Understanding User

Reverse Marketing Analysis (RMA) of Imaginary client: Skye

Skye is a 27-year-old female living in Singapore. She works as an chief editor in a popular woman fashion magazine.

Skye is currently single, though she had a few relationships before. Being an independent woman, she moved out of her parents' house at the age of 25. She lives alone in a condominium. However, she cherishes her family very much. As such, her condominium is very near her family, and she visits them at least twice a week no matter how busy she is. If she is away on a company trip, she will call back home every two nights.

Skye never leave home without dressing up. She likes to look good and through dressing up she feels good about herself. Skye's sense of dressing is stylish, chic and classy. She dislikes herself looking too feminine and especially hates the colour pink. She never follows the fashion blindly, and sometimes she starts a trend. She especially like it when people notice her. Skye's friends admire her for her style of dressing and often ask for her opinions. Skye enjoys giving out fashion tips.

Skye loves shopping and if she like something, she will buy it on the spot. She had a particular buy that she was very satisfied with.

Skye fell head over heels with the sunglasses the moment she saw them. At this moment, she is very into the stylistic and retro look. Even though these sunglasses were marketed for a male target audience, she didn't care and bought them because she look great in them. She feels that these big retro sunglasses with thick frames could just be the very next 'in' thing for women.

Skye is an ambitious woman. She believes that a woman can work as well as a man can, and even better. She strives to do her work well and go beyond what is expected of her. Her networking skills are excellent, she knows almost everyone in the fashion industry by name. She feels that her job is stressful yet enjoyable. The perks of her jobs includes getting special invitations and exclusive invites to fashion shows and other events, and hence the opportunity to show off her style. Due to the nature of her job, she is constantly on the move to look out for new fashion trends and ideas.

Skye is also a sports player. She loves the sun and sea. Her favourite sport is volleyball. She is very conscious of her own figure. She excercises regularly and eat in moderation to maintain her tan healthy looks.

Four pleasure analysis of Skye

Physio-pleasure
Skye enjoys the feeling of sweating it out. She engages in all kind of exercises to keep fit and in shape. (Need)

She takes care of what she eats to maintain good health, body and complexion. (Need)

After a long day at work, Skye likes to relax at home. Lying down and listen to soothing music, or reading a book on the sofa, or watching some comedy or drama show on TV can be good physical relaxation to her. (Appreciation)

Socio-pleasure
As part of her job, Skye needs to be good at networking and maintains good personal and corporate relationships. (Need)

She loves the glamour and status associated with her job. (Appreciation)

She likes it when her friends and people in the fashion industry compliment her for her good fashion sense. (Appreciation)

She cherishes her family very much and loves the feeling of having a meal together as a family. (Need)

Psycho-pleasure
When work gets demanding for Skye, she likes to play computer games to relieve stress. She especially likes car racing games which can pump up her adrenaline. (Need)

Skye is very good at volleyball. She feels a sense of satisfaction after a good game with her friends. When she feels that she is in top form during the game, she feels especially good about herself. (Need)

Ideo-pleasure
Skye believes in dressing well. She also loves to dress uniquely. She like to be seen as a fashion trend setter and takes pride in her good fashion sense. (Appreciation)

Skye aspires to be a successful and independent woman. She believes that a woman can be as successful as a man, if not more sucessful. (Appreciation)

~

The phone just for HER..
Dopod M700

Why Skye loves Dopod M700..

Physio-Pleasure
Lightweight & sleek (Need) - 108 x 58 x 16.8 mm, 130g
Pleasing texture (Appreciation)
Fits in her hand easily (Appreciation)
Responsive keyboard/navigator (Need) - Touch screen + Mechanical wheel

Socio-Pleasure
Newly launched model (Need)
Image enhancing (Need)
Ability to keep in touch with people anytime and anywhere (Appreciation) - Bluetooth, Infrared, Wi-Fi, GPRS/GSM, USB, EDGE, 802.11b/g wireless LAN, SMS, Email, Instant message

Physio-Pleasure
Ability to learn using the phone easily (Appreciation) - Good user interface
Ability to streamline tasks (Need) - Synchronization with desktop
Satifaction from the ability to use the phone as other things (Appreciation) [i.e a MP3 player, radio, video player, digital camera, organiser, browse the Internet, check email, connect with friends, get news, create documents etc] - Installed applications: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 with DirectPush Technology; Outlook Mobile, Office Mobile (Word, Excel, Powerpoint), Adobe Reader (PDF), IE Mobile, Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, PocketMSN, Activesync, Comm Mgr, Streaming Media Player, Internet Sharing, Media Hub, Audio Booster, FM Radio, Cyberon Voice Commander, RSS News Reader, CE-Star (download) + Built-in 2 megapixles digital camera

Ideo-Pleasure
Showed off her independence. (Need)
Not cliche. (Need)
Stylish, sleek and aesthetic looking. (Need)

Why does she not choose Apple's iPhone instead?
Because in Skye own words - "its too cliche"!

That's Skye for you!

P.S: See what Junhao my partner chose for his imaginary character Trina who love that very same sunglasses Skye loved.

Emotional Designs

Visceral design: refers primarily to that initial impact, to its appearance.

Behavioral design: is about look and feel, the total experience of using a product - the physical feel/pleasure and effectiveness of use.

Reflective design: is about ones thoughts afterwards, how it makes one feel, the image it portrays, the message it tells others about the owner's taste.

The war of MP3 Players

#1
Apple iPod nano
8GB
S$428

Visceral design: Nice, sleek, thin, elegant, stylish and its an Apple!

Behavioral design: Ok sound quality, easy to use interface, lots of functions. So thin! I hope I don't break it.

Reflective design: Look I have an iPod nano! And its cool to have one. Or rather not cool to not have one?! Everyone has it and I have it too. iPod nano looks so nice!

#2
Trekstor i.Beat organix
1 GB
US$20,000
750 gold (18 karat)
adorned with 63 diamonds (one-karat)
embellished with a small chain that includes aquamarine gems
over 100 hours of handiwork
winner of 14 accolades

Visceral design: Does not look very nice. Design is not very attractive. A very common and unexciting design.

Behavioral design: Small memory space, full bodied sound.

Reflective design: Status symbol, show off, more of an accessory than a mp3 player. Think of the diamonds, gold and gems! Who cares if the design is not that nice? What's more, it an limited edition!

#3
Creative ZEN V Plus
8GB
S$399

Visceral design: Looks bulky, not very exciting. Colour scheme is nice though. Quite stylish.

Behavioral design: Excellent sound quality! Creative's audio technology is good! Good and easy to use interface. A lot of additional functions - FM radio, video player, photo viewer and other applications. And I must say again, the sound quality is five stars!

Reflective design: The sound is definitely a plus point. The design is not bad too. And Creative is a local brand. Support local brand!

Bad Design (The Real One)

The Encounter

(Writer's note: Due to the non-cooperative nature of Singapore's weather, the writer was unable to get the exact photographs of the encounter. So, please do use your imagination. Thanks!)

Some time ago, not too long ago...

Three ladies were walking home after alighting the bus. It was raining heavily, but thankfully there were shelters all around, so there were no need for umbrellas.

The Shelter

Well they were chatting happily about their shopping experience and all was well. Suddenly, they came upon some mini waterfalls at this particular part of the shelter. Waterfalls?! At a shelter?! A shelter which function is suppose to not let any rain come in?!

Mini Waterfalls

The Reactions:

Sis: Don't know what architectures are doing nowadays, they all know how to design state-of-the-art buildings but missed out on the practical stuff.

Mum: Yeah lor, what is the use of a nice looking shelter that will leak water?

Me: Use this shelter will still have to use umbrella, don't know why they build the shelter?

Sis: Quite dumb hor.

Mum: Waste our taxpayers money only!

All of us nodded in agreement. And we left wondering whether the money should be put into hiring better architects.

Or perhaps the money should really be put into educating would-be architects to think practically, on top of aesthetically.

The Bad Design

Bad design of the shelter

Apparently, the waterfalls were due to the bad design of the shelter itself.

"Part no.1" lies directly on top of "Part no.2". Due to a gap in the shelter, "Part no.1" is exposed to the rain. The rain then dripped down to "Part no.2", which then formed a mini waterfall.

The connecting part of the shelter has obviously not been designed with careful considerations.

The ugly waterstains that the rain had created

Due to the rain that day, I did not noticed the waterstains. However, when I went to take these photos, I saw the ugly waterstain marks that the rain left.

The shelter had left the ugly waterstains as a proof of the bad design!

The Writer's Reflection

The town council built shelters with the purpose of them being able to shelter residents from rain or sun. However, taxpayers' money (aka my parents' money) is wasted when designs of shelters are made without careful considerations.

The shelter in question looked pleasing and nice. Yet when it was most wanted, it could not fulfil its job as a shelter, which then defeats the whole purpose of having a shelter in the first place.

Furthermore, once a shelter is built, it is hard to make any more changes because it will involve too much work and money. Thus residents, even if they complained, will still have to live with the poorly designed shelter until the next upgrade, which could be ten or twenty years later.

I feel that there is an even greater need for design considerations when it comes to buildings and other large structures, because once built, they are very hard to change. So I think that architects should be educated to think practically on top of aesthetically.

In fact, not only architects, but designers generally, should think more practically. (As seen from fellow NM4210 classmates whose complains of bad designs ranges from doorknobs to chairs to handphones to sinks.) Perhaps more user testings and feedbacks could be done. It is often easy for designers to neglect some very obvious flaws since they are the one designing it. Architects could probably do some model testing before they send their designs for building.

I guess for now, especially during this raining season, I will have to bring my umbrella out, because afterall, shelters are not much of a use.

Bad Design?!

Do you know what is this? You don't? Well it is a rubbish bin! You didn't know that right? So obviously that is a bad design! Right?! I mean, some people could have mistaken it for a real football and kicked it! *Ouch*

Nah kidding. Just a lighthearted first post while I rack my head to find some bad designs. Remembered encountering bad designs, just can't think of any now. So pardon the crapping.

^^||