Documentation_IxR_Lewandowski

IxR
Interaction Design
Similar processes
How do you design a homepage for a customer when they don’t know what they want?
Usually the customer doesn’t know what the homepage should look like. The customer tells what
the homepage should roughly include. The designer creates proposals on some basic requirements
and communicates with the web designer or a web developer back and forth. The customer
criticizes what he or she does not like. The developer improves and “guesses” what the customer
might want trying to meet the expectations. The conversation might be long.
How do you design a vehicle interior with blurry vision? The users usually just design something.
Through some meetings with marketing representatives, engineers, and other participants the new
need of a new design is defined. The defined need is sometimes not specific enough. The design
director tells his team that the new design is needed. Everyone starts working on the new concept.
Let’s say 5 designers would work on the same topic. They would present 10 of their best sketches.
Only one will be chosen by the design manager and design director. Everyone will start working on
the new chosen design proposal to create as many alternatives as possible. After a meeting a new
proposal out of 50 will be chosen. Every time the designer will try to guess which direction it should
go and whether or not the design manager and director will be happy with the proposed solution.
A lot of times it is about guessing more or less based on research from the internet or internal
sources.
How do you customize your vehicle through a limited online configurator?
Online configurator usually allows you to change some colors, materials and some parts like rims.
It does not really allow the customer to freely decide what will go inside and what the interior will
look like. The process is pretty easy but doesn’t give you lots of opportunities to create a
customized interior.
How do you shop for groceries at Meijer online? Often you know what you want through
previous experience, but the search can take a long time.
Based on my usual habits and preferences (previous experience) I usually buy the same products to
save time on searching and reading.
I type in the search bar the product names I already know. I also look up the product names on my
shelves at home and type them in to find out if they are available online.
How do you shop at IKEA? There is usually a long search and long walk. Customer wonders
around and has too many options and no spontaneous exit.
The customer looks for a special product. It can be a table. The customer doesn’t know what
exactly the product should look like. He expects at IKEA to see some examples of already
predesigned rooms. IKEA does a good job at that.
Sometimes the customer knows what functions the desired product should have based on the
experienced needs: It has to have a storage space. My documents are everywhere in my room and
I have to stand up, pick them up from a shelf or from my closet and go back to my table. It is
inconvenient. My table should have a bright color so that it matches well to my other furniture
pieces in the room. The customers go to the IKEA with some expectation and requirements but
don’t know exactly what they will find and finally like. The designer designs something based on his
information of what the user might expect and tries to guess what the potential user might like.
It would be great if there would be a scanner that would analyze my room or favorite objects to
suggest the designs I might like or create new designs for me using “generative design”.
https://www.autodesk.com/solutions/generative-design
https://www.autodesk.com/redshift/what-is-generative-design-2/
https://autodeskresearch.com/projects/dreamcatcher
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Sofia Lewandowski | MFA Interaction Design | College for Creative Studies | Detroit