Critique » People First Design

Information: Windows Is Always Present-To-Hand

Critique, Design, Opinion, Uncategorized No Responses »

Apr 282011

Fair warning: Light-hearted sarcasm and Heidegger ahead

I recently purchased a desktop PC and opted for Windows 7 – and after only 2 system crashes, 2 reinstalls, and a BIOS change to the boot order so the computer wouldn’t try to boot from the USB wireless adapter – I have been merrily chugging along on my new Windows 7 adventure.

And apparently Windows wants to make sure that I don’t ever make any kind of mistake on my adventure, EVER. On this adventure they will monitor every single thing I do, and give me constant feedback about every tiny change that happens to the system while I use the computer. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing the first time I unplugged my earphones:

"Play Money" and RMT is why I will never play MMORPGs again.

Critique, Games, Opinion, Readings No Responses »

May 142010

I just got finished reading Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot by Julian Dibbell, and I must say that no book in recent memory has riled me up so much.

Don’t get me wrong – I am not angry because I am naive about virtual worlds and their economies. As matter of fact I am fascinated by real money trade in virtual worlds, and I understand economics well enough to see that real money trade is not only an inevitable facet of virtual worlds, but is in some ways a beneficial one. Having attended Indiana University, I have even had the pleasure of sitting down with Edward Castronova, author of Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games, and who was mentioned several times in Dibbell’s book. And I agree with both of those guys that the production and trade of virtual goods should be viewed more seriously as a legitimate economy. However, because of this I also think that people who hack and exploit code in order to make money should face harsher consequences that just having an account banned. Continue reading »

Facebook needs human-centered design

Advice, Critique, Design, Human-Centered, Opinion No Responses »

May 132010

The most recent user uproar against Facebook and its increasingly cryptic privacy settings spurred the New York Times to collect questions from concerned users and posed them to Elliot Schrage, vice president for public policy at Facebook. He responded quite eloquently in this recent article, but unsurprisingly his words have done little to calm the masses.

It has taken me a long time to figure out what I think about Facebook, and I have read enough articles to make me yearn for a nice 20-page End User License Agreement. In this post I will respond to the Schrage article from my perspective as a human-centered designer, in the hopes of shining a light on why Facebook never seems to get it right.

For many people, Facebook represents the way they define their lives, and I mean that to be as profound as it sounds. Because of this, Facebook should seek to cultivate a better understanding of society and culture – Facebook as a social space in 2010 is a far cry from its origins in 2003′s Facemash. I may be wrong, but it seems that Facebook understands people and culture with all the nuance of a 19 year-old Mark Zuckerberg illegally accessing student information and photos in order to evaluate students based on if they were “good-looking.” Continue reading »

Critical Analysis Pre-Writing

Critique, Design, Games, Human-Centered, Projects No Responses »

Dec 062009

In this post, I am attempting to make some sense of my argument for a paper I am planning to write. For this paper I am doing a critical analysis of World of Warcraft’s FigurePrints service.

In making my thoughts and assumptions explicit, I have very strong opinions about how World of Warcraft favors certain playstyles over others. I feel that the design and “loudest” player groups have created a game culture that favors ambition, aggressiveness, and a focus on certain achievements over others. (Warning: The following sentence might be highly subjective or half-baked). High level or “epic/elite” activities, raiding, or player vs. player are seen as “better” than any-level activities like exploration, pet collection, or crafting. While these any-level activities are not seen as unimportant, they don’t have near the prestige of the other activities, and are often treated as a means to an end. Continue reading »

Phenomenological Reading of WoW Machinima

Critique, Design Philosophy, Games, Projects No Responses »

Oct 312009

For my Interaction Culture class I decided to a close phenomological reading of a bit of machinima made from WoW clips set to the song “Here Without You” by 3 Doors Down. It has been an interesting journey. It is incredible to think that some clips from World of Warcraft set to a cheesy late 90′s love-rock song could make me misty-eyed. I dare you to watch this video multiple times and not be moved at least a little bit. Continue reading »

Interpreting Interaction Design

Readings No Responses »

Sep 172009

As I was reading Verbalising the Visual, I came across a passage that seemed to set of a big, fun, messy string of thoughts about the ways things are interpreted. Clarke states:

It is sometimes thought that interpreting images of functional artefacts, such as a food processor or digital camera, is easier than interpreting works of fine art, be they painted, sculpted, photographed, or otherwise. At least the utilitarian, functional dimensions of the artefacts might provide a common basis for understanding. Without any comparable basis in the practical, fine art artefacts are judged to be far less contained.

Are the words functional, utilitarian, and practical problematic here? And what do these descriptions mean for interaction design, where all of those are balled into one? Continue reading »

Interaction Culture Class

Design Philosophy No Responses »

Sep 042009

So this week I embarked upon a new journey in my HCI/d education in Indiana University’s Master’s program. The ship I am on is called Interaction Culture, and it is headed by Captain Jeffrey Bardzell. In this class we will look at how theories in the humanities, specifically aesthetics and critical theory can be applied to the field of HCI/d. Looking at literature and drawing upon the wealth of philosophical debate and experience in the arts brings up the obvious question: How does this apply to HCI/d practice? This can be quickly followed with thoughts such as “I am a practitioner so I have no use for theory,” and “While you are theorizing I will be busy actually designing stuff.” Continue reading »

Mac OS vs. Windows vs. Insert Favorite OS Here

Critique, Design Philosophy, Human-Centered, Opinion No Responses »

Apr 172009

After watching Bill Buxton’s talk about Microsoft starting to understand design better, I proceeded to view the comments, knowing full well what I would endure. It was pretty much the standard fare for any talk about technology when Microsoft’s name gets brought up: people missing the point and then valiantly defending their OS of choice while vehemently bashing any others. I have seen it a million times before, and this time it sparked the following thoughts. Continue reading »

What We Don't Say About the Things We Love

Critique, Design Philosophy, Opinion 1 Response »

Apr 152009

I love my Mac. However it seems that because some products are loved so much, we don’t offer up the critique that they need in order to be even better. Contrary to popular belief, Macs are not perfect. The purpose of this post is to illuminate some often glossed-over issues with Apple based on my use of a MacBook and MacBook Pro. I am not going to discuss this by comparing Macs to PCs. Not everyone who has a problem with a Mac will be satisfied by switching to PC or vice-versa. Continue reading »

Literature, Film, and HCI

Critique, Design Philosophy, Readings No Responses »

Mar 042009

After reading this paper, Interaction Criticism: A Proposal and Framework for a New Discipline of HCI by Jeff and Shaowen Bardzell, I came away with several insights to add to my personal design philosophy.

In the paper the authors claim that the HCI design process is missing an integral final step, the step of interaction criticism. There are many other art and design oriented fields, such as film and literature, which already have a culture of expert critics. Continue reading »

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