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This should be the closing entry of this little blog. As the semester draws to a close, it's only natural to reflect "nostalgically" on the "days gone by".
What is user experience? What is the design of user experience? All this while, the phrase "user experience" gives me a fuzzy image of some kind of "encounter" with some emotional or aesthetical product. Well, now after this module, my view is still the same. User experience is still a fuzzy concept, but that does not mean I've learnt nothing from this module. In fact, I've learnt much more non-theoreotical knowledge than most other modules in my 3 yrs in NUS. User experience is in fact everything that encompasses everything and anything. This everything is anything that we see, hear, feel, touch or taste while interacting with a particular product or situation. Confused yet? In this module, through the various assignments that we are given, the multi facet nature of user experience design is presented to us. What's interesting is that as the module progresses, I started to view almost everything as an user experience. Hence, I would bring myself through my own experience with this product: NM4210.
The beginning
Well, had a bad experience finding the venue. Never expected that there are tutorial and seminar classrooms in that far corner of AS6. That explains my lateness (excuses, ha) and I apologise sincerely for stumbling into a class full of students in the middle of Reddy's lecture. We are given our first assignment to set up this very blog and to post an article about some bad user design. Initially, I thought it was going to be an easy task. Bad designs are all around us ain't it? Or so it seems...spent an entire weekend frying my brains trying to find a suitable product to write about but to no avail. Bad designs are around us, but it's hard to conceptualise the reasons for it being a bad design. Sometimes, things are just intuitively bad! It's from this that I learnt that user experience is such a vague and fuzzy concept that it's hard for a single person to determine what is right or wrong with a particular design. What one needs when designing such an experience is to consult and to test and evaluate with as wide a group of people as possible.
Emotions and pleasure
User experience deals with user's emotions.Our second assignment was to find 3 similar products that invoke different kinds of emotional release from the users. Our third assignment was to recreate a user profile and through the usage of the 4 pleasure analysis, design a phone for such a user. From this, we can see that to project the ideal experience to users, the designer must determine what kinds of emotions the experience should invoke and what target users the product is aiming at. Similar products may serve the same function but brings different experiences to users. This serves as an important lesson to us, when we are designing a product. The usability and experience factor of the product should never be considered at the end of the production but instead should be one of the first few considerations in the design. Furthermore, with our target users and emotional aim in mind, we must consistently evaluate and assess our design.
Nightmare experience
Reddy named the next assignment "Nightmare Assignment" and its really a NIGHTMARE! With an open-ended topic "Improving learning experience in lectures", we are given absolute leeway in doing anything or everything or nothing at all! It is also from this assignment that I discovered that user experience is not restricted to using a physical product. Almost anything is an experience! In this case, attending lectures can be viewed as an experience too.
The End
The second half of the semester is spent doing a major interactive project. The objective is to create something that transmits some form of user experience. In doing this project, I realised that at times, features which I or my group think that are useful or user-friendly might not be really user-friendly after all. An example would be our navigation system that we made for our website. We thought and assumed that it was intuitive to have tabs that fly away when clicked to reveal the contents behind. However, through simple prototype and paper testing, we realised that users need a home screen where they can actually always go back to whenever they get lost. Our group actually overlooked this factor when we design our website. The importance of familiarity to the user is very high and we made the necessary and relevant changes to our web design. This again reiterates the neccessity of constant user testing and evaluation. This process (as we discover) is not a simple process but instead a tedious and cumbersome procedure. However, user experience being user centric and not designer centric, such a cumbersome procedure is necessary to ensure that users have a pleasant experience from the very start to end.
The Beginning of The End?
It is the end of NM4210, but not the end of my pursuit towards being a good deisgner. Through this module, I learnt that apart from creativity and innovativeness, to design with the user in mind is of utmost importance. User experience is not something that can be summarised in a blog or defined "officially". It encompasses everything from the space we walk into, the air we breathe to the feel of the product on one's hanc, etc. To really understand it, one must step into the mentality of the user and shift the paradigm to the user and not as a designer.
What is user experience? What is the design of user experience? All this while, the phrase "user experience" gives me a fuzzy image of some kind of "encounter" with some emotional or aesthetical product. Well, now after this module, my view is still the same. User experience is still a fuzzy concept, but that does not mean I've learnt nothing from this module. In fact, I've learnt much more non-theoreotical knowledge than most other modules in my 3 yrs in NUS. User experience is in fact everything that encompasses everything and anything. This everything is anything that we see, hear, feel, touch or taste while interacting with a particular product or situation. Confused yet? In this module, through the various assignments that we are given, the multi facet nature of user experience design is presented to us. What's interesting is that as the module progresses, I started to view almost everything as an user experience. Hence, I would bring myself through my own experience with this product: NM4210.
The beginning
Well, had a bad experience finding the venue. Never expected that there are tutorial and seminar classrooms in that far corner of AS6. That explains my lateness (excuses, ha) and I apologise sincerely for stumbling into a class full of students in the middle of Reddy's lecture. We are given our first assignment to set up this very blog and to post an article about some bad user design. Initially, I thought it was going to be an easy task. Bad designs are all around us ain't it? Or so it seems...spent an entire weekend frying my brains trying to find a suitable product to write about but to no avail. Bad designs are around us, but it's hard to conceptualise the reasons for it being a bad design. Sometimes, things are just intuitively bad! It's from this that I learnt that user experience is such a vague and fuzzy concept that it's hard for a single person to determine what is right or wrong with a particular design. What one needs when designing such an experience is to consult and to test and evaluate with as wide a group of people as possible.
Emotions and pleasure
User experience deals with user's emotions.Our second assignment was to find 3 similar products that invoke different kinds of emotional release from the users. Our third assignment was to recreate a user profile and through the usage of the 4 pleasure analysis, design a phone for such a user. From this, we can see that to project the ideal experience to users, the designer must determine what kinds of emotions the experience should invoke and what target users the product is aiming at. Similar products may serve the same function but brings different experiences to users. This serves as an important lesson to us, when we are designing a product. The usability and experience factor of the product should never be considered at the end of the production but instead should be one of the first few considerations in the design. Furthermore, with our target users and emotional aim in mind, we must consistently evaluate and assess our design.
Nightmare experience
Reddy named the next assignment "Nightmare Assignment" and its really a NIGHTMARE! With an open-ended topic "Improving learning experience in lectures", we are given absolute leeway in doing anything or everything or nothing at all! It is also from this assignment that I discovered that user experience is not restricted to using a physical product. Almost anything is an experience! In this case, attending lectures can be viewed as an experience too.
The End
The second half of the semester is spent doing a major interactive project. The objective is to create something that transmits some form of user experience. In doing this project, I realised that at times, features which I or my group think that are useful or user-friendly might not be really user-friendly after all. An example would be our navigation system that we made for our website. We thought and assumed that it was intuitive to have tabs that fly away when clicked to reveal the contents behind. However, through simple prototype and paper testing, we realised that users need a home screen where they can actually always go back to whenever they get lost. Our group actually overlooked this factor when we design our website. The importance of familiarity to the user is very high and we made the necessary and relevant changes to our web design. This again reiterates the neccessity of constant user testing and evaluation. This process (as we discover) is not a simple process but instead a tedious and cumbersome procedure. However, user experience being user centric and not designer centric, such a cumbersome procedure is necessary to ensure that users have a pleasant experience from the very start to end.
The Beginning of The End?
It is the end of NM4210, but not the end of my pursuit towards being a good deisgner. Through this module, I learnt that apart from creativity and innovativeness, to design with the user in mind is of utmost importance. User experience is not something that can be summarised in a blog or defined "officially". It encompasses everything from the space we walk into, the air we breathe to the feel of the product on one's hanc, etc. To really understand it, one must step into the mentality of the user and shift the paradigm to the user and not as a designer.
In our investigation of finding out what really affects the learning experience in lecture theaters, my group have adopted the following three approaches in order to gather information about students' experiences in lecture theaters.
Cultural probes
We distributed to 3 volunteers each a few copies of a self-study worksheet. Our investigating subjects are asked to write down how they feel about their lecturer, their sitting spaces, whole environment and about the overall lecture. For the other pages, they are asked to write whatever they want about their lecture experiences. The subjects were asked to keep the worksheets for 2 days and record down the required information during their lectures. In order get the most open-ended responses, they are permitted to write about practically anything that they want to write about their lectures. Thereafter, the worksheets are returned to us for analysis. This method allow us to gather information on how the volunteers feel at any point of the lecture even thoughts before and after the lecture. However, this method is only effective when the volunteers records down everything they see, hear and feel.
Laddering Analysis
The purpose of the laddering is to find out extra factors that make students’ experience in the lectures pleasurable or non-pleasurable. This a narrower and less informative approach as compared to the cultural probe. The starting question of the approach is “How do you find lectures in NUS?”which aims to find out what students like and do not like about the lectures in NUS. We subjected 3 volunteers to the laddering process and recorded the responses for analysis.
Ethnographic Studies
Our ethnographic studies consists of 3 portions, interview, survey and lecture observation. The main purpose of these three methods is to find out the habits of students in lecture halls and find possible reasons and trends behind these actions that students do.
In the surveys and interviews we have structured our questions based on the following factors:
* Time
* Environment
* Place
* Other people interpretation
* Previous experience
Our results
The results we have collected are mainly about the environment of the lecture hall and teaching style of the lecturer. From the worksheet we have given out to the students, we found out that previous experience of the lecture effects the experience of the lecture. Furthermore, lecture experience does not only limited to lecture itself. It happens before on steps into the lecture hall.
From our observations, most people are distracted when opening the doors. They look in the direction of the person entering or exiting rather than looking at the lecturer. Furthermore, the doors make noise when opened. Those sit behind also tend to do their own things – eg: using laptops, talking more, fall asleep. This trend is more prominent in bigger lecture groups where students are further away from lecturers.
From the surveys and the interviews, we have gathered that most people find lectures boring and prefer a two way interaction style of learning such as lectures in seminar rooms where students can participate and interact with the lecturer. They also prefer the lecturer to use more videos and interesting methods of teaching and likes their sitting area to have more working and leg space.
Other presentations
Other presentations have also talked mainly about satisfying physiological needs of students is the key to improving their learning experiences. The group talking about "feng shui" have also said that the surrounding affects on one's "qi" (energy) which I would think is affecting a person's experience with that place. Thus, improving the environment and satisfying the physiological needs of the students would improve their learning experience.
Our studies is only limited to the students of NUS and the structure of the lecture halls are very much similar. One of the groups have extended their research to SMU. Their lecture halls are more suited for discussion and have much more pleasing design.
Possible solutions
The possible solutions would be to improve the environment of lecture theaters. Current hinge doors can be replaced with silent sliding doors and placed at the back of the lecture theaters to reduce distractions.
Time of the lecture is also an improtant factor. We have found out that most people favour the 12-2 lecture timeslot. The "feng shui" group have also stated that timing will affect the energy that a person has and affecting a person's learning experience. However, it is not possible to put all the lectures at the same timeslot. Thus, one possible solution is to give shorter lesson or more breaks during lectures for timeslots that are very early or late.
For the style of teaching of the lecturer, interaction between the students and the lecturer can be improved and more visual aids should be given in a lecture. Using of multimedia tools for teaching would give a greater impact to students and have a more pleasurable learning experience.
Cultural probes
We distributed to 3 volunteers each a few copies of a self-study worksheet. Our investigating subjects are asked to write down how they feel about their lecturer, their sitting spaces, whole environment and about the overall lecture. For the other pages, they are asked to write whatever they want about their lecture experiences. The subjects were asked to keep the worksheets for 2 days and record down the required information during their lectures. In order get the most open-ended responses, they are permitted to write about practically anything that they want to write about their lectures. Thereafter, the worksheets are returned to us for analysis. This method allow us to gather information on how the volunteers feel at any point of the lecture even thoughts before and after the lecture. However, this method is only effective when the volunteers records down everything they see, hear and feel.
Laddering Analysis
The purpose of the laddering is to find out extra factors that make students’ experience in the lectures pleasurable or non-pleasurable. This a narrower and less informative approach as compared to the cultural probe. The starting question of the approach is “How do you find lectures in NUS?”which aims to find out what students like and do not like about the lectures in NUS. We subjected 3 volunteers to the laddering process and recorded the responses for analysis.
Ethnographic Studies
Our ethnographic studies consists of 3 portions, interview, survey and lecture observation. The main purpose of these three methods is to find out the habits of students in lecture halls and find possible reasons and trends behind these actions that students do.
In the surveys and interviews we have structured our questions based on the following factors:
* Time
* Environment
* Place
* Other people interpretation
* Previous experience
Our results
The results we have collected are mainly about the environment of the lecture hall and teaching style of the lecturer. From the worksheet we have given out to the students, we found out that previous experience of the lecture effects the experience of the lecture. Furthermore, lecture experience does not only limited to lecture itself. It happens before on steps into the lecture hall.
From our observations, most people are distracted when opening the doors. They look in the direction of the person entering or exiting rather than looking at the lecturer. Furthermore, the doors make noise when opened. Those sit behind also tend to do their own things – eg: using laptops, talking more, fall asleep. This trend is more prominent in bigger lecture groups where students are further away from lecturers.
From the surveys and the interviews, we have gathered that most people find lectures boring and prefer a two way interaction style of learning such as lectures in seminar rooms where students can participate and interact with the lecturer. They also prefer the lecturer to use more videos and interesting methods of teaching and likes their sitting area to have more working and leg space.
Other presentations
Other presentations have also talked mainly about satisfying physiological needs of students is the key to improving their learning experiences. The group talking about "feng shui" have also said that the surrounding affects on one's "qi" (energy) which I would think is affecting a person's experience with that place. Thus, improving the environment and satisfying the physiological needs of the students would improve their learning experience.
Our studies is only limited to the students of NUS and the structure of the lecture halls are very much similar. One of the groups have extended their research to SMU. Their lecture halls are more suited for discussion and have much more pleasing design.
Possible solutions
The possible solutions would be to improve the environment of lecture theaters. Current hinge doors can be replaced with silent sliding doors and placed at the back of the lecture theaters to reduce distractions.
Time of the lecture is also an improtant factor. We have found out that most people favour the 12-2 lecture timeslot. The "feng shui" group have also stated that timing will affect the energy that a person has and affecting a person's learning experience. However, it is not possible to put all the lectures at the same timeslot. Thus, one possible solution is to give shorter lesson or more breaks during lectures for timeslots that are very early or late.
For the style of teaching of the lecturer, interaction between the students and the lecturer can be improved and more visual aids should be given in a lecture. Using of multimedia tools for teaching would give a greater impact to students and have a more pleasurable learning experience.
Subject: Heelton Lee, 29, unemployed
Lee never had any financial or material worries in her life. She is the only child of the Heelton family, who owns the exclusive Heelton chain of hotels all over the world. She probably wouldn't have to work in her life ever; her family fortune could probably last her a few lifetimes. She has an honours degree in Communications and Media, and puts it to use as a freelance designer using a different name; she doesn't care for the money earned, only for the challenge and fun she derives from it.
As a well-known socialite in the country, Lee often indulges herself in expensive shopping sprees using her daddy's credit cards. Tea-breaks with her socialite friends are an everyday occurrence at the most expensive cafes. Her personal chauffeur would ferry her back to her mansion after her spa session at exclusive resorts, where she holds VIP member cards.
She enjoys training sessions at her personal gym in her mansion. She believes in the importance of keeping her body young and beautiful, since she is a public figure. She also appreciates the quiet time she spends alone in the gym, often meditating after her workouts for spiritual deliverance.
Lee is currently dating well-known male model Darth Backaroham. They often appear at exclusive dinner parties and balls. They were a glamorous pair and the envy of most city dwellers in the country. Even her socialite friends were slightly jealous of her for her overwhelming wealth and illustrious lifestyle. Her parents are happy to have such a well-known daughter who is the envy of everyone, but hopes she could be more industrious and take over the family business.
Four Pleasure Analysis
Physio-pleasure: Gym and meditation sessions to keep in shape is a need for Lee
Spa sessions at exclusive resorts is an appreciation need.
Socio-pleasure: Tea breaks with friends are a way of interacting with her friends, which is a need for Lee to belong.
Her glamourous relationship with Darth and her being the envy of many people gives her immense pleasure, which is appreciation.
Psycho-pleasure: She derives pleasure from her part-time work as a designer, which is a need
Her shopping sprees always makes her feel on top of the world, which is an appreciation
Ideo-Pleasure: Lee believes in the female being the fairer sex and deserves to be pampered. She expects her boyfriends to treat her with care and utmost concern. She also believes in money being the symbol of status, thus her indulgence in all this expensive. She needs to be seen as a woman of sophisticated tastes. She is liberal in her thinking, unrestricted by norms and customs. She aspires to become the epitome of class and taste, a trend setter of the city, an appreciation pleasure.
Product Benefit Specifications
Lee would need a phone that exudes personality and class. It would not matter if the phone is not too functional (she has many bodyguards to look into her needs anyway). As long as the phone is expensive, classy and loud enough, Lee would be more than happy to use it.
Handphone chosen for Lee: Vertu. Expensive and a sure sign of high status. Beautifully crafted with precious metals and jewels, sleek curves and futuristic colours satisfies her designer instincts, and complements her social need to be recognised as sophisticated. The phone is low on function also, so Lee won't have to fumble with them and look like an idiot. It is definitely a phone fit for a rich designer like Lee.
Lee never had any financial or material worries in her life. She is the only child of the Heelton family, who owns the exclusive Heelton chain of hotels all over the world. She probably wouldn't have to work in her life ever; her family fortune could probably last her a few lifetimes. She has an honours degree in Communications and Media, and puts it to use as a freelance designer using a different name; she doesn't care for the money earned, only for the challenge and fun she derives from it.
As a well-known socialite in the country, Lee often indulges herself in expensive shopping sprees using her daddy's credit cards. Tea-breaks with her socialite friends are an everyday occurrence at the most expensive cafes. Her personal chauffeur would ferry her back to her mansion after her spa session at exclusive resorts, where she holds VIP member cards.
She enjoys training sessions at her personal gym in her mansion. She believes in the importance of keeping her body young and beautiful, since she is a public figure. She also appreciates the quiet time she spends alone in the gym, often meditating after her workouts for spiritual deliverance.
Lee is currently dating well-known male model Darth Backaroham. They often appear at exclusive dinner parties and balls. They were a glamorous pair and the envy of most city dwellers in the country. Even her socialite friends were slightly jealous of her for her overwhelming wealth and illustrious lifestyle. Her parents are happy to have such a well-known daughter who is the envy of everyone, but hopes she could be more industrious and take over the family business.
Four Pleasure Analysis
Physio-pleasure: Gym and meditation sessions to keep in shape is a need for Lee
Spa sessions at exclusive resorts is an appreciation need.
Socio-pleasure: Tea breaks with friends are a way of interacting with her friends, which is a need for Lee to belong.
Her glamourous relationship with Darth and her being the envy of many people gives her immense pleasure, which is appreciation.
Psycho-pleasure: She derives pleasure from her part-time work as a designer, which is a need
Her shopping sprees always makes her feel on top of the world, which is an appreciation
Ideo-Pleasure: Lee believes in the female being the fairer sex and deserves to be pampered. She expects her boyfriends to treat her with care and utmost concern. She also believes in money being the symbol of status, thus her indulgence in all this expensive. She needs to be seen as a woman of sophisticated tastes. She is liberal in her thinking, unrestricted by norms and customs. She aspires to become the epitome of class and taste, a trend setter of the city, an appreciation pleasure.
Product Benefit Specifications
Lee would need a phone that exudes personality and class. It would not matter if the phone is not too functional (she has many bodyguards to look into her needs anyway). As long as the phone is expensive, classy and loud enough, Lee would be more than happy to use it.
Handphone chosen for Lee: Vertu. Expensive and a sure sign of high status. Beautifully crafted with precious metals and jewels, sleek curves and futuristic colours satisfies her designer instincts, and complements her social need to be recognised as sophisticated. The phone is low on function also, so Lee won't have to fumble with them and look like an idiot. It is definitely a phone fit for a rich designer like Lee.
I guess perhaps the closest and most intimate could be the most overlooked. I was searching high and low for the perfect product for this particular "assignment" when i finally decided upon these pieces of cotton that we guys use almost everyday (I hope?). It's hard to imagine or place what sort of emotion can such a basic and simple product as a guy's underwear hold. But careful pondering did shed some light. May be there are some truth to the claim that confidence breeds from beneath. The kind of underwear one wears could actually subconsciously affect one's emotions and mood for the day!
Product 1: Normal undies
Behavioral: Comfortable, safe, familiar, adequate cover, snug.
Reflective: No brand, no mojo.
Visceral: Very normal, very bland, it's just your everyday underpants.
Afterthoughts: The main emotions involved here are behavioral and functional. Choosing this over other designs gives you a sense of familiarity and homeliness. You will be sure that this product would give you adequate cover and yet sufficient space to maneuver.
Product 2: Spongebob undies
Behavioral: Airy, spacious.
Reflective: Too cute to project any sufficient manliness or self image.
Visceral: Visually makes you happy and cheerful, thrilling to put on.
Afterthoughts: This might not be every man's cup of tea (certainly not mine) but I am sure there are some who would take to its cheerfulness. Furthermore, it does a reasonable functional job of staying loose, airy and spacious. You need not worry about the cute Spongebob Squarepants infringing your privacy.
Product 3: Calvin Klein Undies
Behavioral: Cold.
Reflective: It's Calvin Klein. Period.
Visceral: Sexy?
Afterthoughts: I guess most guys (or girls) could cringe at the mere thought that yes, this is some branded undies. It gives its wearer a particular self-image and "confidence" of who he is, adding a dash of sexiness and spice as well. It does not do well in the behavioral aspects, its not very functional. I would imagine it being really tight and uncomfortable. And cold of course.
Product 1: Normal undies
Behavioral: Comfortable, safe, familiar, adequate cover, snug.
Reflective: No brand, no mojo.
Visceral: Very normal, very bland, it's just your everyday underpants.
Afterthoughts: The main emotions involved here are behavioral and functional. Choosing this over other designs gives you a sense of familiarity and homeliness. You will be sure that this product would give you adequate cover and yet sufficient space to maneuver.
Product 2: Spongebob undies
Behavioral: Airy, spacious.
Reflective: Too cute to project any sufficient manliness or self image.
Visceral: Visually makes you happy and cheerful, thrilling to put on.
Afterthoughts: This might not be every man's cup of tea (certainly not mine) but I am sure there are some who would take to its cheerfulness. Furthermore, it does a reasonable functional job of staying loose, airy and spacious. You need not worry about the cute Spongebob Squarepants infringing your privacy.
Product 3: Calvin Klein Undies
Behavioral: Cold.
Reflective: It's Calvin Klein. Period.
Visceral: Sexy?
Afterthoughts: I guess most guys (or girls) could cringe at the mere thought that yes, this is some branded undies. It gives its wearer a particular self-image and "confidence" of who he is, adding a dash of sexiness and spice as well. It does not do well in the behavioral aspects, its not very functional. I would imagine it being really tight and uncomfortable. And cold of course.
Today's pioneering entry in this blog shall be for the sole purpose of uncovering a long-unsolved mystery of a certain row of doors along the walkway/corridor leading from the NUS FASS's forum and Central Library to the FASS canteen area (Erm, I guess that would be AS1?). These doors open to undiscovered gateways of paradise: classrooms where students seek to enter but are often unable to due to the highly stringent requirements for entry at the doorway. Ok, I am kidding, students are still able to get into the class but most would be able to enter only after several moments of frustration and panic standing by the door , turning a peculiar looking knob. So, what's the scoop?
Take a look at this door handle. Imagine yourself to be in front of this door, perhaps late for a class test that is being held in this classroom. This is what you would most probably do:
1) Position hands to handle.
2) Grip handle.
3) Turn the handle downwards.
4) Push on the door to open it.
5) Now, if the door does not open, you will pull the door instead of pushing.
Alright, some of the above steps are pretty obvious and redundant to type out but pay attention to steps 3 to 5. This would be what most people would do when faced with this "door problem", and most people would assume that doing steps 3 to 5 would get the door open. But hey surprise, this darn door just would not budge no matter how many iterations of step 3 to 5 that you have done! Now you will start to feel panic. Have you been locked out of class due to being late? You desperately look into the little window and see that the class test had just begun. There is a kind soul from the other end of the room who saw you by the door but being in a test, would not stand up to help you unlock this door. Instead he start gesturing and mouthing some alien language. Cold sweat starts to break out. You knock, you shout, you scream. But this particular door is so well built that it is almost sound proof. Finally, heaven drops you a lifeline. You decided to turn the door handle upwards instead of downwards, and wow, this door opens. It's almost like magic!
Ever since the first time I've encountered this magical door during my first semester in NUS, I've often received feedback from friends about their experience using this door. Below are some selected "excepts".
Mr A from SOC says "The door is so frustrating to use especially when your hands are full. You cannot use your body weight to press down the handle and open the door.".
Mr B also from SOC says "this door is made to irritate. The first time I used it, I spent more than 3 minutes figuring it out." (I guess Mr B is not very bright?)
Mr C from Faculty of Engineering claims that "the door is a marvelous feat of engineering excellence. Only the brightest could had devised such an unconventional door that requires our brains and brawns to work together as one to open it. A truly world class door for a world class university!" Of course there are always the selected elites who are blessed with immerse talent for door opening.
Mr D (I forgot which faculty he's from) claims that "I knew how to use this door almost from the start. I tried to push downwards but when it did not work, immediately I pulled the handle up! It took me less than 10 seconds." I guess the lesson to take away from him is that to try all sort of ways in "rapid-fire" mode. Do not linger upon something which did not work even if it seemed like common sense. Move on. In other words, if even pulling the handle up does not work, maybe it's time for you to think about ripping the entire handle off the door. (Just joking, one can try it but I will not be held responsible for any criminal charge of vandalism.)
Perhaps the biggest lesson to be brought home is that, at times, conventional wisdom and logic should prevail in such "everyday" products. Trying to be radical or different would cause unnecessary confusion to this already mixed-up and whirled-up world. Design should be based upon the user. Since users would most typically push door handles downwards, why make one that goes upwards? In a door handle design, the objective would be for the user to open the door in a shortest time possible. One should never need to utilize extra brain cells to figure out the mechanisms of opening a door. I, for one, do not appreciate the sense of humour that this particular door designer have.
