Filed under: Deliverable
Hi all. After yesterday’s class, we (your instructors) all met and took stock of where you all are. We saw a lot of evidence of searching the Internet and reading books, but very little evidence of the type of user observations we’ve been talking about all semester. It’s past time to get cracking on that part of the project. We know that it’s new territory for nearly all of you, and we know that it’s difficult, so don’t wait to start. We’ve presented you with many of the techniques and skills to do this work, so look back over those notes and put them into practice. We’ve given you all the freedom to work at your own pace and schedule and figure things out a bit, and the results are not there yet. So, here’s some more direction on what your coming two weeks look like and what our expectations are for the upcoming class meetings.
Plan on some real hours in the next 1.5 weeks with your teams. The finish date for your all your research will be Monday, Oct 9. That means that on that date, you will have completed 100% of your research and you each will present concise, compelling visual documentation of the research you all will have conducted, insights you have derived from that research, frameworks that you have developed out of those insights and research, and compelling opportunity areas and directions in which you will start designing during the next phase.
On Monday October 2:
Your research should be 70% done. We will meet with you all on this date to see where you are, but the emphasis will be on a working session, and you should all be well on your way.
For this coming Wednesday (October 4):
You will all be 90% done with your research. Here’s what we expect to see on that date from each team. We know it takes time, that’s why we’re telling you today:
1) You’ll have conducted 4-6 interviews and observations. Plan on at least an hour for each observation, plus the time to get there, the time to discuss it as a team, and the time to prepare questions and any technology (cameras, video, etc.). You needn’t do more than 6 observations, but don’t stop at 4 if you have unanswered questions or users you need to observe! We want to see clear visual evidence of significant:
* Activities that occur with your product.
* Environments where your product can be used, sold, discarded.
* Interactions that are unique to your product or are outside of the typical use of the product.
* Objects that relate to your product or affect the use of your product.
* Users from multiple segment categories – who uses the product, young, old, loves it, hates it, uses it in unlikely ways.
Show us all your important observations. You decide what’s important, but you need to make us believe it and you need to show it. We want to see your:
* Notes – not everything, just what you think is essential to communicate.
* Relevant quotes from people
* And most of all, visual evidence in the form of photos, video (with permission), sketches, etc (see above) – you are all visual communicators, so it’s time to talk less and show more.
2) Show us clusters (significant patterns) of observations. Draw connections with similar or contrasting behaviors, themes, and trends you see in your observations. This process takes time! You will need to meet and tell stories of who you saw and start identifying and pulling out the following:
* patterns of behavior. Many of you have conducted some basic interviews – have you synthesized the patterns? What are common behaviors? How might those commonalities help direct your observations going forward?
* types of people (belief systems, values, perceptions and misperceptions, etc.). You may wish to talk to the PDA group and ask about one of their extreme users – they have identified a person who is running a side business of refurbishing phones in his home and selling them for a profit.
* visualize these patterns whenever appropriate; for example diagrams of process; diagrams of users; types of important behavior. You may all wish to look at the diaper group’s organization of their data – it is a baseline of where you all should have been on Monday, and everyone can certainly go further with that type of a map.
3) Describe opportunities for the design of new products, systems, services, environments within the domain you’re researching. These opportunities should be broad enough that they aren’t dependent on one specific design skillset — not “what can I design?” but instead, “what would be a cool problem to solve?”
4) Some concepts for how you will present your research on the following Monday, October 9. You will each have about 15 minutes to present, and some time for questions and critique on October 9. You need to develop your visual presentation as well as your verbal presentation for that date. Each member of your team needs to present a part of your work on that date – no team should have just one spokesperson.
The time between Wednesday October 4 and Monday October 9 should be spent filling any holes in your research (we’ll help you identify those holes in class by working with the teams on Wednesday) and crafting beautiful visual presentations of your work for the Monday October 9 presentations.
Filed under: CD/DVD
yesterday we did a ‘deep dive’ and contrasted the small, independently-owned four star video store on potrero hill with the corporately-driven blockbuster, ross, and radio shack stores in the local strip mall. here are some of our findings concerning music and movie cds and dvds, from clerks to customers.
10. vinyl junkies prefer the aesthetic of the lp over the cd and tend to take better care of them: ‘I would rather look at a stack of records than a stack of crappy cds’-four star video clerk
9. compact disc booklets destroy cds with their staples
8. most people do not know how to handle the cd/dvd-they toss it around, leave it face down, return them with jolly ranchers stuck to their surface (this happens primarily with the return of kid’s movies, hence the candies)
7. dvds are a good preservation medium for older movies-color/picture quality is much higher, and most titles are now two-sided: full screen and widescreen
6. clerk at four star video: as a music fanatic, he will spend months, sometimes years finding rare albums on cd, which his friends will burn-thinking he is a limitless library of music
5. blockbuster customer: likes full screen, only buys dvds-does not rent: ‘I am stuck in the past’. goes to blockbuster out of convenience, not choice: ‘I would go to Amoeba if I had the time’.
4. blockbuster clerk: doesn’t throw away cds/dvds. sends old ones ‘back to the factory’…’I can’t tell you anything more-it’s all handled by corporate’.
3. radio shack: contrast between vhs and dvd: still some vhs tapes, but on the bottom shelf ghetto…a couple of cheap-looking cd players, outshined by slick new ipod-accessories.
2. disney releases its movies for stores to buy in a short window: creating demand and putting the stores in a bind if they don’t buy at least 20-30 movies at a time (four star will have fewer copies of a certain title, but a better, quirkier selection than blockbuster)
1. as consumers rush to buy the latest digital gear, there are still a few people who speak fondly of older media, in terms of character and aesthetic. the vinyl junkie clerk at four star video takes better care of his lps than his cds, would rather dj with vinyl (‘it’s easier’) and takes the time to find older/rarer titles (in movies and music), yet acknowledges the benefits of dvd technology.
brief findings from a longer interview with an IT man from spirit rock, a zen meditation center in marin.
*technology and spirituality are linked: the former being the clearest manifestation of the latter, showing how we are all interconnected environmentally and socially
*dvd as a burning medium provides more complexity than he needs when sharing data with friends and family. he will make a test copy when burning a cd, but primarily uses a one-time burnable cd for sharing media.
*the generic blank cd/dvd is not meant to last more than a couple of years
subscribes to the longnow foundation philosophy: keep storage of data in a simple, easy-to-access ‘open source’ archive, rather than any kind of proprietary software/technology, as the tech landscape is changing so rapidly and companies come and go.
Filed under: Palm
STATEMENT OF INTENT
PDA’s are moving into the market of mobile phones as they merge into one product. Currently, mobile phones are updated yearly by US consumers . We would like to explore possibilities of reducing or redefining e-waste, attempting to minimize pollutants derivable from burning or land filling these electronic components. We will examine other materials or systems that are non-hazardous, recyclable, or allow for product re-use or disassembly.
10 Lessons Learned on Small Electronics or Related Waste
1) At places like CompUsa, people can turn in their cartridges for $2 off their next purchases. Most people end up bring them to the store to know which one to buy, then have the benefit of discount and recycle.
2) The young man that works in the area where they collect the cartridges doesn’t bring his in, he throws them away.
3) Ebay has made profitable reuse a more viable and convenient option for electronics. Many PDA users we surveyed used this as their means for reselling.
4) Most people we surveyed change their cell phone on an average of once a year, some people own more than one (this we found to be more common in Asian countries).
5) There is a market for desktop parts for people that assemble and upgrade their own machines. The nature of the desktop structure lends itself to upgrade and customization if knowledgeable.
6) Manufacturers like HP and Dell have take back programs for a small fee.
7) A major cost for take back programs is disassembly time. Increasing speed through active disassembly methods are being explored by Nokia.
In past, US e-waste was “recycled” by being sent to China and India, where informal dismantling and burning of parts was occurring to separate materials that were profitable. These towns attract new residents, many becoming terminally ill through their new enterprise.
9) “I didn’t know the sky could be so blue, until I came to SF”, Chinese student in US. This may be largely due to the manufacturing and “recycling” of American commodities.
10) Buyer programs that require returns of previous product for upgrade, like mobile phone service providers, are a built in assurance that the electronic device will be returned to the manufacturer(if the user continues with the same service provider).
Filed under: Detergent
- Only 5.4 % of all plastic made is recycled.
- 35% of all plastic made is for packaging.
- Americans discard 2 million plastic bottles per hour.
- 29% of recycled #2 (HDPE) is made into new bottles.
- 5-10% more resin is extracted from unpigmented #2 plastic.
- The majority of consumers use Tide.
- Scent plays a role in detergent purchase in more than 50% those interviewed.
- Water hardness plays a direct correlation to the amount of detergent needed per load.
- 50% of laundromats we visited had no recycling containers.
- People are generally happy with laundry once it is done.
Filed under: Diaper
-What the hospitals offer the new borns: A package of Huggies and no information on diapering options.
-Disposable diaper recycling plants do exist.. just not in the U.S. and not on a large scale, knowaste.
-Lack of information in general for the consumer> difficult to find. People have miss information about what is healthier for their child.
-In most cases convenience outways any other issue, “I’m too busy”
-When the option to dispose of a diaper properly is easy people will do it i.e. diaper recycling cans in public children oriented areas in Japan.
-Flushable disposables really do exist!
Filed under: Lecture
We are having Steve Bishop talking about the social cycle and presenting a few IDEO case studies.
Steve is a product designer at IDEO’s Palo Alto office. With a background in interaction design, film, and product development, Steve focuses his work on the human/machine interface. (…) A graduate of Stanford’s Joint Program in Design, Steve is an enthusiatic teacher in the Mechnical Engineering department there and a steering committee member of the new Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the “d.school”).
Steve received a bachelor’s degree in Film from the University of Texas, where he wrote and directed an award winning short, “Thank you Ma’am.”
Filed under: Misc
Hi,
Here is a fun project I’m doing for GD4 that has to do with trash.
Well it uses trash to help in the search for Maxwell’s Demon. If you don’t know what that is check out the site.
It still needs a little work on the games code, but it is working and kind of cool.
Sometimes the drafts are cooler then the final project.
Posted by James P
Filed under: Uncategorized
I am thrilled this worked. I am probly not the brightest at this so it took me a minute just to find the new post button.
I love to hear from you guys about our statement so please leave us a comment.
I still have to figure out how to work all the buttons but when I do I will post some more stuff.
Posted by James P
Filed under: Uncategorized
Statement of Intent: Disposable Diapers
9/18/06
The main gap our team has come across to date is education. Not just in the use of diapers and how they are best disposed, but also in the lack of education regarded to actually making an educated choice. It is not just the fact that disposable diapers are a problem in quantity and content to the environment, but how do you compete with something so well designed.
Remaking and rethinking the disposable diaper in materials that are recyclable or biodegradable is important and needs to be addressed our focus will be on encouraging parents to make better decisions when diapering their children through a campaign of awareness. The goal is to build a system of education aimed at the harm of regular disposables to the environment and a focus on the alternatives such as cloth.
We feel it is important for people to have the knowledge of the benefit and disadvantage of different types of diapers. It is necessary to provide consumers more opportunity to make them think about environmental and health impact. Consumers need to be made aware the total cost of disposable diapers is more expensive than a total cost of using cloth diapers. Disposable diapers cost $2530 (including cost of diapers and wipes) for 30 months. On the other hand, cloth diapers costs $778 (including cost of diapers and cost washing – detergent, energy, and water) for same 30 months. Diaper services on average cost $ 2133 for 30 months for a savings of $400 over disposable. Just this information may be enough for someone to choose a more environmental choice. Simply because now they now it costs less.
Our goal is to help fill in the info gap. To develop a system of information that will not only inform, but also help to develop consumer’s knowledge of choices. It is our opinion that people want to do the right thing. They simply don’t know how. Some of the ideas and question we wish to cover are cost, time, environmental impact, and disposal. Creating an icon through recognizable imagery and words we can convince the public it is more then just a trend to use cloth diapers.
Our goal is to – instruct – inspirer – indoctrinate
Promise
Team Posting – James/Nicole/Megumi
Filed under: Lecture
Should we send someone from the class to this workshop that Deborah mentioned during the tour today? It may or may not really interest one of the groups, but I asked Katherine if we could use some of the class budget to cover the $45, and she thought it was a good idea. Might be worthwhile.
Introduction to Recycling: All the Basics: Terms, Concepts, Equipment, and Resources
October 23 – 25 , 2006: 8:30am – 3:15pm – at Sanitary Fill Company (SF Recycling and Disposal, Inc.) 401 Tunnel Avenue, SF (at Bayshore CALTRAIN Station).
