Design

Low End Theory

My education so far has taught me several things. People’s perception of technology, the psychology of interaction, user experience, usability and heuristics. Throw in more concepts and frameworks and you pretty much have the world of Informatics. In light of all the courses I’ve taken, one of the great things that I am realizing is the great utility in simple things. With all the digital displays and extravagently feature filled devices with manuals outweighing your average phone book, paper and pen work just as well, if not better in some cases.

Before I skim the principle insights about design development, this article compiles a great list of helpful tools and resources for both low and high fidelity methods. It is very practical and something we should all remember before we get caught up in the marketing and sales pitches we will face in the future.

Times have been changing as it would appear where the old model of development - more specifically software - isn’t working as well anymore and the focus has shifted to making a product that appeals to a specific task that is done so elegantly, anyone can learn it because they already are familiar with the task. Software and other supporting tools should do that, support tasks we already know we want to accomplish. The difficulty remains in allowing the full freedom of our physical space to be augmented digitally just the same. Sure you can always learn how to use the software and become a interface expert. On the other hand, when you add deadlines and multitasking to the equation, mastering software to accomplish several tasks concurrently increasingly challenges the quality and integrity of the work.

Read