This Class

I like how this class was designed. Your lectures worked very well and for the most part all the information required were right in front of us. I would consider using something other than video furnace. Not everyone is going to have a fast enough internet connection. The class was very well structured. Five weeks and it's done. I learned a lot in the class and even enjoyed myself at times. Thanks for all your help.

Old with the New

This I thought was an excellent idea. I have talked about wanting a 68 Camaro with a new age interior and 4 wheel disk brakes forever. Dodge melds the old with the new. The Challenger comes in an old muscle car body style but has all of the amenities of your little Honda civic, save for the gas mileage. This car is perfect for those people who have always wanted a muscle car but would never have the time or the knowledge neccessary to take care of a 40 year old car. If I only had $40,000 to burn.

Iphone

The Iphone is absolute genius. My phone does absolutely everything that an iphone does so why is the iphone so popular. Well, they waited until the ipod was populare and they designed the Iphone for everybody. I have a windows mobile phone and I can get just about any app I want for it, and most of them are free, but I have to know how to instal them. I need to know what a .cab file is. I need to know if the program is compatible. An Iphone is designed so that it does everything for you. Want an app download it and it now works. Oh yeah and they are making money off of all the apps that are made for the Iphone. Genius.

Palm Island

Now talk about a design. Who's idea was this. This was designed just to sell to the outrageously wealthy. Where else can you have a house on an island shaped like a palm that you can see from space? Talk about limited real estate. These people were geniuses.

Min Map design

Design Culture and Language

Design is the planning for creating an object or system.
Culture is a set of shared attitudes and values.
Language is a system for encoding and decoding information.

I believe that culture and language influence design. You need to design something that the people will understand and relate to. If you don't understand the culture and how they process information, your design will fail.

I like this car. Obviously this is an attempt to create a good, rugged looking vehicle that gets good gas mileage. They appear to have taken into consider consideration aerodynamics, the power structure, and style. I just don't think it is going to sell very well in America. Don't get me wrong it looks cool but, I don't know about you, but if I'm driving around with somebody I'd rather have them sitting beside me than behind me. Now, if you used the vehicle just for transportation too and from work then it might be feasible but by the look of it, it might be out of most people's price rang for a work vehicle.

A design quote

So I was searching for a quote about design. I ran across a website http://www.bizcommunity.com/Quotes/196/13.html that list design quotes of the day. I found one that I recognized, and then I figured out why. It is from George Smith Patton, also known as General Patton. I know this quote was not originally written about design but I think it fits very well. If you tell someone exactly how to do something they will do it exactly how you requested. If you give a person a goal and just let them figure it out for themselves, they will figure out their own way to achieve the desired outcome. As far as design goes, if you give someone exact specifications you will only get what you requested, but if you give them minor guildlines, you never know what you will get.

Bruce Mau

I believe the most helpful point in Bruce Mau's incomplete Manifesto is

1. Begin anywhere.John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.

I think that this is very helpful when starting a project. I find a lot of times when you have something you need to create, even a paper for a class, it is difficult to know where to start or exactly how to start. With out starting you can't get anywhere. There is no foreword motion. If you just start and deal with mess you are better off. There is bound to be some good things that come from whatever you did.