Assignment Zero

Assignment 0: Bad design

• Find a bad design
• Capture user reaction
  • Their feelings towards the product
  • Lesson they learnt from the interaction
  • Their impression on brand
• Your reflection on the product and user reaction

So this is my submission for this assignment:

Introducing Nokia 5300

Nokia 5300 is a mobile phone that is designed for the music lover. For this reason, there are music buttons located at convenient places on the mobile phone, particularly on the right where there are three extra buttons to control music playback. There is the also speaker output that can beat out reasonably good music – perfect for irritating other commuters on the train system. Overall the phone looks good (really):

Initially i thought this would be a good design, but notice the earphone plug-in that is located close to the “previous” button on the mobile phone. The earphone plug-in is useful for private listening (and the radio), but when the earphone is plugged into the phone, a problem arises:

the ear-phone increases the width of the mobile phone and makes it difficult to put the mobile phone in the trouser’s pocket, especially if the pair of trousers are jeans material. the earphone also disconnects easily when pulled out of the pocket because it will catch onto the pocket.

Holding the phone is another problem. the “previous” button on the phone is also difficult to access with the ear phones plugged in:

as you can see, i am unable to press the “previous” button naturally with the index finger which should be the logical finger to press the button on the mobile phone. This is bad if i want to listen to a song again, because the design of the phone hinders me from doing so (conveniently anyway).

a second flaw in the design is the mobile phone’s speaker, which is located on the back of the mobile phone.

By putting the speaker on the back of the mobile phone, while listening to the music, one either has the choice of listening to muffled music (as the surface / hand holding the phone blocks out some sound), or turning the mobile phone on its back so one has clear music but no screen – hardly the intended idea of the phone.

Conclusion

The Nokia 5300 is a nice phone in general, but the well-meaning of the designers fall short when seemingly good design gets in the way of other features. Only by repeated use of products can users spot problems and improvements that often got overlooked.

Reference:
Nokia 5300 Official Website
http://www.nokia.com.sg/A4502093