did you know there's psychology in design?

14/02/2020

Week 3 just went by which is fitting because its lecture focused on psychology and experience. Psychology and week 3 showed me my experience of time in this course. Starts slow and suddenly I’m about to graduate. In all seriousness though this week’s talk brought upon some recurring principles of design. User centred design and design for the masses being most prominent.

Our task in this class was simple, give a representation of an experience, ours being Tinder. From the start everyone in the group couldn’t express enough just how brilliant Tinder was. Everyone’s experience was just completely and utterly fantastic. We decided on a sketch of Tinder’s brilliance. I would have to admit that being a “catfish” for the sketch was an experience… to say the least. “I’m Joe Bloggs. I wish I was him but I’m not him”, the quintessential quote of a catfish by the name of Eddie Hellewell.

It was a guest speaker this week, even though she’s one of our tutors in the studio anyway… Dr Kellie Morrissey talked of her experience in dementia care and how our brains though mere centimetres away from our eyes can seem so alien. Certain videos with a gorilla and an unorganised group were enjoyable but also intriguing. A video I had seen before; an old wasting man and his brain’s connection to music, Cab Calloway in particular was undoubtedly “beautiful”. I have always said that if ever I get a brain disease or some particular body impairment, so long as I have my music I’ll be contempt. To many music is something for the background, in a club or just for study. They’re not overly picky and will put their Spotify on shuffle while they focus on other “more important things”. This feels like sin to me. I could spend up to 20 minutes looking for the right album to listen to while I do my sketching (which is a rarity this semester). Music conveys emotion for me. If you’re feeling strong and ready to work you need that oomph. Hans Zimmer’s strong brass section strengthens me beyond belief. Needing a bop, throw on Snarky Puppy’s empowering groove. The point I’m trying to make isn’t that I love music or that my experience is unique but that understanding its role in understanding the brain is something special because at the end of the day nothing can make me design and move as well as “ceol na ndaoine”.