Disqus - Latest Comments for jackmoffett

Re: DesignAday — Daily High and Low Temperatures in All 50 States

Jack L. Moffett — Sat, 09 Mar 2024 23:18:20 -0000

Hey Glen, now that you mention it, you're right. That makes me think they didn't use the same scale for each state. I bet the tool they were using to produce these used the highest high and lowest low as the range for a single state. To correctly produce a small multiple, it would have to use the lowest low across all states and highest high across all states for every state. That would have been easier to catch had they included some actual values in the chart. I made some assumptions I shouldn't have made.

Re: DesignAday — Paywalled

Jack L. Moffett — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 22:45:49 -0000

I guess that would let me keep a copy after dropping the subscription, but I'd still need the subscription to get them in the first place. At any rate, this likely the last time I'll be teaching this class: https://designaday.tumblr.c...

Re: DesignAday — In the Details: Upload

Jack L. Moffett — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 17:16:14 -0000

I hadn't thought of it from that direction. I was assuming the development teams just didn't want to make the effort to add drag-n-drop.

Re: DesignAday — The Interconnectedness of Design Disciplines...

Jack L. Moffett — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 22:03:56 -0000

Hi Gabi,

I can send you the PDF. Shoot me an email at jackmoffett@mac.com.

Re: DesignAday — R.I.P. iTunes

Jack L. Moffett — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 22:43:46 -0000

Oh, quite right. It's unsurprising, but it's still annoying.

Re: DesignAday — Design Pet Peeve: Multi-field Code Entry

Jack L. Moffett — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 18:44:45 -0000

Ah yes, that too.

Re: Lee Dodd Product Design — Readings 3/26 - 4/2

Jack L. Moffett — Tue, 02 Apr 2019 00:09:35 -0000

Yes, it is important for designers to keep up with changes, but that's not the point of this week's readings. I'd really like to know what you think of the ethical issues raised by Glaser and the others.

Re: Lee Dodd Product Design — Readings a Week After Spring Break (March 19-26)

Jack L. Moffett — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 01:41:25 -0000

I’ve never liked 99designs for the very reasons Jon states, but he also has a good point: there is a market for this. Not all entities can afford to pay a professional designer or firm for quality work. Regardless, it is a business model that exists, so we must learn to compete with it.

Re: Lee Dodd Product Design — Readings Spring Break

Jack L. Moffett — Sun, 17 Mar 2019 16:40:31 -0000

That's not to say that aesthetic considerations are always worth less than, say, productivity improvements. Aesthetics can be extremely important, resulting in product differentiation in the market and increased sales.

Re: Lee Dodd Product Design — Readings 2/26-3/5

Jack L. Moffett — Sun, 03 Mar 2019 22:11:32 -0000

While poverty, health, and wellness can be "tackled", they're considered "wicked" because they are extremely complex and interwoven with other equally complex problems.

The end of the article is pointing out why most companies are not going to work on, or be successful at, addressing wicked problems.

Re: Lee Dodd Product Design — Readings (5) 2/5-2/12

Jack L. Moffett — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 21:58:41 -0000

The point of speculative design is to explore a range of possible futures so that you can understand both positive and negative outcomes of, for example, the introduction of a new product. Then you can make design decisions that will steer the outcome towards a preferred future.

Re: Lee Dodd Product Design — Readings (3) 1/22-1/29

Jack L. Moffett — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 15:00:53 -0000

Yes, there's quite a lot of overlap, isn't there? I wonder, then, what your thoughts are on the boundaries that Buchanan lays out in his talk. Do they make sense? Is that a useful way of thinking about each of the disciplines Boevers outlines? Are they all truly disciplines?

Yes, time can be an important aspect of graphic design. In fact, you might say that designing a book takes more than just graphic design. There is an organization of information and mechanisms included to aid in searching, which sounds a lot like Information Architecture. And, depending on the book, there may be interfaces for navigating the book, such as tabs, or a bookmark. Isn't that Interaction Design? But hasn't book design always been done by graphic designers? Are there boundaries?

Re: DesignAday — Touch Me

Jack L. Moffett — Sun, 02 Dec 2018 12:55:48 -0000

I know, right?

Re: DesignAday — In the Details: Unlock to Charge

Jack L. Moffett — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 13:26:47 -0000

Sorry, the way I phrased that is misleading. It was announced as an iOS 12 feature, but it was released early in 11.4.1.

Re: Fall 18 — Design of Everyday Things

Jack L. Moffett — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 22:19:51 -0000

Yes, behavior change is one of the most difficult challenges to undertake. This should be an important area of questioning during usability testing.

Re: Design For Change Fall 2018 — October 14th Reading

Jack L. Moffett — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 22:14:17 -0000

As with any company, Apple is trying to find features that will set its product apart from the competition. Sometimes this results in truly useful features like Touch ID and Face ID. Sometimes it results in silly things like animoji's.

Re: Design for Change — Assignment 8

Jack L. Moffett — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 22:00:46 -0000

The question becomes even more interesting when you start looking at things like sense augmentation. Sure, your example of the artificial muscle that won't tire is pretty clear, but what if a basketball player had vision impairment and when offered treatment went with a package that included sight augmentation? It allows her to accurately gauge distances, like say between herself and the hoop. Does this disqualify her from competing? What of a football player that was losing his hearing and got a cochlear implant that allowed him to overhear the competing team in their huddle?

There will have to be rules governing the human body just as there currently are regarding the technology utilized in race cars and other sports that rely on equipment.

Re: Design for change — Reading Assignment 8

Jack L. Moffett — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 21:36:37 -0000

If an app is useful, will it become less useful over time if new features are not added? I would argue not. A calculator app is useful. Would I stop using it a year from now if no new features were added to it? In fact, the calculator app on the iPhone has changed very little since it was first introduced.

Features are typically added to compete with similar products, to appeal to a new customer segment, or to convince existing customers to pay for an upgrade.

Re: Design For Change — Book Post 8

Jack L. Moffett — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 21:25:06 -0000

I agree with you, but technology also allows us to be ignorant. For example, at a point in our history, it was common for people to know how to fix an engine. It was common in large part because it was necessary if you wanted to keep your car running. As the technology advanced, it became more reliable. It also became more complex. Now, very few people know how to change their oil, let alone repair an engine problem. More recently, the same thing has happened with our computers.

Re: Andrea Contaldi-Design For Change

Jack L. Moffett — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 21:08:01 -0000

A recent episode of 99% Invisible was about the history of denim and its impact on clothing and fashion. Our bluejeans today aren't made the same way that they were originally. They contain a lot of synthetic material to make them stretchier. Pure denim was very stiff and had to be worn in, but it would last forever. Now, after a few years of wear, I have holes in my back pocket from my wallet and places around the front pockets that are almost worn completely through.

We've designed a disposable society for the sake of convenience.

Re: Untitled — Everyday Things Oct 8

Jack L. Moffett — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 00:58:11 -0000

I'm really interested to see what questions you are trying to answer with your prototypes. As we discussed in class, there are a lot of directions you could go, so you'll have to pick some specific questions to answer that will move the ball forward (or move the bear forward?).

Re: Lee Dodd Product Design

Jack L. Moffett — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 00:44:41 -0000

That's an interesting question. Are there different hand washing rituals in other cultures that you could learn from? It might not help you get the last drop out of a bottle, but it might suggest aspects of the product that you haven't thought about.

Re: Jeffrey — Post Seven | Art 325 C03

Jack L. Moffett — Mon, 08 Oct 2018 23:47:56 -0000

Speed is important, but it's not the most important factor, nor is it important in all situations. And there's a difference between the calendar time a project takes and the number of man hours spent during that time. Speed is relative. If I'm first to market with a new product, I may be successful in the short term, but if the product is of poor quality due to rushing it to market, it will be that much easier for a competitor to best me with a superior product.

Re: Fall 18 — 10-7-18

Jack L. Moffett — Mon, 08 Oct 2018 23:36:20 -0000

Kofi is talking about collecting feedback during the design process. If you show somebody a screen that looks like a finished product, they are less likely to feel like it can be changed, or they are more likely to focus on less important aesthetic details. Kelley is talking about selling a concept to a client. If you don't have confidence in your design, why should anyone else? They are two different situations that require different approaches.

Re: Design for Change Blog — Kelley Chapters 9&11

Jack L. Moffett — Mon, 08 Oct 2018 23:23:47 -0000

Speed is very important in business, but perhaps more important than that is accurate time estimation. We have to be able to give an estimate of how long it's going to take us to complete a piece of work before we start on it—sometimes before we even understand the problem that needs to be solved. Being able to estimate accurately keeps you from overcommitting and missing deadlines, and it keeps you from overpricing and losing business.