Assignment 1- Products and emotion

According to Donald A. Norman's definition from Three Teapots,

Visceral design concerns itself with appearances... Behavioral design has to do with the pleasure and effectiveness of use... Finally, reflective design considers the rationalization and intellectualization of a product.

And we are going to look at three different examples of handbags to illustrate what the above means.



Graffiti shoulder bag from The Wallet Shop

Visceral: From the sleek half-rounded trapezium and the shiny black material being used for the bag, the design is attractive and pleasing to the eyes. The graffiti design on the front pocket gives an added edge, such that the user is straight away in love with the bag.

Behavioural: Not able to withstand very heavy weight. I fear for the weak handle to tear off in case I put too much heavy things in it. It is not difficult to get your A4 files and documents dog-ears while trying to squeeze into the rounded corners.

Reflective: Not something to show off for.

Verdict: Visceral. Design is visually pleasing, but functionally does not work as well. Owning such a bag does not really give the user a boost in terms of status of whatsoever.



Canvas Bag from Espirit

Visceral: Looks like a common canvas bag you can get from shops selling cheap bags. The buttons give the bag a little more edge than just plain canvas material.

Behavioural: Big and able to withstand weight. No fears for the handles to be tearing off. Able to put in A4 sized documents and files with ease.

Reflective: Espirit is quite a high-end brand since their items can sometimes be quite expensive. But it is an affordable brand for most of the people so owning one is not a status boost though.

Verdict: Behavioural. It is the most functional bag out of the three. The material used and design is fit for everyday use.




Louis Vuitton bag from Marina GM from Cruise Collection 08 – Monogram Mini Lin Croisette

Visceral: Pretty, gives off high-class vibes, visually pleasing.

Behavioural: Can be a functional bag, although I feel it might not be suitable for everyday use. It is a bag to be use with care, and careful of not getting it dirtied. There is a fear for handle breaking too.

Reflective: Since this is from LV, it is definitely a status boost for the user. Owning a branded bag usually shows off the user's spending power, and being 'high-class'.

Verdict: Reflective. Because it helps boost the user's confidence by a lot, this is one design that rationalizes and built a meaning to the user herself.

Assignment - Bad Design

The gramophone


Bad-Design: A Radio cum Clock gramophone (from ActionCity)

I got this rather cute white gramophone as a present last year whether for my 21^st birthday or some other occasions which I forgot (but that’s not the point).

Resolution: This cute thing is pretty USELESS.

Reason: Tuning of radio frequency cannot work properly and I just can’t figure out how to adjust the date and time which is due to confusing controls that I could not comprehend. Out of frustration and annoyance I left it on the table to collect dust which explains the dirt. Basically, this poor gramophone is like a white elephant.



Dust collecting gramophone


Radio function

It is a working radio like any other radios we have in mp3 players or hi-fi systems, although the appearance look rather toyish. But this is from Action City so we can't expect very stylish material like the ones use for Sony or Ipod products. It can explain the cheap price too.

To get the radio to work is surprising pretty easy. Just have to move the handle onto the gramophone's 'disk' and once you see a orange light bulb lighted up, and pull the metal aerial to the maximum and you are ready to go.



The working radio will look like this


And then the frustrating thing comes in.

Tuning of the radio stations is real pain in the ass. Seriously. To tune the radio stations, you need to turn the handle on the right side of the gramophone. There is no indication of the radio stations you are tuning to anywhere, and the only clue you have is the sound. It is not helping when there is always the muffled cum "ZAZAZAAA" sound too.

One of the problem with the radio tuning design is that there is no divisions between the numbers 88 to 92 and also for the rest of the numbers. And I doubt having the light bulb is a good indication of where the exact spot of 93.3FM station or 98.2FM station is. The 0.something is not that easy to tune to as the difference of 0.1 would meant another station altogether.


Clock

Another bad design flaw of this gramophone is the clock. Although the clock panel looks fine, the buttons aren't. What's worse is even looking at the manual doesn't really help solve the problem of adjusting the time and date right.



The puzzling clock controls




One serious manufacturer error. Now I don't know what the 'start' button do.




Pardon the grammar.


According to the instruction number 2, I'm supposed to press SET together with the UP button since DOWN is replaced by START. I follow the instructions accordingly stated but alas, it doesn't really work nicely. The only thing I managed to change is the seconds which is located at the lower right-handed corner of the panel. No matter how many times I pressed SET with UP, I didn't manage to change the day, month and year. I can't even change the time in process too.

After many tries, I realised the mysterious 'START' button could be the 'DOWN' button since I also tried to with that button too, and the seconds did blink for awhile. Other than these three strange buttons, other buttons worked fine.

In the end I didn't really go and learn how to use the alarm function correctly since I failed to set the right time and date, and also tuning the radio properly. However, I didn't throw the gramophone away even though I feel it is a working object with confusing controls. And also it is a present from a friend too.


Impression

Overall, I feel the idea of a gramophone clock and radio is a good one. But it would be even better if wasn't for the radio tuning and setting time and date being a real pain in the ass. (And maybe better English in the manual.) I beginning to have the impression that products from ActionCity of not being reliable, and also of sub-standard quality, resulting it being like a children's toy rather than a fun and usable daily object. It would be good if ActionCity would put in more effort in improving user experience of their own products in the future.