MFA Interaction Design Blog

The Laws of Simplicity icons by John Maeda

In our cybernetics class, Michael Yap asked us “What design principles we follow?” Ever since that class, I have been thinking about the design principle I mentioned, which was simplicity.

When I was studying my bachelor’s, my professor Abby Goldstein (Fordham University) would take apart my complicated designs and would teach me to understand that a functioning design does not have to be complicated. Her rule of thumb was ‘keep it simple’. To this day, I have been following this rule and have applied it to all my designs.

How simple is too simple? This depends on the product you are building. If you think two buttons works for all of your functionality AND the user can easily understand the functions, I say go for it. For example, Apple’s 2nd generation iPod had a click wheel and button. Most users automatically got the functions of the click wheel. 

The Laws of Simplicity I highly recommend the ‘The Laws of Simplicity’ by John Maeda. This book is my go to when I create any new product. John Maeda describes ten laws of simplicity.

Reduce: The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.

Organize: Organization makes a system of many appear fewer.

Time: Savings in time feel like simplicity.

Learn: Knowledge makes everything simpler.

Differences: Simplicity and complexity need each other.

Context: What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral.

Emotion: More emotions are better than less.

Trust: In simplicity we trust.

Failure: Some things can never be made simple.

The One: Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.

The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda

If you don’t remember anything else, memorize The One.

“Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.”

I got my very first work experience when I was in high school. I was volunteering at the Audubon zoo in New Orleans. It was during the summer seasons, where I was doing a bit of filing in the membership office, photographing special events and talking to guests about my designated animal aka my partner in crime, a baby rainbow boa.

I was working throughout all my college years. After graduating in 2009, I got a full-time job as a design and UX lead in a small non-profit. I moved myself up to a product design firm, where I got to learn interactivity with physical products. I have design experience around 8 years and I am confident to say, that I know a thing or two about design.

Now I am a graduate student at School of Visual Arts, Interaction Design program and it’s that time where companies have posted their summer internship opportunities. Recruiters will receive at least 500 applications for one position.

So why should I go back to the beginning of my timeline and be an intern again?

Ever since I partnered up with Ruth to create a game about pessimism and optimism, I found out that people have a wrong view of a pessimist. They think that being pessimist is all about being negative, depressed or basically a Debbie Downer of some sought.

Just googling the word pessimist I saw pictures of broken hearts, a cloud over a sad face, bats with a full moon (what?), a thumbs down and my favorite a grim reaper. Ever since this project was introduced, people see me as the ‘evil’ one. 

Well, I am here to set things straight. I am a pessimist and no I am not related to the grim reaper. I come from a very loving family and I am honest about myself and do not hide behind the shadows of people who pretend. I believe life goes wrong time to time and I am prepared for those moments, rather than relying on hopes.

According to an article on Psychology Today: A Pessimist does not have big hopes in a project or pretend that everything will work out. We actually come up with backup plans, in case it fails.

Pessimism is an effective motivator when we’re faced with an overwhelming or amorphous fear. A feeling of foreboding about an outcome can prompt us to take necessary steps that we would otherwise avoid.

In the below video ‘Wisdom of Pessimism,’ it sums up 4 important things about pessimism.

Pessimism prepares you for the worst: We always prepare ourselves with a back plan, in case something fails.

It reduces tension of expectations: We reduce our expectations going into any type of situation.

Protects you from disappointment: And as a result of reducing our expectations, we do not get disappointed.

And will make you laugh a bit: We are prepared with our backup plans, that we have time to laugh at the thing went wrong.

I take comedy very seriously.

Four years ago I wanted to be an improv comedian. I was taking on a variety of design jobs — some more stimulating than others — and was always looking for design challenges. While searching for other outlets for my creative energies, I experienced a short interlude in improv comedy. At first, the thought of it terrified me, because I had to go on stage and make people laugh on a brightly lit stage. I do tell an occasional joke, but making strangers laugh wasn’t my thing.

I looked into improv classes in New York and signed up for the Pit’s beginner level. Apart from making people laugh, there are some key things I learned.

“Yes, and” When your scene partners says something, agree and add more to the story

Don’t ask questions

Don’t say no

And most importantly, do not kill off your stage partners. It’s just rude.

After performing my first improv show on stage, I was hooked! The audience laughed at my jokes. Was I officially funny? They were a bit drunk, but still it counts. One summer I went to Second City in Chicago to study improv and comedy writing. I walked the halls of famous alumni, a few who we love: Tina Fey, Steve Carrell, Stephen Colbert, Jim Belushi and Amy Poehler. When I returned back to New York I continued to move up each level at the Pit. A few of my classmates and I got together and decided to create an improv group, called ThunderHead. Our performances were considered top notch. When we were on stage, we were all in the same wavelength. We knew how to make each other funnier, the audience laughed and laughed. We even got invited to comedy festivals and perform at the Pit.

After a year passed my interest in comedy deteriorated and I wanted to go back to do more design. I did not want to be the next Tina Fey, rather the next Dan Formosa. Improv taught me to look beyond my immediate world to find inspiration and meaning. I have also learned to take risk, collaborate, improvise, and go beyond my comfort zone.

I only write when I have to. I know writing is important, especially when you must discuss your process as a designer. Applying for internships have begun and that means, dreaded cover letters — the part where I have to write about myself. They ask to ‘tell a story’.

In our entrepreneurial class, my instructors Gary and Christina recommended an article written by Josh Seiden on “How to Write” (highly recommend it). He mentions ‘the rule.’ You must write for 20 minutes and “DO NOT STOP WRITING UNTIL THE TIMER IS DONE”. For me, this sounded dreadful, anxious and scary. From the beginning, I knew this wasn’t going to be easy.

I switched off my computer. I had a notebook and pen. I started a timer for 20 minutes and I started. At first, I was staring at a blank page for a few seconds, then I remember thinking to myself, ‘I should write something.’ After writing the title (as it needed some explanation), I wrote “I have no idea how to start this” and I rambled on for three pages on cover letters and things I wanted to do.

I was assigned to watch a TED video by Daniel Kahneman: The riddle of experience and memory. He talked about the type of experiences that we have day to day. Daniel lists 3 types of experiences:

“The first one is called the experienced self: Which lives in the present. It has moments of experience, one after the other and it is capable living in the past And you can ask: What happens to these moments? And the answer is really straightforward: They are lost forever.

Second you have the present self: This only the present, no past.

Lastly you have the remembering self: Is a storyteller. And that really starts with a basic response of our memories –it starts immediately. We don’t only tell stories when we set out to tell stories. Our memory tells us stories, that is, what we get to keep from our experiences is a story.”

Daniel’s TED talk resonated with me for a long time. I personally was thinking about my personal experiences in life, some positive and negative. If it was a positive experience, I would somewhat remember it, but there would be some blurriness. For example: I went to see the U.S. open last year with my boyfriend. I saw 2 incredible players: Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams. I remember feeling very happy going to the event, but I do not remember much about the during and after.

It is completely the opposite feeling, when I think about my negative experiences. I remember them, as if it happened to me yesterday. Once a upon a time, I was living in Brooklyn and I had one of the loudest neighbors upstairs. Their walking steps sounded like stomping. They would wake me up at 5 am, while they were getting ready to work. My weekends were completely unbearable with constant noise from 10am to 6pm. When I went up to speak to them, my heart was racing and my imagination was running wild. I did not know what to expect. They scolded me and accused me of being inconsiderate. I remember feeling scared, defeated and lost. I even cried, because I knew they would make matters worse. Ever since that day, I would avoid the elevator with them.

For some of us it was the first time experiencing snow and for the rest it was nothing new. So how did we spend our time during the blizzard? See below:

Uijun experienced his never ending snow shoveling. 

Saba and Ruth: “What blizzard?”

A tree grows in Brooklyn - Shane’s bonsai

Kohzy embraces the snow

Song enjoys the snow from the inside

Mood boarding for fashion designers is a blizzard - David A

These some of the things we have in store for this semester. Spring 2016 will bring us new challengers and projects that we are all eager to work on.

The class of 2017 is back from a well rested break, with full speed. Some of us when back home to spend time with our family and the rest of us visited a whole new city with new people. Are we glad to be back? Yes, we are. Spring 2016 started with a packed week, with very intriguing classes.

For our smart objects class we have the pleasure with partnering up with the Product of Design students to design a ‘smart’ product in a specific area. Design in public spaces, is to improve a hub called LinkNYC, which serves 1GB of free wifi within a certain distance.

Entrepreneurial design, challenges us with the big ‘$1000 project’, that requires us to design a product and find at least 50 Kickstarter backers. Thesis thinking, brings us a new client with a research project, that is NPR. They have completed a thorough detailed research about their users and our goal is to synthesis the data and design new opportunities.

Just to sum up how finals felt for all of us, here are some common tags used:

#wait

#nosleep

#whatjusthappened

#1weekleft

#ijustcant

#help

#notright

#icantdothis

#1hoursleep

#willitend

#4moretogo

#praying

#wecandoit

#isitover

#imnotready

#needcoffee

Jump to the deep end. This is one of my favorite things about school. There isn’t a wrong answer during school, in fact it is good that your answer is wrong. It is a better opportunity to learn more. I loved the fact that I was able to experiment with data visualization in my coding class; explore and test different sensors in Physical Computing and actually do some field research on NYC public services.

Play nice with others. There are plenty of group work and collaboration during each class. Depending on who you group with, it can be a fun or not-so-fun experience. I was honest with myself and others. Make sure each of group members have there own part to do.

Say goodbye for 8 hour sleep, get use to > 5 hours of sleep: Long nights are common. Especially during exam season. There were few nights that I had only 2 hours of sleep and some of my classmates had none. Do not procrastinate, especially during final weeks, when everything is due on the same week.

Learn to handle stress well. Always have some time do something else, that makes you feel happy and relax. My way of dealing with stress is running 3 miles in Riverside park. It definitely helps me to deal with stress.