8 - Nicholas Fields

So far I feel like I have learned more in this class about playing the 'whole game' of HCI design and more valuable information in general than I have learned in any other class so far in my academic career.  Although the assignments have each been extremely challenging in their own ways, I think learning to play the whole game versus breaking everything down into parts is the most valuable part of this class.  It allows us to see the big picture and the entire aspect of design work together which makes each individual part make more sense.  I have learned how to do research, identify problems, pick a focal area, sketch some design concepts, test designs, and redesign.  Reading the book on 'Obvious Design' has helped aid me throughout the whole process.  It has really helped explain principles on designing the obvious and has been a great compliment to design principles taught throughout the semester so far.  One of the biggest things that I have taken out of this course so far is that when you are designing you have to remove yourself from the design because the design should be for the users and not yourself.  I think this is also the hardest thing to do when designing because naturally you want your application to be everything that you think it should be when in reality you are not designing it for yourself but for every other user.  I have learned to really design for the users and make sure the design matches the user's mental model of what each feature should do.  I have learned to design intuitively in a way that makes the design user friendly no matter how much technological experience a target user may have.  I have also learned to eliminate the 'extra' features in a design and really make sure that everything a design provides is what is truly needed in order for someone to accomplish what the design set out to provide.  The principles of simplicity, intuitive design, ease of use, navigability, logical flow, and etc. have transformed my thinking when I brainstorm ideas for how to solve various problems and design concept sketches.  I love this class and I really feel like it is taught in a way that helps people understand the actual process that will take place in a real work setting when solving problems and producing products.