WEEK 7

Thoughtful and useful observations

 

 

1. What have I achieved in the rst 6 weeks of the course?

Firstly, I know how to do research, persona, thinking and how to observe others. To know target audiences is very important for designers to use visual information to communicate with the audiences.

The theory of “PACT” also very useful to my study and design, P means people (who), A means activities (what), C means contexts (why), and T means technology (how). Those could help me to do communication design better.

2. What are my current weaknesses?

My weakness now is I can not use the software of  “Muse” very well, and my writing skill should improve.

In addition, I have a little bit of procrastination, which is not a good habit I know, and I will correct it.

3. What can I do to improve my work and how I will do it?

I will watch some videos on “lynda” to study the online course about how to use the “Muse”.

The other thing I want to improve is next time I do persona I will give more information to make it clear.

 

4. What would be a good measure of my improvement?

I will get rid of my procrastination, it is pretty important, I must make the best use of my time, and as Prof. Andy Lapham told me “Just do it”.

At the same time, I must improve my English skill, especially the writing. I need to in crease my vocabulary and reading more English data. It will be helpful on my study.

 

WEEK 6

Affordances

The concept of the affordances?

The word affordance was coined by the perceptual psychologist J. J. Gibson to refer to the actionable properties between the world and an actor (a person or animal). To Gibson, affordances are relationships. They exist naturally: they do not have to be visible, known, or desirable.

To my great surprise, the concept of affordance was adopted by the design community, especially graphical and industrial design. Alas, yes, the concept has caught on, but not always with complete understanding. My fault: I was really talking about perceived affordances, which are not at all the same as real ones. (Donald, 1999).

‘Affordance’ refers to the perceived and actual properties of a thing, primarily those functional properties that determine just how the thing could possibly be used. (Salomon, 1993)

According to Menezes (2009), this term was developed by Gibson (1986), in a comparison with the interaction between living things in an ecosystem, specifically talking about both the animal and his environment which complement and interact all the time with each other. In the context of learning an L2, the concept of affordance has to do with the possibilities you have to learn L2 and the opportunities you have to do such thing. In other words, it has to do with the relation between the environment and the learner and how he gathers information from a diverse range of sources. Some people can learn from a simple coke label, but some people simply cannot see it as a learning tool. Metaphorically speaking, the resources are there for everyone, with the potential, but their effects are individual because each person sees it in a different way.

This is an example of the biological affordance. One is estimulated by the environment and have to decide what to do with what one sees.

 

How design teach us without words.

Affordances = intersection of actor capabilities and the environment.

 

 

 

WEEK 5

The Messy Art of UX Sketching