may seem obvious, but the user might think otherwise. Using this approach designers try to solve one ultimate problem for the users. The downside with this approach is that it is very hard to find that ultimate problem for a whole target group. Using this way of thinking the designers avoid a typical trap by thinking that “you are not the user”.

·      Activity-Centered Design: Focuses on the task itself rather than the goal. This approach helps designers to focus on how they are going to help the users with their problem. It is important for the designers to show the users how to get to the goal. Good design in this step will make it very easy for the user to understand how to use the product.

·      Systems Design: Is used for big and complex systems that need an analytical approach.

·      Genius Design: Many designers who have experience and a lot of knowledge use this approach. It is required because in this approach you don’t use the users as much to help with the development of the product. They rely on their expertise on the subject instead. This is a very risky way of designing but in my point of view a very good one. That is because many designers see themselves as potential users of the product and you can let yourself think outside the box.

Chapter four explains among other things two statements that will be very useful to our project group’s field trip. Hunt statement, good tool to have when you decide the questions that will be asked during the field trip. If I ask X will I receive relevant information? And so on. Meanwhile Moderator script is another tool that helps us on how we are going to ask the question.

My question is: Can you think of a bad way to ask a question and then change it into a good way?