ARTS 144 Digital Arts Jenn Karson

Introductions Please introduce a classmate. What is your name? Where are you from? What is your major and minor? What is your favorite movie or show? What is your favorite comfort food and who makes it? Why are you taking this class?

Coffee Pot for Masochists Jacques Carelman

Affordance Refers to a relationship between a physical object and a person Is a relationship Physical objects convey important information about how people interact with them, appealing to all senses. What actions are possible It’s the big idea an object conveys, using non verbal cues, to a human

Affordance

Affordance

Affordance

Signifier Signals specific actions Signify what to do and where to do it Symbols or words, conveying simple instructions Can be elegant and can over explain and become silly

Signifier

Signifier

Signifier Sound as Signifiers A click when the bolt on a door slides home The roaring sound when a car muffler gets a hole The rattle when things aren’t secured The increase in pitch when a vacuum cleaner gets clogged The indescribable change in sound when a complex piece of machinery starts to have problems

Signifier or Affordance?

Mapping Taking advantage of spatial analogies Leads to immediate understanding Natural groupings and patterning Considers proximity Cultural considerations

Mapping

Mapping

Mapping

Feedback Piezo = Cheap sound device Communicating the results of an action Should be immediate and informative Ideally tell us the both something has happened and what has happened Simple beeps and blinks don’t’ always tell us what has happened, just that something has. Poor feedback can be worse than no feedback Why should an open fridge, a crosswalk signal and an alarm clock sound the same? Where’s the design and imagination in this?

Feedback

Feedback

Surprises

ARDUINO OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE

ASSIGNMENT Read Chapter 1: The Design of Everyday Things (pages 1- 36) 2. Photograph: (1) An interactive design the frustrates you (2) An interactive design you think is designed well. 3. Create a document for sharing with the class (slides or pdf) with both images and make your case in at least 150 words using Norman terms from chapter 1. Why is one design flawed and the other successful? 4. Be prepared to present in class this Thursday, August 31