Design Of My Prototype Wallet

After attending class this week and being introduced to design in both implementation and theory, it completely changed my perspective on the subject.  I always assumed that design was much more a personal creation from the standpoint of the designer instead its more so a process of creation revolving around the consumer. Design I now realize takes the skills and ingenuity of the designer to create something that is the wants and needs of the consumer. And the wants and needs of the consumer are primarily ease oriented meaning the product is of ease of use.  From what I learned in class typically the design process requires three steps; understanding, exploring and then materializing. The first part requires me to gather information on the consumer. In this case the consumer is my partner in class. I try to understand my partner on a personal level and gather information regarding what sort of person my partner is. This will help me establish what is important to my partner. After acquiring personal information I then want to define what my partner wants. And in this case it is how he uses his wallet on a day to day basis. By understanding his use of the product now I can design a new product that will be designed to function how he likes to use it. This first part of designing reminded me of a quote from Roger Whitehouse where he says, “Not only do our individual perceptual differences distinguish us from
one another, but all three components of perception-sensory mechanisms,
interpretation, and meaning-also change, often dramatically, over
the normal course of our lives”. By getting a personal connection to the consumer I can know what they want now and design catering to the current “want”. People change over time so it is important to establish a connection to the person at the time of design.  Knowing this, I clarify who I am as a person and what I want out of the product to the person trying to understand my needs.  Doing so allows for ease of design for the designer and also allows for a product better created to my needs.