Nathan Potts's Blog Post #3

Technique: Contextual inquiry

A good way to sample how easy the website Ars Technica is to use would be to use contextual inquiry. Using this would make it easy to good feel on how a typical user is able to navigate the website. A good way would be to watch what a user does when he reaches Ars Technica. What does he or she notice first? Is he or she able to successfully click on it? When the user clicks on it does it do what he or she intended for it to do?

With these questions and method it will make it very apparent what is and what is not working. It also will help Ars Technica focus on what its users are most viewing and what is achieving little popularity.

Horstman Blog 3

Site: StumbleUpon.com

Technique:Online Survey

Usage: I would ask questions about their experience with the site, how it could improve, any other categories that they would like to also search for, what type of sites they find the most intriguing or entertaining, and how the site could help them easily shift through the sites, both new and favorite sites.

Why: I choose this technique because it is an easy efficient way of asking hundreds of people what their opinion is about StumbleUpon.com without having to guess what individuals in my area actually use the site giving me a small sample of individuals that actually use the site across the world.

Elaine Fath Blog #3

The site I looked at for week two is PostSecret, PostSecret. Because PostSecret has an active online community, both through facebook and also online correspondence through the blog itself, I believe that the best method of user research is remote-user research. This is not because I think that shadowing or other close-range techniques would be impossible--but I think that there would be enough users willing to contribute to improving PostSecret, because of the community that has formed around the site, that the real strength in remote-user research would be the quantity of people interviewed. Something as simple as a facebook poll or a small "comments, suggestions" box at the bottom of the blog could turn up a lot of information. It could be as simple as, "what would you do to improve PostSecret?" or, "What kind of postcards interest you most?" No matter what the administrators are trying to find out, they are fortunate enough to have a ready-built community of people who already actively comment on the site. Because of this, I think that remote-user research would be the easiest and most effective way to consider site changes or improvements.

Landon Smith Blog #3

The site I chose last week was www.ask.com. I think remote-user research in the form of random phone calls and/or surveys would be the best possible way to understand user needs. Shadowing would not be the best choice because millions of people throughout the world may use this website so it would be hard to decide this from a select few people. You could have a user walk through your website during a phone interview to get their live opinion on how well the site works for them. Phone calls and surveys are a great way to collect information from people that doesn't cost a ton of money.

Matt Chambers Week 3

So the website I chose before was http://www.tumblr.com. Since this is a service for bloggers, one would have to learn about bloggers and what software they use and what features they like. I would suggest attending a blogger convention (if one is being held before your deadline.) Here, one could potentially overhear discussions between bloggers about what they do and do not like about their blogging software. Not only that, but since everyone is a blogger, you have the chance to see in what way many people blog (they'll be blogging about the convention.)

This is somewhat contextual inquiry since you will be able to see people blogging and be in an environment with them. It's also somewhat shadowing, depending on how many people you follow closely through the event. Contextual inquiry can be difficult with bloggers, since they do not always require an office from which to work. Many can update from home, which can yield valuable info, but also limits the number of bloggers you see interacting and is not really a "blogger" environment. By visiting a convention, you can get a "blogger" environment.

Week 03 Blog Assignment

Very nice posts so far! But are you reading your peer's posts too? It would be nice if you left some people your comments on what they wrote; hopefully someone will do the same for you too. You don’t have to read everyone’s post — just a couple each week and maybe leave a response to one of them.

By now you should have read Chapter 2 of the book Designing the Obvious. This is an important chapter since it focuses on understanding end user needs, desires, thinking, etc. A variety of methods are discussed to help designers better understand user thinking. For example, the section on mental models helps us understand that people develop certain perspectives about how things work, what’s important, etc., even though the people who designed the product may have a completely different perspective.

Different techniques are discussed in this chapter: use surveys, contextual inquiry, shadowing, persona development, etc.

Given the web site that you identified for Week 02, choose a technique (other than persona development) and describe how you might go about using it to better understand the users of your selected web site. Be sure to mention the web site again, and provide an active link.

Think of yourself as a consultant being asked to help improve the site and you’re recommending a user research technique for study before launching into redesign concepts. Your blog post should be written as a recommendation: using technique X, how it will be used, and why it was chosen. When you describe how the technique will be used, you don’t need to spell it out in great detail, but it should be more than, for example, "I’ll ask some survey questions!"

Nick Swan Blog 2

The site that I chose demonstrating obvious design was www.textsfromlastnight.com. Text from last night is a website where users submit different text that people send them. People then rate them positively or negatively and leave comments about them. The reason I think this is an, obvious design is because it is simple to use, it is well organized, and the site is uniform and consistent with core features that are beneficial to the user.

Derek Schutz (Blog #2)

http://www.bing.com/

The website I chose that has an obvious design is bing.com. Bing.com has a very obvious and clear design. Bing is a search engine, and as soon as you open up the website, you have one very clear searchbar you can type into. Whatever you need to search for, you just type it in and hit search in order to find the websites or information you are looking for. You also, on the left hand side, have different categories that you can choose to make your search more specific for what you are looking for such as images, video, shopping, news, maps, etc. A good design is simple, and easy to use. It lets you get in, and get out with what you need in a very reasonable amount of time. This is what this website has to offer. It is very easy and quick to the point, while not wasting any time. The search bar has a very obvious purpose which makes this design obvious. The website it not cluttered with too much information and tabs which also makes it easy to use.

Daniel Lee #2

The site that I chose was orbitz.com. I love traveling and I use this site often to book my flight and hotel rooms during my travel. I also chose this because of it is an excellent example of Robert Hoekman Jr.’s “obvious design” idea. The top left part of the website which allows the users to input what the user is looking for from the site. This part of the website, the users can go in and get out with no problems. It is very easy to input the information needed for the quick search of flights, hotels, cars and other information. It even has a calendar that pops up when the user is needed to input the date. Even if the user has never been to this site before, the user is able to figure out how to search for the information quickly without any problems.

Bolg Assignment 2

The website I choose is http://www.iub.edu/. This is Indiana University’s main website for University. Anyone can use this website for information. This is prefect obvious design website. This website is very well organized, easy to read and follow and informational. This website let users get in, get what they need and get out with out spending any time at all thinking about how its work. This website save times. The website has focuses on the activity and also the specific audience. The uses of pictures and information help users to understand the website more. Very colorful and very well created it. Also, provided what users want. It also, contains University’s other websites that users might need it. This website is very simple, effective, and colorful. This website is the great example of users’ needs because it has all the information users need and understand users. Supports the user’s mental model of what it does. Also, helps users to get started quickly so they can intermediate as soon as possible. If users make any mistake it helps them to recover from mistakes and difficulty. Has all meaningful, useful, and important information. This website is obvious design example.

--- Tarana Patel

Austin Frink (Blog #2)

http://www.bloom-living.com/

This is Bloom-living apartments' website. It is picture-perfect obvious design. It is uncluttered and totally easy for any user to understand. It is very difficult to make a mistake due to the simplicity of the navigation. All of the links are clearly labeled and the content is all that is necessary for a potential customer to decide if Bloom-living is for them. It is also has a beautifully designed, minimalist aesthetic appeal.

Chad Jordan - Blog 2

The website I chose is Ticketmaster.com. Searching for an event is made very obvious by the site, and there are a number of ways to do so.

The site is uncluttered, with simple and bold colors drawing the viewer's eye to the top-center of the page, where the search bar is. The search bar simply states "Enter artist, team or venue" with a bright orange search button next to it, making it obvious how to find what you are looking for. There are also quick links on the left side of the page for often-searched events.

There are some advertisements on the main page, but not to excess and they do not detract from the central function of the site, which is to find and purchase event tickets.

Blog Post 2

The website I chose to look at was btownmenus.com .

The site was created to allow for people in Bloomington to have a single place to look for a wide variety of restaurants. With that in mind, the website was designed in such a way that allows the user to quickly navigate through the different choices until they have reached their decision.
When searching for a place to order food the user will want to be able to easily look at one restaurant and then immediately go to another restaurant without any steps in between. Btownmenus was designed with this in mind, shown by its categorical layout on the left hand side that is permanently placed on the site no matter what.

This site knew what to build - a virtual food court, it knows what makes it great - its diverse selection of food, and it knows the best way to implement it - allows the user to easily navigate through each restaurant without ever having to go backwards in direction.

Nathan Potts Blog Post #2

Ars Technica

I chose Ars Technica, a news site that reports on technology developments and some science discoveries. An obvious design on this site are its sorting tabs. They are well defined by the logos of a general topic one may want to pick. It is also easily reverse-able as one may simply click on the previous tab and it. It is also quite large thus reducing clutter and making it more visible.

Landon Smith Blog #2

Although I rarely recall using it, www.askjeeves.com is a search engine with a very obvious design.

All it contains is an avatar of "Jeeves" and a text box with an "Ask" button. Once you click the button, your search results are returned. From the basic setup, it is very hard to make a mistake or misunderstand the use of the site. It would be simple for someone with no computer experience to use the site.

Elaine Fath Blog #2

I chose PostSecret.com (http://postsecret.blogspot.com/) as an example of the aspects of "Obvious Design" given on page 9.

If you aren't familiar with the site, the premise is incredibly simple: people send in one of their secrets anonymously written on a postcard, normally decorated in some way, and every Sunday the person who runs the site will post a collection of them.


The aspect that I chose in particular is the way that the site's content is presented: this site was created to show the postcards that people send in, and that's what it does. No bells, no whistles--this is one of the best examples I could think of a site doing what it's supposed to do.

1. Conforms to the way users interact with the web: Simple, scroll-down format. No buttons, no links except to other sites when they pertain to the subject matter. Focuses on the activity instead of a specific audience: No buttons, no sidebar, absolutely no way to get lost on this site. Anyone can use it.

2. Has only the features that are absolutely necessary for users to complete the activity the application is meant to support. This site is supposed to display the postcards, and it does almost nothing beyond that...which is fine, because it doesn't need to.

3. It supports the user's mental model. Most internet users understand the "scroll down for more content" model at this point.

4. Makes it easy to recover from mistakes. No mistakes can be made, because there's nothing to click on except outside links, which can be fixed by pressing the back button.

5. Has uniformly designed interface elements: All postcards and text centered onscreen. Plain black background. Easily readable text, one font. Leverages irregularity to create meaning: When special things are posted, they're created to be visually distinguishable from the postcards using different colors, etc.

7. Reduces clutter to a minimum: It would be easy to clutter this site by creating archives of past posts, categories for different types of posts, etc. Instead, the posts for the week are only available during that week--creating a strong incentive to return on a regular basis--and are then removed from the site. Since newer posts don't build off older content, this is feasible and effective.

Andy McColgin Blog #2

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 (see page 7).

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

1. In your blog post, provide a link to the site and direct our attention to the aspect that you might consider to be obvious design.
   
   
2. Explain why it’s obvious design.

http://www.averspizza.com/menu/

It is a funny story why this website was the one I chose. My girlfriend is far from being a computer geek and she is all about simplicity when it comes to programs and websites. So, I got on her computer and checked out her website history and this was the first one on the list. Probably the most obvious thing that this site has done is include a simple menu. BUT, what really stood out was the "Aver's Pizza Options" on the top right hand of the screen. They made a simple table that is easy to read and is not cluttered with lots of paragraph after paragraph of information to explain a simple concept.

The reason it is such a simple design is because I can see and compare prices all next to each other, but I am not overloaded with options, things to click on, or excessive amounts of information. It is exactly what I need and nothing more to find out what kind of pizza I want to get.

Tom Davidson Blog Assignment 2

The site I chose is drop.io. It's a simple file sharing site that allows users to create their own url location for files and share them. It's extremely simple to use. It makes the process obvious enough for anyone, no matter how computer savvy, to upload and share files. On the home page, the first thing that the user's eyes are drawn to is the area that allows the user to create their space and upload files.

Cory Worland Blog #2

I chose GMAIL(www.gmail.com). This email site is pretty basic. To the right, you can sign in or create an account. The main section to the left just says a little about the site and what you can do with it. Its pretty basic and doesn't flood you with ads and news and all that junk. It's fairly obvious.

Josh Roberson Blog Assignment 2

I chose google.com for the second blog because I believe it is the best example of obvious design. I have yet to find someone that doesn't know how to use Google or who got confused by the page. The site is clutter free and very intuitive. No advertisements, no suggested links, it only asks for a search term. It doesn't focus on any one audience and instead focuses on the task trying to be accomplished. Even when you do make mistakes which the site makes pretty difficult, such as misspelling something, it will still take what you entered and suggest things it found that are similar. It contains all of the criteria Hoekman lists on page 7 for software with obvious design.

Matt Chambers Week 2 blog

The site I have chosen that I think has a very obvious design is a site called Tumblr.

Tumblr.com is a site that has one purpose: blog as easily as possible. When you go to the site without an account, it has one big box that allows you to choose a username, password, and url for your blog (url.tumblr.com of course). Above the box has a link to reasons why to use tumblr. Once logged in, you see your blog almost how anyone else would see it. In order to start a blog post, there are several buttons at the top. One for text, image, link, quote, chat, audio, or video. Clicking one brings up a text box and a context specific box (upload box for audio/video, url box for link, etc).

The site makes doing what you want to with your blog incredibly straightforward and done quickly.

I also posted this blog in my blog there for fun. http://chambz.tumblr.com/post/347709165/blog-for-class

Blog 2

1. http://www.stumbleupon.com/ like the name of the site, you are to Stumble upon websites and on their front main page, they have a large orange button that says: "Start Stumbling >"

2. I see this an obvious design because the whole purpose of this site is to stumble upon or shuffle through the many websites across the internet. This large obvious button in bright orange automatically gains my attention when I open the site.

I waste too much time on this site...

Derek Schutz

Hello, my name is Derek Schutz. I go by Derek. I am a sophomore and I am majoring in Informatics with a cognate in telecommunications (media production). I am from Indianapolis, Indiana.

In high school I ran track and cross country, and I was the anchor of the 4 by 8 squad that was All-State my senior year. I recently tore my acl so it will be awhile until I can run or do anything else again. I also enjoy playing basketball and volleyball.

Their isn't much that worries me about this class. It seems like it will be a lot of work, but I really like the subject of the class so it should not be hard at all to stay focused and on task during class and assignments.

A new idea that I took from the first class is how everything is designed for a reason. In everyday life you don't really think about it that way, but when you do and you are using something, it is very interesting to think about how and why it is designed in the way that it is. I am really looking forward to this class.

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 (see page 7).

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

1. In your blog post, provide a link to the site and direct our attention to the aspect that you might consider to be obvious design.
   
   
2. Explain why it’s obvious design.

Chad Jordan

My name is Chad Jordan, and I'm pursuing my second degree -- a B.S. in Informatics -- so I guess I'm a Senior+. I'm from Greenwood, IN originally, but I've been in Bloomington since '96.

Something interesting about me is that I'm in a band called The Graduates. I sing for them, but I've also played guitar for 16 years.

I'm a little worried about the group projects. I have a full-time job on top of school, and have several group projects in other classes as well.

A new idea I took away from the first class was the idea about learning the whole game and getting better at it over time, vs. learning components academically over time before ever attempting the whole of a field. It was something I'd never really considered before, and found it interesting.

Daniel Lee

Hello~ My name is Daniel Lee but I usually go by Danny. I am senior majoring in both informatics and telecommunications. I was raised in South Bend, Indiana, but my parents recently moved to Atlanta. Thanks to my parents, I now get to drive 8 hours instead of 4...to get home..............
I love food, but I can't cook to save my life. Basically, the only thing I can cook is ramen noodles and easy mac. : D
Nothing really worries me about this class. I heard many good things about our professor from my friends who took this class and I am really excited to learn more.

Kevin Noone

My name is Kevin Noone and normally go by Kevin. I am a junior in the School of Informatics with a business cognate. I am originally from McMurray, Pennsylvania which is located about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh, PA - the City of Champions (Steelers and Penguins...not so much Pirates) - and this past fall I was fortunate enough to see the Steelers vs. Vikings game at Heinz Field, which was debately the best game of the Steelers season. I also just found out that I will be interning with WESCO Inc. this summer in downtown Pittsburgh.
The first class made me realize that everything we use throughout the day was designed for a certain purpose and that some things are much better designed. I really do not have any worries about this class, I'm excited to jump right into things and work with our groups to design a number of creative products.

Tarana Patel

My name is Tarana Patel.

I’m a junior majoring in Informatics with minor in Fine Art.

I’m from Bloomington, Indiana.

Something interesting about me: I am originally from India and came here when I was 11 without knowing English even that time I don’t know the English alphabet. I am the first person in my family to attend college. I have younger brother who is also majoring in Informatics.

I’m little worried about workload because I am taking INFO I308, FINA S250, FINA D310 and group project, but I'll hopefully be able to handle the workload and group project.

I am really excited about the class. Monday’s class showed me that there are lots of reasons why products/things are designed the way they are. I am looking forward to learn more.

Hey everyone, my name is Austin Frink. I am a sophomore at IU and an informatics major. My cognate is in the Fine Arts although I enjoy learning about any subject. I am a guitartist of 10 years. Music is my passion and I really hope that I can make that work somehow so I never have to get a boring, real job. Haha just kidding sort of. Anyway, I am excited to see what whacky directions this class takes. I think I live in that "vertical" realm of design the prof. was talking about because I am always thinking about the intricacies and subtle details of design in all fields. I am not worried about this class at all, but I'm not a huge fan of group assignments. I work well with people, but sometimes people don't show up!

Nicholas Swan

1. My name is Nicholas Swan. I usually just go by Nick but it really makes no difference to me.
2. I am a Junior from Dyer, Indiana majoring in Informatics with a minor in Business, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship and Management.
3. I decided to come to Indiana University because I liked the campus and got into the Informatics program my freshman year. In the past I was a member of IUSF and plan to continue as a member this semester. I also work on campus for UITS as a technology center consultant. Some other interesting things about me are I am Latvian and German, my favorite sport is soccer, and I would like to work and live somewhere in Chicago after graduating college.
   
4. As of right now I don't have any worries about this class mainly because it has just started and hope that this will not change as the class progresses.
5. From the first class I really started thing about why things are designed in certain ways and paid more attention to the detail of things when I was in the grocery store yesterday.
   

1. Hi my name is Cory Worland. Some people call me "Crumb". (Long story.)`

2. I'm a sophomore majoring in Informatics with a Business cognate. I'm from Washington Indiana which is about twenty minutes from Vincennes.

3. I enjoy playing video games and hanging out with my girlfriend.

4. I'm most worried about group work because I had issues with it last semester.

5. The first class showed me that the class can be fun but you still need to work at it and think outside the box.

Elaine Fath

Hey everyone! My name is Elaine Fath and I’m a sophomore majoring in Informatics with a Fine Arts Cognate. I grew up in Indianapolis but moved to B-town a few years before college, which makes me a townie (but just barely, my house is about 40 minutes south of campus). A couple of facts about me: I’m on the Alpha Gamma Delta Little 500 team, usher for the IU auditorium, (try to) play guitar and am involved with the St. Paul student life team. I like comedies more than action movies or chick flicks, video games more than I’d like to admit, and warm weather more than whatever ice/rain monstrosity is going on outside right now . I guess what worries me most about this class is that Informatics courses are generally full of people who’ve been teaching themselves web design and programming all the way through high school, or even earlier. This kind of learning curve has been intimidating, but I’ve been okay so far. The new idea that I took away from the last class is that companies spend time engineering down to single ketchup packets and pop tabs, which is pretty mind-blowing if you think about it. Anyway, this is probably the class I’m most excited about this semester and can’t wait to get to know all of you.

Josh Roberson

My name is Joshua Roberson, but I go by Josh. I am a junior majoring in Informatics with minors in Business and Sociology. I’m from Martinsville, Indiana and grew up there. If you have been here long at all I’m sure you have an opinion about that town or have heard someone else’s. In my years there it is not as bad as the stigma that lingers in the name, and I try to change opinions when I can. I always wanted to go to IU and am now living that dream. When I first came I had no idea what to major in but I spend a lot of my time on the computer and playing video games so it seemed like a good major. What I live to do though and spend as much time as possible doing is working on and racing cars. No matter the vehicle, car, bike, anything I like to wrench and figure things out. Nothing beats the rush of that work paying off and being pinned in your seat when you mash that throttle either. Most of this passion is concentrated on my 2000 Camaro and looking to make it quicker anyway I can one tenth at a time. I was a little worried about this class when I first signed up, but after the first class I have to say I am a little excited. This is the first Informatics class that really struck at things I like to do and I have a feeling it will be a great semester. From the first class I just got an idea of what design really is and how much design really goes into everything we use. From complex machinery like a car down to something as simple as a post it note.

Elizabeth Horstman

I'm Elizabeth Horstman, but my friends call me Caitlen. I'm a Junior here working on an Informatics major and Telecommunication cognate. I'm from Fort Wayne, IN but I was not born there but instead in Germany. I love playing video games and working with computers which is the reason why I'm here at Indiana University. I think my only worry about this class is both the class work load and the team project. The new idea that I took away from the first class today was the thought and engineering process of the soda can. I actually had to go home and drink from one of my cans of pop!

Here is a picture of me:

Andy McColgin

1. I'm a sophomore contemplating triple majoring in business, informatics, and pre-med. I am from Westfield, Indiana, a small city north of Carmel.
   
2. I am part Scottish and part Irish. I enjoy long walks on the beach and the feeling of tapioca pudding between my toes.
   
3. I am a little worried that something unexpected will come up and I will fall behind or that I won't find a group to work with on our projects.
4. I want to create a brand of deodorant that pops and fizzes like cans of coke he showed us in our class.

Tom Davidson

Junior from Columbus, IN. I'm majoring in Informatics with a business minor. As a freshman I was in Informatics. I switched to classical guitar then to recording arts. After freshman year I transferred to study electrical engineering but decided to return to IU as an interior design major. I switched back to Informatics and I'm hoping this time it sticks. I play guitar non-stop. I'm addicted to John Mayer. I know and play almost every single one of his songs and I'm not afraid to admit it. He's a phenomenal guitarist and lyricist. I'm not really worried about this class. I have a feeling I'm going to like it quite a bit, as it's basically what I've always been interested in I've just been unable to put it into words. It's the perfect mix of design, expression and technology. I also don't know what the first class was?

Nathan Potts

My name is Nathan Potts. You may call me whatever you want, and I respond to. I'm from Fort Wayne Indiana and I am a sophomore majoring in Informatics with a cognate in Information Technology. I tend to enjoy writing - particularly Creative Writing, which I've noticed seems to be quite the opposite of my major. I also infrequently blog which you can look at and comment on, if you want. The most worrisome part about this class is the fact about working with partners. Last semester, I had two terrible partners, one of whom no longer goes to IU, and I had the impossible task of completing the entire project by myself. Also, I'm afraid I'll have to drink pop as it makes me ill. haha. One new idea I took away from the class was the fact that no design is perfect, and that designs will cater towards certain individuals.

Landon Smith

Junior majoring in Informatics, with a Business cognate. I am from Fort Wayne, Indiana. I have a 2 year old son and am also a big baseball fan. I guess my biggest fear in this class is seeing how the team project will turn out. And I'm not too sure what the first class was either??

Matt Chambers

5th year senior, majoring in informatics with a cybersecurity cognate. I am from Bloomington, Indiana. I like computers, I also like Ultimate Frisbee. I enjoy horror movies and all sorts of things. I also don't like lots of things. I don't know if anything worries me about this class other than I want a good grade in it. I also couldn't tell you any new ideas I took away from the first class... what was the first class?

Week 01 Blog Assignment

Welcome to your first assignment.

Make sure that you are signed 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" in the top bar (only use the comment box to comment on posts or to ask questions about the assignment). Tell us your first and last name — how you want others to name you in this class.
2. Tell us your year in school (sophomore, junior, senior, etc.); your major; and where you’re from (your home town).
3. Tell us something interesting about yourself. You decide how long it should be; but hopefully it’s more than a sentence!
4. What worries you most about taking this class? (It’s OK to be worried about something; be honest.)
5. What’s a new idea that you took away from the first class?
6. Lastly, upload a picture of you; a face shot is best--and large enough so I can recognize you in class.

If you have trouble using the editor or you have trouble logging in, contact one of the AIs, Mentors or me.