Blog 12 and 13

I have learned a lot this semester. When you Marty first asked us about playing the whole game, I was like "What game? What's going on?" The concept now makes perfect sense as well as the design principles. I actually have begun incorporating a lot of what I have learned in my songwriting process. In particular, I do many usability tests and many iterations of each song now. There are infinitely many directions that I can take when writing a song. Watching people's expressions while I play a new song is a great way to see which are the strongest features of the current iteration. The concept of doing multiple iterations to strengthen the overall design by maximizing the best features and eliminating features that are less useful is an extremely useful way to approach any creative pursuit, whether it be HCI, music, writing, or even martial arts. In Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do, a martial arts philosophy developed by Bruce Lee, Lee said that one must maximize what is useful and eliminate what has no use. Only through intense coninued design scrutiny can one come close to the ideal design in any creative endeavor.