The box is coming together!

Cardboard Prototype

I finished my cardboard prototype, and found out that cutting cardboard is a whole lot harder to cut than wood! I tried a tapered shape with the cardboard, and I really like how it came out, minus the rather shaky cuts. I think the tapered box will reflect the shape of the wands much better than the plain rectangle would have. Now on to gluing more wood! (I can't wait to see this walnut when it's all done, it'll be beautiful!)

Prototype Box

I decided to make a prototype box just so I could work out any kinks in construction, and also to see how I liked the shape, or how I should change it. For my first box, I think it came out pretty good. I definitely learned a lot from making this box, and found out that the ideal order to cut the pieces was not what I had originally thought.

For my next (and final) box, I'm gonna change up the shape to make the box a bit more interesting, and also reflect the object better. I'm also going to get a bit more wood to use so I've got a little bit more leeway for mistakes on my final box.

Testing out the bandsaw

I was actually surprised by how easy the bandsaw was to use. I thought that curves were just a tad harder to cut as you had to constantly keep moving, and that made keeping the shape you wanted a bit difficult. Cutting straight was no problem at all with the guide. I was really scared to make the small cuts, but quickly found even that was pretty easy with the right techniques and pieces of scrap wood to keep your fingers safe :)

Testing

In order to test our solutions we decided to first have people we knew look at our solutions . After they drove through the garage and made their way to the destination we interviewed them on their thoughts. 

After testing people we knew we decided to ask others entering and exiting the garage what they thought about the signage as well. We wanted to interview both people who knew what the project was and those who didn’t, so that we could get a full overview of impressions both from people being told to look and analyze the signage and those just passing through. 

For the most part we heard very similar things from users after the first test. The most common issue we found users had with the original solutions testing was visibility. Both those who were on the look out for the signs and those who were not had problems seeing certain markings. The biggest visibility problems were with the markings in the road and on the staircase, as people noted they were hard to see or just overall unnoticeable.

People Also noted it would be very helpful to add signs that indicated lanes to help find parking. Most mentioned how the signs already in the garage directing between floors were okay, but that there was no noting to differentiate one lane of parking from the other and that got confusing. 

Almost everyone we talked to noted that they really liked the markings around the elevators in the circulation tower, and that while they were very simple markings they helped one orient themselves between floors along with the help of the directory on the wall.

Re Testing

Upon making the lines on the floor thicker and re-testing we found that users founf the new lines much easier to see and no longer had any problem noticing and understanding the lines that sperated the lanes throughout the parking garage. 

We went ahead and tested the transition lines on the floor of the garage again also. Most people did not note that the color change had any influence on them unless they directly new about the color system that the garage directory used.

Lastly we improved on the markings in the circulation tower, making the markings on the stairs more pronounced, and connecting the lines all the way around so they’d be more visible. Users noted that these lines were very easy to see and definitely helped orient between floors as the colors corresponded with colors around elevators.

Design Moves Summary

Design Moves by Sharon Helmer Poggenpohl presents an interesting way to approach design broken into very specific steps of proceeding. She starts out explaining how her method is focused on best designing for the user by incorporating a lot of user interaction and testing, rather than trying to find solutions based on science or studies without actually acting and testing the group one is designing for. She discusses "design's hidden moves" explains that design is envisioning for the future by doing some specific things all of which are tailored to utilizing the user to bring new and useful ideas to life in the best way possible for the user. As she begins talking about the second move she takes the user interactivity even further talking how design doesn't need science, but instead needs to learn from real life users by testing things out in real situations. In the third and final move she discusses four types of prototyping which are conceptual, behavioral, procedural, and appearance. She explains and uses very examples to illustrate what each type of prototype is meant to do and how this can be best utilized to efficiently problem solve for the best way to design a product. Overall, she presents a very through way to go about designing that focuses on the user and creating the best product through the use of real situation testing.

Tim Brown TED Talk

In Tim Brown’s TED Talk the first thing that really caught my attention was when he began talking about how design was once a huge thing that has recently become much smaller.  He brought up a bunch of pictures showing objects that sort of reflected what is considered design today to illustrate just how small things have gotten, and when I saw these images I completely understood and agreed with what he was saying. He went on to discuss ways in which design is growing gain and how design and design thinking can best be approached to facilitate some of the regrowth designers are facing. 

I really enjoyed the way Tim Brown talked about design thinking because I personally think that design thinking can be such an effective tool and is greatly under used. Tim talks about how design thinking doesn’t look at just what’s at the surface but delves much deeper into design, and this is what I think is so great about design thinking. Design thinking shows designers so much than they would normally see by just glancing at a problem and getting started. 

Brown also talks about prototyping for a bit, and this was my favorite part of the entire talk. He talks about how prototyping can speed up the design process and the ways it is effective, and the reason I liked this part so much was because of how I connected with it. In my own projects I have found that prototyping is essential, and really the only way to see if something is really going to work. I’m also the kind of person who likes to do in order to solve problems rather than just sit around thinking about possible solutions. I like to test and retest to find the best solution and prototyping right from the beginning allows for this. 

Tim Brown’s approach to design is a very encompassing one in my opinion as his broad way of thinking and ideas allows for the incorporation and oversight of not just one part of design, but the overall.

Cocawayfinding

After exploring the Cocawayfinding tumblr page, I was given a lot to think about in regards to our wayfinding set up and how we could best provide a solution to navigating the Mississippi St. Parking Garage. While most of the types of things the Cocawayfinding tumblr page listed as keys to sussessful wayfinding were somewhat common sense there were a few things that were listed that I realized could be easily overlooked. Many of the things listed almost seemed minor, but when I really got to thinking about how those small things could have an impact on a viewer or users experience I realized how impactful those little things can actually be. For instance the very first two things listed on the site were, “Be consistent with text and graphic devices and the location of signage throughout the system.” and “Use upper and lower case letters for highest legibility except in the case of single word signage.” When I read the first bullet point my first thought was that that was somewhat obvious, and I almost couldn’t understand why they needed to list that because I thought that would just be the kind of thing everyone does. When I read the next point I again thought that it made sense and wasn’t neccessarily all that important, but then I thought back to times when I’ve considered using all caps or all lower case on signs that have sentences and how ineffective that was for the project. Upon thinking about this I realized that even some of the things that seem obvious or not that important really can have a big impact. 

With these things in mind I continued to read the article paying close attention to everything I read, even if it seemed not very important. This site was excellent in providing a sort of checklist to make sure that all out choices in our own wayfinding project made sense and would be best utilized to truly solve the problem of people trying to navigate the parking garage.

Ethnography

Before reading these two articles I had never even heard of  Ethnography, and really had no understanding of what it could pertain to.  After learning what exactly Ethnography is I realize it is a very valuable tool of study, and that when utilized it can reveal a lot about society, the world we live in, and how to best solve problems and change things to enhance people’s lives. I think the most interesting thing about ethnography to me is the depth of this sort of study. More commonly than not, when a person is trying to solve some sort of problem, or improve on something that is already in place, they only observe what  is on the surface; looking at people’s basic actions or reactions, and using stereotypes or things that society generally holds to be true, without taking any extra time to really sit back and observe what is really happening. When people attempt to deal with issues like this, while they may sometimes get lucky, more often they end up with a solution that falls short because it only solves a surface level issue, instead of dealing with the bigger problem that can only be seen when you really take time to analyze the deeper issue. The depth of ethnography takes the neccessary measures to fill in many of the gaps that typical observation leaves open, and by closing these gaps with deep analysis provides an understanding that is much more useful. 

While reading these articles the pictrures that were utilized really caught my eye, and upon further thinking I realized just how important the sorts of pictures they used were to the article. In “An Ethnography Primer” part of the article talks about why you see the sorts of pictures you do when dealing with ethnography, and how these pictures that may seem almost basic in a way really illustrate reality, which is exactly what ethnography works to find.  I think it is so important that just like the pictures are made to show reality just as it is, ethnography looks to find the truth in patterns and tendencies of people and want to look past what is believed or thought, and instead observe what is true. By committing to take a deeper look at things and only deal with reality you come across a way of thinking that is very effective. If ethnography is continued to use and is expanded to be used more often finding solutions that truly solve problems for the long term will become much more commom place.

Testing Solutions

Common conclusions of people found in testing:
-The lines on the ground are a bit hard to see
- I really like the circulation tower with the colors around elevators to match sign directory
- A few directional signs either on the ground or walls could be really helpful

Possible Solutions (photoshopped by Jack Hoard)