Assignment 1 - Product and Emotion

Visceral Design - Nokia 7360

Visceral design gets people's attention primarily from initial impact to its appearance. For this product I chose Nokia 7360 that comes in golden and pink colors, which is part of L'amour co llection, designed for female. In terms of features, it is just a very ordinary phone with

• 128 x 160 pixels 16-bit color display
• FM stereo radio
• Integrated VGA camera
• Integrated handsfree speaker
• XHTML mobile browsing
• IrDA
• Pop-Port™ connector

Visceral: feminine, cute
Behavioral: Not a great performer, not durable

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Behavioral Design - Nokia 1112

Behavioral design is about the total experience of using a product. It is based on the thought process on usability. This Nokia phone that is priced at $60 has the most basic features to make a call, send a text message, etc.

Visceral: Not attractive
Behavioral: Affordable, reliable, easy to use, practical

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Reflective design - Continental Luxury mobile phone

Reflective design is about how it makes one feel and about the social status that one is telling others.

This diamond encrusted 24 carat yellow gold plated hand-made Continental mobile phone is from the Obsession collection, which is sculpted and touched with the beauty of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, lust and beauty. Obsession mobile engineers work painstakingly hard to create a handset which is visually and naturally stunning in every sense. This skill in itself can take a lifetime to achieve. The price of the phone is around S$5000 and the features are as followed:

• Sapphire Crystal Glass LCD screen 2"
• HD colour resolution
• 2 Megapixel integrated digital camera
• PC Synchronisation via USB/USB connectivity
• MMS (multimedia message service)
• EAT (Enhanced Acoustics Technology)
• Multi Lingual
• Dual Sim card technology - allows the use of 2 different sim cards remaining active on the phone at the same time & during conversations.
• Unique Ocean Blue Floodlit keypad. The Keypad also uses a patented "soft key" technology which allows effortless key strokes
• External Memory - T-Flash Card
• Handsfree facility
• GPRS
• MP3
• MP4
• Calculator
• World Time
• To Do List
• Unit Converter
• Standby - 120hrs
• Talk time - 5 hours
• Travel charger
• Dimensions: 110*47*18mm
• Operating Frequency: Dual band GSM 900/1800

Visceral: Attractive, Luxurious
Behavioral: Have the features that most average 3G phones would have
Reflective: Status symbol, self-image, show off

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My reflection

I think the impressions of the different products are very subjective and personal feelings, and those impressions can change over time. For example, when I first saw Nokia 7360, I was very tempted to own one immediately. However, after a few days of visiting the stores and looking at the phones, I feel that it's just an eye candy phone and I would rather go for a more functional and affordable phone. On the other hand, when I first saw the Continental phone advertorial on a news program, I thought the phone was ugly and is more suitable for old people. However, now when I have a look at it, I feel like owning one like that. And I am currently using the cheap practical phone like Nokia 1112.

Assignment 0 - A bad design

Start…

While I was contemplating to come up with a bad design, this idea of a toilet-restaurant popped out in my mind. It has been disgusting me since the first time I saw the news about this restaurant. Therefore, I would like to present this ‘crappy’ restaurant to you.

It is a restaurant in Taiwan that serve food out of toilet bowls and the whole restaurant is themed 'toilet'.

Picture taken from http://www.boingboing.net/2005/06/30/crappy-restaurant.html and google images

User Reactions

While some of you might think it’s a novel idea or a fun thing to dine there, a lot of customers are turned down by the thought of dining shit-like food out of a toilet bowl. Here are a few feedback I gather from online forums:

“........... OH C R A P !!!........

.... well someone had to say it!! and yukkkkkkk... i wouldnt want to eat there.. just the idea alone of eating out of toiletshaped dishes... ewwwwww!!!!!!..........”

“I bet more than one person has tried the chocolate ice cream and yelled out "ewww...this tastes like sh!t!!!"

Impressions on the brand

From my interviews to a few of my friends give a mixed reaction. Some have the brand image of it as fun and cool idea for a dining place where they wouldn’t mind trying it out once. Others said looking at the pictures along disgust them, especially the ice-creams in the toilet bowl, and think that it’s a crappy idea.

My reflection on the product

Functionality/ Usability

It is just a restaurant that claims to have good food. People can go in to dine and maybe they have good services.

Aesthetics/ Sensorial design

I think the main problem is on the restaurant’s sensorial design. It might seems innovative yet at the same time very ironic. According Patrick W. Jordon’s Hierarchy of consumer needs, pleasure is the highest level of consumer values. But in this case, I don’t think the toilet design brings pleasure to the diners at the restaurant.

Hedonic Quality

In terms of branding, the restaurant is trying hard to portray it as a hip and innovative place for the fun-seekers. While I believe that this branding strategy might impress a niche of consumers, the question is in ‘customer loyalty’. I personally do not feel that the restaurant can maintain a long-term loyalty from the customers if they want to brand themselves as innovative. The restaurant will need to define their value proposition and convince the customers why they have come back to the restaurant.

My reflection on user reactions

Although I was totally turned down with the idea of eating out of a toilet bowl, I also appreciate the different individual preferences – those who think it is fun to dine there. However, I believe a good user experience design is to attract the majority in the bell consumer bell-curve not those from the edge of the curve.

One possibility of the sustainability of its business despite the controversial outlook is that the setting somehow provokes uses with challenge. It is too bad that the achievement of daring to eat the restaurant gives diners satisfaction of accomplishment. That is how the restaurant sustain the customers' loyalty.