The Good vs. Bad Design Exercise
Ideation
I began this project by researching what makes a good design.
I found an article from the Interaction Design Foundation that discusses what factors contribute to a good design.
What is Good Design? | Interaction Design Foundation.
This is a picture of German industrial designer, Dieter Rams sitting in his office.
Industrial designer Dieter Rams state that a good design not only looks aesthetic but also the functionality of the product and how the user interacts with it must be accounted for. A good design is innovative and can easily translate its purpose. It is well incorporated into everyday life and serves as solution to problems. A good product is minimalistic and fulfills every aspect of its desired function.
With my continued research, I came across a blog written by Mydee Lasquite that describes the important elements to create a good design.
Elements and Principles of a Good Design
Mydee Lasquite’s Blog: What makes Good Design? Basic Elements and Principles.
Mydee Lasquite describes the importance of using elements of design to represent what you are trying to portray. It must be understandable and the elements work together to achieve its purpose and tell a story. Just as we have learned in class, using elements such as line, color, size, and shapes and orienting them in a way that can help us convey a message to the viewers (or an emotional response) while also being visually interesting.
I looked to YouTube to find videos that talk through what key factors make a good design.
The director of The Design Lab at the University of California, Don Norman gives a Ted Talk: The three ways that good design makes you happy.
In this video Don Norman suggests that the key features that make a good design is that it is aesthetically pleasing to the eye, there is balance, and functions well. The best designs sometimes require out of the box type thinking and the purpose of design is to help solve problems in everyday life. There are 3 levels that come with the design process. The first is visceral processing which is the aesthetic part of the design. It is the visual experience and how it makes you feel emotionally. The second is the behavioral level: the functionality of the product and how it feels physically. The third and final level is reflective: the decision to determine whether the product is good or bad and its overall image. All these levels play an important role in good design.
Iteration and Production
With this in mind, I decided to find different chair designs that showcase what a good and/or bad design looks like for the given assignment.
This is an example of a bad design that I actually like.
This is a design that I do not like but is hesitant to admit I do not like it.
This is an example of a good design
This is an example of a bad design.
Page Design
Picked an orange background and created a yellow border for the top of the page. I made the title white to add contrast to the background color.
I begin to add descriptions to each of the desk pictures and explain why I think they are good and/or bad.
Reflection
This assignment has helped me realize that there are many different components and aspects to think about when designing a product. A good product must be user and environment-friendly as well. I have learned about the different elements and processes that come with the design. Reading these articles, I will remember to be thoughtful and thorough with future works and designs. For future projects I will try to use better editing programs when designing so I can get a better and clearer picture quality since the one I used resulted in a slight blur in the photos and text.
Final Work
Biography About Me Page
Statement of Intent
For this assignment, I will be creating a Portfolio Site and setting up my Biography on the Foundations Portfolio About Me Page. I will explore page layouts, create content, and learn to navigate the site.
Ideation
I began this project by first activating my site.
I then changed the site’s theme to Orton by clicking on appearance and going to the themes page and selecting my desired theme.
I then activate the Jetpack plugin, linking the Jetpack to my account and enabling the Portfolios in Jetpack. After that, I navigate to pages to create three new pages: The About Me Page, the Portfolio Page, and the Process Journal Page.
I now go to Settings to update some things such as the Site Title and the Homepage Displays section. I set the Portfolio as my homepage and the Process journal as my post page.
Finally, I navigate to the pages section to edit my About Me Page and write my biography.
Iteration and Production
Once I finish editing my About Me Page, I update the page. I then navigate to the live preview link of my site to make sure everything looks right and I go back to make changes if need be.
Reflections
Through this assignment, I have learned how to create my Portfolio site and also how to navigate/ edit the site behind the scenes. I have gained skills on how to manipulate a layout in a way that communicates my thoughts and ideas and a clear and concise manner.
Final Work
View the final Project at About Me
Welcome to U.OSU.EDU! Comments are automatically turned on for all posts. Visit the following link to learn how to turn comments on/off: http://odee.osu.edu/resourcecenter/uosu/225