Deconstruct an analog interface

Now that you’ve ridden a horse and gotten familiar with the interface that is the saddle, let’s investigate the saddle conceptually.

First, share any photos you took with the rest of the class. You can do it by sneakernet or by posting to an FTP site, or if you post to Flickr, tag it with CCAFall2008DESGN60004, which should let us find each others pretty easily.

Select from among the classes’ photos and annotate them in Photoshop with your answers to the following questions. Think text, think overlayed drawings, think comparisons. Make it visual. Post at least 6 annotated images for us to discuss on Tuesday.

• What are the inputs? (Some are obvious, others less so)
• What are the outputs?
• How does each of the parts of the tack work for the horse and for the rider?
• If the saddle erred on the side of good for the rider, how would it change?
• If the saddle erred on the side of good for the horse, how would it change?
• Take a look at an interface for another type of transportation (like car, bus, or bicycle). What are the analogous parts? What well-designed aspects can you take from one to improve the other? (Why don’t we have mp3 players built into our saddles?)
• And finally, what patterns can you abstract from this investigation to the design of other interfaces you see in the world around you, and those that you will create in the future?