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[awagner137]

The first post is that of an infographic that shows a brainstorming idea coming to fruition, and that is how I see the design leadership final project. It started as a list of ideas, transitioned into one idea, and then, with input from classmates, I was able to widdle it down into a clean, proposed idea: a phone application that restricts certain parts of a phone. Without the input, it would have been much more rough around the edges, and not have covered issues only seen by beta testing (or asking questions).

The second post shows graphics of certain words, ‘incentive’ being the main, centralized idea. I chose this post due to the application that will be proposed as the final design project has a main consumer incentive that will hopefully aid in the purchasing and using of it. 

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The top photograph is a shot of EV charging stations in a parking lot. When electric vehicles were initially introduced, there was the main worry of longevity of the batteries, however with charging stations behind implemented more and more, at grocery stores, in parking lots, and at traditional gas stations, it is become more and more a viable option to replace a gas vehicle for shorter distances.

The second photograph is of a newer iphone’s camera on the back. Competing with many modern day mid-range, larger hand-held cameras, the iphone and other smartphones are in contention with the potential to eliminate the need to purchase a point and shoot camera. Without the need to make prints, many times photographers are simply creating feeds on social media on small screens, eliminating the need for large, high resolution art and work. There are still needs for SLR cameras, such as wedding shots, but the fine line is blurred and most likely will stay that way.

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The first photograph is of an outdoors company, Huckberry. I chose this company as one that shows responsibility with design leadership due to it’s clever way of storytelling as a means to sell products. Sincerely, each story is curated and professionally shot to draw the viewer in to know more. They were founded in 2010 with little captial, and from there were able to exponentially grow over the years. By the website, it looks as if not all is made in the USA, but one can filter a search to show all that is. That is a perfect example of design leadership.

The second example of responsibility in design leadership lies in Shopify, an ecommerce online platform which integrates many of the previously manual steps of owning a small business into a streamlined process of fulfilling orders--from taking the order all the way through printing and delivering packages.

[awagner137]

    For visual diary # 11 I decided to stick with software and the introduction of Windows 8 by Microsoft in 2012. Windows had been previously known for, and prided itself in, simple, effective user interface that people knew and understood without having to think too much about changing revisions. This was not the case from Windows 7 to 8. The main issue was with leaps and bounds in technology, such as tablets, Windows 8 had a fixed user interface across all mediums. This led to problems, especially in the corporate world, who purchased computers running Windows 8, unbeknownst to these flaws. As someone who has been intimate with user-interface in software, and the making of constant attempts to revise and revise so as to alleviate or at least reduce IT questions from employees, I can say that Windows 10 saved the day.

    The second picture is that of a London skyscraper that not only made it through design and engineering testing, but even filled with personnel only to discover later that the concave architecture of one side of the building, at a certain time of day, reflected and concentrated the sun down and onto cars, literally melting pain from them. In terms of stake-in-the-ground flaws, this is a perfect example: a large piece of architecture, erected, and found much later to have a tragic flaw.

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Visual Diary 10:

    The above photograph is of a well-known Frank Lloyd Wright building, albeit maybe his most iconic. Although it had its own structural flaws that later had to be rebuilt and reinforced, it has sustained as a building molded so naturally camouflaged into nature that one may simply walk past without noticing until a second glance. It sits above a waterfall in Mill Run, Pennsylvania.

    The second shot is of an animated film, The Secret of Kells. Although less concrete than architecture or an inspirational product design, this particular film has transposed the score on top of a much more artistic cartoon with full color and rational, traditional aesthetic.

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     For Module 9 I decided to use graphical analysis found through Google searching between various countries. The parameters included individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, creativity, and others. It was a quick, visual insight into offsets between countries. Studies were performed by one Geert Hofstede in a World Economic Forum Competitiveness report. Characteristics that stood out instantly were: the United States creativity was up nearly double that of China, but beneath Russia. The power distance of Russia was vast, as seen in yellow on the top chart. Individualism of the USA trumped the other countries in the study as well. 

      A brief look at the second graph below is the power distance of China being double that of the UK, while ‘indulgence’ was nearly triple for that of the UK versus China. With this in mind, individualism of the UK was up four times that of China, similar to the range of the United States.

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    Although a bit dated in terms of design feats in the last 20th century, modern cruise control was a way for design leaders to alleviate parameters from an existing design so as to push the technological boundaries. The story goes the inventor was frustrated with his lawyer and his erratic driving of increasing and decreasing speeds as a drove and talked, so the modern cruise control was born. From here, jumping to present, Tesla and other car manufacturers are prototyping fully autonomous vehicles with a driver over-ride when necessary. As for the beginning of cruise control, it removed one of many driving variables, or parameters, in a complex system.

    Along the lines of vehicle advancements by design leadership, electronic anti-skid control was introduced in 1983 on a Toyota car. This was once again a design feat of reducing a parameter--sliding into a potential crash--by introducing an electronically controlled detection of wheel traction loss, and compensating for this loss. One statistic from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration claimed one-third of fatal accidents could be prevented by this technology.

    Both of these advancements, cruise control and anti-skid, answer the needs of a user, save any maintenance problems that can arise with new technologies and more complexity in a given mechanical system.

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    For the seventh visual diary I have found these two wonderful examples of wicked design solutions. There are plenty of lists created on blogs with similar solutions and prototypes, however I felt these two complimented each other well--one is a simple, grocery-oriented color-code for avocados to know typical colors of ripeness while shopping, and the other is an architectural design for a bench that allows one to rotate the cross-members and replace the wet ones with the dry ones beneath. 

    They both have social and economic roots. Both examples can also be used by a large percentage of a city’s population. In terms of design, they have a touch of all three of the design inquiry steps: real, true, and ideal. What should, what could, and what will be are descriptors of these from chapters one and two. Whether the relationship for these outcomes was design-expert or design-facilitator does not matter, the outcome proves that the relationship was effective to a means to an end.

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    In terms of storytelling mediums--Powerpoint, narrative, video, audio, photography, story-telling, designs of products and services--there are many of these which overlap depending on the medium. For example, the climbing movie Free Solo harnesses a documentary video to tell a story. It is human centered by going into the history of previous climbers attempting similar feats, lifestyles, and relationships within the climbing in a park such as Yosemite.

    The other example is also a story-telling medium visualized through a single photograph. It shows what can be assumed (and was) a knockout punch captured beautifully by the photography. It is more abstract of a story in comparison to a scripted documentary, and leave more for the imagination or research behind the history of the photography. 

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I had chosen to follow texting and driving as a wicked design problem for the ethnographic research. It is easily relatable due to it being so widespread, both driving and having fast access to a cell phone. The increase of an accident is high, nearly 6 times in fact. It is estimated that 27% of crashes are from cell phone use.

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      In the photograph shown above, two volunteers with Habitat for Humanity are framing up a house in a newer suburb. This was chosen to show the overlap between help and service--the volunteers are helping lower income families in need, however there is also a service being provided of construction work, and, at the end, a house being built. 

     The yard-work help being provided for a neighbor is in a similar vein, shown at the bottom. Here, students are providing gardening service by helping an older neighbor. In general volunteer work ‘help’ is weighted greater than that of the ‘service’ side, however it is important to note the indirect service being provided. It is a win-win for many involved, and the only con of such type of service is that these are not professionals, and need to be trained on-sight, which may lead to larger construction tolerances throughout the building (pictured above).

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Google’s minimal homepage, as well as it’s efficient, human-centered search result, has created a search engine that most go to rather than others. The logo is well-known, and the design strategy and tactic as per the results are built around the people and what they are searching.

Below, is a screenshot of the backpacking water bottle known as the Camelbak. This is a great example of a human-centered design. It has mobility, with the desideratum being easily accessible water.

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At the top:

A rebuilt American infrastructure is a desideratum. President Trump claims a 1 trillion investment for work on the roads and rails. The economy, environment, and mobility of the people will be affected on a national level. Detours must be empathic in design.

Below:

It was proven in a study that adding lanes as a means of combating traffic actually increased traffic in many situations. Although a well-intentioned design tactic, it failed in the long term. The study was objectively critiqued.

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#designintervention #sustainableschema #electricallyholistic #b1bollinger

#origamikayak #mobility #nature #environment