Kenisha Rullan
Professor Sam Brenner
Core Studio Interaction
09 FEB 17
Reading 1: Bill Moggridge, Designing Interactions Chapter 2, pages 87-105 and pages 126-133.
From page 87 to 105, I learned about Bill Atkiinson and his contribution to the design of Apple Lisa and his everlasting influence on all computer interfaces to come.
Firstly, the images of polaroids capturing the evolution of his design process is so fascinating. It really feels "old" - yet, many of the designs we see in the polaroids are ever present today. Reading about the creation of the pull-down menus, windows, and scroll bars was inspiring because you can tell that these people really worked hard on it. And the teamwork involved in the process really made a difference to how quickly and efficientally things came to be. I'm also really impressed that they built original things. Their inability to be inspired by Xerox allowed them to explore other possibilities rather than narrow their horizons.
The process of trial and error is extremely significant to designers, and I think to programmers especially. I remember being turned off by computer science because of the immense frustration I would feel from such small details. In my Creative Computing class last semester, we read some of articles regarding this. Almost everyone experiences this frustration, enough to throw your MacBook at the wall. But I became empowered knowing that I'm cjust as capable as everyone else, and having the mindset that "I'm just not cut out for this" is so, so wrong.
It's funny seeing the early designs of computer graphics trying to mimick real life. This was very apparent, and to an extent it still is. A question my teacher raised that I still think about, is how can we use the computer realm to create graphics that go beyond our physical world?
Moving on the pages 126-133, I read about Bill Verplank who explained interaction design in a more digestible way. He raised many good questions that I will learn to ask in order to create a better interactive experience.