2 - Jake Van Schouwen

1.) So I decided to pick the YouTube search bar. (Or any search bar in general)

2.) I believe this design to be obvious because of how once you click the website, the cursor will automatically be set at the search bar.  Given that the user has a general idea as to what he or she is looking for (on YouTube or in life), the search bar's design makes it simple to find.  Of course the search bar gets some help from recent searches...

.... but overall the search bar screams, "Type something in me!!"

Week 02 Blog Assignment

By now you should have read Chapter 1 of the book Designing the Obvious. The author, Robert Hoekman, Jr., describes what makes an obvious design.

Using these criteria, find a web site (or app), or a part of a web site (or app), that you might consider to be obvious design. Your task is this:

1. In your blog post, provide a link to the site (or app) and direct our attention to the aspect that you might consider to be obvious design. You might wish to paste an image from the site (or app) into your post (if you do, zoom in and copy the part of the screen to which you refer).
   
   
2. Explain why it's obvious design.

Label your note with the week #, a hyphen, then your first and last name. Example: "2-Michael Tumblin".

1-Ying Yu Hong

Hi! My name is Ying Yu Hong. I'm a sophomore majoring in Informatics and my cognate is Computer Art. I'm from Shenzhen, China.

I started practicing yoga last summer and I'm now able to do "Salamba Sarvangasana", which means shoulder stand pose. I really enjoy doing yoga because it can stretch out my muscles and make my body become more flexible. I also like to draw and paint in my spare time. I want to work in the HCI field and become a user interface designer in the future.

Because I'm taking two other studio art classes this semester, what worries me is the workload. I'm not sure what kind of projects we will have but I will try to balance them.

I find the example of Coke tabs very interesting. It used some psychology strategies to understand people better and design things to fulfill users' needs and wants.

1-Trevor Corradin

  Hello, I am Trevor Corradin. I am a junior majoring in informatics and Spanish linguistics, with minors in information technology and Portuguese. I am from Munster, located in northwest Indiana.

  I really love camping/hiking/anything else you would go do out in the woods really. I'm also very into weightlifting with my roommates, and working at Kopi coffee shop on 10th street right off campus. I lived in Spain for a few months during the summer  of my junior year in high school, and would love to move back after I graduate.

  The part of this class that I am most worried about is sketching. I have always been horrendous at drawing and sketching, so this is something I will have to work on

  A main idea that I took away from the first class was that every design has its own benefits and flaws. There are some designs that will work much better for certain tasks, and worse for others.

1- Emily Gries

Hi, my name is Emily Gries and I am a sophomore majoring in Informatics from Granger, IN.

 

I am currently a part of a professional business fraternity. Most people, like me upon coming to college, have never heard of these before but it is basically a group of people that rush and pledge to be in an organization based on professional development, community service, and brotherhood. In this fraternity, DSP, I am known as the happy, smiley one that cheers everyone up (they call me nugget). Other than this I love sports, specifically watching football, basketball, and soccer (Go Big Ten!) and am a huge fan of Netflix so if anyone has any recommendations for that, I am almost done with my current show so let me know.

I am worried about mostly the coding aspect of this class. I am not too familiar with different applications that were on the survey the first day. I am very creative and focused but I do not know if I have the knowledge to apply those skills all the time to my lack of knowledge with the design programs.

One idea that I took away from the first class is that everything is designed with a specific purpose in mind. Even the smallest details were discussed and designed for a reason.

1 - Hayden Mills

Hello everyone,

My name is Hayden Mills. I am a sophomore majoring in Informatics. I am from Seymour, Indiana. I am an RA in Foster here at IU. I am also involved in IU Chi Alpha, a Christian ministry here on campus. These things, along with classes, keep me busy here at IU but in my free time I enjoy reading books and creating/developing websites. 

The thing that worries me the most about this class is the art/drawing part of the class. I have never been good at drawing. A new idea that I took away from the first class was the idea of "playing the whole game". I am excited to be able to learn many things about HCID and to be able to "play the whole game".

                                                                                                  

1 - Kristi Starling

Hi!  I'm Kristi Starling.  I'm a senior with majors in math and informatics and minors in security and philosophy.  A lot of the classes overlap, so it's not quite as ridiculous as it sounds, but needless to say, I keep pretty busy.  I'm from Huntingburg, IN, a small town a little less than 2 hours south of here.  It's near Holiday World for anyone who's from around here.

As for something interesting, I do competitive ballroom dance here at IU.  (Shameless plug:  for anyone who's interested, our spring callout is Thursday, January 23 at 9 pm in SPH 171.  Check it out.  It's fun.)  I had never done any dance before coming to IU, but I've been competing since my first semester, and I love it!  I also coach a Bible Quiz team of middle and high schoolers at a local church.

Like several others have said, I'm nervous about the drawing.  It's never been my strong suit or something I've enjoyed, but I guess there's a first time for everything!

The thing that really struck me from the first class was the idea that the students will put more into the class if the professor puts more into the class.  It makes sense, and as I think about the courses I've taken it seems to be true, but it's amazed me just how true it actually is.

1-Adam Johnson

Hi! My name is Adam Johnson and simply enough just go by Adam.  I am a senior here majoring in Informatics (but hopefully graduating in the summer).  I am from a small town in southern Indiana called Austin, which is around thirty miles north of Louisville.  Although it's hard to tell now, I used to be a long distance runner.  I come from a family of runners, my dad ran track and cross country for Purdue, all my uncles ran for Cumberland University, and two of my cousins are currently running for Berea College.  In 2010 I ran the Tecumseh Trail Marathon here in Bloomington, where I got 28th out of around 600.  What worries me the most in this class is the final project, as I noticed it is a team thing.  Group projects aren't always good experiences and I'm afraid I will be stuck with a heavy workload or a team that doesn't work well together.  So far I took from this class the realization that even all the little things in life that go unnoticed have a great deal of design and innovation in them (e.g. the doors, ketchup bottle, etc.).  I find myself thinking if something I see was designed well.

1 - Yousef Saead

My name is Yousef Saead. I am a Junior majoring in Finance and minoring in Informatics. The hardest question I face is "Where are you from?" I was born in NJ,USA was raised in Jordan and have Palestinian parents. Choose which ever suits you!

I am almost positive that I am the only one that speaks Arabic in this class...thats interesting.
Honestly, what worries me most is the fact that design and "art" work isnt really my comfort zone so this should be interesting.

A new idea I took away from class is that undergraduate students seem to have a bad reputation with faculty. I didnt know it was that severe.

1 - Jon Burris

Hi my name is Jon Burris, you can call me Jon. I'm a sophomore majoring in Informatics and I reside in Lawrenceburg, IN.

Denzel Washington is my favorite actor. I have never seen a Denzel movie which I despised. Also I would like to go to England one day and see an Arsenal match. And my mom makes killer monkey bread.

What worries me most about this class is the Projects. I don't know why, they worry me.

The design of door handles interested me especially as I walked through other buildings and started noticing the door designs.

From Your Mentor: Nathan Potts :-)

This is me :-D

Hey Everyone,

I'm Nathan Potts, and I'm one of your mentors for this class Human-Computer Interaction and I'm excited to be a part of it. I am a second year master's student in the Human-Computer Interaction Design program and I did my undergraduate degree here at IU in Informatics, so you might have seen me around. It was only a few years ago, that I was in your seats for this class and this was one of my favorites and laid the foundation to where I am today.

In my free time, I enjoy playing and talking about video games - loving some Kerbal Space Program as of late. I'm also excited about photography, good stories, and Tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons, and of course, design. If you want to reach out to me and talk about any of these things or anything else, don't be shy.

Listening to our first class, one of the most important things I took away was to ask questions. You'll be doing many new things in this class - some which may not make sense and you should ask questions when this happens.

Enjoy Project 1 and Email if you have any questions at ncpotts@indiana.edu

1- Kate L'Heureux

Hi, my name is Kate L'Heureux and I'm a sophomore majoring in Informatics from Noblesville, IN.

Over winter break I read 6 books in celebration of finally having time to read for fun. I like to think the fact that my hair glows under a black light is interesting, but that's just me. I am obsessed with films by Sophia Coppola and could watch them 100 times and not get bored. Adventure Time will always make me laugh and my last name means "the happy one" in French.

What worries me most about this class is the faster pace for more creative projects. I am the type of person who overthinks stuff, so this will be a good way to get out of that.

Something I took away from class is the idea of recognizing designs we take for granted that are in fact carefully deliberated over to create a desired outcome, like the pop can tab.

1-Nicholas Fields

My full name is Nicholas Fields, but I would prefer to be referred to as Nick.  I am currently a senior and am majoring in Informatics.  My hometown is Carmel, Indiana.  Something interesting about me is that my eardrum was punctured about a month ago from a cue tip.  May
be there is something to be said about not using cue tips for cleaning ears...although it healed and I can hear perfectly fine now.  I am worried the most to learn my first ever programming language in this class.  In the first class I learned that Python can actually be used to program games which I never knew before...I used to think Python was mainly used as an introductory programming language in order to eventually train people to use more complicated programming languages. 

1 - Nicholas Barker

Hello my name is Nicholas Barker and I am a junior from Carmel, IN studying Informatics with a Sport Marketing Minor.
I really enjoy sports, any and all sports. Not only from a fan perspective but also from how they are run and function on a day to day basic. I also enjoy working with computers as well.
What worries me most about this class is the drawing, that is definitely not my strong suite.
The design of the sound of cans is something new I took away.

1 - Baiyan Zhang

Hi everyone, I am Baiyan Zhang. I am a junior in informatics BS major and I am from China.

I like playing computer games such as League of Legends and I also play basketballs though I am not very good at it. (I saw someone else post things like this and I think this is a good idea.) In addition, I love eating delicious food, especially Chinese food. I strongly recommend you to try it :)

I am worried about drawing because I never get a good score on it even in primary school.

I think what is interesting to me is the sound of opening cans is designed. But I want to know more about how it works. 

1 - Donald MacLeod

Donald MacLeod - Also go by DJ
Informatics Senior from Evansville, IN
I enjoy food and cooking.  I also have an interest in electronic waste recycling.
I am worried about having to do lots of drawing.
A new idea for me was hearing about learning things holistically.

1 - Jake Van Schouwen

Hey everyone my name is Jake Van Schouwen. You can call me Jake or Jacob, doesn't make a difference :)

I am a sophomore majoring in Informatics and I'm from Valparaiso, Indiana.

I'm pretty nerdy.  I like video games like Diablo III and League of Legends and at times, Pokemon O_O.  My IGN in D3 and LoL is Donkey Superstar.  If you play, add me :)  I'm also a soccer fanatic.  I'm really into European soccer, my favorite team being Barcelona and you can call me a band-wagoner if you want ;) My favorite international team is the Netherlands for obvious reasons (Van Schouwen is my last  name) and I'm looking to get tickets to see them play this summer in the World Cup down in Brazil! Really excited about that.

I am nervous about the drawing.  I am no Picasso.

I thought it was really interesting to think that Coca-Cola designed the opening sound of the can.

 This is me btw.

Week 01 Blog Assignment

Welcome to your first blog assignment!

Make sure that you are logged into this blog as an author (you'll need a Google account; it's free).

 

This first assignment is easy:

1. To begin, click on "New Post" icon (the pencil) in the top bar (only use the comment box to comment on posts or to ask questions about the assignment). Label your note with the week #, a hyphen, then your first and last name. Example: "1-Zach Ackerman"
   
2. Tell us your first and last name—how you want others to refer to you in this class.
   
3. Tell us your year in school (sophomore, junior, senior, etc.); your major; and where you're from (your home town).
   
4. Tell us something interesting about yourself. You decide how long it should be; but hopefully it's more than a sentence (you're all more interesting than a sentence)!
   
5. What worries you most about taking this class? (It's OK to be worried about something; be honest. You'll likely discover that you're not alone.)
   
6. What's a new idea that you took away from the first class?
   
7. Upload a picture of you; a face shot is best—and large enough so I can recognize you in class. (No disguises, just a high quality face shot.)
   
8. Lastly, move your cursor over the the black vertical bar on the right; a bullet-list icon pops out with the label "I300 Blogs." Click on that to see a list of all the other Group blogs. In particular, click on "Marty's Blog" and read what's there. If you write a thoughtful comment on my post you'll earn a magic point! :)