Yves Behar:

Creating Objects that tell stories

Behar mainly discusses the interaction and importance of the designer throughout the design process really pushing the importance of having good work ethics. Behar encourages the designer to bring passion to the design project and morals/values to its design; saying that the good values we put into the product will in the end produce a more "valuable" product. He also explains how when we give values to the product we also give the product a soul and thus bring a "humanistic sense" to design. He encourages us to work together as designers, not just as a "colourist" that applies the "skin" but a designer that works from the inside out, how can we redesign ALL aspects of the product with the help of those around us? Behar reminds the designer and supports the designer in keeping the passion and enhusiasm of the original idea and persuing those thoughts.. because it is then that we will develop a design that creates conversation.

Task Five

Don Norman: Emotional Design

Don Norman talk is very interesting for the Industrial Designer as we are forever debating the issue of form vs function however in the film don norman really blends these things together saying that "pleasant things work better". He uses a great analogy about a plank of timber, saying that when its on the ground sure he can walk, jump, skip whatever on it, however if we moved this timber so that it was well off the ground he wouldn't use it; this concept is very interesting because it really defines the significance of our emotions in design. Looking back on the plank of wood analogy we realise that the timber still looks the same and still fufills its function but yet due to our emotions we dont use it. This really puts a whole new debate on the table, throwing out the concept of form vs function and saying that its all about emotion.

He talks about 3 types of emotions; visceral, behavioural, and reflective. The visceral emotion is all about feeling satisfied with the appearance of something to the point where the significance of the product itself is lost. The behavioural aspect of emotion he says is a little sub-concious but looks at the useability, feel, sensual, heft and the amount of control we have. The reflective emotion assess the impact of the product on the user, analysing how it has changed them (e.g. self image) or the world around them (e.g. sustainability).

Two key aspects i picked up from this film was how Don Norman defined emotion as "interpretting the world" and the info about how the brain works better when we eat sweets!

Task Two: Good Design

The Eva Solo Grater is so simple and yet so good. Why hasn't someone thought of this in the past, it so easily solves the problem of trying to keep a steady hand as you try to grate your cheese over the pasta because you can't be bothered to get the chopping board out! With this you can so easily just grate and throw it on! My only concern is that it promotes the fact is captures any juice however would this moisture just make the grated material "stick" to the bottom of the cup??

It has been really interesting analyzing the design of an every day object and learning to appreciate its qualities and characteristics. I also realized the advantaged of actually having used a similar product before analysis as i understood the product in its entirety and was able to evaluate it with just reasoning.