Classmates' Links

One article I looked at was on Naufal's blog. I was attracted to his article because the passage he chose dealt with the bad design of a product that everyone has probably run into at some point in their lives. It was about a little toy that didn't work until you pulled the tag out of the toy's tail region. After reading the article more in depth, I came to really like Naufal's article because it also gave ways to improve upon those poor designs. Naufal did a great job of relating many of the things we did in class to the article he chose. One major issue with this toy was the visibility of the tag. It was not in an easy place to discover and a consumer would probably think the toy was broken and return it.

http://www.baddesigns.com/toy.html

Another blog I looked at belonged to Kelsey. Her blog interested me because it talked about how many products designed for one purpose, end up doing better as something else. One example from her article that I thought was funny was how reinforced concrete came along. Apparently, a gardener was trying to make a stronger flower pot and it ended up being perfect for the future of concrete. This blog was overall very informative on the accidental design process or "cross-pollination" as they call it. I thought it was cool how many products that we use today were created on accident. This relates to our class because it talked about the design process as a whole. In class, we talk about many of the aspects of design that can make a great product, but this article hits on the issue of the actually development, before all the flaws are found.

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jun2007/id20070611_440529.htm?campaign_id=rss_innovate