Reflections!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The final entry! A grand finale

and so it is.. the end of my final year in NUS. It has been a good O 4 years here as an CNM major. I have taken Mr. Reddy's modules 3 times and this is the third and the final one. I am happy to say that it has been an eventful one. Met a lot of great friends and had a lot of fun designing lots of stuffs which I never thought I will be able to. It has been an enjoyable experience.

A final reflection on User experience???

I learned that as a designer, one must always design with the user as the focus, with the custumer's perspective in mind and not one's own liking and self-interest if we do want people to use and purchase our products. Also, a product design must not be one-sided and instead consists of visceral, behavioural and reflective attributes. A user will also consider their purchase according to their needs analysis of physio, socio, psycho and ideo factors. It is interesting how as a user, we were never aware of all these cognitive processes which were going on in our mind when we were considering making a purchasing or reflecting on the user experience of a product before.

The first lesson was an exercise which brought back alot of memories of the level 2 and 3 classes; the activity of finding a bad design. We did plenty of exercises back then during the level 2 and 3 modules about what constitues a good and bad design. However, this is more interesting this time as we were applying it to a real life object. I applied it to the Nokia N-Engage handphone.

The following lessons were specifically focused on user-experience. The second lesson, we learnt about the cognitive processes that goes on in a user's head while he/she is using a product and how different users would purchase a product based on different criterias. A person who goes for visceral attributes will buy products based on the look and feel of the product. A person who cares about the behavioural attributes will buy products based on the functionality whereas a reflective person is concerned with the branding and the values that a particular products has.

The classroom exercise about the physio, socio, psycho and ideo factors is very funny because all of us who did on the high platform wedge shoes thought that it is a very ugly design. However, as it turns out, it is one of the most fashionable shoe design of this year in Japan. Talk about cultural difference in tastes? Haha. However, we learnt how to evaluate a user and their needs in a product after that exercise.

Next up was the Nightmare Assignment which wasn't such a nightmare after all. It is a topic close to our heart as an NUS student; lecture theatres. Hours and hours of anguish and torture spent in that big room listening to endless lectures which seemed to go on for hours and hours every time. Finally, we get to critique the room which all of us learnt to dread. It was interesting during the presentation how different groups had different presentation style and different methods of approaching the topic. The most interesting one definitely has to be the Fengshui approach. But that exercise made me understand about the practicality of user-experience. User-experience is very important when it comes to making a user feel better/more comfortable when using a product. Even a small slight change can make a big difference. As a student, I understand the torture of sitting through a lecture when we cannot even hear a lecturer properly and this can be improved through a better sound system.

Then we had the BIG assignment which was torturous for my group. We struggled for a long time before we finally settled on a topic which is workable. The time taken to decide on a topic was painful but in the end we settled on CORS system which turns out to be a pretty good choice actually considering that no students are ever satisfied with CORS from the start. And trying to improve CORS system, a system which has given me a lot of headache when I was a freshmen was definitely a good farewell project as a senior in NUS. Through this project, we learn how to set our objectives when it comes to designing. We also did a hands on task of interacting with our target audience; the freshmen about their problems grappling with this new system and doing a experience with them with our new prototype. Very proud to say that all of them think that our new design is much better and innovate than the current one.

I think that I can proudly say that, I have become a more considerate and knowledgeable designer after taking this module. And as a user, I have become more conscious and aware of the choice-making processes that goes on in my head when I am using a product or purchasing one.

Goodbye!!!!!! Goodbye NM4210!!! Goodbye NUS!!!

User Research Smoke and Mirror

Research based design

As can be seen from the discussion of the author, I too agree that research design is a very important process when it comes to designing a successful product. It is somehow akin to marketing when we talk about research here because it works on the same theory. Without research on what people like and what people want in a product, a designer would not be able to foresee/predict what attributes their design should have. And especially after taking this module, it could not be more oblivious to me that designers' cannot trust their own personal taste/judgement when it comes to designing a product since they are not the users. Thus profit seeking companies come into the picture to neutralize the equation by demanding research to be done and statistics is the new evidence to approve of a certain design.

The author also talks about how scientific analysis have deeply affected the job of designers to design. It specifically discusses about the issue of eyetracking. The author thinks that eye-tracking is a inefficient tool if designers are going to use that as a gauge as to what is wrong with a particular website and its elements. It normally leads the project astray and leads the designer to a wrong conclusion which will lead to disastrous result. However, the author recommends that eyetracking be used as a political tool to aid the designer in convincing the boss in supporting their decisions.

At the end of the day, he supports research but not scientific ones. He prefers the down-to-earth methods of research; the ones like focus groups which talks to the users and not approaching the product from a scientific perspective. I actually agree with his viewpoint because it all ties down to what I have been learning in this module! Users are the most important factor to consider when it comes to knowing what is needed. Science and technology are only an intermediary to help us understand them better but when they are used as the main thing to judge a product, there must be something inherently wrong with this approach! Therefore I have to say that i totally agree with his viewpoint. I would prefer the traditional approach of approaching the people instead of machines and technology as my point of judgement.

Lecture Nightmare Assignment

The task was to improve the learning experience in lecture theatres.

My group consists of the wonderful trio of Yvonne, Theresa and Moi!

We decided to use serveral methods to find our research results.

The first was to find out the problems relating to physical factors. Therefore we decided to observe 2 different types of lecture halls mainly the Big LTs and the Small LTs. The Big LT we had chosen was LT11 most of whom we would be familiar with since we had so many year 1s and year 2s lessons being held there and the small LT we had chosen is LT12 which is located near to LT11. We wanted to observe the entire structure of the LT to see the proximate distance the students would be away from the place where the lecturer was lecturing and evidence of our findings would be captured through pictures.

Big LT: LT 11

In LT11, we observed that the lecture hall was really very big and knowing Arts students, they normally fight for the seats closer to the exit rather than choosing to sit closer to the lecturer. So from the back, the distance to the lecturer is really very far and it is very hard to concentrate since it is so easy to lose focus. Moreover, through interviews with our fellow peers has led to the findings that it is true that they concetrate less during big LTs lectures because it is harder to get caught when you are not concentrating because the lecturer is so far away from you. There will be more noise being made by other students which can easily distract you. The noise sometimes makes it harder to listen to the lecturer as the sound system are not that fantastic.

Small LT: LT 12

In a small LT however, it is easier for people to concentrate because of the size of the lecture hall where no mater how far away you sit from the lecturer, you will get caught easier if you were to talk or fall asleep. The students are normally all cramped up together because there are lesser seats. Below are the pictures of a BIG and a SMALL lecture hall.

Another interesting thing we did was take a video of a lecture on-going in Science during Theresa's Heavenly Maths class. I had taken that module before and the main distraction would be the size of the LT BUT human factor made all the difference actually, because the lecturer managed to make the students concentrate. Using him as an example, he is an interesting lecturer whereby he is knowledgeable and knows his stuffs well. Therefore when lecturing he is always confident of his information and he answers all his students questions well. He is animated and often brings models of the planets and soft toys to amuse us. Moreover he is interactive and often ask students to come down as volunteers to help him with his examples. More importantly, unlike most lecturers who just stand at the fixed spot in front to lecture, he utilizes the technology well. He uses a mike attached to his clothes and even though the lecture hall is big, he moves around the entire lecture hall all day to ask students questions. This gives students the incentives to pay attention because they wouldnt want to be stuck by not knowing how to answer his question. This leads us to the conclusion that the lecturer plays an important part as to improve the lecture conditions in class. Of course, another factor that all of us students can identify with is the time factor which was interesting conveyed across by Yanyan's group using their fengshui theory. Attendence for morning 8am lectures tend to drop drastically as the semester goes by and even if one does make it to lecture, they will be too restless to concentrate for the entire 2 hours.

The next human factor would be the students. Whether they pay attention to the lecture or not also depends on whether they are interested in the lecture. Sometimes some students are just too lazy and doesnt like to listen to lectures. In this case, it doesnt matter whether the lecturer is providing very interesting contents or not because it would not have made a difference at the end of the day anyway.

One interesting concept was raised by the other groups, that is the location of the lecture halls and whether it is closer to the vending machines aka food and i think that made perfect sense because with food and tibits to bit on when you are tired, students really do concentrate better! Maybe NUS could increase the amount of vending machines in schools since this semester all my lessons are located so far away from the vending machines haha.

Besides all these observations, we also did interviews on our fellow students. We did laddering on Alanna Yeo, our fellow NM mate and what we realized from her is that she will only attend lectures whenever she is interested in the contents or not there is no point in turning up at all. And that smaller LTs are easier to concentrate as compared to bigger LTs. The last point was that lecturers should learn how to utilise the mikes and sound system more to make lectures more condusive.

The other interview which we videoed down was of Kailing and she basically informs that it is hard to concentrate in lectures because she loves to talk to her friends during lecture. I guess this is what we as students can all identify with since i love to talk during lecture as well.

We also Albert, this PHD student who is working with Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL). And we learn about what teachers are educated about in preparation for their lectures.

After all these research, we conclude that to improve the learning experience in lecture theatres, lecturers should be educated on how to best utilise the technologies available to them and thus in the process make the lecture experience more enriching and interactive for the students. Improving the incentives for students to concentrate will be a good way to start. Workshops should be held regularly by schools so that lecturers can upgrade themselves constantly.

Schools should also invest in better technology to aid the teachers in improving lecture experiences. The sound system is a important factor when it comes to this.

Of course, all in all, it also boils down to the students attitudes to lectures! :)

3rd Assignment!!!!

In class last week, Theresa and I did a RMA (Reverse Marketing Analysis) on a product which is a pair of bright bold colored high platform wedge shoe. It is a high fashion item and we constructed a target user profile based on who we think will be the target consumers of this pair of fashion wedge.

PRODUCT: High platform wedge shoes

This week's assignment is to expand the RMA profile that we came up with in the seminar last week into a story and identify one handphone which will suit the user. But before that, let me give you a brief summary as to what Theresa and me have analysed in our initial RMA.

In our RMA, we analysed that the gender of the user will definitely be female who will either be in their late 20s/30s or those aunties who are the daring and bold sort. This is because the wedge itself looks very bold and daring with the striking colors of green, red, yellow and pink. For a user to wear this, they would have to have an outrageous personality to show what they dare to wear and buy. Therefore the user would definitely have to be a modern and trendy woman. She is attention-seeking and is definitely someone who is very fashion-conscious, one who would risk her health for fashion and does not care whether the things she wear will be comfortable. As observed, the wedge is so high that it will definitely be straining on the user's legs. She is not afraid to express herself and she is not scared that people will give her stares along the streets.

Her physiological features is that she is thin to medium built since the bottom of the wedge is quite narrow. Her shoe size should be small as the cutting of the shoe is also quite small. This shoe will attract women working in the creative industries who are the arty-farty kind and definitely not those who classify themselves as a career woman.

Using the 4-pleasure framework of

• Physio-pleasure: Pleasures connected with touch, taste and smell as well as feelings of sensual pleasure. Many aspects of visceral level with some behavioral level.
• Socio-pleasure: Enjoyment derived from relationships with others. Both aspects from behavioral and reflective level.
• Psycho-pleasure: Pertains to people's cognitive and emotional reactions. Mostly behavioral level.
• Ideo-pleasure: Pertains to people's values. Reflective level

*Building a user profile*

Name: Sarah Emilia Lee

Gender: Female

Age: 25

Occupation: Fashion designer in the main branch of Prada in Singapore

Salary: 4200 per month

Hobbies: Shopping, chilling out with friends on a friday night and travelling.

Sarah is a up and coming fashion designer at the young age of 25. Through connections, she is able to find a job as a designer in the head office of Prada in Singapore. Her family is rich and she has always had a good life. She had just graduate from a school of design in Paris a year ago after furthering her studies after finishing her design courses in Temasek Polytechnic. Sarah is talented and her talents has been properly nurtured since she was young when her parents discovered her talents for arts and crafts after kindergarden. She had been taking arts lessons since then. After secondary school, Sarah developed an interest in fashion design and she started drawing sketches of fashion clothings. Her mother happened to chance upon her drawing in her room one day and she was deeply impressed with her daughter's sketches. She therefore immediately send Sarah to take lessons in fashion design. Sarah has always excelled in her drawing and her parents were very excited that she has found a specific field to focus on.

When she furthered her studies in the Paris on fashion design, she was one of the top students there. When she came back, she was deeply influenced by the Western culture and she jumped on the chance to work in Prada after her aunt recommended her into the firm. With her western culture, she was just perfect for the job in Prada. Sarah is a high-flyer who wants to excel in the fashion world. She loves fashion and she wants to design clothes which is embedded with the Western and Asian culture. Sarah has always been out-spoken and therefore she has no problems expressing her opinions when it comes to meetings and discussions. Therefore her colleagues respect her for her abilities and her tough personality. She is not afraid to express herself even in front of her supervisiors.

Sarah also believes in socialising with associates in the business and she never fails to attend all the parties that was organized in order to know more famous people in the business. Sarah is out-going and an extrovert. She is very comfortable around new people and she always makes new friends easily. People like her cause she is generous and giving. She also believes that knowing more people in the business will only help her climb up the social ladder faster.

When she is not working or designing, Sarah likes to teach at a community center. She teaches drawing for free to a group of children aged from 5 to 10. She loves children and the reason why she chose to teach children is because she remembers how fun it was as a child to learn drawing. She wants to spread this happiness and this passion for art to children who are talented just like herself. She believes that Singapore does have talented individuals like herself but there need to be resources to uncover all these hidden talents. Training them from young would be very beneficial for these children and for the art world of Singapore in the future.

During her free time, Sarah loves hanging out and chilling with friends from her secondary school and friends from work. Sarah loves the night life and she always spends her Friday night after work clubbing or pubbing. She loves dancing and the beat of fast music like RnB. Sarah is outrageous in dressing and is a sexy girl who believes in flaunting her figure as she has a slim built. She is tall with a height of 170m. She loves pink and bright colours. She loves to stand out from the crowd and be the main attraction of the party. With her height and her outrageous personality, it is not hard to notice Sarah even among the wildest party. Sarah does not have a boyfriend even though she is a very pretty and outgoing girl. She loves dating and she does not want to commit to a guy until she is very sure that he is the one for her. She is confident of her abilities and she knows that she is a very good catch.

She maintains her friendships with friends via smses and phone calls most of the time. She is a technologically savvy girl who is very good with her handphone. She normally has a high phone bill at the end of the month which always exceeds 300 bucks. This is due to social networks and work commitments. Sarah thinks that handphone is like a body accessory as she has to bring it around wherever she goes and people will always see her with it. Therefore she believes in buying the latest and trendliest phone that is fashionable and fits in with her image. She loves pretty phones which is striking and bright. She changes handphones whenever she is bored with her current handset.

In order to maintain her good figure, Sarah works out twice a week. She is a member of California Fitness. She normally works out in the gym or takes aerobics lessons. She can spend up to 3 hours in California on her regular visit. Sarah also believes in a healthy diet. She loves salad and she eats vegetarian once a week.

Physio-Socio-Psycho-Ideo Analysis

Physio:

• Sarah loves to work out to keep her slim figure. This figure helps her looking healthy and sexy. She believes image is important in the fashion world and also keeps her in the center of attention during parties and events.
  
• Sarah eats healthy so that she remains slim.
  
• She loves partying because people usually looks at her and she loves being noticed and praised for being beautiful.
  
• She loves designing beautiful clothes and buying new clothes so that she can always remain trendy and be one of the fashion icon among her peers.
  

Socio:

• Sarah loves hanging out with her friends and chilling out when she is not working. She is a party animal by nature.
  
• Sarah enjoys making new friends due to her outgoing nature. She believes that making friends who are accomplished through company functions will also aid her in her career. She thinks that this is nothing wrong when it comes to furthering her career.
  
• Sarah believes in managing her friendships and social contact via handphone sms and phone calls. She thinks that this will improve her relationship with friends. She derives pleasure from messages especially those that praises her.
  

Psycho:

• Sarah derives her greatest pleasure from drawing and designing. That is why she loves her job as it is her interest. She feels very good especially when her design is accepted and launched in Prada. She is proud of her design.
  
• Sarah also derives pleasure from teaching young children as she believes that she is developing talents like herself and everyone should have a chance to explore their artisitic talent.
  
• She loves working out because it helps her look good and this is psychologically benefitting for her.
  
• Buying pretty new phones enhances her status as a fashion trend-setter and this makes her feel good about herself. This is the reason why she loves shopping for new clothes too as she loves being praised.
  

Ideo:

• Sarah loves fashion which is why she believes in buying trendy clothes as it ties in with her ideals, values and occupation.
  
• Her love for fashion is the reason why she is so ambitious in her job. She wants to improve herself so that she can design more creative and innovative designs.
• She wants to be seen as a trend-setter which is the reason why she believes in getting the latest phones and designs.
  

*What kind of phone would suit Sarah*Product-Benefit Specifications*

In the physio-pleasure aspects, Sarah loves things which are bold and attractive. Therefore, the handphone of her choice would have to be something bold and pretty. The main criteria for her when she is picking out her handphone is the visceral aspects followed by the reflective aspects and then the behavioural aspects. This is because the design of the phone and how people see her is much more important than the functions of the phone for Sarah. For Sarah, as long as the phone has the basic functions which will showcase that she is up to date with the current technology like MP3s and camera in the phone and has the basic functions of enabling her to message and call her friends, she will be satisfied with the phone.

In the socio-pleasure sense, she has to be able to communicate with her peers on fashionability of the phone and what she wants is the seeking of approval from her peers whereby they will think that she is trendy and fashionable.

Psycho pleasure refers to the cognitive pleasure and emotional reactions to the products that they user. In this case, Sarah just needs to feel that the phone is user-friendly to her and she will love her phone based on the fact that she chose it according to her liking and fashion-consciousness.

Ideo-pleasure refers to the values in Sarah when she purchases a product. In my eyes, Sarah will be a attention-seeker. She is concerned with how many looks she gets and her image is utmost on her mind. She is not a conservative individual and is a daring and outgoing person who loves to make friends, the more the merrier.

Using this framework, I have picked out the perfect phone that Sarah will love.

Motorola Razor V3 Bold Pink Handphone

The Motorola V3 Pink. I have chosen this phone because the color is bold and striking. The visceral factor is definitely there for Sarah because this is a phone fit for the ladies and the color is so striking that it will make heads to turn. You can practically see it from very far away that Sarah is coming. That is exactly the effect that Sarah wants to get from people. Sarah wants people to praise her that she has good taste and that she is fashionable and this phone is exactly what she wants. Sarah is not afraid to show and express her outrageous personality.



Another factor that I considered when choosing this phone for Sarah is that it is one of the slimmest phone now and as Sarah is outgoing, she loves to go out with friends and dress in fashionable clothes, this phone is so slim that she can put her phone in her clothing without the shape of the phone sticking out. Therefore she can easily treat this phone as her accessory with her clothing. These will satisfy her socio and physio pleasure as she is now hip and cool.

Her psycho pleasure will be enhanced by the behavioural aspects of the phone like how it is user-friendly and therefore easy to use. I have used this phone before and it is quite user-friendly once you get past the "I am a staunch Nokia user" syndrome. Moreover, the camera and Mp3 function will be enough to satisfy the functions that Sarah needs in her phone.

Her ideo pleasure will be served when her aspirations of being a fashion trend setter is accomplished. It is obvious that this is not a phone with lots of functions for those career executives who normally uses the blackberry and stuffs but one which just needs a phone which looks good and hides well. Sarah loves all things beautiful.

Therefore I feel that this phone will definitely be able to satisfy Sarah's needs in a phone!

2nd Assignment

2nd Assignment!!!!


THE TASK: Finding 3 examples of visceral, behavioural and reflective design. As we have learnt in the lecture

A visceral design refers to one which is bought for its attractiveness therefore the visual elements of the product is the most important consideration for consumers who buy the product for its appeal on how it looks.

Behavioural design refers to the consideration of its functionality and its usefulness as its most important feature.

Lastly, we have the reflective design whereby the user buys the design because of the prestige that the product brings when the user is seen using or carrying the product.


I have chosen the product of women's wear to illustrate these 3 elements in a product design.

Louis Vuitton Women's Wear

Visceral: 7/10

The design is classy and unique but it is not that visually pleasing. It is not a design which will be attractive to the general population. It is a upscale design which is generally only purchased and worn by the upper class population because they have the occasions to wear this kind of clothing for.

Behavioural: 4/10

It is not suitable for normal occasions like work or going out on a casual outing as the outfit is too grand for such events. It does not look very comfortable to move around in with the design as the wearer has to make sure that the outfit will still look flawless at the end of the day. Therefore it is not a very functional outfit suitable for everyday wear.

Reflective: 10/10

This is definitely a product which exemplifies reflective design. Louis Vuitton users normally buys its products because of the prestige which comes along with wearing/carrying the brand. Therefore brand is the main reason why buyer purchase the product, not mainly the design (visceral) or for functionality. It is classy and the design itself lets people know that you belong to the upper class and gives people the impression that you are rich and sophisticated.

Adidas Sportswear

Visceral: 8/10

For a women's sportswear, this is considered a very attractive design because it is sporty and yet sophisticated. The color is very nice and the design is of the country USA representing the town of Chicago. Therefore it has nationalism embedded in the design. The top, the pants and the shoes are all designed beautifully and has a feminine element admist the sporty image of a woman.

Behavioural: 10/10

This is a truly behavioural design because its main functinality is to play sports comfortably. The top underneath the jacket is a sportswear which absorbs sweat so that sportswomen will not feel so sticky while playing a game and this will enhance a person's ability to perform to their top level. Moreover, the jacket is also stretchable and it is comfortable to wear in after playing a sport. It also serves as a jacket to protect one from the cold. The trackpants is stretchable too and is therefore suitable for sports like yoga and jogging as sportswomen can be flexible in this outfit. Moreover it is designed with Chicago designs on it which means that it also serves the patriotism of a person when wore with that intention in mind. It therefore serves the cultural purpose as well. Truly a functional outfit which is comfortable to wear in at the same time.

Reflective: 8/10

In the world of sports, Adidas can be considered as one of the top 3 brands alongside Reebok and Nike so therefore sportsmen will be considered as being very fashionable if they are wearing Adidas. Even though it is not as reflective as Louis Vuitton, it does serve as a prestige factor as well. I, for one am a supporter of Adidas when it comes to sportswear as I feel good wearing it due to its brand and design.

Gucci's Women Wear

Visceral: 10/10This is a beautiful piece of work from Gucci which is chic and sophisticated. It is a piece of fashion clothing which is meant for formal events. It is stylish and colourful with materials of silk which looks elegant and expensive. It is artistic and very classy.

Behavioural: 4/10

Functional wise, it is only meant for formal events which requires a gown. Other than that, this cannot be wore for other events as it will be uncomfortable for the user since it is long and flowy which obstrudes movement.

Reflective: 10/10

It has the same level of prestige as the Louis Vuitton outfit since it is also branded and as high-class as the other. People wearing it would just feel as important and be deemed as upper class and also sophisticated just like those who are wearing Louis Vuitton. The look of the dress itself exemplifies class and elegance.

Reflections:

From these products, we can see that products usually contain either or all of the elements of visceral, behavioural or reflective attributes. However, usually one element will be more dominant than the others which will determine what kind of target audience it will attract. In the case of visceral products, it will attract consumers who are visually conscious as they tend to go for looks of the products and their main goal is to look good with their accessories so that their image in front of others will be beautiful and elegant. Those products where behavioural characteristics will dominate will attract those who are practical and wants functionality over looks or prestige. They want to get the best products with the best specifications and results. Reflective consumers go for branding and they will buy the products which will earn them respect from others. Prestige is most important to them when it comes to buying products. Each attribute is important in its own self and a product will be lacking if it is missing in any of these attributes.

Bad Design

First Assignment for NM4210: Finding a BAD design!

In the first lecture, we learnt that User Experience is a term used to describe the overall quality of experience a person has when interacting with a product or a system!

Thus I will be using these 3 criterias to judge the bad design that I have chosen:

o Functionality, usability (ease of use)
o Aesthetics / sensorial design (visual attractiveness)
o Hedonic quality/ pleasurable to use (emotion, branding, marketing, business strategy –perceived pleasure quality)

The product that I have chosen for my BAD DESIGN:

Nokia N-Gage (Engage)

The Nokie N-gage phone is not simply a mobile phone used for making calls.

Main functionality:

1. Powerful 3D gaming capability
2. MP3 Player
3. Mobile web browser

The gaming industry in thriving. The gaming population is increasing as can be shown from console and gaming hardware sales. Nokia being the market leader in terms of handphone technology has come up with a Nokia N-Gage phone so as to get a share in the gaming industry. Its target consumers are mainly gamers who wish to be able to play games anywhere anytime. This is possible as the games are integrated into the handphone. This seems to be a good design at first because gamers are no longer confined to a physical space when they feel like gaming. The portability of a handphone allows gamers to game even when they are on the move. However, due to the integration of gaming systems into the handphone, it has resulted in the Bad design of the mobile as the design and the user-friendliness of the phone is affected.

These are the main features of the phone:

1. Wireless Multiplayer Game Play
2. Killer game titles from top publishers
3. Supports 3D Graphics
4. MP3 Player & FM Radio
5. N-Gage Arena

Capturing User Reaction:

User profile: Edwin Yeow

Name: Edwin Yeow
Age: 23/Male

Occupation: Student

Interest: Gaming and hanging out

I picked my guy friend who games as a tester for my bad design. He has high computer literacy skills. He has never used the Nokia N-gage mobile phone before. I feel that these criterias would therefore give a very neutral perspective on the user experience of the phone.

First Impression

Nokia N-gage

First impression:

Aesthetic Design: (Please refer to the picture above)

• A little too bulky
• It would fit into his jeans but it would be very uncomfortable.
• Looks like a technological tool
• Looks like it has great gaming capabilities.
• There are however too many buttons on the phone.
  

First try: (Figuring out how to use the phone)

Trying out the phone for the first time

• Confusion due to the amount of buttons on the phone
• He had to play around with the buttons several times just to get to the menu
• Navigation around the menu was hard because he could not remember what buttons lead to which area.
• Finding the function in the phone was hard
• On the left hand side of the phone, the buttons were not placed in a manner that is comfortable for the hand to position itself.
• Within the categories of the phone, there were many sub-categories which makes it hard for the users to find the functions that they were looking for.
• Time-consuming for first-time users to get the hang of the phone.
  

Experience of playing games:

Because this is a gaming phone, we decided to try out the experience of playing games in the phone. In order to play the games, users need to buy additional memory card and game cards.

Game played: One game

Reaction:

• There was no lag while playing the game
• The experience is not comparable to actual gaming on a PC or console.
• Small screen and soft volume made the experience less enjoyable.
• The buttons are also very small. Therefore it makes it uncomfortable to control the movements.
• Can be a source of entertainment when he is bored outside.
• Nokia N-gage cannot be a substitute for online gaming on PC due to the lack of interactivity while playing the game.
• Main difficulty: Finding out where the games were stored. He had to scroll through the menu several time and through different folders in order to find it.
• Do not see the point of buying extra game cards and memory card just to play the games. He feels that Nokia should have included a few games in if they wanted to invent a gaming phone.
• However, it must be mentioned that the 3D effect of the games are considerably impressive.
  

Using the phone to make a call:

The main function of any mobile phone is for a mobile phone user to be able to make calls when they are out so as to communicate with other people. Therefore, Edwin is asked to test the usability of this function.

The wrong way of using Nokia N-gage

The correct way of using Nokia N-gage

Edwin is successful in making the phone call to his friend. However he encountered a problem when the call is connected. He held the phone face down which is how a normal mobile phone is usually held. However, he appears fidgety as he is talking. When asked what is the problem, he said that it does not seem like this is the correct position to hold the phone as the volume is very soft. After which I told him that the phone is indeed not designed to be hold in this way and i asked him to try finding the correct speaker. He fiddled with the phone for quite a while without a solution. In the end I had to tell him that the speaker is actually at the side of the phone. He is a little surprised with the design as the area for the speaker is very narrow and very small. Moreover, it is not aesthetically pleasing when he is holding the phone and talking in that posture. I asked him to try calling his friend again. He commented that this is the worst feature of the phone as it feels "weird and uncomfortable."Moreover, the volume is very soft and he cannot hear his friend as comfortably as a normal mobile phone. This is due to the small speaker hole of the phone. He commented that it is going to be torturous to talk on this phone if he was to have a long conversation with his friends.

Where the speaker hole is located

Feeling towards Nokia N-gage:

Aesthetic Aspect:

• Acceptable design even though it is not a beautiful phone.
• Too many buttons which makes it complicated to use and confusing as it is hard to navigate around the menu.
  

Gaming Aspect:

• It would be nice to have a phone with gaming features as it is cool and can be a source of entertainment when he is bored
• Graphics and interface is nice
• However, gaming on PC is still more enjoyable as playing on a mobile phone lacks an element of real-ness when playing the game.
• Screen is too small and volume is too soft. (Less excitement)
• However, pricing for memory card and game cards are a little too steep especially if he wants to have variety in games.

Making a phone call:

• This is the main problem with the phone.
• It is impossible to find the correct speaker hole without prompting and even so it seems weird to talk on the phone like this.
• The volume is too soft and not condusive for talking.
  

Overall reaction:

When asked whether he would buy the phone, my friend said that he will never buy this phone as it does not serve the main purpose of a mobile phone which is to make calls. Neither does the gaming aspect satisfy him as much as he had expected. There are better alternatives to do when he is bored outside as compared to gaming on the phone. Moreover it would cost alot to have variety of games on the mobile phone. The functions and navigation are too complicated and is not user-friendly at all.

Lessons he learnt from this interaction:

As a gamer, he used to think that this phone is quite cool as it allows him to game even on the go. However, he learnt that one feature of gaming is not as important as the usability of the whole phone. If the basic function of making a call is accomplished with such difficulty, the phone will not satisfy him as a mobile user. He also mentioned that a phone is not better just because it has more functions. The design of the phone must be user-friendly enough so that it is easy to use.

Their impression on brand:

With regards to branding, Edwin has always been an avid supporter of Nokia as he believes that they design great phones which is very durable. His impression of the brand is not tarnished just because of a bad design of Nokia N-gage. He reasoned that because this is just a courageous venture on the part of Nokia into a market which they are not that familiar with, it is not surprising that they end up with a bad design. He will still continue to buy a Nokia phone in the future.

My reflections: (On product and user reaction)

o Functionality, usability (ease of use)

In terms of fuctionality, the Nokia N-gage is definitely low on the scale. The design of the buttons are not intuitive to the user and the confusion was apparant on his face while he was trying to figure his way around the mobile phone. The phone had alot of functions like MP3 player, internet browsing and gaming functions. However, if the user is not able to find these functions in an effective manner in the first place, the user would have lost interest as they get too frustrated with the phone to enjoy the experience of using the phone in the first place.

o Aesthetics / sensorial design (visual attractiveness)

In terms of aesthetic design, the phone is too bulky for a user to comfortably bring it around. For girls especially, the phone is too big for their jeans or skirt pocket. The design is built in a musculine structure in dark grey and black colour. I guess this is due to the assumption that the gaming population consists mainly of males and they are the main target audience for Nokia-Ngage. There are also too many buttons on the phone which will lead to confusion. However, it does look like a gaming equipment even from a user's first impression.

o Hedonic quality/ pleasurable to use (emotion, branding, marketing, business strategy –perceived pleasure quality)

Nokia designed this phone with the aim of delivering a hedonic pleasure of gaming on the go experiences for gamers. People will trust in this phone before buying it as its makers Nokia are established phone makers who have hardly gone wrong in phone design. In terms of branding, the advertisement shows a guy in a virtual world of gaming characters. Therefore its strategy is to attract the niche market of intense gamers who wants to game everywhere they go. However, users who buy the phone before understanding it in the first place will realize that the pleasure might not be delivered as they have to spend money on the game cards and memory card in order for the games to function.

Overall:

I think that this is a bad design but the fact that Nokia is a manufacturer of it means that the product comes with a branding trust for consumers which is why a lot of consumers are willing to risk trying out the phone even though this is a first-of-its-kind phone. The core purpose of calling is not served by the phone.The costs of enjoying games on the phone makes it impractical to spend so much money on it when gamers have other ways of gaming via computers or consoles. Seeing a user trying to figure their way through the buttons and trying to internalize the functions is also frustrating.

The End...

My First Blog Entry!!!

So exciting!!!

This is my first blog entry for the module NM4210! It is kind of exciting to do something new for a module whereby we get to blog about our learning experiences!!! Anyway this entry is just to say HI and to test this blog out! Will be back for some serious entry about our first assignment soon!

Cheerios,
Xiaofen...