First Blog Ever!

I never thought I would see the day when I would join the millions of bloggers online. To be honest I always thought that it was a little sill, but that day has finally come and I am going to have some fun with it.

In the end of January Jodi Forlizzi, from Carnegie Mellon, came to speak to our class about her research on human computer interaction. Unfortunately I was unable to attend for I was at work. What I have gathered from my classmates and from online articles I really missed out on seeing a great speaker. Her focus is mainly on new experience people can have from their interactions with computers and/or robots. She also stressed the importance of design research, a very important tool that is underutilized in the design world. Valuable insights are lost when you do not observe people in their environment. I am not an expert on everything and I do not know what other people want, like, need, or how they solve their everyday problems. So how I am suppose to design for these people? I guess I have two options. First, I could take my best guess at what people want, and in the real world I am learning is sometimes the necessary approach. Second, I can utilize an iterative process of research, ideation, research, prototyping, research, research, and more research… you get the point. The second approach definitely seems like the more logical one because of key insights you are able to acquire along the entire process. So why is option one sometimes necessary? MONEY! MONEY! MONEY!!!!!! Research costs money and the reality of things is that if a company comes to you with a project, budget, and a timeframe, and there may be no room to do research.

Dr. Forlizzi also discussed her research on the SnackBot. The SnackBot is a robot that goes around campus distributing snacks. The beauty of this robot for Dr. Forlizzi, is that robot’s function to distribute snacks, is also the means in which she conducts her research. Because the robot is handing out snacks, students are basically forced to interact with it. Thereby Dr. Forlizzi is able to see how humans are interacting with robots and what kind of responses they are having.

Over all I would say this blogging business isn’t so bad. I look forward to writing my next post. To give you a little preview I think it will be on flash. I’ll even give you the title “Flash. A love or hate relationship.”