Readings Response
IDEO: The interview with Jane Fulton Suri outlines many observation techniques, including thoughtless acts. This reading made it clear to me that great designs often result from one’s ability to observe actions that people do subconsciously and rather mechanically, Jane shows many photos of people who use their fingers as bookmarks or people who try to read a large newspaper while laying down on their back. She also shows examples of people lining up along a wall for no obvious reason. This article made me reflect more on thoughtless acts that can be observed at NYU Shanghai, some of them could include people constantly not topping up their NYU cards only to later spend a few minutes in a long payment line at the cafeteria instead of choosing to top up their card and pay within seconds by tapping on the counter. More NYU Shanghai students decide not to spend around 30 seconds on topping up their cards only to later spend comparatively more time waiting in a check-out line. It indeed does not make much sense but people do it nevertheless. This could serve as a start point of designing a new solution aiming to solve the long line issue.
AFFORDANCES AND CONSTRAINTS: Affordance is a way of using something, perceived affordance is how one thinks something may be used, conventions are learned, and constraints indicate limitations of a given action. I believe that one of the most popular conventions is a turn on/off sign which can be represented by a circle with a line coming through it. It is a learned convention. As someone who barely remembers life without computers, whenever I see the turn on/off sign, I know exactly what to do. However, my grandmother may still struggle with which button to press on an electronic kitchen plate as she grew up prior to the introduction of the universal symbol. So the symbol convention is something that I have learned but is also something my grandparents may struggle with. Even though the reading emphasizes the difference between affordances and conventions, I would like to argue that in the case of the turn on/off switch the convention and the affordance are similar in my case. This is because to me, there was no difference between learning how to use a mug and as turn on/off switch. In contrast to my grandma, whenever I see such a symbol, I know exactly what to do. In the world of rapid technological progress, can certain conventions become affordances? This is one of the questions the reading left me ponder.
Thoughtless Acts
MY COMMON THOUGHTLESS ACTS: I’ve realized that I make a lot of thoughtless acts such as lining up my books with the border of the nightstand, placing objects on my laptop so that all the lines are perpendicular and parallel to each other, placing my jars along the edge of my mini fridge and even making sure that one of the shoes is directly in front of a metal panel on my wall. Why do I behave in this way? I would speculate that it is because I like to keep my surroundings clean because it gives me a sense of order.
MY LESS COMMON THOUGHTLESS ACT: However, one of my most interesting thoughtless acts includes placing a plastic cotton buds cup in a material strap adjacent to my vanity bag. Now that I think of it, I did it because I wanted to make sure that I can use efficiently the limited space of my dorm bathroom:
