Nandita Chakravarti Assignment 1 Which of the design briefs does your observation fall under: Change, Glance, or Time? Explain what activity you observed and how it relates to the brief. The Design Brief that my observation falls under is Glance. I observed how three busy working professionals organized/managed information (media). It was clear from the observation that 1) they needed a single point of access 2) needed to filter only relevant information 3) the information was time related-‐ example, they would only look at certain things during work hours and other things at home or while traveling. Step 1: observe
Describe how three people performed an activity related to the brief you chose. In particular, you should focus on a particularly interesting moment/breakdown/workaround from the observation. Upload a photograph or sketch of each person performing the described activity, with a short caption. RAM My first subject, an architect-‐intern named Ram works full-‐time and is at present taking his licensing exams to be an architect. My observation of Ram elucidated the fact that he is in desperate need of an organization tool. Ram’s process: 1) Ram finds listens to TED talks on subjects like the environment, innovation and social justice on a regular basis (especially during work hours). He does this by going to the TED website and searching for lectures that interest him. He then, makes a note of all the things that have interested him on post-‐it notes on the wall in his cubicle. Intellect motivates him. 2) Ram constantly looks to his religion for answers and motivation-‐ he does this by attending religious meetings and visiting the Soka Gakkai international website and searching for specific issues like health etc. 3) Ram is very focused on environmental issues; he watches topics like the sea-‐level rise, growth of cities, poverty and hygiene. He does this by going to specific websites and also listening to talks on the Columbia University Earth Institute and New School websites. All of these websites are bookmarked in his ‘favorites’ tab on his browser. He accesses them usually after work, for maybe 5 hours/week. 4) All other things that relate to him achieving his life goals are links and documents in word files that are located in his personal drive in a folder or in bookmarked in his browser.
Nandita Chakravarti Assignment 1
Breakdown-‐ File organization in personal drive on work computer
Breakdowns: Post-‐it for relevant information, bookmarking on browser, document storage.
Nandita Chakravarti Assignment 1 MISTI My second subject Misti is also an architect. She is an avid reader and believes that books motivate and inspire her. She is also deeply interested in traveling and learning about other cultures. She calls all of this her ‘life research’. Her personal development goal is to be able to present her life research to the world through lectures, commissions and publications. She interested in what she calls ‘making’. Misti’s process: 1) Misti maintains a ‘Master list’ on paper of all the books that have either been recommended to her by others or that she believes will influence her. This list is extensive and has been developed over years. Depending on her mood or surroundings, she picks a book from the list and reads either the entire book or excerpts from the book. 2) Misti also collects guidebooks and visits travel websites regularly, especially before she plans a trip. 3) Misti tries stay on top of things that are current in the design world through lectures, shows, forums etc. At present she receives email notifications through subscriptions, by browsing websites or through word of mouth. 4) At present, Misti shows her work by posting a few images from time to time on her facebook wall. 5) Misti makes notes of all things that have interested her in a calendar book along with her normal (work related) scheduling. Breakdown: Having to access various websites for relevant information with no bookmarking system, using her notebook to take notes, event reminders etc.
Nandita Chakravarti Assignment 1 KOU Kou is in a general management role at an eCommerce company. He enjoys technology, understands business and intends to start an Internet based business of his own in the future. He is looking to stay up to date as the Internet Industry evolves, and new businesses, partnerships and opportunities emerge. Where he learns about things going on in the Internet world: -‐ Top ecommerce blogs like compete, getelastic, ecommercebytes -‐ Attending e-‐commerce conferences like shop.org, Internet retailer conference, etc. How he does it today: -‐ On weekdays at work, he goes through his bookmarks to find sites of interest. -‐ His colleagues send out articles every few days so he adds those to his bookmarks or saves the document offline and puts it in Dropbox so he can access it everywhere. -‐ During lunch, he uses his RSS reader on his phone to read ecommerce articles. Most times he only gets through a few because there are 200 + unread articles waiting on his app. He can't figure out a way to filter these by relevance, category or popularity. -‐ On weekday evenings, he likes to read about non-‐work related things -‐ personal finance blogs, improving life efficiency; travel and deal portals interest him. -‐ On weekends, he uses yelp or google to find and read about interesting things to do that weekend in the Bay Area. He likes to forward these to his friends but can only seem to do so on sites that have the "share by email" functionality.
Nandita Chakravarti Assignment 1
Breakdowns: Filtering through irrelevant information on websites, blogs. Looking up various websites for conferences etc.
Inefficient bookmarking system, Un-‐ filtered RSS information on phone.
Step 2: brainstorm needs/goals
A list of needs/goals/tasks inspired by what you observed (at least 15). If you brainstormed with others, please include their names in your submission to recognize their contribution 1) Ram needs to access his TED lectures and his Environmental issues lectures regularly during work hours. He shouldn’t have to go to these websites individually, they should be accessible to him from one point. 2) Ram searches for these lectures/talks based on topics that matter to him. Instead, suggestions should be made to him based on his preset interests, he shouldn’t have to search or browse amongst hundreds of unrelated videos. 3) Ram needs his post-‐it note system to be organized and accessible as and when he needs it. In other words, he should be able to make notes while listening to these lectures and also find a system to organize these notes and access them with ease. 4) Ram needs constant access his Buddhist motivational and spiritual world, this should be easily accessible to him and all times through quotations, chants and advice. 5) Ram needs his existing organization system – M:\2012\PersonalDevelopment\xxx.doc to be reorganized and accessible to him at all times, ideally organized by date. 6) Misti needs to digitize her ‘Master List’ of books and have access to her books at all times.
Nandita Chakravarti Assignment 1 7) Misti believes that recommendations and suggestions from others enrich her learning experience and growth. The Master List needs to be smart, i.e. in addition to providing her with books on the list; it should be able to recommend books to her. 8) Misti reads books based on her mood and surroundings. Very often, she finds herself wanting to read but not having access to books or articles. The smart Master List should be able to filter and provide her with what she needs when she needs it. 9) Misti often finds herself carrying guidebooks everywhere she travels and searching through these books for information. Misti needs to have location-‐ based access to travel guides with easy to locate information. 10) Misti also needs to keep a record of all her travels that have inspired her through photographs, excerpts etc. 11) Misti needs notifications of events occurring in her area that interest her-‐ including lectures, forums etc. from one source. 12) Misti is in the process of building her body of work. She would like to share her ideas with others and receive criticism of her work eventually leading to her ultimate goal of having her own shows and commissions. 13) Kou needs access to all his e-‐commerce blogs from one point. Also, the blogs should only show him relevant information. 14) Kou needs access all his deal and travel sites from one point after work hours. Furthermore, only relevant information should appear to him. 15) Kou also needs a document storage system that he can access at all times (bookmarks or files). 16) Kou’s weekend events (based on his interests) should be readily available to him.
Step 3: find inspiration
www.Socialtables.com Interesting functionalities: Drag and drop elements onto the screen, all upcoming events in a dashboard, manipulate the master guest list and add tables etc to the list itself. www.trippy.com Sharing of (travel) ideas with friends, posting photos and getting comments, ability to take action on things that you like (plan trips).
Nandita Chakravarti Assignment 1 www.bottlenose.com Live topics emerge as user is viewing the site, ‘sonar’ filtering system to filter topics of interest. https://www.leftronic.com/ Simple, clean dashboard design. Provides data from other sites (like google analytics). Displays relevant information from Social networks. www.nextgoals.com Fitness tracking with simple, clear graphics along with a connection to a network of people who motivate you to reach your goals.