Reading Response Week 2
Understanding the Problem: Design Research
Summary: Chapter 2 describes the need for Goal-Directed design practice and how to successfully go about each activities:
Subject matter expert interviews
User and customer interviews
User aberration/ethnographic field studies
Kickoff meeting
Literature Review
Product/prototype and competitive audits
Stakeholder interviews
Takeaway: By reading this chapter I realized that as a designer not only do I need to think about good design but I also need to go as far and think with a business viewpoint. How viable is this product? Does it fit in our budget, time, and technology constraints? While consumers may need it, will the buyers purchase it?
Real World Example: During a design expo our team spent a large amount of time designing personas for our product. While I didn’t understand the necessity at first, I soon found out by pretending to be in their shoes, we were able to find design flaws that tremendously helped our project.
Burning question: During many design projects, I realized that it is very hard to have a wide variety of people to answer surveys. Usually my pool of people would consist of close friends and people in my same field of work which would often skew the answers. What would be the best method to distribute surveys.
MagneTracks
Summary: Introduces and analyzes MagneTracks, a multi-component educational toolkit that teaches physics by embodying cognitivism and constructivism theories.
Takeaway: My favorite part of MagneTracks is that it allows students to properly explore all permutations of the system. Like MagneTracks, I believe that a tangible should be complex enough that students are able to continuously use the product to learn different aspects of a subject. If it were only capable of teaching a single concept, it would not be worth the money to produce the tangible nor convince consumers to buy it. Another part that I loved about this project is its accessibility by using materials that are common in schools and easy to obtain. These are the design concepts I want to take with me when I design my own projects.
Real World Example: I remember to this day the physics concepts I learned in high school due to the hands on labs. MagneTracks still keeps the hands on activity while reducing the cognitive load on students by offering a direct explanation of the physical components taking place.
Burning question: My only concern with MagneTracks is the wide variability of the environments it is used in and how wear and tear will affect the learning aid in the long run.