Human Centred Design

Ted Kelley's lecture on human centred design is interesting because he talks about how design is now about making things more like life and how behaviour and personality is incorporated in designing too. For example, when they were asked to design a cubicle for the character Dilbert. They made it so that his cubicle replicated what was happening outside. The orange colours represented the sun, and the placement of them represented the movement of the sun.  

The Prada concept store with its fancy LCD doors, scanners and displays was a little much for me. I just think that it would be more difficult to train the staff in how to use the technology. Even as a marketing tool, I would think that having a sales consultant discuss and explain the products would be more human centred seeing as the customer will be face to face with a human.  I do, however , like the idea of the 3-second delay on the camera in the change room so that you can see what it looks like from the back.

Other ideas Ted Kelley spoke about was the spyfish. A camera device which lets you see what is going on under water. Mainly designed for those who want to go scuba diving but don’t like to get wet or perhaps don’t want to encounter the dangers of drowning a getting eaten alive! It was specifically designed so that it is easy and fun to use, rather than the  research type cameras which do the same thing.

I feel the last two ideas were a bit indulgent but I did like the company Approtec. They are a company that help Kenyans to build their own tools that will in turn make their life easier. They make pumps, irrigation tools and sowing tools in order for the Kenyans to help themselves. I like that it has helped their economy by using Kenyan labour, and Kenyan resources.

So, even though I found that that some ideas were over indulgent they are still human centred. The question you need to ask is, who is the human in mind when you are designing?